Daily Archives: October 3, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

US set to raise tariffs as Chinese counter-measures take their toll

October 3, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

On Oct. 15, the US administration will raise tariffs on Chinese wood and paper products to 30% from 25%, as Chinese counter-measures take their toll on US hardwood producers. In related news: Domtar reduces paper capacity at two mills; Teal Jones invests in North Carolina; Texas CLT expands to Alabama; and an update on Northern Pulp’s future in Nova Scotia.

In other news: mass timber’s biophillic response; BC’s watchdog chides Interfor and government oversight; Kodak photo paper goes FSC; US Fish & Wildlife announces caribou protections; and more on BC’s forest-crisis monies from Merritt, Invermere and Minister Donaldson.

Finally, this old tree is eating an iron bench.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

This Old Tree Is ‘Eating’ an Iron Bench in Ireland

By Genevieve Scarano
Geek
October 2, 2019
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: International

A London Plane tree located on the grounds of Ireland’s oldest law school has a big appetite. The tree, which is near The Honorable Society of King’s Inns, appears to be “devouring” an iron bench over time, Fox News reported. According to the Tree Council of Ireland, the tree is 69 feet tall and 11.4 feet wide. It was one of many trees that were planted in the city in the 1800s and two years ago, the council declared it a “heritage tree.” …In 2017, Dublin city councillors passed a motion that called for the protection of the old tree and iron bench, The Irish Times noted. …It’s uncertain how long the tree will be “chowing down” on the iron bench, but there’s still time to see this strange, yet beautiful sight in Dublin.

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Business & Politics

ASK THE CANDIDATES: B.C.’s forest industry

By James Miller
The Kelowna Daily Courier
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Daily Courier is asking candidates within their readership areas a series of 12 questions. Each candidate was given the question in writing with a word maximum of 120. QUESTION: What can and should the federal government do to address the forestry crisis in British Columbia? Read on for the answers from 10 candidates.

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Forestry industry logs complaints about stumpage system

By Lorene Keitch
The Columbia Valley Pioneer
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

…a chain of more than 200 empty logging trucks linked figurative arms and marched to the heart of Vancouver last week. …“It was amazing to watch,” says MLA Doug Clovechok… “It was emotional, it was powerful, it was overwhelming.” …Dan Eaton has been working behind the scenes to lobby the provincial government on behalf of the logging industry’s concerns. His company owns two logging operations working in the Columbia Valley: ICHI Resources, which is involved with logging for Canfor, and Wildwynd Resources, involved with hauling, Mr. Eaton reports. …“The stumpage system wasn’t designed for the number of variations now,” Mr. Eaton says. Mr. Eaton wrote a letter to Doug Donaldson outlining his concerns… Since the convoy rolled across media feeds last week, Mr. Eaton says little has happened. The Interior Logging Association has worked to connect with the provincial government, but Mr. Eaton says no change is on the horizon yet.

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Merritt officials say the community may miss out on forest industry relief funds

By James Peters
CFJC Today
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

MERRITT, B.C. — Merritt-area officials are expressing concern that their community will be frozen out of the province’s $69 million forest industry relief fund. According to a news release from Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart, Merritt will have a hard time qualifying for a piece of that pie. Tegart says Merritt mayor Linda Brown recently met with NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon, and learned that the funds are not retroactive to when Merritt’s Tolko mill closed in 2016. Brown noted because Aspen Planers is still operating, Merritt doesn’t meet the qualifications for relief. In addition, Tegart laments the community may have received funding through the former rural dividend fund, but the government has suspended that program. Tegart called the government’s response “an insult to every single community hit hard by the forestry crisis.” [End]

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BC Minister of Forests Says They Are And Will Help Truckers

By George Henderson
My Cariboo Now
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Doug Donaldson, BC’s Minister of Forests says some of the things that truckers are asking for have already been implemented and others are being considered. “…my senior staff will be meeting with the Interior Logging Association this week, and also they’ve presented some of those details to me. We definitely would encourage some action from the Federal Government as far as the employment insurance flexibility that the contractors are looking for.” Donaldson says there is also already some money in place within the 69-million dollars that was announced to support workers and communities last month. “Fifteen million of that is going towards projects … that will help put the contractors to work in the short term.” As for stumpage, Donaldson says to politically intervene at this “sensitive” time would worsen the situation because he says they are in the middle of an international court of appeal case around the softwood lumber agreement…

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Proponents of mill restart offer different perspectives

By Sam Odrowski
Fort Frances Times
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

In light of concerns surrounding wood allocations being disrupted by a restarted mill in Fort Frances, proponents have assured the public wood supply wouldn’t be an issue. “I have never said, nor advised any of my clients, that one mill or one town should be favoured at the expense of another,” said Mike Willick, Fort Frances’s forest tenure consultant. …Willick told the Times a pulp mill needs fibre… Sawmills also need to sell their byproducts and wood chips, so Willick suggested it could be a synergistic relationship between local sawmills and the restarted Fort Frances mill, which has happened historically. …Meanwhile, Unifor national representative Stephen Boon pointed to 13 mill closures within 450km of Fort Frances in the last 15 years that suggest there should still be ample wood supply if the mill resumed some form of operations. …“Sacrificing the Fort Frances mill when we have lost so many jobs and mills already is absolutely ludicrous,” he charged.

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Northern Pulp mill front and centre in Central Nova election race

By Paul Withers
CBC News
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Like the clouds of smoke, steam and, yes, smell emerging from its stacks, the future of the Northern Pulp mill hangs over the election underway in the federal riding of Central Nova. At stake are hundreds of jobs, the environment and a promise to right a wrong done to an Indigenous community in northern Nova Scotia. “I’ve spent more time on this file over the past few years than anything else I’ve done as a member of Parliament,” said Liberal incumbent Sean Fraser, who easily won the traditionally Conservative seat in the red sweep of Nova Scotia in 2015. But Fraser is getting no credit from opponents on the left who are demanding he take a stand on the mill, which has deeply polarized the riding. Here’s what the federal candidates are saying…

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Nova Scotia pulp mill submits focus report on effluent proposal to province

Canadian Press in CTV News
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia pulp mill submitted a focus report to the province Wednesday on its controversial effluent treatment plant proposal, which would see it pump millions of litres of treated wastewater into the nearby Northumberland Strait daily. The province’s Environment Department asked for the report following an environmental review in March, when then environment minister Margaret Miller said the government needed more information about the plan. Current minister Gordon Wilson wouldn’t comment Wednesday on whether the new report would meet his department’s requirements. “At this point in time, I don’t want make any kind of a comment on where that report might be as far as our expectations go,” Wilson told reporters. …Company officials have said that if their plan to pipe 85 million litres of treated wastewater into the Strait is not approved, the mill will close, putting more than 300 employees out of work.

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Trade and Tariffs Cut Deep into the Hardwood Industry

The American Farm Bureau Federation
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

A little more than a year ago, China was by far the largest market for American hardwoods. Prior to the… tariffs and counter-tariffs between the US and China in mid-2018, the U.S. hardwood industry was exporting nearly $2 billion worth of product to China annually, accounting for almost 50% of the total U.S. grade lumber produced and nearly 10 percent of total agricultural exports to China. …Since the retaliatory action by the Chinese, hardwood exports are down 43% and the value of those exports has fallen by $615 million. …Additionally, other countries have taken advantage of the decrease in U.S. wood making it into China. …As yet, there is no mechanism for the U.S. government to provide any relief to the hardwood industry as they have with other agricultural products. 

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County lumber mill to close because of trade disputes

By Jacqueline Allison
GoSkagit.com
October 2, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

A lumber mill west of Burlington that employs 70 will close in November due to ongoing trade disputes between the United States and China, the company announced this week. Tacoma-based Northwest Hardwoods, which operates the mill on Farm to Market Road, will close Nov. 20, according to a statement emailed to the Skagit Valley Herald from a company spokesman. The mill’s 70 workers will be laid off indefinitely, according to the statement. “This difficult decision was made after exploring all other options and as prospects dimmed for a quick resolution to the U.S. and China trade dispute,” the statement said. …Northwest Hardwoods is the largest Northern American hardwood supplier and has 28 locations, according to the company’s statement. The company also plans to close its mill in Maury River, Virginia.

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Leadership evolution at Hancock Lumber

The LBM Journal
October 3, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Paul Wainman

LBM Journal has learned that Paul Wainman will become president of Hancock Lumber effective January, 2020. Wainman, who will keep his role as CFO, will be just the eighth person to serve as president since the company’s founding in 1848. Kevin Hancock, who has been president since 1998, as well as CEO and Chair for almost as long, will continue as CEO and Chair. “I’m not retiring, nor am I getting ready to retire. I’m just evolving my role, and remain excited about our future,” Hancock explains. “It’s best to be proactive and measured about senior leadership changes within a company, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. On one level, Paul becoming president is a big moment. On another, it’s a subtle change by design. Our executive team is staying intact, and our executive processes will continue as they are.”

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Domtar to Reduce Papermaking Capacity at Two Mills

By Domtar Corp.
Businesswire
October 3, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

FORT MILL, South Carolina — Domtar Corporation announced today that it will permanently shut down two of its paper machines. The closures will take place at the Ashdown, Arkansas pulp and paper mill, and the Port Huron, Michigan paper mill. These measures will reduce the Company’s annual uncoated freesheet paper capacity by approximately 204,000 short tons, and will result in a workforce reduction of approximately 100 employees. The closure of the Ashdown paper machine will be effective immediately and the closure of the Port Huron machine by mid-November. …The Ashdown mill will continue to operate one paper machine. …The Port Huron mill will continue… utilizing three machines. …“This proactive measure is necessary due to increased imports and declining paper demand,” said John D. Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer of Domtar.

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New Jasper wood mill to create 60 jobs with possibility of 250 in future

By Mike Lout
KFDM News
October 3, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

A new wood mill will create about 60 jobs with the possibility of 250 in the future. KJAS is reporting Texas Cross Laminated Timber, LLC is expected to expand its wood products business to Highway 63 East in Jasper. The property encompasses 92 acres at site of the former Louisiana Pacific Plywood Mill. …The Executive Director of the Jasper Economic Development Corporation, Eddie Hopkins, said… the operation would be at the 92 acre site of the former Louisiana Pacific Plywood Mill on Highway 63 east, which closed in 1997. The exact start up date is not known, but Hopkins indicated that equipment was ordered and on the way and that the installation and construction of the mill would probably began in February.

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Timber industry expecting major boom on heels of Henry County announcement

By Caleb Ayers
The Roanoke Times
October 3, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

With more than 40 years in the forestry industry, Kenneth Scruggs… timberland manager with the Reidsville, North Carolina-based Gregory Pallet Co., serves as a liaison between landowners, loggers and mills throughout North Carolina and Virginia. …With last week’s announcement that Canadian company Teal-Jones Group will invest $21 million in Pine Products Inc. in Henry County, creating 67 new jobs, Scruggs said the action will also benefit the industry in neighboring Pittsylvania County. Although not a direct investment into the county, the expansion will contribute to additional jobs up and down the supply chain. …Drew Arnn, the senior area forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry, said this scheduled expansion of Pine Products likely won’t result in any significant production increases or new planters, but it will improve returns for the landowners and farmers who already have growing trees.

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Finance & Economics

Softwood Lumber Trade was up 5%, China Reaching Record-high Imports

By Wood Resources International LLC
Cision Newswire
October 2, 2019
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: International

Demand for lumber in China, the United Kingdom, Egypt and the Netherlands increased this year despite a slowdown in the global economy. Global softwood lumber trade was up just over five percent year-over-year during the first half of 2019. Of the major importing countries in the world, only Japan and Germany have experienced major declines in imports so far this year.

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Here are all of the Chinese products that are set to face a 30% tariff this month

By Gina Heeb and Bob Bryan
Business Insider
October 2, 2019
Category: Finance & Economics

On October 15, the Trump administration plans to raise the tariff rate on on $250 billion worth of Chinese products to 30% from 25%. Here are the major product categories that are set to get hit. …Wood: fuel wood; charcoal; various types of wood including oak, beech, maple, ash and cherry; moldings; rods; particleboard; various types of plywood; doors; corks and stoppers; wicker and bamboo baskets. Wood pulp products. Paper: Newsprint; writing paper; vegetable parchment; carbon paper; self-adhesive paper; cigarette paper; envelopes.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Don’t Just Sell the Cedar, Sell the Value

By Jack Draper, former Managing Director, WRCLA
The Merchant Magazine
October 2, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

As consumers, we now live in a time of abundant choice. …It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this “analysis paralysis” is now being felt in the building materials sector, and in particular with products like decking and siding. …So, what does this mean at the retail level? …While all species and products have pros and cons, western red cedar is unique in that it offers many features that can’t be claimed by other materials. Any WRCLA member product under the Real Cedar brand can only come from sustainably and responsibly managed forests, meaning it is a completely renewable resource. It is also a beautiful and long-lasting wood product that is naturally resistant to rot, decay and pests. …Customers looking for decking material may also be under the misconception that composite products are maintenance-free… Again, this is not the case.

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Richmond’s Terra Nova tower and slide now reopen

By Kirsten Clarke
Richmond News
October 2, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Richmondites can once again play on the Terra Nova Play Environment Tower and Slide. The tower closed for renovations in August, but as of Wednesday work is completed, the construction fencing is down and the tower open to the public, according to the City of Richmond. The structure was in need of renovations due to a “high level of use and associated wear and tear,” according to the city’s website. The renovations were carried out by KinsolPlay-Kinsol Timber Systems Ltd., which built many of the structures in the adventure playground. The custom-designed, 10-metre-tall tree house boasts four platforms, a central rope ladder and stainless steel (all weather) custom slide.

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Winning with wood

REMI Netowrk Construction Business
October 2, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

…More multi-family developers are discovering that the innovative use of wood and mass-timber construction doesn’t just save money, it can be an advantage that sets you apart in a sea of condos that begin to all look the same. Increasingly, both buyers and renters are placing importance on organic materials, sustainability, and warm, inviting interiors—all areas where wood construction excels. Wood can offer performance and thermal benefits, adding to energy efficiency and occupant comfort, while at the same time offering aesthetic warmth and a visual selling feature. …Wood construction has long been a differentiator for Vancouver mid-rise developer Adera Development Corporation, but the company took a bigger leap into mass timber prefabricated construction with its Virtuoso building at the University of British Columbia’s Wesbrook Village. …These projects and others are featured in a newly released book, Naturally Wood, which showcases British Columbia’s cutting‐edge wood architecture and design. 

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Campaign launched for consumers to continue to receive paper receipts

By Rosie Lintott
Retail Insight Network
October 3, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

…The Choose Paper campaign surveyed 8,883 consumers across Europe and North America and found that 69% of UK consumers preferred paper receipts over digital ones and 76% think paper receipts are more practical for returning items. Still, many are worried about the impact of paper receipts on the environment but do not know the impact of digital receipts. According to research by Two Sides North America in 2018, 54% of British people think digital receipts are better for the environment than paper ones, and 33% believe sending emails does not affect the environment. However, is it estimated that 300 million tonnes of CO2 is generated worldwide by emails every year …Choose Paper campaign manager Greg Selfe added: “Our research shows that most people do not want digital receipts. Consumers prefer and trust paper and worry about data security… Customers are only hearing one side of the argument and there is a risk that consumer choice is being taken away.”

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Mass timber is bringing the warmth of wood to the workplace

By Cody Lodi
The Daily Journal of Commerce
October 3, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building

Many of Puget Sound’s most beloved buildings were born from our rugged site and climatic conditions. …The innovation of mass timber provides a new opportunity to build upon these tenets in contemporary commercial architecture. …Fortunately, contemporary workplace designers are taking cues from residential architecture and bringing healthy, natural materials into commercial spaces. Thanks to renewed interest and innovation of mass timber technology, we’re seeing the value of expressive wood structures that look less like a sterile cubicle farm and more like an alpine cabin. …Research shows there is an economic benefit to reconnecting people to nature in the workplace. …Wood can contribute to this biophilic response with visual cues from the color and grain as well as non-visual cues from the touch, smell and even sound of timber. With the high costs to attract and retain quality talent, this is a win-win for employees and companies alike.

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Forestry

Sustainable forests work to address climate change

By Sustainable Forestry Initiative
Treehugger
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

People committed to sustainability understand that there are many complexities to our global challenges. But one often overlooked fact is how valuable forests are in mitigating climate change. When managed sustainably, working forests actually help slow climate change through carbon sequestration and long-term carbon storage. The United Nations have even highlighted sustainably managed forests as a principle strategy to help limit global warming to a level that can assure the health of the planet. In the United States, in particular, working forests serve as a substantial carbon sink. …Using wood products from sustainably managed forests for construction generates lower emissions than using steel or concrete. …How do you know whether a given forest product comes from a sustainable forest? …One organization that provides such certification is the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

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Community groups look to engage forestry industry

By Michael Joel-Hansen
Prince Albert NOW
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Some community groups are looking to raise concerns about the forest industries logging plans. Members from The Council of Canadians, Renewable Power Intelligent Choice and Protect Our Forest are looking to bring their concerns to Sakâw Askiy Management, which holds the forestry license for the Prince Albert Forestry Area. The groups are looking to bring their issues to the forefront at Sakâw Askiy’s meeting Wednesday evening in P.A, where the industry group will solicit feedback on their most recent plans. One of the people planning to attend is Rick Closs, a member of Renewable Power Intelligent Choice (RPIC), which is an environment group focusing on sustainable energy and climate change. Closs said he wants to see what the industry’s plans are, along with what they are taking into consideration. “In particular maintaining intact boreal ecosystems, which has been recommended by a number of bodies in the world,” he said.

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Victoria author launches prize-nominated book at Munro’s

By Nicole Crescenzi
Victoria News
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A Victoria-based author has impressed the critics once again. Michael Christie’s new novel, Greenwood, made the long list for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the third of his novels to do so. The novel is set in the heart of an old-growth, B.C. forest as seen through five generations of a family. The story spans 130 years from 1908 to a calamity-stricken 2038. Throughout this time the views of the members of the Greenwood family shift from seeing the trees as a lucrative business endeavour, to the possible salvation of the planet. “This novel does have quite a bit of resonance with the current climate change and the anxiety everyone is feeling right now,” Christie said. The book, he added, has been toted as one of an emerging genre of books known as “climate fiction” or “cli-fi”.

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Watchdog report chides Interfor, government for logging road slide near Castlegar

By John Boivin
The Nelson Star
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The province’s watchdog for forestry companies says Castlegar’s Interfor failed to properly maintain a road it built in the mountains north of the city. And it also found the provincial government didn’t do enough to monitor what the company was or wasn’t doing. The Forest Practices Board says Interfor failed to live up to the rules of the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation when monitoring a road in the Little Cayuse Creek area near Castlegar. “By not conducting regular inspections, Interfor did not ensure, or make certain, that there would be no material adverse effects on forest resources,” says the FRB, in a ruling released last month. Further, “[g]overnment enforcement was not appropriate because it did not do sufficient work to determine if Interfor complied with section 79 of the Forest Planning and Practices Regulation,” the board ruled. The company last worked the Little Cayuse Creek watershed in 2011.

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Williams Lake job fair underway, ‘people getting hired on the spot’

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
The Williams Lake Tribune
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Gibraltar Room was buzzing Wednesday afternoon as the Williams Lake Job Fair saw hundreds of students and job seekers making inquiries at more than 40 employer booths. Co-ordinated by S.A.G.E. Trainers and sponsored by Cariboo Chilcotin Aboriginal Training and Employment. …West Fraser planning superintendent Mauro Calabrese was helping run the company’s booth and said they want people to know they are hiring workers at the plywood plant. “We have about 350 people working at the plywood plant and with retirement and attrition and people leaving there is always turnover. We are almost constantly in a hiring process,” Calabrese said. “Plywood did take one week down of downtime, but is back working a full capacity.”

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Kodak Moments Photo Paper Earns Prestigious FSC® Certification

By Kodak Moments
CSRwire
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States
EMERYVILLE, California –  Kodak Moments, a leading global provider of photo products and services announced that its thermal paper products… are now certified under the internationally recognized Forest Stewardship Council® Chain of Custody standard. The third-party certification was conducted by SCS Global Services following an audit in July 2019 of Kodak Moments’ Thermal Media Manufacturing facility in Windsor, Colorado. …Kodak Moments first achieved FSC certification in August 2018 for its thermal paper product line in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2019, it obtained a second certification by SCS for its US production.

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US announces caribou protections for Idaho, Washington

By Keith Ridler
Associated Press in Komo News
October 2, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

BOISE, Idaho — U.S. officials on Wednesday announced protections for woodland caribou and their habitat in parts of Idaho and Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the southern mountain population of woodland caribou as endangered and confirmed 47 square miles (122 square kilometers) in Idaho and Washington as critical habitat requiring special protection. The agency’s decision came after environmentalist groups sued to seek the critical habitat designation that requires federal agencies to consult with Fish and Wildlife before approving activities like logging or road building. …The environmentalists hope caribou will return to Idaho and Washington amid efforts by U.S. and Canadian officials aimed at helping caribou herds grow. …Native American tribes in the U.S. and Canada, where they are called First Nations, are also working to help caribou rebound.

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Huge RFP to bring industry, innovation to thin Arizona forests

Chamber Business News
October 1, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The United States Forest Service has issued one of the largest RFPs in the history of the agency to carry out an ambitious plan to attract and scale forest-thinning industries in Northern Arizona.  “This is one of the largest – if not the largest – stewardship contract we’ve ever offered and it’s the first 20-year contract we’ve offered,” said Cal Joyner, Regional Forester for the Southwest for the Forest Service.  …Climate change is making wildfires more likely. Too much forest debris makes them more deadly.  “We’re hoping that we have put together a proposal that allows for industry to fully invest and create a restoration industry in Northern Arizona around our forests,” he said. The RFP is part of a public-private partnership, known as 4FRI (Four Forest Restoration Initiative), whose goal is to ultimately restore 2.4 million acres of forest to reduce damage from wildfires and protect vital watersheds

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UNH researchers find northern forests have lost crucial cold, snowy conditions

By University of Maine
EurekAlert
October 3, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

DURHAM, N.H.–As the popular saying goes, “winter is coming,” but is it? Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found clear signs of a decline in frost days, snow covered days and other indicators of winter that could have lasting impacts on ecosystems, water supplies, the economy, tourism and human health. “Winter conditions are changing more rapidly than any other season and it could have serious implications,” said Alexandra Contosta, research assistant professor at UNH’s Earth Systems Research Center. “Whether precipitation falls as snow or rain makes a big difference, whether you’re talking about a forest stream, a snowshoe hare or even a skier.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Logging drives carbon emissions from U.S. forests, escalates climate crisis

By Dana Smith, Dogwood Alliance
The Missoula Current
October 2, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Climate change is having a growing impact on Americans and, as the crisis escalates, communities face growing challenges. …Protecting forest ecosystems is critical in the fight to limit global warming — when forests are disturbed they release carbon, but when left to grow they actively pull carbon out of the air and store it. When left standing, forests also provide optimal natural protection against extreme weather events, like flooding and droughts. As the Trump Administration and industry allies push for increased commercial logging of America’s forests, we feel compelled to call attention to the elephant in the room: the profound ways in which industrial logging not only decimates ecosystems but also exacerbates climate change. The rate and scale of logging in the Southeastern US alone is four times that in South American rainforests.

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