Daily Archives: November 7, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Victoria’s (Australia) old-growth logging ban panned by workers, feds

November 7, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

ENGOs praise Victoria’s (the southeastern state of Australia) decision to end old-growth logging in native forests, as workers and the federal government express dismay. In other Forestry news: BC employs thinning and logging to reduce fire risk; and Alberta launches its caribou task force, ends firefighter rappelling program. 

In Business news: Kelowna’s Tolko mill will remain closed for the foreseeable future; striking forestry workers rally in Nanaimo; and Q3 results are reported by Western Forest Products, Stella-Jones and Boise Cascade. Meanwhile, Nova Scotia’s forest fire numbers are the lowest in 80 years; and Kalesnikoff’s CLT plant is a step closer to completion.

Finally, photos and highlights from BC’s 2019 Wood Solutions Conference.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Special Feature

Enjoy a slideshow of pictures from the 2019 Wood Solutions Conference

By Sandy McKellar
Tree Frog Forestry News
November 6, 2019
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

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Highlights from the 2019 Wood Solutions Conference

By Sandy McKellar
Tree Frog Forestry News
November 6, 2019
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Vancouver Convention Centre was buzzing on Tuesday as 600+ architects, engineers, builders, contractors, building officials, technologists, planners/developers and students came together for the 2019 Wood Solutions Conference. An annual event hosted by Wood WORKS! BC, this is the place for wood producers to showcase their products to end users who are passionate about using wood. …An event that has become a tradition in the province of BC, the Wood Solutions Conference provides delegates with two streams of learning. This year, in the expanded second floor ballroom of the convention centre, 36 booths filled a trade show where wood industry representatives displayed information and spoke with interested visitors. …Concurrent breakout sessions gave delegates a second opportunity to learn about integrating wood into their business. Twenty workshops in four content streams featured speakers from near and far. …Embury-Williams was delighted to introduce Øystein Elgsaas, an architect and partner at the firm Voll Arkitekter—the masterminds behind the world’s tallest wood building—Mjøstårnet.

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Business & Politics

Striking forestry workers rally in Nanaimo

By Andrew Duffy
Victoria Times Colonist
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Hundreds of unionized forest workers on strike since July 1 turned up the heat on Western Forest Products Wednesday by taking the fight to the company’s front door in Nanaimo. In what was a peaceful, but pointed demonstration of solidarity, workers came by the busload from all over the Island and the Sunshine Coast to march on Western’s corporate offices in Nanaimo’s city centre. …“The younger generation may not understand why we are doing this, but my grandparents and I fought for this [contract] and we are not about to go backwards,” said Sylvia Catchpole, who has worked for Western for 43 years at Cowichan Bay. “We fight for the generations to come.” …Many of the younger workers attending Wednesday’s rally did not want to be interviewed, with one suggesting they didn’t want to stand out for fear Western could make life difficult for them when they do go back to work.

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Western Announces Third Quarter 2019 Results

By Western Forest Products Inc.
Global Newswire
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER — Western Forest Products reported negative adjusted EBITDA of $16.6 million in the third quarter of 2019. Results were impacted by ongoing strike action by the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 and weaker markets. …Western’s negative adjusted EBITDA… compared to adjusted EBITDA of $32.3 million in the third quarter of 2018, and $15.1 million reported in the second quarter of 2019. …Net loss of $18.7 million was reported for the third quarter of 2019, as compared to net income of $15.1 million for the third quarter of 2018 and net loss of $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2019. …The Company generated revenue of $141.6 million in the third quarter of 2019, as compared to $292.5 million in the third quarter of 2018, and $310.3 million in the second quarter of 2019.

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Equipment arrives for Kalesnikoff mass timber facility

By Betsy Kline
Castlegar News
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kalesnikoff Lumber’s $35 million mass timber manufacturing project is one step closer to completion with the arrival of the first batch of production equipment at the end of October. The 110,000 square foot (10,200 square metre) facility was built next to the company’s Kootenay Innovative Wood facility near the Playmor Junction. Kalesnikoff will be producing pre-fabricated engineered building products in the form of glulam beams and cross-laminated timber. The facility will be able to produce panels that are up to 60 feet (18 meteres) long. Kalesnikoff ordered the facility’s equipment from Kallesoe Machinery. “Kallesoe is a family-owned business out of Denmark that has been in business for 50 years,” explained Kalesnikoff CFO Krystle Seed.

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Kelowna Tolko mill workers face ‘indeterminate’ closure

By Steve MacNaull
The Kelowna Daily Courier
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Regardless of the terminology used, the Tolko lumber mill in Kelowna is closed and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Back in September, Tolko announced the mill, which employed 140, would close “indefinitely” after a six-week shutdown Aug. 6 to Sept. 15. On Wednesday, Tolko communications adviser Chris Downey redefined the closure as “indeterminate.” “We use those words because the facility is closed and will be until market conditions change for the better and it’s deemed worthwhile to reopen,” he said. The indeterminate closure for the 140 workers comes after Tolko axed the entire second shift of 90 staff at the Kelowna mill on July 12. With no end to the closure in sight, WorkBC has designed special programming for impacted Tolko workers. …Many Tolko workers are probably running out of options by now.

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Striking Western Forest Products workers on Vancouver Island rally against concessions

By Karl Yu
Comox Valley Record
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Despite a work stoppage entering its fifth month, striking Island Western Forest Products workers have no intention of conceding in a new labour deal, says their labour leader. Workers from United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 have been behind picket lines since July 1 and on Wednesday they gathered for a march to the company’s Nanaimo office and a subsequent rally. Brian Butler, union president, said the union has rejected “binding mediation” and there are no current plans for further negotiations. “This is a good economy where this company is making millions of dollars and making record profits and they’re coming to the table with concessions? Those two things just don’t mix,” said Butler. “So we’re never going to take concessions. We’ve been saying that from Day 1 … they’re never going to get an agreement with us with those concessions on the table. They need to get them off and get a fair deal with our union.”

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Alberta’s agriculture and forestry minister leads way in fiscal responsibility in province’s new budget

By Graeme Gordon
The Post Millennial
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Devin Dreeshen

The United Conservative Party of Alberta is taking getting the provincial government’s fiscal house in order seriously. Leading the way in fiscal restraint in Alberta is 31-year-old Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen. “At agriculture and forestry we’re cutting 38 percent over four years, over half a billion dollars, which again, is just trying to get us to spend within our means and to find efficiencies…” said Dreeshen in a phone interview with The Post Millennial. “[We’re looking] at how the bureaucracy actually functions and how we can streamline processes so those who do have to interact with government are getting it done in a timely manner. So ultimately running government like a business.” This fiscal year Dreeshen’s ministry is spending $967 million, but by next year the ministry’s operating budget will be down to $879 million. 

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B.C. builds on Indigenous reconciliation plan with summit

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News
November 5, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

B.C. Premier John Horgan and the province’s Indigenous leaders have begun their annual summit with a pledge to break new ground by being the first jurisdiction in North America to endorse the United Nations call to enshrine aboriginal rights for land use. Horgan opened proceedings at the Vancouver Convention Centre Tuesday with a pledge to work with business as the B.C. government passes legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The framework bill, which pledges to adapt B.C. laws to conform to the declaration, is expected to pass in the B.C. legislature by the end of November. …The previous B.C. Liberal government began sharing forest resources with the more than 200 B.C. Indigenous communities, most of whom still do not have treaties with the federal and provincial government. Mining revenue sharing followed, and the current government has pledged to fund on-reserve housing, historically the exclusive jurisdiction of Ottawa under the Indian Act.

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Stella-Jones Reports 2019 Third Quarter Results

By Stella-Jones Inc.
Global Newswire
November 7, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTREAL — Stella-Jones announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2019. …Sales reached $626.6 million, down $3.4 million, versus sales of $630.0 million for the corresponding period last year. The currency conversion effect had a positive impact of $2.8 million. Excluding this factor, sales decreased approximately $6.2 million, or 1.0%, primarily due to the logs and lumber product category as detailed below. …Operating income was $78.6 million, or 12.6% of sales, compared with $67.9 million, or 10.8% of sales, last year. The increase versus last year is explained by improved pricing and better operational efficiencies. …Net income reached $53.7 million, or $0.78 per diluted share, versus net income of $45.8 million, or $0.66 per diluted share, last year.

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Boise Cascade Company Reports Third Quarter 2019 Net Income of $27.2 Million

By Boise Cascade
Global Newswire
November 7, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Boise, Idaho — Boise Cascade Company reported net income of $27.2 million, or $0.69 per share, on sales of $1.3 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019, compared with net income of $13.8 million, or $0.35 per share, on sales of $1.3 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, 2018. Third quarter 2019 results include $1.0 million of after-tax losses from a non-cash pension settlement charge. Third quarter 2018 results included $16.7 million of net after-tax losses from a non-cash pension settlement charge and impairment and sale related losses. …We expect to experience seasonally slower demand growth for the products we manufacture and distribute in fourth quarter 2019. 

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EPA data reveals more than 1.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into Coosa River

By Daniel Dye
The Wetumpka Herald
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

COOSA PINES, Alabama — A recent analysis of data self-reported by industry indicates more than 1.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals were dumped into the Coosa River in 2017, according to a release from Coosa Riverkeeper. …“Despite the level of harm to both wildlife and human health, most of the releases included on the Toxic Release Inventory are technically legal,” Coosa Riverkeeper staff riverkeeper Steven Dudley said. …The discharging of toxic chemicals in the Coosa River is largely dominated by chicken processors, a power plant and a paper mill, the release said. …On Lake Neely Henry, two chicken processing plants owned by Koch Foods near Gadsden were the largest dischargers of toxic waste in 2017. …On Lay Lake, Resolute Forest Products: Coosa Pines discharged 11 different toxic chemicals into the river including manganese, ammonia and formaldehyde, the release said.

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Hardwood industry pleads for relief from Trump trade war

By Alex Gangitano
The Hill
November 7, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The hardwood industry is stepping up its pleas for the Trump administration to end the ongoing trade war with China. Industry advocates say they have been hard hit by the retaliatory tariffs and are putting new pressure on lawmakers and administration officials. Nathan Jeppson, CEO of Northwest Hardwoods, was in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as well as lawmaker offices, to push for relief for his industry. Since the start of the trade war, his company has closed two facilities. …In total, they’ve laid off 225 of their 1,600 workforce. …The hardwood industry was exporting about $2 billion to China. When China responded to President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports in July 2018 with retaliatory tariffs. …The Hardwood Federation sent a proposal for a relief package… but is still waiting to hear back.

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Domtar declares regular quarterly dividend and announces an increase to its share buyback program

By Domtar Corporation
Businesswire
November 6, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Fort Mill, South Carolina – Domtar Corporation announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend on its common stock. The dividend of US$0.455 per share is payable on January 15, 2020. The company also announced… an increase of $300 million to Domtar’s share buyback program. This is in addition to the Company’s prior $1.3 billion repurchase authorization, under which approximately $178 million remained available as of September 30, 2019.  …“The increase to the share buyback program demonstrates our continued confidence in our cash flow generation and builds on our long track record of returning cash to shareholders,” said John D. Williams, President and CEO.

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Pennsylvania hardwood industry feeling the effects of trade war with China

By Anne Danahy
WITF
November 5, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Bo Hammond

Bo Hammond is hardwood sales manager for Collins Hardwood, a company based in Oregon with locations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and California. …Hammond and others like him are feeling the effects of the United States’ trade war with China. And as it trudges on, the concerns are mounting that the consequences for the hardwood industry could last even after the two countries reach a deal. … The market in China has been key to businesses like this one. Its sawmills make industrial products, like railroad ties. But it also produces the wood for cabinets and floors, and much of that product had been going to China. …Penn State Professor Michael Jacobson said he thinks the industry will have to diversify its markets and find other ways to sell its wood. He and others say when the trade war ends, it doesn’t mean China will immediately go back to buying hardwoods from the United States. It’s already finding other sources including Gabon, a country in Africa, and Russia.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Site C apartments set for grand opening

By Matt Preprost
The Alaska Highway News
November 6, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

FORT ST. JOHN, BC — BC Hydro and BC Housing are set to hold a grand opening for a new 50-unit apartment building in Fort St. John. Construction on the six-storey, wood frame building began next to the Fort St. John fire hall in 2017, and is part of the city’s agreement with BC Hydro on the Site C dam. The opening is scheduled Friday, Nov. 15, at 11 a.m. …The building was designed by Low Hammond Row Architects based in Victoria, and built by Western Canadian Property Group. It’s the largest passive house-certified building in B.C., according to BC Hydro. During the dam’s construction, 40 units will be made available for rent by BC Hydro for employees. …The full 50 units will be turned over to the community for low- and moderate-income families when construction of the dam is complete.

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Campus Construction Provides Learning Lab for Students

By Lorne Fultonberg
University of Denver
November 7, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

DENVER, Colorado — Things have changed for students in the Constructions Building Systems class these days. …Because just across the street from the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management lies a better live laboratory than any professor Eric Holt could have designed. …Slated to open in July 2020, the Burwell Center represents 21,000 square feet of development and outreach. …It’s the first time these students, most of whom are studying in the Real Estate and the Built Environment program, are seeing cross-laminated timber up close. The Canadian wood is regarded as the gold standard in sustainability. It takes far less energy to produce than concrete or steel and is harvested with environmental preservation in mind. Aesthetically, the wood contributes to the Burwell Center’s clean look. 

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Forestry

Sicamous executing million dollar project for wildfire reduction

By John Lawless
Castanet
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A wildfire risk reduction project valued at close to a million dollars will be rolled out to help protect the Sicamous area. This includes protection for important infrastructure such as the water reservoir and essential transportation corridors. The District of Sicamous will see improvements from removing forest fuels in the development of a mountain bike park to give citizens better and safe access. “Our community welcomes a large number of tourists each year,” says Joe McCulloch, the Operations Manager for the DOS. “The work we’re doing now will not only help protect our local community and important infrastructure from the threat of wildfire but will also create additional opportunities for people to safely access the land for their recreational pursuits.”

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Public engagement session focuses on forest sector renewal

By Trevor Hewitt
BC Local News
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

SMITHERS, BC — With a dark cloud of uncertainty looming over the Province’s forestry industry… the Province’s Ministry of Forest… held a number of Interior Forest Sector Renewal public engagement sessions. That included a Smithers session, which was held in late July. The notes… highlighted five specific categories as most important. The first, Forest Tenure and Fibre Supply, saw many make suggestions about utilizing ground fibre and hauling all wood to the roadside to decrease the amount that must be burnt. …The second topic, Climate Change and Forest Carbon, focused on the environmental impact of the industry. …The third topic, Manufacturing Capacity and Fibre Utilization, focused on ensuring the long-term economic viability of the industry through finding more uses for wood and by increasing market diversification. …Similarly, the fourth topic of Wood Products Innovation focused on utilizing innovation to foster economic stability in the industry. …The last topic was Reconciliation with Indigenous Communities.

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Wildfire Risk Reduction Project in the Shuswap Ready to Go!

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A wildfire risk reduction project, valued at almost $1,000,000, is ready to roll out to provide greater protection from wildfires around the perimeter of Sicamous. The Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. project will protect important infrastructure owned by the District of Sicamous (DOS) like its water reservoir and vital transportation corridors. The DOS will also realize another benefit from the work removing forest fuels in the development of a mountain bike park in the treatment area to allow for greater and safer access for citizens. The project will enhance the utilization of forest fibre by chipping the debris and utilizing that biomass for heat and eventually power.

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‘You’re losing a significant fighting force’: United Conservative Party scraps wildfire rappel program

By Sammy Hudes
Calgary Herald
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A program employing more than 60 firefighters trained to rappel into areas where new wildfires have begun is being scrapped by the UCP government as it looks to “modernize” the province’s wildfire response strategy. Former firefighters of the unit are criticizing the move, saying it will make it more difficult for crews to efficiently tackle new wildfires across the province. …The UCP is also cutting staffing for close to 30 wildfire lookout towers and one air tanker unit. Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Devin Dreeshen said the UCP government is “making changes to align with best practices in other provinces.” …But Jamie Parker, who spent four years in the rappel program, said losing it will make it far more difficult to deal with Alberta’s growing trend of wildfires. …NDP Leader Rachel Notley said the rappel unit has played a key role in preventing further wildfires that match the scope of the 2016 event in Fort McMurray.

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Alberta ends program for firefighters rappelling from helicopters

By Lauren Krugel
Canadian Press in CBC News
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Alberta government is ending a program for firefighters who rappel from helicopters to fight forest fires. Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen says in a statement that crews have been rappelling into locations in less than two per cent of Alberta wildfires. Dreeshen says the province will work with the firefighters to place them on other crews if they want next summer. He says the United Conservative government is putting a priority on two other groups of firefighters who are used more often. Helitack crews land as close as they can to a fire and hike into it, and Firetack crews are made up of contract workers. NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley says the decision to get rid of the rappel unit puts public safety and people’s homes at risk.

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Logging operations will reduce fire risk near Cranbrook

Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Government of British Columbia
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tree harvesting will take place on about 105 hectares of Crown land east of Cranbrook over the winter to reduce the amount of forest fuels and help lower the wildfire risk to the community. This project was initiated by BC Timber Sales, with logging to be completed by a local forestry contractor. Harvesting could begin as early as Nov. 15, 2019, and is expected to be complete by March 15, 2020, provided weather and site conditions are favourable. Specifically, logging will take place on a parcel of Crown land south of the Cranbrook Community Forest, between Baker Mountain Road and the power line to the road’s north. The goal is to reduce the number of trees in the wildland-urban interface, where urban development borders on grassland or forested areas, which will reduce the amount of forest fuels that could burn in the event of a wildfire.

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Task forces launched to find ‘uniquely Alberta solution’ for preserving caribou

CBC News
November 5, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Alberta government is moving forward in its effort to preserve the province’s dwindling caribou herds while maintaining industry and jobs. At the legislature Monday, Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon announced he has created three sub-regional task force teams to help the threatened caribou population recover.  The task forces are focused in the northwest region (Bistcho Lake), west central (Upper Smoky) and northeast (Cold Lake) but will come up with plans for the 15 ranges.  Nixon said he hopes the task forces will complete recommendations for three of the 15 ranges by next year in a long-term process involving “tough conversations.” Nixon didn’t commit to a deadline on reaching final plans but stressed the product will be a “uniquely Alberta solution,” one “not imposed by those who may not understand our landscapes and the needs of our job creators.” 

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Paper gluttons killing forests

Letter by Gary Saunders, retired forester
The Chronicle Herald
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Re: “Forestry out of control,” Bob Bancroft’s Oct. 28 letter against industrial clearcutting. He ignores or forgets the real reason for this practice: our insatiable appetite for cheap paper. In this, we Canadians outdo every other nation on Earth but one: America. Even a decade ago, we averaged a quarter tonne a year per person. Now, despite the internet’s urge to “go paperless,” it’s likely even higher thanks to the overpackaging of internet-shopped goods. …Really, anyone who uses toilet paper is complicit in clearcutting somewhere. So let’s quit this holier-than-thou, juvenile name-calling, take our share of the blame and get on with curbing our throwaway lifestyle. Europeans, no longer blessed with ample woodlands, can teach us how.

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Forest fire numbers in Nova Scotia this year were the lowest since the 1940s

By Ian Fairclough
The Chronicle Herald
November 7, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The summer of 2019 was hot. And dry. But despite that, the province saw its lowest number of wildfires in more than 70 years. There were 143 fires across the province this year, the fewest since there were 110 in 1948, statistics from the province’s Department of Lands and Forestry show. The low number was due in large part to the wet spring, and then the humid summer, says Kara McCurdy, the department’s fire prevention officer. “It doesn’t really matter how cool it is, it can be really cool outside and dry, and fires will spread,” she said. Low humidity and high wind will mean a better chance of fire spread, but high humidity and low wind means it’s not really going to go anywhere.” And that was what much of the summer was like.

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Forest Service sees resistance to Roadless Rule rollback at Ketchikan meeting

By Eric Stone
KRBD Ketchikan Radio
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service kicked off a series of public meetings all over Southeast Alaska this week to discuss why it is seeking a full exemption to the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. The federal agency explained it didn’t anticipate big changes in the Tongass as a result of the exemption. But some in the crowd weren’t convinced. The Forest Service’s second in command in D.C., Chris French, faced largely skeptical crowds in Ketchikan. He explained that his boss, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue opted for making the Tongass National Forest fully exempt from the Roadless Rule because that’s been the position of the state of Alaska all along. …Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council Chairman Donald Hernandez fired back. He says that ignores consultations with subsistence groups, tribes and public comment that have been clear: keep the Roadless Rule in place.

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Oregon’s forest management a boon for environment and economics

By Jennifer Beathe, professional forester, Starker Forests
The Oregonian
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Jennifer Beathe

I was pleased to read the third installment of The Oregonian Failing Forestry series (“Failing Forestry: The $1 billion lawsuit that could decide the fate of Oregon’s state forests,” Oct. 27) that highlighted the significant value the Oregon timber industry provides to rural Oregonians in terms of high-paying, family-wage jobs. Whether they are mill jobs, trucking jobs, or forestry jobs – the timber industry pays higher than the state average wage and employs more than 60,000 Oregonians, mostly in rural counties. These are critical jobs for those economies. Fortunately, timber provides more than just economics for Oregonians, in spite of the false dichotomy the article seemed to express that Oregonians must somehow choose between monetary value of timber harvest and environmental values of clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation opportunities. That is simply not true – forest management in Oregon can, and does, produce both. That’s what the Oregon Forest Practice Act was designed to do.

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Forest management combines short-term action and long-term plan

By Carrie Haderlie
Rawlins Times
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

CARBON COUNTY – …experts say a proactive approach to forest management means taking action today that will ensure the forest is healthy for decades to come. “We have to think of the lifespan of a forest, which is far more than our own,” said Aaron Voos, a spokesman for the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests. “We have to be thinking about what this will look like 50 years from now, and it will be a more diverse, healthy forest.” Over the past several years, officials have been working on a long-term forest management plan called the Landscape Vegetation Analysis project (LaVA). If approved, will authorize adaptive management of forest vegetation affected by decades-long struggle against the mountain pine beetle infestation. Under the plan, management tools include tree thinning, harvest, hazard tree removal and prescribed burning in the Medicine Bow National Forest, Sierra Madre and Snowy ranges.

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‘It’s my whole life’: Logger reacts to Victorian native forest logging ban

By Neil Mitchell
3AW 693 News Talk
November 6, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Premier Daniel Andrews today announced a statewide ban on the logging of native trees. …Industry sources say the ban could cost taxpayers as much as $500 million, due to the need for compensation and the loss of jobs. Brad Meyer from Meyer Log Cartage, a business which logs native timber, said he’s gutted by the news. “It’s my whole life. …so where to from here, I’m not sure,” he told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell. “My whole business revolves around native forest timber harvesting, so without that I don’t have a business at all.” Mr Meyer said he wasn’t consulted at all prior to today’s announcement, and only found out about it this morning. …The native logger said he’ll fight back against the new legislation, which he says will have a “massive” impact on lives. “They haven’t won. I won’t be giving in that easy,” he said.

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Immediate end to old growth logging a big win for people and wildlife

Australian Conservation Foundation
November 7, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The immediate end to old growth logging will protect some of Victoria’s most spectacular and intact native forests. In response to the announcement that the Victorian Government will immediately end old growth logging and phase out all native forest logging over the next decade, Jess Abrahams, Nature Campaigner at the Australian Conservation Foundation and a former member of the Forest Industry Taskforce, said: “Victorians love our native forests and wildlife, so this is a major announcement by the Andrews Government, albeit one that is long overdue. An immediate end to old growth logging will protect some of Victoria’s most spectacular and intact native forests. The protection of a further 96,000 hectares of habitat for the vulnerable Greater glider is very good news. The transition from logging native forests to plantations can’t come soon enough – ten years is just too slow for the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum, which is on the brink of extinction.”

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Immediate end to old-growth logging, as thousands of jobs set to go

By Noel Towell and Rob Harris
The Sydney Morning Herald
November 7, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Premier Daniel Andrews says thousands of workers in the timber industry face a “tough transition” as the state government moved on Thursday to end logging of Victoria’s native forests. …Mr Andrews said the government had no choice but to act, with the industry facing a dwindling supply of native timber, down 50 per cent in the past decade, and that a large bush fire might deal the sector a knock-out blow. …“We have taken the time to make sure that this is a transition that is managed, it is not a matter of flicking a switch, that would be the wrong outcome in terms of preserving jobs. …Federal Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said Victoria’s decision to end native timber harvesting was “casting aside an entire industry and workforce”. …”The lack of support and commitment to this sustainable industry is strongly condemned.” She said native forestry was a “sustainable industry”.

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Timber workers worried for jobs and towns as Victorian Government announces plan to end native logging

By Sarah Maunder, Kristian Silva and Mikaela Ortolan
ABC News, Australia
November 7, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Victorian timber workers say their communities will become ghost towns after the Victorian Government announced it will phase out the logging of native trees over the next decade. The Victorian Government will reduce the current level of native timber available for logging from 2024–25. With dwindling supply already restricting the industry, all native timber logging will cease by 2030 under the policy. The Government also announced an immediate ban on logging in old-growth forest. …Brett Robin, a fifth-generation logger from Gippsland, said the State Government’s plan would result in “tens of thousands” of jobs lost. Mr Robin told ABC Radio Melbourne only four trees in every 10,000 were being harvested and regenerated, which meant the rest were left alone. “I’ve harvested areas my grandfather and great-grandfather have harvested, and they’ve all been regenerated.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Green coalition says feds must admit true costs of climate change

The Canadian Press in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix
November 6, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

OTTAWA — Almost two dozen Canadian environment groups are urging the federal Liberal government to make sure its next budget acknowledges that climate change is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars every year. “These costs are actually really big and if we are ignoring them there is a big hole in the budget,” said Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer and project lead for the climate change program at West Coast Environmental Law. The organization is one of 22 environment advocacy organizations in the Green Budget Coalition, which released its annual list of asks for the federal budget Wednesday. Although the Liberals’ next budget is still months away, the coalition’s wish list is normally released during the fall budget planning season. This year, the group is hoping the added momentum for taking action on climate change, emanating from this year’s election campaign, gives a little more oomph to their demands.

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