Daily Archives: November 18, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

BC’s forestry slowdown means job cuts at CN Rail

November 18, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Lower freight volumes in BC’s forest sector result in job cuts at CN Rail. In related news: a Quebec hardwood flooring company lays off 165; the US-China trade war’s impact on Kentucky hardwood producers; Roseburg adds to its layoff total in Oregon; and BC’s market-diversification trade mission to China and Japan is a wrap.

In Forest History news: looking back at an 1800s New Brunswick lumberjack; and the generosity of messers McMillan, Bloedel and VanDusen as the Bloedel Conservatory turns 50. Meanwhile, stories on: the last American caribou; BC’s old growth review; Oregon’s wildfire reduction investments; Montana’s grizzly recovery plans; and California’s new carbon offset standard for the tropics.

Finally, tree farmer (and Rolling Stone) Chuck Leavell is awarded Superhero for the Earth.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Adrian Raeside on the environment

By Dave Obee
The Times-Colonist
November 17, 2019
Category: Froggy Foibles

There is nothing funny about environmental concerns, so it might seem odd that over the past 40 years, one of our most outspoken advocates for sustainability has been cartoonist Adrian Raeside. …Raeside’s work first appeared in the Daily Colonist in 1979. …Through the years, Raeside has dealt with many issues he felt strongly about, including over-fishing, poor logging practices, the seal hunt and animal rights. …“It was the 1993 Clayoquot Sound logging protests on the west coast, where grandmothers were being arrested for preventing a logging company access to an old-growth forest, that really excited me,” Raeside says. “I pitched the TC’s editor-in-chief with the crazy idea of sending a cartoonist to cover a news event.

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Business & Politics

Pinnacle reports progress with plant improvement projects

By Erin Voegele
Biomass Magazine
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Pinnacle Renewable Energy released third quarter financial results on Nov. 12, reporting progress with upgrades at several existing wood pellet plants. Revenue also increased despite issues with ongoing sawmill curtailments in British Columbia. …Upgrades to the fiber drying and air filtration equipment at the Williams Lake, British Columbia, facility are progressing on schedule and are expected to be complete during the first quarter of 2020, McCurdy said. …The Aliceville, Alabama, pellet plant is also undergoing improvements McCrudy said. Projects at that facility aim to improve fiber flow, processing and operating efficiency. As a result of the improvement projects, McCurdy said the plant began experiencing ongoing operating improvements beginning in September that allowed it to set several new production records. …Pinnacle’s pellet plant in Smithers, British Columbia, reached full run rate capacity of 125,000 metric tons per year during the third quarter and is performing very well, McCurdy said.

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Bloedel Conservatory turns 50

By John Mackie
Vancouver Sun
November 17, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Prentice Bloedel in 1971

Prentice Bloedel in 1951

In 1965, the Vancouver park board unveiled a dramatic vision for the top of Little Mountain: a $1.5-million floral conservatory, forest museum and planetarium. …and on April 27, 1966, the park board announced that the conservatory and “museum of the woods” would be built, thanks to a $1-million donation from Seattle lumber baron Prentice Bloedel. On Dec. 6, 1969, the Bloedel Conservatory opened to the public, attracting …500,000 the first year. Fifty years later, it remains a Vancouver icon. …Prentice Bloedel was partners with H.R. MacMillan in the forest giant MacMillan Bloedel. MacMillan was also civic-minded: he donated the money for the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (i.e., planetarium)… A third MacMillan Bloedel executive, Whitford Julian VanDusen, gave $1 million to help convert the old Shaughnessy Golf Course to a public garden in 1975. “So the planetarium became MacMillan’s and the conservatory became Bloedel’s and VanDusen hunkered up a million dollars for the $3-million cost for VanDusen Gardens,” said Clark.

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CN Rail confirms job cuts as weakening economy cuts into freight volumes

Canadian Press in the Nelson Star
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Canadian National Railway Co. is confirming job cuts as it deals with a weakening North American economy that has eroded demand for railroad transportation. The company said it is “adjusting its resources to demand” but wouldn’t say how many people will be affected. It said some employees will be placed on furlough and there will be reductions in both management and union job numbers. …Freight volumes came in below expectations in the third quarter and manufacturing has also fallen off, it said. The railroad also said it was affected by a slowdown in the B.C.’s forestry sector, where high log prices and dwindling timber supply have prompted shutdowns or curtailments in more than two dozen mills, and due to the weather-delayed grain crop on the Prairies.

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No wood supply merger contemplated, forests minister says

By Rod Link
Houston Today
November 16, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The provincial forests minister has put to rest any notion the provincial government might combine the Morice Timber Supply Area (TSA) surrounding Houston with the Lakes TSA in the Burns Lake area. Doing so “would negatively impact the forest industry in Houston which many residents depend on economically,” the District of Houston council stated in a briefing note prepared ahead of a meeting between council members and Doug Donaldson, the Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development minister. The Lakes TSA is now being reassessed to set a new annual allowable cut (AAC) and could be reduced by half of the current 1.648 million cubic metre AAC, leading to worries in that area about wood supply for mills.

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Northern Pulp, affiliate company owe Nova Scotia government more than $85 million

By Aaron Beswick
The Chronicle Herald
November 17, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Northern Pulp and an associated company owe the province more than $85 million. While the company and the Nova Scotia government have acknowledged the existence of outstanding debts to the taxpayer, neither have been willing to disclose the amounts. The Chronicle Herald received the details on the interest-bearing loans via a Freedom of Information request. News of the magnitude of the debt comes as staff at the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment prepare a recommendation to Minister Gordon Wilson on whether to approve the construction of Northern Pulp’s proposed new effluent treatment facility. That decision must come, according to legislated timelines of the Environmental Assessment process, no later than Dec. 13. “We knew there were loans outstanding but we didn’t know the amount was that high,”  James Gunvaldsen Klaassen, a lawyer with the firm Ecojustice, said of the three outstanding loans totalling $85,478,537.48 to Northern Pulp and an associated company. [This story is only available to Chronicle Herald subscribers]

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Outaouais flooring company stops logging, lays off 165 people

CBC News
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

A western Quebec hardwood flooring company is no longer logging and laying off 165 people, blaming the closure of a nearby paper mill. Lauzon Planchers de bois exclusifs in Papineauville, Que., announced Friday it was shutting down its logging operations because it sold wood chips to Fortress in Thurso, Que., which closed temporarily in October. Fortress had blamed the ongoing trade dispute between the United States and China, as well as the weakening of China’s domestic demand for textiles and clothing, for its closure. The next day, the Quebec government announced it would give the paper mill a maximum $8 million loan to help it find a strategic partner to reopen by the end of this month.

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Forestry trade mission encourages wood construction, strengthens relationships

By the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Government of British Columbia
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TOKYO – Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, and 35 senior executives from B.C. forest companies and associations have concluded their 2019 forestry trade mission to Asia. The delegation promoted British Columbia’s innovative wood products to the province’s two largest markets outside of North America from Nov. 10-15, 2019. “Over the past five days, we’ve met with construction, business and association representatives in China and Japan, and Japanese policymakers, to enhance and expand existing and future business opportunities for wood in both markets,” Donaldson said. “What we found were clients and customers that were eager to talk about B.C. and Canada’s high-quality wood products.”

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Roseburg Forest Products Announces Additional Layoffs

By Meerah Powell
Oregon Public Broadcasting
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Roseburg Forest Products announced Friday it will be laying off 30 employees at its plant in the Douglas County, Oregon, town of Dillard. These layoffs follow an earlier round of about 90 layoffs in August at the same plant.   The company’s communications director, Rebecca Taylor, said all but one of the 30 employees affected in this most recent layoff received job offers at one of Roseburg’s other plants — two additional plants in Dillard and two in nearby Riddle.   “That one remaining employee will be interviewed for potential roles within the company on Monday,” Taylor told OPB.   Nearly every affected employee in the August layoff who wished to continue working for Roseburg has been placed at another Roseburg facility, the company said in a news release.

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How Donald Trump’s trade war is hurting one of Eastern Kentucky’s key industries

By Will Wright and Bill Estep
The Lexington Herald-Leader
November 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

MOORHEAD, KENTUCKY — Inside the walls of Harold White Lumber near Morehead… employees judge the grade of the wood. Recently, CEO Ray White has spent a lot of time worrying about those workers. Trade tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump have hurt Kentucky’s wood-products industry in serious ways, including White’s business. Production at his mill is down 20 percent this year. …For more than 100 years, White’s family has been ingrained in Rowan County’s timber industry. …But now, the future of his multi-generational legacy in uncertain. …The losses in Kentucky exports likely mirror the national figure, said Bob Bauer, head of the Kentucky Forest Industries Association. …The timber industry directly contributed $8.4 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2017 and employed 26,068 people at more than 1,200 facilities.

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N.Z. Future Forest Products Outlines Expansion Plans

By Future Forest Products
Scoop Independent News
November 18, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

N.Z. Future Forest Products Ltd (NZFFP) has today made a series of announcements about its future expansion plans. The company, which is focused on making sustainable New Zealand finished wood products one of the core export pillars of the New Zealand economy, was established by 35-year-old New Zealander David Henry …after 15 years working in Australia and the United Kingdom in the natural-resources investment management sector. …Its flagship project will be its greenfield engineered timber processing plant, which will be the only plant of its type in the Southern Hemisphere once constructed. To that end, it is pleased to announce today it has completed its strategic transaction with North Sawn Lumber Ltd, which has production plants at Ruakaka and Tauranga. …NZFFP will always be majority New Zealand-owned, with a policy of capping any non-New Zealand investment to no more than a total of 24.9% in compliance with the Overseas Investment Act.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Zero-emission student housing planned at UBC Okanagan

BC Local News
November 17, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

UBC Okanagan will soon offer substantial environmentally friendly student housing. A plan to bring a $18.7 million and zero emission housing project has started on campus and for Dave Waldron, it represents a window into the future. The new affordable housing project for students, called Skeena, is being built to an energy-efficient Passive House standard that will run without using fossil fuels. …“Part of the beauty of the Passive House concept is its simplicity. Essentially, what you’re doing is making a super-efficient shell compared to conventional buildings.” …it will house 220 students on six floors, five of which will be built with a wood frame on a concrete base. …”With Passive House buildings, you invest in your structure as opposed to a bunch of fancy mechanical and electrical bells and whistles, which makes it really long lasting because there aren’t as many moving parts.”

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Terrace projects get funding for wood fibre use

By Brittany Gervais
Terrace Standard
November 15, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Terrace Community Forest (TCF) and Coast Tsimshian Resources LP each received grant money from the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC) for projects to add value to wood waste that would have otherwise been burned. TCF was approved for $443,400 to transport the wood waste from their forest thinning project near Onion Lake to a pellet plant in Burns Lake. Coast Tsimshian Resources LP was awarded $874,562 to fund their project spanning 94,000 cubic metres. The Terrace Standard has reached out to the business for more information. …The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNORD) says these projects will employ forestry contractors and mill workers who produce electricity, wood pellets and pulp at mills, turning wood waste into a potential source of electricity, heat energy, and pulp products.

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Is Mass Timber An Answer To Codes And Costs In The Bay Area?

By Dean Boerner
BisNow
November 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

California’s new building code will force developers to take closer looks at innovative construction methods like cross-laminated timber… As construction costs continue hampering multifamily development across the Bay Area, CLT, which uses prefabricated and laminated wood panels, promises to reduce labor costs and shorten construction schedules, its proponents say. DCI Engineers Vice President Jeff Brink said the technology will also partially save developers from a big increase in costs related to new seismic requirements in California’s revamped building code… “For high-rises in the 12- to 24-story range, you could be looking at seismic force increases on the magnitude of 75% or 80% higher than what we’re currently designing for, which translates to a lot of potential added cost to the structure,” Brink said…  “The best way you can mitigate the seismic impact on your building is to reduce its weight, because that’s what’s driving the seismic forces on any building,” he said.

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Grenfell United raises concerns over cladding after Bolton student fire

By Robert Booth and Mattha Busby
The Guardian
November 16, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Concerns have been raised over the cladding at a student accommodation building in Bolton where a fire spread “extremely rapidly”, gutting the upper floor. An investigation is under way… and calls are growing for an overhaul of UK fire safety regulations. Grenfell United, the group of survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, called for the declaration of a national emergency over the lack of action. …Witnesses said … a small fire ripped through the upper part of the six-storey building, which is cladded in high-pressure laminate (HPL) material, “within minutes”. The government’s response to the cladding scandal has largely been confined to aluminium composite material (ACM) panels, but there could be thousands of blocks with HPL. …HPL panels, which can be made of compressed paper or wood fibre, have a variety of combustibility ratings, while combustible ACM panels were banned last year for use on new tall residential and public buildings following post-Grenfell investigations.

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Sustainable timber construction: Exploring engineered timber as a climate friendly building solution

By Conan O’Ceallaigh, David Gil-Moreno and Annette Harte
The Engineers Journal
November 18, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

GALWAY, IRELAND — Construction and buildings are responsible for about 39 per cent of all global carbon emissions with about 28 per cent being attributed to operational costs of the building and 11 per cent attributed to the embodied carbon of the construction materials and processes. Reducing the impact of construction is essential. …Recent policy updates will ensure that all new buildings in the EU will have significantly lower operation impacts. …This has resulted in significant innovation within the construction industry in areas such as product development, lean construction processes and so on. Timber is a climate-friendly material that has seen a revival within the construction sector in recent years. …The Timber Engineering Research Group at NUI Galway have been exploring the possibilities of manufacturing glulam and CLT from Irish grown timber and its potential use in construction.

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Forestry

This American caribou is the last of its kind—and it lives in Canada

By Adrienne Tanner
Maclean’s Magazine
November 18, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

High in the mountain wilderness outside Revelstoke, B.C., lives Canada’s most unusual permanent resident: America’s last surviving mountain caribou. The cow was born into the South Selkirk herd, known presciently as the Gray Ghosts, which once roamed between southeastern British Columbia and the northern reaches of Idaho, Montana and Washington. …The departure of the Gray Ghosts means that caribou in the United States are now considered extirpated. But that didn’t stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month from declaring all southern mountain caribou—including 15 remaining herds in Canada—an endangered species. …Legally, the ruling holds no sway over Canada, says Sean Nixon, a lawyer with Ecojustice. But it may provide moral suasion. …The fate of the species now rests entirely within Canada, say biologists, and DeGroot, for one, sounds less than optimistic about their recovery prospects.

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Doosan Infracore Europe partners with Ritchie Bros. to increase used equipment remarketing efforts in Europe

By Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers
Cision Newswire
November 18, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, International

AMSTERDAM — Doosan has selected RB Asset Solutions, a cloud-based SaaS solution from Ritchie Bros., and its suite of remarketing tools to support its European dealer network and strengthen its used equipment business. With the help of Ritchie Bros. and its RB Asset Solutions technology, Doosan has launched early this year, a new mobile-friendly used equipment website: usedDoosan.com, which is supported on the backend with RB Asset Solutions’ inventory management system and equipment inspection app. …RB Asset Solutions brings together a customizable suite of tools and services to help customers better manage, analyze, and sell their assets.

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An opportunity for bold conservation action in B.C.’s north

John Weaver, carnivore conservation biologist
Victoria Times Colonist
November 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

We also need to take bold steps to protect the wild places — and wildlife — we love in the face of growing climate pressures. Fortunately, here in B.C., we have an opportunity to make a huge difference for wildlife, starting in a vast area in the north-central part of the province… B.C.’s Muskwa-Kechika is a spectacularly wild region of rugged mountains, verdant valleys, glaciers and boreal forests. Four times the size of Vancouver Island, it is an area with few roads (98 per cent roadless) and little resource development. The result is intact forests, clean waters and healthy wildlife populations. Caribou, for example, are thriving in the Muskwa-Kechika… The Muskwa-Kechika Management Area was established in the late 1990s in a first effort to protect some of its most important pieces. …Wildlife Conservation Society Canada has mapped a larger and better-connected network of protected areas across the Greater Muskwa-Kechika. 

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If you care about old growth trees in B.C. now’s your chance to speak up

By Chad Pawson
CBC News
November 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The province will spend months collecting more public feedback on how old-growth trees should be protected or cut down in yet another round of engagement over new rules for forestry and conservation in B.C. …However, conservationists say the review is a stalling tactic. …Right now, two professional foresters are travelling the province meeting with conservationists, unions, First Nations and the public to ask about the ecological, economic and cultural importance of old growth trees and forests. Garry Merkel, a natural resource expert and member of the Tahltan Nation, along with Al Gorley, a former chair of the Forest Practices Board, will collect submissions. Biologist Wayne McCory, a director with the Valhalla Wilderness Committee, was concerned though that two former foresters with resource development backgrounds were appointed to the panel and not someone with a ecological background.

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B.C. wildlife experts urge hunters to switch ammo to stop lead poisoning in birds

By Brenna Owen
Canadian Press in Alberni Valley News
November 16, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Hunting season in B.C. is having unintended toxic consequences for birds of prey and two local raptor experts say it’s time to get the lead out of ammunition to stop them from being poisoned. The Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, or OWL, in Delta, is currently treating two eagles for lead poisoning and it can see up to 20 raptors each year, said long-time raptor caretaker Rob Hope. The birds ingest lead when they scavenge the carcasses of animals killed with lead shotgun pellets or rifle bullets that contain the toxin, Hope said. The Canadian government banned lead for hunting waterfowl two decades ago, and non-toxic shot is now required to hunt most migratory game birds across the country. Lead shot is also prohibited for all types of hunting in 55 national wildlife areas. But pellets and bullets containing lead are still widely used to hunt large game and upland game birds, such as grouse or pheasant.

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Yellow Point Ecological Society advocating for protection of private forests

By Cole Schisler
Nanaimo News Bulletin
November 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In partnership with Arrowsmith Media, the Yellow Point Ecological Society, (YES), has released a short video detailing concerns around the protection of private forest land. Guy Dauncey of YES said that the group is worried about losing forest land in the Yellow Point, Cedar area. “It’s our concern locally, that 90 percent of the forests in our area have no protection of any kind. People love this region for that magical combination of ocean, farmland, and forest,” Dauncey said. The video references a 60 acre parcel of land in Yellow Point that was sold to a private company. YES attempted to find a way to save the forests. Dauncey said through that process, YES found that there is limited protection for forests, unless they are nearby riparian areas and watersheds. Dauncey calls this ‘ecological abandonment.’

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Looking back at the life of a lumberjack

CBC News
November 16, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

If you were a New Brunswick lumberjack in the 19th century, you’d be heading into the woods just about now to work at a lumber camp for the winter. Young men just starting out and older farmers with families, looking to make money while fields were frozen over, would go off to camps for months at a time to chop down trees.  James Upham, head of public programming for Resurgo Place in Moncton, said machinery has replaced much of the manpower in the forestry industry, but the heyday of the lumberjack is not too far in the past.   “It wasn’t that long ago where it was a physical person with an axe and a horse, and that was, you know, that was the basis of the provincial economy,” he said. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that these forestry jobs switched from axe-swinging to operating machines.

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Forest Service collecting comments on 4FRI, forest treatment plans

By Jim Strogen
Payson Roundup
November 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

Are you concerned about the plans to protect the forest and the impact of forest health on the safety of communities in Rim Country?Would you like to see plans implemented to ensure a safe, healthy forest for recreational benefits?The U.S. Forest Service wants to hear from you. At a meeting at the Payson District Ranger Station Tuesday, 35 residents came out to learn about the Rim Country portion of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) developed to address treatment plans for this area.If you missed the opportunity to attend, the FS has meetings scheduled in Heber-Overgaard and Flagstaff in early December. The FS is collecting comments, suggestions, and objections through Jan. 16 about the DEIS and the proposed alternatives.

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Wildfire report is in: Let’s get started

By Mail Tribune Editorial Board
Mail Tribune
November 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Armed — finally — with the report of the Governor’s Council on Wildfire Response, lawmakers and Gov. Kate Brown are vowing to make the necessary investments in forest thinning and fire protection to reduce the threat of the smoke-filled summers this region has suffered in recent years. …The Governor’s Council report called for a $4 billion investment in forest thinning, prescribed burns and other measures designed to protect residential areas from the threat of wildfire. The 2020 Legislature will be holding a short session…so lawmakers will be limited in how many resources they can marshal between now and next summer. That’s why we were disappointed that Gov. Kate Brown’s response to the devastating fire seasons of 2017 and 2018 took up another fire season before the council could produce recommendations for action. …Brown has pledged to spend $100 million to $200 million over the next two years. That’s a start, but it’s not nearly enough.

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Report: The price to protect Southern Oregon

By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune
November 16, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon lawmakers are poised to start tackling a $4 billion effort to dramatically reduce wildfire threat in this state. Armed with a report detailing steps needed to protect communities from disasters that have befallen California, local legislators and Gov. Kate Brown have signaled they’re about to put their money where their mouth is. “Anybody who said it’s going to be cheap hasn’t been paying attention,” said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland. “If we don’t think this is essential, we haven’t been paying attention. This is a must.” Golden, chairman of the newly created Senate Committee on Wildfire Prevention and Recovery, anticipates submitting two to three bills during the short legislative session to specifically deal with wildfires. Gov. Kate Brown’s office indicated she will be backing the commitment of up to $200 million through a combination of state, private and federal dollars.

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Scientists call for updated grizzly recovery plans

By Eve Byron
The Missoulian
November 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Five prominent scientists on Friday urged state and federal officials to pump the brakes on efforts to remove grizzly bears from protections offered under the Endangered Species Act, and update grizzly recovery plans. Pointing to the second straight year of record-high grizzly mortalities in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, large wildfires, a changing climate that’s stifling food sources and landscapes crisscrossed with everything from Forest Service roads to highways, the “region’s most iconic species’ long-term survival is tenuous,” longtime grizzly bear advocate Mike Bader told about 50 people gathered at the University Center in Missoula.“Grizzly bear management in the Rocky Mountains has long been an exercise in political appeasement of economic interest,” he said.

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Huge Bitterroot Forest project OK’d

By Perry Backus
Ravalli Republic
November 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Bitterroot National Forest’s largest vegetative management project in recent memory became official Friday. Bitterroot National Forest Supervisor Matt Anderson signed the final record of decision for the Gold Butterfly Project on the Stevensville Ranger District. The project proposes commercial timber harvest, non-commercial thinning and prescribed fire on about 9,500 acres along a 10-mile reach in the Sapphire Mountains, from St. Clair Creek to the south and Burnt Fork Creek on the north. In a letter to everyone who commented on the project, Anderson said the selected alternative “would improve landscape resilience to disturbances, reduce sediment inputs into Willow Creek over the long term and restore key habitats.”  …About 4,800 acres of the 9,500 acres slated for vegetative treatment will be commercially logged in four or five timbers sales that are expected to be completed over the next decade.

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Julian Lennon performs with Chuck Leavell, Collective Soul at Captain Planet Foundation gala

By Melissa Ruggieri
Atlanta Journal of Commerce
November 17, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

On Saturday night, Julian Lennon, backed by members of Collective Soul, performed at the Captain Planet Foundation Gala …the Atlanta-based charity co-founded by Ted Turner that funds environmental education projects for schools and non-profits. …the event also honored Chuck Leavell with the Superhero for the Earth for his dedication to forest conservation. The longtime Rolling Stones keyboardist … is the co-founder of the Mother Nature Network and a tree farmer/conservationist with a 2,900-acre property outside of Macon… Before the event started, Leavell chatted about why this particular award is so special to him. “…Ted Turner is my hero. What he has done with his land – being one of the largest landowners – the way that he manages it, bringing back the bison, putting most of it in conservation easements which is a bold thing to do…This is very flattering, and a wonderful honor,” Leavell said.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

What to think of California’s new Tropical Forest Standard

By Hugh Biggar
Global Landscapes Forum
November 18, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

With carbon-absorbing tropical forests vital to limiting global warming, California has approved a new carbon offset standard aimed at keeping such forests in place. The Standard is the latest initiative from the U.S. state positioned as a global leader in action against climate change and could be a game-changer in carbon finance efforts. But critics caution it could also undercut climate action. Passed in a 7–4 vote in September by the California Air Resources Board, California’s Tropical Forest Standard provides a framework for integrating measures to protect tropical forests around the world into emissions-reduction efforts from the state’s governments, NGOs, civil society groups and industry. This includes potentially weaving investment in tropical forest sustainability into the state’s pre-existing cap-and-trade program – which is one of the largest and most effective of its kind in the world.

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Reforesting the UK: ‘Trees are the ultimate long-term project’

By Damian Carrington
The Guardian
November 16, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

“This whole area wants to be a wood,” says Edward Milbank, sweeping his arm across the former hill farm in Northumberland. Small saplings of birch have invaded the cleared ground, but many more trees are being pushed into the soil by hand.  The bracken and rhododendron that had overrun the hillside took heavy machinery three months to rip out. “When you disturb the soil, it becomes a wood very quickly,” says Milbank. “But the Forestry Commission forced us to put in Scots pine as well. The entire area could be birch without spending a penny, but you have to be seen to be doing something to justify the [planting grants].” This former sheep and cattle farm, Doddington North, is being converted into England’s largest private new woodland in 30 years, with 680,000 trees being planted over the 350 hectares.

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Health & Safety

WorkSafeBC investigating death of 19-year-old at forestry worksite near Creston

By Simon Little
Global News
November 15, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kaydon Booth

WorkSafeBC and the B.C. Coroners Service are investigating the death of a 19-year-old man at a forestry worksite on Thursday. Friends have identified the victim as Kaydon Booth of Creston, B.C. “I’m still in shock that he’s gone,” said friend Ella McCallum, who described Kaydon as the “type of person that would give you the shirt off his back.” …McCallum said she was told a Kaydon was pinned by a piece of machinery and suffered critical internal injuries. …Creston RCMP confirmed the incident happened in an area between Salmo and Creston. WorkSafeBC said it was notified of the incident shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday and that it would not comment further while it was investigating to determine the cause of the incident.

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Forest Fires

Australia’s ‘unprecedented’ wildfires seen from space

By Rafael Cerededa
Euronews
November 18, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

This is what the unprecedented wildfires on Australia’s east coast look like from space. Around 12,000 square kilometres have burned in New South Wales and Queensland since July, an area larger than Jamaica. The fires have caused four deaths, injured more than a hundred and destroyed more than 300 homes. And this is just the beginning of the Australia region’s usual fire season. This chilling image of the east coast was obtained by blogger Pierre Markuse using NASA’s Aqua MODIS satellite.

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