Daily Archives: December 12, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

BC and federal gov’t relief sought on forest crisis

December 12, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Laid-off forest workers gathered at the BC legislature seeking provincial relief, while local MP seeks emergency debate by federal parliament. In other Business news: Fort Frances holds faint hope for use of old Resolute mill, Canfor corrects misleading info on proposed privatization vote; Cascades adds to its interest in Greenpac; Oregon is relieved over NAFTA 2 deal; and Hampton’s CEO Steve Zika calls lawsuit verdict a reality check for Oregonians.

In other news: Quebec is criticized for caribou/wolf kill plan; the Urban Land Institute, MIT researchers tout wood’s CO2 benefits over steel and cement; a 12-storey wood tower is coming to Kelowna; and Dr. Daniel Unger (Austin State U) receives coveted SAF forestry education award.

Finally, new hope for California’s endangered yellow-legged frog.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Canada-US lumber trade dispute simmers on

By Nicole Reis
Prince Albert NOW
December 12, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The long-standing softwood lumber trade dispute between Canada and the US is far from over and local companies continue to face economic challenges, while the MP for Desnethé -Missinippi-Churchill River is calling for a quick settlement to matters. Al Bulisky, CEO of Meadow Lake Tribal Council Industrial Investments… “we’re paying somewhere in the area of 20 per cent on all the lumber shipments that are sold into the US housing market”. …MP Gary Vidal was in the House of Commons advocating for a softwood lumber trade agreement that would see some of the funds returned to Canadian companies. …Vidal said if that money wasn’t tied up in the tariffs it could go back into community investment. Nearly 60 to 70 per cent of NorSask Lumber’s finished products are shipped to the United States.

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ISS and Egan-Jones Recommend Canfor Shareholders Vote For the Proposed Arrangement with Great Pacific

Canfor News Release
December 12, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Vancouver, BC — Canfor Corporation announces the results of reports issued by independent proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Egan-Jones Proxy Services, both of which have recommended that Canfor shareholders vote FOR the proposed plan of arrangement with… Great Pacific Capital. The Arrangement is to be considered at the upcoming special meeting of Canfor shareholders. Canfor felt compelled to release the recommendations of all three proxy advisory firms after the recommendation of Glass, Lewis & Co. was publicized by a Shareholder in a misleading and selective manner. …Canfor believes that the report issued by Glass Lewis… contains material errors and omissions regarding the facts of the matter. The Board of Directors of Canfor continues to recommend that Shareholders vote FOR the resolution.

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Combative Wilkinson ready to rumble if NDP call snap election

By Mike Smyth
The Province
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Andrew Wilkinson

B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson has his party preparing for the potential of a 2020 election. Some 3,000 out-of-work loggers have suffered in relative silence for nearly six months through one of the most brutal labour strikes in recent B.C. history. Not any more. Hundreds of affected contractors showed up outside the B.C. legislature to plead for government help. They got a sympathetic hearing from Wilkinson, who can clearly sense trouble for the governing NDP on the issue. “There was a cabinet meeting going on but nobody in the government had the guts to come outside and talk to them,” Wilkinson fumed. Rally leaders did get a meeting inside the building with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson. …Despite the meeting with Donaldson, though, the mood at the rally was one of bitter disappointment with an NDP government that bills itself as work-friendly.

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Laid-off forest workers converge on B.C. legislature

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

More than 200 Vancouver Island forest contractors and suppliers gathered at the B.C. legislature Wednesday to call for relief for an industry that has left them out of work for months. Many have been idled by the United Steelworkers strike against Western Forest Products that has dragged on since July 1. Some contractors say the NDP government’s increased penalties for wood waste have made it too costly to operate, and provincial stumpage for Crown timber remains too high. Bill Coates, a contractor from Port Alberni who organized the rally, emerged from a meeting with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson after people had waited outside for more than an hour. …forests critic John Rustad … said the government’s refusal to change stumpage rate setting from the current quarterly system to monthly, to reflect lumber prices, ignores the fact that Alberta sets stumpage monthly without sparking protests from U.S. lumber producers.

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Kamloops MP Cathy McLeod calls for emergency debate on BC forestry crisis

By John Luke Kieper
Kamloops BC Now
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Cathy McLeod

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod requested an emergency debate in parliament today. The Conservative Party’s Shadow Minister for Natural Resources is looking to bring the issue of job crisis affecting forestry work in BC to the forefront. “The closure and restriction of softwood lumber mills in recent months has devastated communities across British Columbia,” said McLeod. …“This is an enormous opportunity for Justin Trudeau to stop attacking the Western Canadian economy. His government can start to heal regional divisions by alleviating this job crisis impacting thousands of workers, their families, and communities across British Columbia. Conservatives will continue fighting to get our forestry and energy sectors back to work.”

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Cascades purchases the interest of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in Greenpac

By Cascades Inc.
Cision Newswire
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

KINGSEY FALLS, QC  — Cascades Inc., a leader in eco-friendly recycling, packaging and hygiene solutions, announced today that it is exercising its option to purchase the interest of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) in Greenpac Holding. CDPQ owns a 20.2% interest in Greenpac, a lightweight containerboard mill, located in Niagara Falls, NY. The expected purchase price is approximately US$93 million. The transaction is expected to close January 3rd, 2020. As of today, Cascades owns a 66.1% interest in Greenpac.

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Fort Frances mayor holds onto faint hope for partial use of mill

Gary Rinne
Thunder Bay News Watch
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

June Caul

FORT FRANCES, Ont. — Mayor June Caul seemed to waver between pessimism and optimism as she assessed the chances of getting at least part of the former Resolute mill complex generating jobs and taxes.  “I’m starting to think we’d need a miracle,” Caul told Tbnewswatch on Tuesday, three weeks before the expiry of the town’s agreement with Riversedge Developments. In October, Riversedge committed to allow interested qualified buyers to inspect the mill buildings and property and to receive information about any environmental issues until Dec. 31. Nothing appears imminent in terms of an offer that might lead to restoring the hundreds of jobs the mill used to provide. However, Caul said a potential investor has floated a smaller-scale proposal. “It wouldn’t involve reopening the whole mill…but it’s nice to know there’s a company that’s interested in part of it, and it would involve the use of wood in some way,” she said.

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Opinion: Timber lawsuit verdict a reality check for Oregonians

By Steve Zika, chief executive of Hampton Lumber
The Oregonian
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Steve Zika

It took a Linn County jury only a few hours to determine what timber communities have long known—state forests are being mismanaged. When the state took over management of 15 counties’ lands in 1941, the parties intended that the lands be managed to return timber revenue to the counties. But for the past two decades, the state chose instead to manage these lands for other objectives. In doing so, it broke a long-standing contract with the counties. Fourteen of these counties subsequently sued, leading to last month’s jury decision awarding counties $1.1 billion in damages. So, what does this decision mean for Oregonians? First, let’s be clear what it doesn’t mean. This decision does not threaten any of the values these working forests currently provide. …Even with timber as a priority on these lands, the Oregon Department of Forestry must still comply with all state and federal laws…

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Oregon Businesses Breathe Sighs Of Relief Over New North American Trade Deal

By Jeff Mapes
Oregon Public Broadcasting
December 11, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

There were audible sighs of relief in Oregon’s business community after congressional Democrats and President Donald Trump reached an agreement on a new trade pact replacing NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. …Oregon is one of the most trade-dependent states in the country – by some estimates, more than 1 in 5 jobs here are tied to international trade – and Canada is its second-largest trading partner after China. …And Blumenauer said one USMCA provision places tighter enforcement against lumber imports produced by illegal logging in South America. …But Canada did not accept any changes regarding softwood lumber imports to the U.S. American producers have long argued that they’ve faced unfair competition because Canada has subsidized timber harvests for its companies.  “I think it continues to be just a work in progress,” Blumenauer said of the lumber trade dispute.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Penticton Lakeside Resort parent company unveils 12-storey wood tower proposed for Kelowna

By Colin Dacre
Castanet
December 11, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

A proposed condo tower unveiled by the Penticton Lakeside Resort back in 2018 is not going to be built any time soon, but the hotel’s parent company has big plans for its Kelowna property. …Lakeside general manager David Prystay, “The market is not right for Penticton right now.” …His attention has turned to a proposed 12-storey, 83-hotel-room tower planned for the Ramada by Wyndham Kelowna Hotel and Conference Centre. He said it was a “no-brainer” to go with mass timber for the Ramada expansion after seeing how successful it has been in Penticton. …“People are willing to pay a little more to experience this style of room and this style of construction. It does cost a little more than regular construction, so the price is passed on to the consumer, but we’ve never had anybody balk at the numbers, which are not bad at all.” 

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Forget the log cabin. Wood buildings are climbing skyward — with pluses for the planet.

By Doug Struck
The Washington Post
December 12, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

AMHERST, Mass. — Research assistant Conrado Araujo…traces the load. …This is no ordinary block being tested at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It is called “mass timber”. …Advocates envision a radical shift in construction, with wood buildings of seven to 18 stories sprouting wholesale in cities, drastically reducing the cement and steel that generate tons of greenhouse gases. …Not all environmentalists are on board, though. The Sierra Club contends that nearly two-thirds of trees’ carbon is lost to the atmosphere when forests are cut and milled, and replanting young trees does not always offset that loss. …A new report by the nonprofit Urban Land Institute labels cross-laminated timber a “good replacement” for traditional steel. …The concrete industry hotly contests these assurances. The website of the Build with Strength coalition, created by the industry, features dire warnings and colorful drawings of wood high-rises aflame.

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Taking the carbon out of construction with engineered wood

By Mark Dwortzan, MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change
MIT News
December 11, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

To meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change… humanity will ultimately need to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. …As it turns out, planting trees is not the only way forestry can help in climate mitigation; how we use wood harvested from trees may also make a difference. Recent studies have shown that engineered wood products… involve far fewer carbon dioxide emissions than mineral-based building materials, and at lower cost. Now new research in the journal Energy Economics explores the potential environmental and economic impact in the US of substituting lumber for energy-intensive building materials such as cement and steel. …Under an economy-wide cap-and-trade policy… the study found that the CO2 intensity of lumber production is about 20 percent less than that of fabricated metal products, under 50 percent that of iron and steel, and under 25 percent that of cement.

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Reclaimed Lumber Market

By Transparency Market Research
Montana Ledger
December 11, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The increasing awareness amongst consumers and vendors about recycling, reusing, and reducing has given the global reclaimed lumber market a major push in the recent years. Reclaimed lumber refers to timber that is salvaged from warehouses, old buildings, discarded furniture pieces, barrels, and other wooden structures. Numerous environmental benefits of reclaimed lumber has won the market an unwavering consumer base over the years. The rise of construction industry across the globe and especially in the developing parts of the world has significantly upped the demand for reclaimed lumber as it is definitely known to better alternative to plastics. The demand for reclaimed lumber is also expected to rise in the coming years as older wood is far more durable than new wood. The long-term exposure of reclaimed lumber to harsh weather conditions makes it less likely to split as it has already undergone expansion and contraction cycles. 

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Forestry

Fuel mitigationt in Burns Lake delayed but underway

BC Local News
December 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Plans to remove hazardous fuels south of Burns Lake were delayed due to environmental considerations, but work is now underway, according to the Burns Lake Community Forest (Comfor). Comfor had hoped to start the project on Oct. 15, but the excessive fall moisture and lack of frost or significant snow depth meant conditions for harvest operations, which take into account environmental considerations such as soil disturbance, were not ideal, said Comfor’s General Manager Frank Varga. …The multi-phase project, which includes harvesting partial and clear-cut areas and prescribed burning, is expected to be completed in the fall of 2020, said Varga, adding the entire project is expected to cost between $7 million and $8 million and will be funded through Comfor’s annual log sales. The planned move on fuel mitigation follows the issuing in May of a report by forestry consultants B.A. Blackwell & Associates Ltd. 

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Conservationists criticize Quebec plan to protect caribou by killing wolves

By Morgan Lowrie
The Canadian Press in the National Post
December 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTREAL — A Quebec government plan to kill wolves that get too close to an endangered woodland caribou herd is raising concern among environmentalists, who accuse the government of sidestepping the true problem of habitat loss. The plan… involves placing tracking collars on both the caribou and members of local wolf packs to monitor distances between them. …The plan has drawn criticism from both environmentalists and members of the public. A petition denouncing the plan to shoot the wolves currently had amassed more than 9,000 signatures. Rachel Plotkin, with the David Suzuki Foundation, says predator control is a popular management practice employed by provinces “that don’t have the political will to do the habitat restoration and protection that is needed to recover caribou populations.” She said that while wolves are indeed killing caribou, that’s because of human activity that has destroyed the old-growth forests that protect them.

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Future of Elliott State Forest on hold as Land Board weighs options

By Sam Stites
The Bend Bulletin
December 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The committee assigned to study the feasibility of turning Elliott State Forest into a research forest managed by Oregon State University will take another year to give the State Land Board a recommendation. But public testimony at the board’s meeting Tuesday shows lukewarm interest in handing over the 82,000-acre coastal forest between Coos Bay and Reedsport to OSU’s College of Forestry, citing mismanagement of the school’s own McDonald-Dunn Forest as reason to leave the forest alone. In 2017, the board decided not to sell the Elliott State Forest to create revenue for Oregon’s Common School Fund, which is fed by money from harvests on state forests.

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California Commission Lists Yellow-Legged Frog as Endangered

The Associated Press in KTLA 5 News
December 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

There’s new hope for an endangered California frog that has vanished from half of its habitat. The state Fish and Game Commission on Wednesday approved protections for five of six populations of the foothill yellow-legged frog. …The commission voted to list the frogs as endangered in the Southern Sierra, central and southern coasts. Populations in the Northern Sierra and the Feather River will be listed as threatened. …The tiny, pebbly-skinned frogs were once found from Los Angeles County to the Oregon border but their populations have shrunk thanks to threats from human encroachment, dams, climate change, pollution and activities ranging from logging and mining to marijuana growing.

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Dr. Daniel Unger receives national award for forestry education

By Sarah Fuller
The Gilmer Mirror
December 11, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Daniel Unger

NACOGDOCHES, Texas— Dr. Daniel Unger, Kenneth Nelson Distinguished Professor of spatial science within Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, was awarded the 2019 Carl Alwin Schenck Award from the Society of American Foresters during the SAF National Convention held in November in Louisville, Kentucky. The national award recognizes individuals who display a notable and sustained record of excellence in forestry education through outstanding service to the field and the development of dynamic, personal teaching methods. “To be recognized by my fellow colleagues at the national level regarding my commitment to forestry education throughout my career is a humbling experience,” Unger said. “I truly enjoy interacting with the students on a daily basis.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Colombia’s Amazon forest gets boost with $366 million protection fund

By Anastasia Moloney
Reuters
December 11, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

BOGOTA – Norway, Germany and Britain said on Thursday they would spend up to $366 million over the next five years to help Colombia reduce deforestation in its vast Amazon rainforest. The three nations have backed Colombia’s efforts since to preserve forest areas covering almost 60 million hectares since 2015, with about $180 million invested so far. “The renewal of the declaration is a recognition of Colombia’s ability to reverse the deforestation trend, having achieved a 10% reduction in deforestation in 2018 compared to 2017,” the countries said in a joint statement. The announcement was made at the United Nations climate talks held in Madrid, where ministers from around the world are cloistered in the final days of two weeks of talks to shore up the 2015 Paris Agreement to avert catastrophic global warming.

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