Daily Archives: October 19, 2017

Today’s Takeaway

Attack on free speech or corporate bullying? The saga continues…

October 19, 2017
Category: Today's Takeaway

Attack on free speech or corporate bullying? In response to a California judge dismissing its “racketeering and tortious interference claim” against Greenpeace, Resolute says it will correct the deficiencies and refile. Greenpeace calls Resolute’s action an “attack on free speech and democracy”, while The Rebel compliments Resolute for showing it has a backbone.

In Business news: the NAFTA talks have been extended as the latest round ends in a stalemate; Pulp and Paper prices are on the rise in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and Irma; and Sierra Pacific experiences a revival in Washington State’s lumber industry. In other news, Timber is back in vogue in Oregon, the US is offering grants to expand tall wood markets and an Ontario MPP has introduced a bill to allow wood frame construction up to 14 storeys.

Finally, two US Senators not on Trump’s Christmas card list—John McCain and Jeff Flake—filed an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that would require Congress to fully fund the US Forest Service’s cash-strapped wildfire management account.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Non-profits, corporations team up to create a sum bigger than its parts

By Michael Rosen, President, Tree Canada
National Post
October 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Michael Rosen, Tree Canada

Four ways a charity can make an impact without compromising its mission: Businesses are always eager to discuss corporate social responsibility (CSR)… However, while much has been written about CSR from a corporate perspective, we don’t often hear about its effect on Canada’s charitable sector. As the president of a national not-for-profit, I know the business world’s push to become more socially and environmentally responsible has fundamentally changed the way the non-profit sector operates. While in the past, CEOs would hand us oversized cheques and smile for a yearly photo op, companies are now taking a much more hands-on approach. … Over my time in the non-profit sector, I have learned the following four overarching axioms to help charities make an impact without compromising their mission or getting lost in the weeds.

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“Corporate Bullies” Are Using RICO Laws to Go After Greenpeace

By Rebecca Leber
Mother Jones
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

…a federal judge in California dismissed a case from Resolute …against Greenpeace and other environmental activists. This is good news for the international environmental organization that had $300 million at stake if it lost the lawsuit. But the nature of the case worries First Amendment advocates.  …Even if these cases are ultimately all dismissed, they still impose a significant opportunity cost for Greenpeace. “The main reason for them to do this is not to seek justice but to distract our campaigning and strain our resources,” Greenpeace spokesperson Rodrigo Estrada Patiño said in an interview before the case was dismissed. “Greenpeace is a prime target but it’s not just about us and it’s not just about advocacy groups. It’s a clear attack on free speech and democracy should be a concern for us all.” 

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Resolute will pursue its lawsuit against Greenpeace

By Tamar Atik
Canadian Forest Industries
October 17, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Resolute Forest Products is not backing down in its legal battle with environmental organizations Greenpeace and Stand.earth. This, despite a decision on Monday by a San Francisco federal judge to dismiss Resolute’s racketeering case against the latter two. …The judge did, however, give Resolute the option to revise and refile its claims. Thus, Resolute stated on Tuesday that it will continue to take legal action against Greenpeace and Stand.earth, notwithstanding the court’s decision. …Michael J. Bowe, a lawyer for Resolute, said in a statement said, “We will correct those purported deficiencies in an amendment, and proceed with the case.”

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Resolute vs Greenpeace: Defamation suit thrown out by California judge

By Christopher Wilson
The Rebel
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Resolute launched the action against Greenpeace and STAND for their smear campaign called “Resolute: Forest Destroyer”. …Resolute maintains none of this is true, spurring them to take legal action against Greenpeace. …The ruling gives Resolute 21 days to amend its application and submit more supporting evidence, and that’s exactly what the company plans to do. Resolute has shown they have a backbone and a willingness to defend themselves, so let’s hope this inspires other companies to do the same. In an ongoing case, Resolute is also suing Greenpeace Canada in another defamation suit for $7 million in Canadian court, while the US case is much larger at $300 million and is a RICO case.

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Exports of U.S. softwood lumber to India reaches USD 8.882 million

Wood & Panel
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

American Softwoods (AMSO), the promotional partnership formed by three major U.S. softwood trade associations has recently declared that the total exports of U.S. softwood lumber to India reached a value of USD 8.882 million in the first half of 2017. The announcement was made today at the opening of MumbaiWood, which is due to run until October 14, 2017 at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center in Mumbai, India. The statistics, which have been compiled from the latest data released from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), reveal an overall increase in value of 102 percent over the same period in 2016. In terms of species, Southern Yellow Pine dominated exports with over 79 percent of all softwood lumber exports to India. Other species that were also imported in smaller quantities included Douglas-Fir, Ponderosa Pine, White/red Pine, and Lodgepole Pine.

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Pulp And Paper Prices On The Rise Again? The Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and Irma

By Dejana Dosen
The Strategic Sourceror
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

On my previous blog, “Pulp and Paper Prices On The Rise Again”, I discussed the main factors impacting the pulp and paper industry and the increases that are expected in the near future. …at the time, a natural disaster as big as Hurricane Harvey and Irma were not foreseen nor built into the forecast. Damages caused by Hurricane Harvey have been estimated anywhere from $65 billion to $190 billion, while Irma is thought to have caused $50 billion to $100 billion in destruction. The packaging industry, as well as several other industries, have been impacted by the post hurricane effects. …Demand for paper-based packaging products has been on the rise even before Hurricane Harvey and Irma hit, and continue to increase, while supply has decreased. 

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Roseburg Forest Products to sell its California timberlands to New Forests

KPIC.com
October 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West
 SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Roseburg Resources Co. announced an agreement to sell its California timberlands to a timberland investment vehicle managed by New Forests, the company said Thursday morning. The transaction includes 170,000 acres in northern California, largely in Siskiyou and Shasta counties. Roseburg’s California timberlands are investment-grade with a long history of professional management. “The sale of our California timberlands would not be possible without the contributions of our California resource team,” said Scott Folk, Roseburg’s Senior Vice President of Resources. “Thanks to the team’s work, these lands will remain working forest timberlands under the new management of New Forests, a leading timberland investment organization focused on long-term growth.”

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Into the Woods: This Outsider Company Sees a Revival in Washington’s Lumber Industry

By Bill Virgin
Seattle Business Magazine
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Washington’s lumber-producing sector, the state’s original heavy industry, is a shadow of what it once was. … In less than a decade, the number of mills in the state fell 29 percent, according to a Department of Natural Resources survey, and that’s after the closing of mill complexes like Weyerhaeuser’s Snoqualmie and Enumclaw mills. All of which makes what happened in Shelton earlier this year such a rarity. A new lumber mill opened. In the overall count, the new mill at Shelton isn’t a gain, since it replaced a mill, one of the oldest in the state, operated by Simpson Lumber, one of the oldest forest-products companies in Washington. Family-owned Simpson has largely unwound itself down to just a door factory in McCleary. But the willingness of another multigenerational, family-owned forest-products company to spend more than $100 million to buy an existing facility, tear it down and build a new one from the ground up indicates that someone still sees value in slicing logs into two-by-fours, and doing it in Washington.

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Hodge paper mill upgrade saves thousands of jobs

By Greg Hilburn
USA Today
October 18, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

More than 4,000 jobs could be saved by a $200 million expansion of the WestRock paper mill in Hodge in a deal aided by state incentives. Gov. John Bel Edwards’ and his economic development Secretary Don Pierson made the announcement Wednesday at the mill as first reported by USA Today Network. “WestRock’s Hodge mill has played a vital role in the Jackson Parish economy for nearly 90 years,” Edwards said. “We applaud the company for this substantial commitment, which will enhance mill operations and sustain hundreds of jobs in the area for many years to come. The state of Louisiana is happy to assist in securing this important project for North Louisiana.” The plant employs about 450 workers with a $28 million annual payroll, but the mill supports about 3,700 indirect jobs, said state Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield. The project will be less of an expansion and more of an upgrade to keep the plant competitive, McFarland and state Sen. Jim Fannin, R-Jonesboro, said.

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Leading US plywood firm linked to alleged destruction, rights violations in Malaysia

By John C. Cannon
Mongabay
October 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The sustainability and legality claims of the largest plywood importer in the US have come under question after it was found to have received shipments of Malaysian plywood worth more than $500,000 from a supplier connected to environmental and human rights violations. The 600 cubic meters (21,200 cubic feet) of plywood that Liberty Woods bought in January 2017 came from Shin Yang, a company that operates in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo, according to the investigative non-profit organization Earthsight. Shin Yang, based in Miri, Sarawak, has faced repeated allegations that it does not manage its timber concessions sustainably and that it impinges on the rights of local indigenous communities, potentially making the wood it harvests illegal. A US law called the Lacey Act bans companies from importing illegally cut timber.

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Portugal: interior minister resigns after wildfires kill 100

Agence France-Presse in The Guardian
October 19, 2017
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Constanca Urbano de Sousa

Portugal’s interior minister has been replaced amid criticism over the government’s handling of a series of deadly forest fires that have killed more than 100 people in four months. Constanca Urbano de Sousa handed her resignation to socialist prime minister Antonio Costa Wednesday, bowing to increasing political pressure as the death toll mounted. “After this summer, nothing can remain as before,” said Costa, who initially resisted the demand for Urbano de Sousa to go before backing down while admitting the state service providers had made “serious errors” in tackling the problem.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Proposed bill would legalize 14-storey wood buildings

Northern Ontario Business
October 19, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli has introduced an updated version of the wood frame construction bill he tabled in the Ontario Legislature earlier this year. The Ontario Forestry Revitalization Act (14-Storey Wood Buildings), 2017 received First Reading in the Ontario Legislature on Oct. 18. The act would amend the Ontario Building Code to allow for wood frame construction to be used in mid-rise buildings up to 14 stories, instead of the current six storeys. “This change will further boost the Northern forestry industry, and create jobs and growth,” Fedeli said in a news release. …“I’m now seeking an increase to 14 storeys as the University of Toronto has such a building in the works. As in the past, I hope to rally all-party support for this legislation because it’s a win-win solution,” Fedeli said. “By increasing the use of wood harvested in residential construction, we help Northern Ontario by providing jobs, and we help southern Ontario meet targets to reduce urban sprawl and reduce construction costs.”

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U.S. to spend $7 million in effort to expand wood markets

By Bill Esler
Woodworking Network
October 18, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States
WASHINGTON, D.C.— The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service is taking grant applications for projects that expand wood products and wood energy markets, especially in areas with high wildfire risk. Applications may be submitted through Jan. 22, 2018. Grants provided through the agency’s Wood Innovations program not only help reduce hazardous fuels and improve forest health, but also create jobs to promote economic vitality in our communities. In 2018, the program will invest up to $7 million in projects designed to have a long-term impact on lands managed by the agency and other forest lands by leveraging the market for low-value wood.

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Our View: Timber is back in vogue in construction

East Oregonian
October 19, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

These are exciting times for the timber industry. It’s been awhile since that’s been the case in Oregon. Government forest managers and their political bosses finally appear to recognize that more effective management of public forests is needed to help prevent future wildfires and reduce their severity. Rep. Greg Walden and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have all stated their support for legislation that accomplishes those goals — rare agreement between Oregon’s Republican and Democrat leaders. Beyond timber management, however, are innovations that promise new uses for timber in construction. Among them is “mass timber” that is used in “tallwood design.” As an example, a credit union in Hillsboro is using glulam beams to construct its new five-story, 150,000-square-foot headquarters building.

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Sen. Murray gets Greywolf tour

By Michael Dashiell
Sequim Gazette
October 18, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Progress at Greywolf Elementary School — both in and about its classrooms — is getting plenty of attention. Last week, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray made a stop on her tour of Olympic Peninsula organizations to learn more about the Carlsborg school’s academic successes along with how well its kindergarten students and staff are adapting to classrooms in its cross-laminated timber building. …She said she was impressed with how open the building feels from the large windows providing natural light to glass doorways to each classroom to sliding doors that open space between classroom spaces. …The CLT buildings are part of a pilot project overseen by the Department of Enterprise Services to address classroom sizes and pioneer the use of of the new construction practices in Washington state.

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Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize: Barrett’s Grove by Groupwork

By Manon Mollard
The Architect’s Journal
October 18, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. …The RIBA Stirling Prize is presented to “the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture in the past year.” …At Barrett’s Grove, the cross-laminated timber superstructure is left exposed, eliminating the need for plasterboard walls and suspended ceilings, cornices and skirting, tiling and paint. …The all-timber interiors, more common in Scandinavia than in the UK, slightly worried the client at first but he was reassured as soon as the units were put on the market.

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Timber lobby protests plastic seats at Tokyo’s woody stadium

Global Construction Review
October 18, 2017
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The organisers of the Tokyo Olympics have revealed the latest mock-ups of the main stadium, designed by architect Kengo Kuma. The interior of the ground will have a scaled-down, wood-rich Japanese-style interior décor, especially in the roof section and the underside of eaves. However most of the 60,500 seats will be made from plastic, apart from those set aside for VIPs, which will be made of wood, and will have the best views of the action.  Yasuhide Nakayama, a Liberal Democratic Party MP who lobbies for Japan’s timber industry, said: “We’re very disappointed with the decision. We will still continue to propose that wooden seats be introduced, as making use of this domestic natural resource will prove beneficial to maintaining the mountain environment and preventing disasters such as landslides.”

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Forestry

Let’s face it: End of old-growth logging is near

By Torrance Coste, Wilderness Committee and Mark Worthing, Sierra Club B.C.
Victoria Times Colonist
October 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Torrance Coste

Mark Worthing

Last March, we travelled to northern Vancouver Island and hosted four public meetings about logging in the span of five days. The topics? The loss of old-growth rainforests, raw-log exports, and how unsustainable forestry is affecting ecosystems and communities up and down the Island. The meetings were tense, emotional and exhausting. There was pushback against a lot of our message, and many conversations were raw and difficult. We learned a tonne. In a few weeks, we’re going back to do it again. The vast majority of Vancouver Island’s original forest has been logged. One way or another, the end of old-growth logging is coming. We have to talk about what this means. We have to talk about how communities adjust so that the trend of shuttered businesses and shrinking logging towns doesn’t continue to grow.

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Fort Nelson meeting to update residents on community forest plan

Alaska Highway News
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

What’s a community forest? What’s involved, who’s involved, and what are the benefits? Residents in the Northern Rockies are encouraged to attend an open house Thursday night at the Phoenix Theatre to learn those answers and more about the push to develop a community forest in the region. The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality has partnered with the Fort Nelson First Nation to try to secure a 25-year provincial community forest agreement that would allow the partnership an annual allowable cut of 185,000 cubic metres of timber. “At its core, community forestry is about local control over and enjoyment of the monetary and non-monetary benefits offered by local forest resources,” reads a brochure to be distributed at the meeting.

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Belair wildfire under control, Camperville blaze ‘tapering off’

By Bill Redekop
Winnipeg Free Press
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Local and provincial firefighters battled at least five major blazes in the southern half of Manitoba on Wednesday. However, at least two potentially dangerous wildfires fanned by winds gusting up to 80 km/h were reporting happy endings by late Wednesday afternoon. In Belair Provincial Forest, fire charred about 15 acres of forest before crews brought it under control. “It’s basically a matter of putting out hot spots and embers now,” said Mark Sinclair, chief of the East Beaches Fire and Rescue, late Wednesday afternoon. “Considering the winds we had, everything worked out really well.” On the west side of the province, fire threatened the town of Camperville, on the southwest shore of Lake Winnipegosis, all day Wednesday. “It looks like it’s tapering off,” said an official at the town office, who was interviewed late Wednesday afternoon. However, the strong winds made everyone cautious about declaring victory too soon.

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Volunteer firefighter dies battling one of nearly a dozen wildfires in Alta., Sask.

CBC News
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

James Hargrave

A volunteer firefighter from southern Alberta died while battling a blaze that straddled the border with Saskatchewan Tuesday night — one of almost a dozen windswept wildfires that forced hundreds of people to flee and torched homes in several communities. RCMP announced Wednesday afternoon that James Hargrave,a 34-year-old volunteer firefighter with Cypress County Fire Services — which handles the southeast corner of Alberta — died as he worked to fight a wildfire that started near Hilda. …On Tuesday, fires were burning across the province from the Alberta Foothills in the west to the Saskatchewan border in the east. Officials issued numerous evacuation orders in communities that were in the path of the flames…

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Youbou petition asks TimberWest to ‘Save Our Holmes’

By Lexi Bainas
Lake Cowichan Gazette
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Youbou residents are circulating a petition to urge TimberWest not to log the southern slope of Mount Holmes above the community. According to Kim Ring of the Save Our Holmes action group, the petition is worded as a letter to the forest company. It explains they became organized after the recent town hall meetings initiated by the company Aug. 28, Sept. 7 and 20. …Residents tell TimberWest they are pleased with the idea of paving the road from Youbou to Cottonwood Creek. …“From these meetings arose the very real threat of logging the south slope of Mount Holmes and a community wide awareness of the impact this would have on our community.

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Sault-area forester wins third consecutive safety award

Northern Ontario Business
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Mike Lemay; Linda and Bryon Hall; and Paul Andre

Fleming’s Trucking and Logging has earned its third consecutive safety award from Workplace Safety North. The company, based in Hilton Beach, just outside of Sault Ste. Marie, received the President’s Award (forestry sector and small business sector) for the third year in a row. …The awards recognize health and safety achievements of association member firms in mining, forestry, and paper, printing and converting businesses, as well as small businesses in Northern Ontario with fewer than 50 employees.

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Senators McCain & Flake File Amendment to Fully Fund Wildfire Management

By Julie Tarallo
Prescott eNews
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake today filed an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that would require Congress to fully fund the U.S. Forest Service’s cash-strapped wildfire management account as catastrophic wildfires grow in frequency and intensity. This year, the cost of the Forest Service’s wildfire suppression operations has exceeded $2 billion, making 2017 the most expensive wildfire year on record. …“Year after year, Congress wrestles over how to fully fund Forest Service wildfire operations,” said Senator McCain. “The hard truth is that the Forest Service has become the Fire Service, and we have yet to effectively address fire-borrowing or reduce hazardous fuels in order to lower the cost of fighting wildfires. This amendment would incentivize appropriators and the authorizing committees to compromise on a long-overdue solution to prevent and fight wildfires, which continue to devastate communities in Arizona, California, and across the arid West.”

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State works toward public option for Elliott State Forest

By Emily Hoard
The News-Review
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of State Lands has been working to find a way to keep the 82,500 acres of the Elliott State Forest publicly owned while allowing the state to send revenue to the Common School Fund. Tuesday morning, DSL Director Jim Paul updated the State Land Board members, Gov. Kate Brown, Secretary of State Dennis Richardson and Treasurer Tobias Read. He said the DSL is tackling the issue via two tracks: contracting a third party by March to develop the federal Habitat Conservation Plan and a separate third party by December to manage negotiations to take the Elliott State Forest out of Common School Fund ownership. “Achieving an HCP that will work is a prerequisite for maintaining public ownership of this forest,” Paul said.

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Western wildfires spark compromise on firefighting in Washington

By Dino Grandoni
Washington Post
October 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A bipartisan group of senators is planning to introduce legislation designed to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires like those that have raged this month out West. Five Western senators …are expected to propose a measure designed as a compromise between Republicans eager to snip red tape preventing forest managers from thinning overgrown woods and Democrats leery of giving the greenlight to timber companies looking to harvest federally owned forests. At the heart of the compromise is a pilot program to stop wildfires in the ponderosa pines. …Some timber industry, firefighting and conservation groups — including the American Forest Resource Council, the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Wildlife Federation — offered early endorsements of the legislation. 

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The Chicken Little approach

Letter by Jane Heisler, Portland
The Oregonian
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Oregon’s own Chicken Littles are at it again. They are warning us that the world as we know it will burn to the ground unless we more aggressively log our public lands. They tell us that we must repeal wilderness protections and bypass bedrock environmental regulations in order to avoid catastrophic fires and destruction of homes and communities.  We’ve heard it all before. Whenever there is a higher-than-normal fire season, cure-all remedies are hatched in our halls of Congress. The so-called “Resilient Federal Forests Act” is the current “bad egg.” Co-sponsored by Rep. Greg Walden, the bill dramatically ups the cut on our public lands and gives timber companies immunity from environmental laws, all to allow the last of our old-growth forests that remain to be cut.

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Sen. Jackson to host Logging Roundtable with Gov. LePage

WAGMTV.com
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Troy Jackson

Senate Democratic Leader Troy Jackson, of Allagash, will host Governor Paul LePage at a Logging Roundtable at 4 p.m. Friday, October 27th, in New Canada. The purpose of the meeting is to let Governor LePage hear firsthand from Maine loggers and truckers about the effect unfair Canadian competition has on their livelihoods and their families. …“I’m tired of coming home from Augusta to hear my colleagues in the logging industry say that their machines or trucks are idle because all the local work is being done by workers from across the border,” said Senator Jackson, a fifth generation logger whose family still makes a living in the Maine woods. “If families like mine are ever going to get relief from unfair international competition, decision makers in Augusta need to understand the real effect that international competition has on local workers and the local economy.”

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President Trump proclaims National Forest Products Week

Times Record
October 19, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The Arkansas Forestry Association this week recognizes President Donald Trump’s recent proclamation of National Forest Products Week. According to a White House news release, National Forest Products Week is set aside to notice the “invaluable contribution forest products make to our daily lives, the forest products industry’s importance to our economy, and the incredible beauty and recreational opportunities provided by our Nation’s woodlands.” The Arkansas Forestry Association noted in a news release that the forest industry directly employs more than 28,000 people in Arkansas and has a total compensation to workers of more than $1.4 billion. 

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New analysis suggests that preserving rare species is vital to tropical forests

By the University of Oregon
Phys.org
October 18, 2017
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The world’s tropical forests are in “a critical state” in which the extinction of rare tree species could be a tipping point, say scientists who have developed an analytical method to map their biodiversity. “We are in the midst of an extinction crisis,” said Jayanth R. Banavar, provost and senior vice president at the University of Oregon and previously at the University of Maryland in College Park. “We are losing species perhaps more rapidly than ever before. It is the biodiversity of the species that keeps our planet the way it is. These species have evolved over many, many millennia. A species once lost is gone forever.” In a paper published Oct. 18 in the journal Science Advances, Banavar, a physicist, and co-authors from three other universities unveiled their findings, which are based on a mathematical framework relying on a mechanistic birth-death-immigration model of an ecosystem.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

LePage invites bio-based businesses to call Maine home

By Carol Coultas
Portland Press Herald
October 18, 2017
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Paul LePage

Touting its vast forests and his administration’s ability to cut through red tape, Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday pitched Maine as the perfect place for bioenergy executives to make investments. LePage offered his remarks to open the third day of the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference in San Francisco. The conference, which drew a crowd of more than 300, was convened to bring together investors, researchers, policymakers, executives and others interested in tapping renewable natural resources for new industrial uses.  …“I want to be sure that the word is out there that we are open for business,” LePage told the crowd. He noted that the state supports 24,000 forest-related jobs, down about half from when all the mills were running and robust.

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