Daily Archives: January 11, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Canada challenges the US at the WTO after new duty on newsprint announced

January 11, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

After the US Commerce Department announced its preliminary decision on newsprint duties—over objections by the companiesindustry and US newspaper printers and publishers—Canada filed a sweeping trade case against the US at the World Trade Organization. Here is a sample of the (latter) story headlines:

  • Canada is challenging the Trump Administration’s tariff system (The Hill)
  • Canada Attacks US Tariffs by Taking Case to WTO (New York Times)
  • BC lumber producers welcome the appeal to WTO (BC Lumber Trade Council)
  • Canada has just detonated a bomb: Trade relations plummet (National Post)
  • ‘Broad and ill-advised attack’: Washington lashes out (Bloomberg)
  • Canada is now playing hardball on trade with US — Good (Terence Corcoran)

Other headlines of note include: a Q&A on how Oregon’s cap and trade system will work; research on how ecosystem changes over 10,000 years sheds light on climate change’s impact on the world’s forests; the Valhalla Wilderness Society calls for more old-growth set-asides for the Mountain Caribou; and Tolko receives SFI certification.

Finally, some new (wood-impersonator) products at this year’s International Builders Show.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

When your partner comes unhinged

By Les Leyne
Victoria Times Colonist
January 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Wilbur Ross, Donald Trump and Mike Pence

Catalyst Paper’s reaction was pretty much what you’d expect from an outfit that’s just been kneecapped by the U.S. government for the second time in a few years. They’re “disappointed.” The latest attack is “unwarranted and unjustified.” They’ll retain a bunch of expensive lawyers and likely spend the next few years arguing U.S. trade policy. Meanwhile, job security for 583 people at the Crofton paper mill, 326 at Port Alberni and 357 at Powell River just got a bit more tenuous. The market for newsprint isn’t what it once was, and the U.S. decision to jack up the price by six per cent, with likely more to come, doesn’t make it any better. …Canadian politicians condemned the latest duty, but that doesn’t accomplish much. The real response should be through trade missions such as the one Premier John Horgan is starting Jan. 20 to Asia. B.C. has made real progress diversifying its trade, based mostly on the huge new appetite from China.

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Canada’s tough guy move at WTO will gain U.S. respect, says trade minister

Canadian Press in Vancouver Sun
January 11, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

François-Philippe Champagne

LONDON, Ont. — International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Canada will gain respect from the United States by taking a tough approach to what it considers unfair American trade practices. Champagne says countries that stand firm in defence of their industries and their workers are respected. Champagne’s assertion comes a day after it was revealed that Canada has initiated a wide-ranging attack at the World Trade Organization on America’s use of punitive duties. The move was denounced by the U.S. and had some trade experts worrying it could derail already tense negotiations to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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FPAC Statement on Uncoated Groundwood Duties

By Derek Nighbor
Forest Products Association of Canada
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Today, the US Department of Commerce imposed unwarranted countervailing duties up to 9.93% on imported Canadian uncoated groundwood paper (newsprint). Forest Products Association of Canada strongly believes that these duties are completely unjustified and protectionist in nature. We call on the federal government to stand with us and the over 4,500 hard-working Canadians from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador who could be impacted by this frivolous trade action. As it has with the softwood lumber dispute, this trade action will bring real harm to U.S. workers and businesses, impacting over 600,000 American jobs. We applaud the leadership of the many Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators, and the publishers of over one thousand small and medium-sized U.S. newspapers who have demanded that Washington not impose countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Canadian newsprint.

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B.C.’s Catalyst Paper mills caught in U.S. paper trade dispute

By Derrick Penner
Vancouver Sun
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Kevin Mason

Punitive duties on newsprint sales to the U.S. do pose a threat to B.C.’s biggest papermaker, though its mills have other export options to mitigate the impact. …“We’re obviously disappointed with this preliminary determination and we’re going to continue to defend ourselves against what we believe is an unwarranted trade action,” said Catalyst spokeswoman Eduarda Hodgins. …Catalyst does have other export options to mitigate the impact, said industry analyst Kevin Mason with the firm ERA Forest Products Research, but argued the trade action is a self-serving move that will only hurt U.S. newsprint consumers in the long run. …Higher prices for newsprint will just speed up the decline of newsprint use, which is falling at 10 per cent a year as it is, Mason said, which will force more mill closures in the future, and the decision on duties only benefits Norpac.

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Canadian newsprint producers hit with initial U.S. countervailing duties

By the Canadian Press and the National Observer
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Derek Nighbor

The U.S. Department of Commerce slapped an overall tariff of 6.53 per cent on about 25 Canadian plants, mostly in Quebec and Ontario, following an investigation that began in August 2017. “Today’s preliminary decision allows U.S. producers to receive relief from the market-distorting effects of potential government subsidies while taking into account the need to keep groundwoodpaper prices affordable for domestic consumers,” stated Secretary Wilbur Ross. …The tariff had been anticipated by Canada’s lumber industry, which warned in December that the impact could be worse than the softwood lumber dispute. …Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), told National Observerthat about 25 mills in Canada could be affected by the new tariff on newsprint.

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Canada challenges US tariff system

By Vicki Needham
The Hill
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canada is challenging the Trump administration’s system of levying penalties on imports in a complaint at the World Trade Organization, a move likely to heat up simmering tensions between the two trading partners. …But the complaint, while centered on the forestry and softwood lumber industries, is bigger than that, encompassing the future of North American supply chains and the long-term growth of the integrated economies, a Canadian official said. The United States called the complaint, which includes cases that involve a variety of exports as well as other nations such as China and Brazil, an attack on how the nation goes about using its trade enforcement system. …”Canada’s claims are unfounded and could only lower U.S. confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade,” Lighthizer said. 

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U.S. newsprint duties will accelerate shift to digital, says industry

The Canadian Press in The Chronicle Herald
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States
MONTREAL — The imposition of duties on U.S. imports of Canadian newsprint will accelerate the transition from print to digital and threaten thousands of jobs on both sides of the border, say industry players including North America’s largest newsprint producer. “There are 600,000 workers in the newspaper publishing sector as well as the commercial printing sector who are at risk,” said Resolute Forest Products spokesman Seth Kursman. Newsprint demand has decreased by 75 per cent since 2000 and is falling by about 10 per cent a year. Anything that further reduces demand is a blow to the newspaper industry, say trade associations in Canada and the U.S. “We’ve seen papers like La Presse move to full digital and if the cost of newsprint goes up it’s one of those factors that’s going to accelerate a move to digital,” said John Hinds, CEO of News Media Canada.

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BC lumber producers welcome federal government’s appeal to World Trade Organization

BC Lumber Trade Council
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Susan Yurkovich

VANCOUVER, B.C. –  Susan Yurkovich, President of the BC Lumber Trade Council made the following statement today on the Government of Canada’s legal action filed with the World Trade Organization [WTO]: “B.C. lumber producers welcome the Government of Canada’s efforts to vigorously defend Canada’s interests in trade relations with the U.S.  In particular, the Government of Canada has requested that the WTO examine the use of certain systemic trade practices that violate international trade law. For decades, the Canadian lumber industry has been subject to unfair and unwarranted duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and has filed appeals under the NAFTA and WTO agreements. We know that when unbiased entities review these unfair trade practices, they have found in Canada’s favour.

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Catalyst Paper to be hit by new American duties

By Nelson Bennett
Business in Vancouver
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Richmond-headquartered Catalyst Paper is among the Canadian companies that will be hit by new American duties of 6%. The U.S. Commerce Department on January 9 announced preliminary countervailing duties against Canadian newsprint of 6% to 6.5%. The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) said the duties could be in effect as early as next week. There are a number of pulp and paper producers in B.C., but some of them will escape the duties. Paper Excellence, for example, no longer makes newsprint, following the closure of its Howe Sound paper mill. West Fraser Timber is not likely to be directly affected, a company spokesperson said. Although it has some ownership of a newsprint mill in Alberta, it has no mills in B.C. that produce newsprint. Unlike the lumber industry, which is facing even higher duties, the pulp and paper sector may be less insulated from American duties.

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B.C. lumber industry applauds Canadian trade action

By Tom Fletcher
The Black Press in the Nelson Star
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

B.C.’s forest products industry is applauding an aggressive legal action filed by the Canadian government Wednesday, a broad complaint against U.S. global trade practices made to the World Trade Organization. …“B.C.’s lumber producers welcome the government of Canada’s efforts to vigorously defend Canada’s interests in trade relations with the U.S.,” said Susan Yurkovich, president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council. “For decades, the Canadian lumber industry has been subject to unfair and unwarranted duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, and has filed appeals under NAFTA and WTO agreements. We know that when unbiased entities review these unfair trade practices, they have found in Canada’s favour.” The 32-page complaint to the WTO includes more than 100 examples of U.S. duties on foreign countries, including… lumber from Canada.

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Canada Attacks U.S. Tariffs by Taking Case to World Trade Organization

By Ana Swanson and Ian Austen
New York Times
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — Canada has filed a sweeping trade case against the United States at the World Trade Organization, lobbing a diplomatic grenade at the Trump administration’s “America First” approach amid an increasingly embattled trade relationship between the longstanding North American allies. …The case could expand into a multinational trade dispute given that Canada, a champion of global agreements, filed it in a way that allows other countries to join. …“You can equate it to a gold medal hockey game: Canada and the United States are playing, but all of the referees are from the U.S.,” said Andrea van Vugt, vice president for North American affairs at the Business Council of Canada, a group representing about 150 companies. “The Canadian government really has no choice but to stand up for Canadian industries on this.”

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‘Canada has just detonated a bomb’: Trade relations with U.S. plummet after WTO complaint

By Jesse Snyder
The National Post
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

OTTAWA — Canada launched the opening salvo in a trade war with the United States Wednesday, lodging an international complaint about the superpower’s use of punitive duties. …In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “This WTO action is part of our broader litigation to defend the hundreds of thousands of good, middle class forestry jobs across our country.”  The complaint marks Canada’s most exhaustive attempt yet to counter recent import duties imposed by the U.S., particularly on Canadian softwood lumber products. “It’s (saying), ‘The entire way in which the U.S. — you — are conducting your anti-dumping, countervailing procedures, is wrong,”’ said Chad Bown, a trade expert at Washington’s Peterson Institute. “This is effectively Canada bringing a dispute on behalf of all exporters in the world — the Europeans, Japan, China — because they’re making a systemic challenge.”

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‘Broad and ill-advised attack’: Washington lashes out after Canada takes U.S. trade to task — for the whole world

By Josh Wingrove
Bloomberg News
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Robert Lighthizer

Canada is escalating its trade fight with Donald Trump, mounting what the U.S. calls a “broad and ill-advised attack” just as Nafta talks are set to resume. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government launched a wide-ranging World Trade Organization dispute with the U.S. over how it applies countervailing and anti-dumping duties. The paperwork was filed Dec. 20, days after a mini-round of North American Free Trade Agreement talks ended in Washington, and made public Wednesday. It drew a harshly worded response from Trump’s trade czar. “Canada’s claims are unfounded and could only lower U.S. confidence that Canada is committed to mutually beneficial trade,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “Even if Canada succeeded on these groundless claims, other countries would primarily benefit, not Canada,” he said. “Canada’s complaint is bad for Canada.”

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Canada is now playing hardball on trade with U.S. — good

By Terence Corcoran
The National Post
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Terence Corcoran

The NAFTA-is-dead movement gathered steam on Wednesday. Or maybe it’s just more hot air emanating from the whirling machinery of strategic negotiation leading up to the beginning of the Montreal Round of negotiations scheduled to begin Jan. 23. The prospect of NAFTA’s demise has long been a Trump administration product, mostly generated by the president’s periodic and overheated threats. But now Canada is emerging as a leading source of gloom. …Two international news agencies, Reuters and Bloomberg, quoted unnamed Canadian “officials” as saying Ottawa is increasingly convinced that Trump is about to pull the plug on the deal. That alone would trigger market reaction. At the same time, however, Canada fed the engine of doom when it unleashed a trade dispute claim that amounts to a direct attack on U.S. trade practices.

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Northern B.C. economy stable, report says

By Arthur Williams
The Prince George Citizen
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The economy of northern B.C. has largely stabilized since the downturn in commodity prices in 2014, according to a new report by the Northern Development Initiative Trust and accounting firm MNP LLP. “The data is clear that the decline in commodity prices in 2014 had a significant impact on the regional economy,” McKay said in a statement. “The good news is that the data also shows that economic conditions in the region have stabilized more recently, and major project activity across the region has created opportunities for new investment.” …”For example, in 2016 alone, forest and energy product exports account for 56 (per cent) of the total value of B.C.’s exports, or about $21.5 billion,” the report says. …Still, it’s clear that without rural B.C., and northern B.C. as the largest part of it, B.C. would suffer from an incredible trade deficit.”

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Premier blames ‘protectionist politics’ in U.S. for $8M tariff on Corner Brook Pulp Paper

By Geoff Barlett
CBC News
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Dwight Ball

Corner Brook Pulp and Paper is facing a major crisis following a ruling of the U.S. Department of Commerce that imposes a duty on all Canadian newsprint exported to the United States. Kruger, which owns the mill in western Newfoundland, was hit the hardest with a preliminary tariff of 9.93 per cent on all uncoated groundwood paper, such as newsprint, sold to the U.S. The duty will also apply to two mills in Quebec. …Premier Dwight Ball blamed “protectionist politics” from the Donald Trump administration as the reason for the new duty. “We’ve seen it with NAFTA, we’ve seen it with the aerospace sector, we’ve seen it with softwood lumber. So everything coming out of the U.S. when it comes to trade is one of “let’s protect the United States,” the premier said.

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Norpac triumphs in trade battle with Canadian papermakers

By Zack Hale
The Longview Daily News
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

In a victory for Norpac — and potential blow to local newspapers — the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday that it will start imposing preliminary antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian paper producers. …Norpac CEO Craig Anneberg told The Daily News that it’s too early to say how the duties will affect the company’s paper mill in Longview. …Meantime, the new duties will also put many local newspapers at risk of failing, according to U.S. newspaper coalitions. …Norpac has been struggling to stay profitable in the face of shrinking newsprint and paper markets, and it is under pressure to cut costs from its new owners, One Rock Capital. …In August, Norpac announced plans to idle one of its three paper machines, framing the production cuts as a response to competition from subsidized Canadian manufacturers. …Norpac also cut its employees’ wages by 10 percent in May and reduced retirement benefits; the company has also placed new restrictions on vacation time aimed at reducing labor costs.

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Commerce leans toward trade duties on Canadian newsprint

By Rob Chaney
The Missoulian
January 10, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Import duties on Canadian newsprint got a preliminary OK from the U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday, over objections of many newspaper printers and publishers. …North Pacific Paper Co. CEO Craig Anneberg said “… we need to be able to compete on a level playing field. This decision will protect American jobs in Washington, Mississippi and Georgia, and may even serve to create jobs in the U.S. as idled paper machines restart” …U.S. printers and publishers, along with the American Forest and Paper Association … argued that falling paper demand had more to do with a changing business world than foreign paper prices. Anneberg disagreed. “While we understand the concerns recently surfaced by some newspaper publishers, we strongly disagree with the notion that their industry requires low-priced, government-subsidized, imported newsprint from Canada to sustain its business model,” Anneberg wrote.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Vancouver, Canada greenlights 19-story mass timber tower

By Kim Slowey
Construction Drive
January 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Vancouver’s Chief Building Official’s Office has approved plans for the 232-foot-tall, 19-story Terrace House, a condominium high-rise that will be the tallest hybrid mass timber building in North America, according to Building Design + Construction. Exposed mass timber, a design feature that has never before been permitted in a building this tall in the U.S. or Canada, makes up the top seven stories of the building. The design feature required project officials to use performance-based fire and engineering tests that evaluated standard and post-earthquake fire risks to meet the city’s building codes, proving that the building is as safe as one made with conventional materials. British Columbia building officials granted an earlier exception for Brock Commons …currently the tallest mass timber building in the world — in part because the project team agreed to cover exposed timber with fire-rated gypsum wallboard.

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International Builders Show 2018: Day One Product Finds

By Craig Webb et al
Builder Magazine
January 10, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The NAHB International Builders’ Show (IBS) kicked off yesterday, bringing together industry professionals and over 1,500 manufacturers and suppliers from around the world. Our editorial staff combed through the displays for stand-out materials, appliances, hardwares, and more. Here are [some of] their top picks from day one:

  • Trex’s new Signature Rod Rail brings sleek commercial design to the backyard
  • Mohawk’s new Revwood Plus flooring is a 100% waterproof laminate flooring with a wood look
  • James Hardie combines its Artisan siding with the Reveal panel system
  • Thermory has introduced two thermally-modified exterior wood products

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Forestry

Valhalla Wilderness Society Concerned For Endangered Mountain Caribou

By Jeff Slack
My Prince Geoge Now
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Valhalla Wilderness Society(VWS) is calling on the government to do more when it comes protecting the endanger mountain caribou. Last November saw a draft agreement between the BC government and Environment Canada which would identify and reserve all untenured high-elevation caribou range. According to VWS this does nothing for the core habitat, which is covered with overlapping tenures. …Director of VWS Craig Pettitt says the high elevation habitat isn’t where the government should be focusing on. “What is being hammered in caribou habitat is principally the lower elevation habitat, the old growth forest. This is the habitat they need an early winter and spring.” …It’s clear the government is only protecting areas where resources aren’t needed says Pettitt.

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Mushroom pickers win temporary injunction against logging in Sunshine Coast forest

By Bethany Lindsay
CBC News
January 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

[Hans Penner, Laurie Annette Bloom and Ross Muirhead, three anti-logging activists with a history of illegal blockades against forestry operations on the Sunshine Coast] have secured a temporary halt on logging plans for a favourite plot of forest, but whether they’ll have a chance to make that permanent depends on their ability to pay up to $250,000 in potential damages. Last week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lisa Warren extended a temporary injunction against logging in the so-called Chanterelle Forest, a section of the Sunshine Coast Community Forest known in the local community for its namesake fungi. …The activists, founders of Elphinstone Logging Focus, are asking for a judicial review of the forests ministry’s decision to grant a cutting permit for the 25.3 hectares of Crown land known as EW28.

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B.C. proposes limits to mule deer hunt to help declining buck population

By Jaimie Kehler
CBC News
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The B.C. Ministry of Forests is proposing new limits to mule deer hunting regulations to help declining buck populations in parts of the B.C. Interior. …Currently, hunters are allowed up to three bucks shot in different regions, but the province wants to limit that number to one mule-deer buck per hunter. “This province has the most liberal mule deer hunting opportunities in all of North America and, historically, that has been considered sustainable, but the landscape is changing out there,” said Steve MacIver, a regulations and policy analyst with the fish and wildlife branch. He says mountain pine beetle, wildfires, oil and gas development and forestry have all changed the landscape resulting in a declining mule deer population.

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Seven Sisters environmental group tries to protect area beside provincial park

By Michael Grace-Dacosta
The Interior News
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Local environmental group Friends of Seven Sisters hopes to stop planned logging adjacent to Seven Sisters Provincial Park. …Rod Major, spokesperson for Friends of Seven Sisters, said the group is concerned the proposed logging will not only negatively affect the scenic value of the park but mushroom picking areas, the Coyote Creek watershed and access to the park as well. …The group will discuss their concerns with Forests Minister and Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson on Jan. 9. “We’re just hoping the minister, since he’s from this area, will be kind enough to listen to us,” said Major. “Our particular platform jives with the NDP platform and the green platform so hoping we’re that the minister will see where we’re coming from.” …“We’re not anti-loggers,” said Major. 

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Collaborating with the BC Forest Discovery Centre to Modernize the Face of Forestry

TimberWest
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

One of Vancouver Island’s local treasures is the BC Forest Discovery Centre (BCFDC) in Duncan. Every year, the centre welcomes close to 60,000 visitors from all over the world, Canada and the province to explore the history of forestry. …The list of innovations used today in a 200+ year old industry is impressive, and that is why the BCFDC chose to update its exhibit and feature the old industry next to the new Modern Innovations in Forestry. …“We are pleased to support this major improvement to the BC Forest Discovery Centre,” says Jeff Zweig President and CEO of TimberWest. “The upgrades at the Centre will give visitors a modern overview of the forest sector – highlighting how science and innovation are transforming the industry. 

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Timber is a winner for Caroline cattle producer

By Tony Kryzanowski
The Alberta Farmer
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Will Vohs

Cruise the countryside in certain parts of Alberta, and there are bright-yellow signs stapled to power poles advertising that someone is ‘Looking For Wood.’ After reading what Caroline-area farmer Will Vohs has discovered, landowners may want to think twice before signing over their woodlots too quickly. That’s because Vohs says he can manufacture a 12-inch by 12-inch by 20-foot timber on his band sawmill and sell it for about $250… And raw log prices have gone down since then, he said. The idea to custom cut his own wood products occurred to Vohs when he agreed to sell some standing timber to a forest company to raise some cash. That gave him time to try something new, which turned out to be custom raising cattle for neighbours and custom sawmilling timbers and lumber for himself.

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Tolko Woodlands received SFI Sustainable Forest Management and Fibre Sourcing certifications

Wood Business Forum
January 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tolko Woodlands officially received SFI Sustainable Forest Management and Fibre Sourcing certifications, effective December 1, 2017. According to the announcement, over the past several months the Woodlands team has put in a large amount of effort through changes in processes, documentation and through external confirmation audits to successfully achieve this certification. This will replace any current CSA certification that Tolko holds. The company’s CSA certification expires as of January 1, 2018 at which time Tolko’s Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) will be certified exclusively to the SFI Standards.

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NZ softwood log exports hit new record

NZ City
January 11, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

New Zealand log exports hit a new record last year, underscoring local manufacturer’s concerns the country is sending too many unprocessed logs overseas, posing a threat for local timber supply in the future and undermining the goal to add more value to exports. The country exported $2.41 billion of softwood logs in the first 11 months of last year, surpassing all previous records for a full year, according to the latest Statistics New Zealand figures. …New Zealand is experiencing strong demand for logs from China, which has clamped down on harvesting its own forests and reduced tariffs on imported logs to meet local demand. …Increased shipments of raw logs goes against the aim of successive governments to add more value to commodities and riles the wood processing sector.

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UK University Invests in Drones and LiDAR for Forestry Research

By Miriam McNabb
DroneLife
January 10, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Researchers at Aberystwyth Universityin the UK have invested in drone technology to expand their cutting edge forestry research. The Earth Observation and Ecosystem Dynamics Group at Aberystwyth University in Wales worked with UK-based COPTRZ, a drone sales and consulting firm, to develop a unique LiDAR and spectral imaging solution. The drone solution will be used to enhance the university’s research by enabling the measurement of standing timber volumes, forest biomass and carbon content. The Volantä UAV LiDAR system will “enable survey grade point clouds to be captured using a sub 20Kg drone linked to spectral imaging data,” says COPTRZ. “The data captured will then be used to monitor the successful transition of plantation forests to Continuous Cover Forestry, a forest management approach that seeks to increase the ecological diversity of British forests.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

EIA revises bioenergy, wood heat forecasts in January report

By Erin Voegele
Biomass Magazine
January 10, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has released the January edition of its Short-Term Energy Outlook, noting electrical generation from nonhydropower renewables is expected to be steady this year, and increase next year. In 2017, nonhydropower renewables provided almost 10 percent of electricity generation. That share is expected to be maintained in 2018, before increasing to 11 percent in 2019. Wood biomass is expected to be used to generate 115,000 MWh of electricity per day in both 2018 and 2019. Generation from waste biomass is also expected to remain steady at 60,000 MWh per day in both years. …The EIA currently predicts nearly 2.23 million households will use wood as a primary heating fuel during the 2017-’18 winter, down 1.7 percent when compared to the previous winter. T

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Q&A: How Oregon’s Cap And Trade System Would Work

By Cassandra Profita
Oregon Public Broadcasting
January 10, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Oregon lawmakers are considering a major change in how the state will go about reducing its contributions to climate change. …The Clean Energy Jobs Bill introduced Wednesday would launch a cap and trade system that would limit some of those emissions and charge businesses for the right to pollute. The system would be similar to existing programs in California and some Canadian provinces. …The state would set a cap on total greenhouse emissions, and about 100 companies in the state’s largest industries would be required to buy pollution permits to cover their emissions. …It also creates a market for offset projects, so a forest landowner in Oregon could sell the carbon sequestration credits from not cutting down trees. Buying an offset credit may be a cheaper option for companies that need to reduce their emissions or buy a pollution permit.

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Study illustrates the combined effects of climate change and forest fires

By Portland State University
Phys.Org
January 10, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Andrés Holz

A new study co-authored by Portland State University geographer Andrés Holz, tracked the ebb and flow of ecosystem changes over the last 10,000 years, showing patterns that could shed light on current climate change and its role in shaping the world’s forests. Holz and fellow scientists studied sedimentary records, including pollen and the charcoal remains of ancient wildfires near a lake in South America in an effort to reconstruct the wetland, vegetation and fire history of west-central Patagonia. They found that climate, coupled with more frequent forest fires, was the primary driver of change to the region over thousands of years.

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