Daily Archives: January 26, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Prince George wood building sets Canadian record for efficiency and air quality

January 26, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

A University of Northern BC wood structure—built to the Passive House standard—has set a Canadian record for air tightness. And once completed, it will be used to build and test large-scale integrated wood structures using cross-laminated timber, glue laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber.

In Forestry news: the BC Forest Practices Board concluded that some at-risk plant communities on Mount Elphinstone are not adequately protected from logging; and California Gov. Brown has established a task force to suggest ways to reduce the threat of devastating forest fires.

Elsewhere: Montana’s USDA researcher Mike Schwartz has been named one of the world’s most influential scientific minds; fellow Montanan Pat McKelvery received a national award for his wildfire mitigation work; and Australian forester Johannes Drielsma was named Member of the Order of Australia.

Finally, researchers at UBC Okanagan have determined how and why you can taste last year’s wildfires in this year’s wine crop.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Taste a hint of last year’s wildfire in that merlot?

Pentiction Western News
January 25, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada West

Grape growers have long sought to protect their crops from the effects of wildfire smoke and new research from UBC’s Okanagan campus is giving them new insights. In a recent study, researchers… examined what happens to wine grapes after they are exposed to wildfire smoke. They determined that volatile phenols—chemicals in the smoke that can give wine an off-putting smoky flavour and aroma known as smoke taint—are absorbed quickly and remain in the grape long after the smoke has cleared. …“We found that once the grapes were exposed to smoke, the volatile phenols were rapidly metabolized by the grape and stored, in part, in a sugary form that we can’t taste or smell,” said Noestheden. 

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Business & Politics

CN downplays exposure risks in event of NAFTA collapse

By Alicja Siekierska
The National Post
January 25, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canadian National Railway Co.’s chief financial officer downplayed the company’s exposure in the event that NAFTA is dissolved, and said the Trump administration should not be looking to Canada to solve its trade deficit.  Speaking at a CIBC Investor Conference in Whistler on Thursday, CN Railway’s CFO Ghislain Houle said about 30 per cent of the company’s revenues come from the United States, but that most of those revenues would not disappear if the Trump administration walked away from the agreement, as it has repeatedly threatened to do. …According to Houle, about 20 per cent of CN’s U.S. revenue comes from southbound trade from Canada to the United States. Of that 20 per cent, he said about five per cent is lumber, which falls under a separate agreement. “At this point we do not believe we would be impacted because the U.S. needs raw materials for production,” he said. 

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Lumber Rally Extends to the Great White North

By Bruce Kamich
The Street Real Money
January 25, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

West Fraser Timber did not break out to the upside Wednesday such as Louisiana Pacific Corp., Weyerhaeuser Co. and Deltic Timber, but it has been in a long and strong uptrend. Readers of Kamich’s Korner may be wondering why review a company listed  in Toronto? Two reasons come to mind. First, is I have heard from readers north of the border and the second is to illustrate that this lumber rally extends across our border. …In this daily chart of West Fraser below, you can see that prices have been rallying the past 12 months. Prices are currently above the rising 50-day moving average line and the rising 200-day line. The daily On-Balance-Volume line has been rising along with the price action, telling us that buyers of West Fraser have been more aggressive than sellers.

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Gallant’s state of province speech sets tone for New Brunswick campaign

The Canadian Press in the National Post
January 25, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Brian Gallant

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant says his province has some big challenges to tackle in the months leading up to a provincial election this fall, and beyond. Gallant went before a province-wide televised audience Thursday night to deliver his annual state-of-the province address… “The most immediate threat to the growth we have seen over the last few years is the protectionist attitude in the United States,” Gallant said in an interview with The Canadian Press. …“We’re going to have a program where we help small businesses that are geared towards exports be able to increase their competitiveness. We’re going to have investments to help the forestry sector with the spruce budworm issue before us as a province. …Gallant said his government can help exporters without that help being seen as subsidies.

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J.D. Irving, Limited Forecasts Over 10,400 Hires Over the Next Three Years

By JD Irving
GlobeNewswire
January 25, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

SAINT JOHN — Over the next three years, J.D. Irving, Limited is forecasting over 10,400 hires across the company’s diverse operations in Canada and the U.S. “When we look at our three-year forecast from 2018-2020, 84% of the jobs we need to fill are in the Atlantic provinces,” said Jeff Green, Director, Recruitment with JDI. “69% of the jobs are in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia alone.” Across the organization, the areas with the highest number of job opportunities include Operations, Shipping, Supply & Logistics, Retail Sales, and Finance.

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Weyerhaeuser, others to pay $4M to restore Everett habitat

WRAL.com
January 25, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

— Three companies have agreed to pay almost $4 million to restore habitat damage caused by mill and manufacturing operations in Everett that date to the early 20th century. Weyerhaeuser Corp., Jeld-Wen Inc. and Kimberly Clark Corp. have operated pulp and paper mills, machine shops, casket builders and other endeavors in the Port Gardner Bay area near the mouth of the Snohomish River. The federal government and Washington state filed a complaint Thursday against them in U.S. District Court in Seattle, on behalf of the Tulalip and Suquamish tribes. The tribes blame the companies for pollution, including from oil, heavy metals and PCBs, that damaged shellfish beds and other natural resources.

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Sixty Five and Still Growing: Employee opportunity equals success for Hammond Lumber

Bangor Daily News
January 24, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Hammond Lumber Company is celebrating its 65th birthday after enjoying the most successful year in its history. The Maine family business that began in 1953 as a tiny sawmill in Belgrade is now one of the largest independent building suppliers in New England, and it’s still growing. In 2017, Hammond Lumber achieved its largest sales volume ever and now employs more people than ever. According to personnel director Rod Wiles, there are currently 475 people working at the company.

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Record timber prices will not impact NZ sawmills, Pan Pac manager says

New Zealand Herald
January 26, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Doug Ducker

Warnings of record timber prices should not have an impact on sawmills here, Pan Pac managing director Doug Ducker says. Just a day after JNL announced it was considering scrapping 97 jobs at its Gisborne mill, the New Zealand Timber Industry Federation yesterday said it expected timber prices would rise further on the back of record log prices. However, Mr Ducker said because the company’s Whirinaki plant was focused mainly on the New Zealand market, price rises could be managed. “We’re not exposed to the issues that might have been raised with JNL. That’s the Japan market that has influenced them and not directly related to the New Zealand situation.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Structure in Downtown Prince George sets Canadian Record

By Jeff Slack
My Prince George Now
January 25, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

A UNBC building set a Canadian record for air tightness. A test was performed Wednesday at the Wood Innovation Research Lab(WIRL) where it scored 0.07 air changesper hour at 50 Pascals pressure. What this means is that little air enters or escapes the building, which improves its overall efficiency and interior air quality. The WIRL is being built to the Passive House standard to serve as an ultra-energy through heating and cooling techniques and insulation. …Once completed, the WIRL will provide students and researchers a chance to build and test large-scale integrated wood structures using engineered wood products such as Cross-Laminated Timber, Glue Laminated Timber and Laminated Veneer Lumber.

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Forestry

BC Government doesn’t plan to dramatically increase the number of forest firefighters before the start of fire season

RadioNL
January 26, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The B.C Wildfire Service is heading into 2018 with plans to make changes after the worst wildfire season in history last summer. Chief Fire Information Officer Kevin Skrepnek says, former cabinet minister, George Abbott is in the middle of conducting a complete investigation. “Going into 2018, you know, there are going to be changes in terms of our processes. We are going to take some of the lessons learned, but in terms of the number of people on the ground, that core contingent of little over a thousand firefighters, that is going to be the same for 2018, but certainly potential for that to change going forward.” Skrepnek says, the Abbott report should be out before the official start of the fire season, April 15th. [END OF STORY]

 

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Logging halted on private land in Sandy Hook

By Sean Eckford
Sunshine Coast Reporter
January 26, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The shíshálh Nation has been granted a stop-work order to halt logging on private land near Seaview, Skookumchuck, and Mt. Richardson roads in Sandy Hook. The 90-acre (36-hectare) parcel is owned by a numbered company based in Vancouver, and was recently classified as private managed forest, a designation granted through BC Assessment. It’s listed now as Managed Forest #503. Chief Warren Paull said shíshálh wanted the stop-work order, which was issued by the province, because the land was converted to private managed forest without undergoing the proper referrals to the shíshálh Nation to see if its traditional rights and title would be affected. Paull said the band only found out about the issue when logging started earlier this month and a group of Sandy Hook residents went to the shíshálh Nation, District of Sechelt and the Managed Forest Council.

 

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Plant Communities at Risk from Logging

BC Forest Practices Board
January 25, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – A Forest Practices Board investigation of a complaint about logging near Mt. Elphinstone Park has found that BC Timber Sales met all of its obligations in developing the cutblocks, but concludes that some at-risk plant communities are not adequately protected by current legislation or policy. The complaint was submitted by Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF), an environmental group located in Roberts Creek, BC. The group was concerned that logging would remove forest stands containing at-risk plant communities and threaten the representation of those plant communities in the area. The investigation confirmed that representative examples of the western hemlock – flat moss plant community and the western red cedar – sword fern plant community were present in the two cutblocks that were logged. 

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FireSafe’s Pat McKelvey wins national award for wildfire mitigation work

By Tom Kuglin
Helena Independent Record
January 26, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Pat McKelvey

Jan. 25, 2018, was declared “Pat McKelvey Day” in Lewis and Clark County. But it was McKelvey’s work across three counties that earned him a 2018 National Wildfire Mitigation Award sponsored by the National Association of State Foresters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Protection Association and the U.S. Forest Service. McKelvey, who has worked in wildfire mitigation for three decades and is a driving force in Tri-County FireSafe Working Group, was one of nine to receive the award nationwide.

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Montana counts three influential scientists, including two at University of Montana

By Keila Szpaller
The Missoulian
January 25, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Mike Schwartz

Mike Schwartz’s work in science is where the rubber meets the road — in this case, where the DNA meets the iPad. Schwartz, a federal researcher for the U.S. Forest Service’s National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, works with a team that harnesses the power of shared data to provide valuable information about, say, trends related to invasive species. He is also among three Montanans recently named among the world’s most influential scientific minds. Last month, Clarivate Analytics released a list of the top 1 percent of scientists in the world for their field based on citations, and the three Montanans have University of Montana affiliations.

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Ancient Forests May Protect Birds from Rising Heat

By Brittany Patterson
Scientific American
January 25, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Old-growth forests can provide a refuge for heat-sensitive birds as temperatures rise across the Pacific Northwest, according to new research. Ancient forests tend to provide moderate temperatures compared with their surroundings, potentially buffering some of the sharpest impacts of climate change, said Matthew Betts, a professor at Oregon State University. With that knowledge, Betts and a team of researchers set off to see if the birds that breed in the canopies of these old groves benefit from their surroundings. …They already have some theories. One reason old-growth forests might be cooler could be tied to tree size. Many of the ancient giants boast trunk sizes of 6-8 feet in diameter, and they may suck up lots of heat and keep it trapped. Another reason could be that verdant old-growth forests have more layers of canopy, which intercepts sunlight.

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Following devastating wildfires, Gov. Jerry Brown will examine forestry policies

By Liam Dillon
The Los Angeles Times
January 25, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A new task force of scientists and forestry experts will “review thoroughly the way our forests are managed and suggest ways to reduce the threat of devastating fires,” Gov. Jerry Brown announced in his State of the State speech Thursday. Brown cited California’s growing severity of wildfires — eight of the state’s most destructive have occurred in the last five years — and the effects of climate change as driving the need to develop new forestry policies. The governor said the task force also will examine how the state can increase resiliency and carbon storage capacity in forests. “Trees in California should absorb CO2, not generate huge amounts of black carbon and greenhouse gas as they do today when forest fires rage across the land,” Brown said in his speech.

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Dr Johannes Drielsma named a Member of the Order of Australia

By Holly Monery
Tasmania Examiner
January 26, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Johannes Drielsma

Dr Drielsma was recognised for significant service to the commercial forestry industry, to sustainable management practices and certification programs, and to professional bodies. …He is the chair of the Tasmanian Forest Practices Advisory Council and from 2005 to 2012 was the director of the CRC Forestry Limited, the Cooperative Research Centre. “The thing I like the most about [the award] is that it gives some recognition to the work of foresters and the forestry profession and I hope that foresters generally will feel some recognition reflected out of this,” he said. His proudest achievement was developing the Australian Forestry Standard which manages the Responsible Wood Certification Scheme.

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People before forestry – that’s the message from Ireland North West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan

Donegal Now
January 26, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The core policy objectives of Ireland’s forestry strategy must be reassessed and redirected, that’s the view of Ireland North West MEP Luke Ming Flanagan. Speaking after the INHFA conference in Carrick-on-Shannon, convened to discuss the expansion of forestry in the western region, he said that the forestry program of 2014 – 2020 set the roadmap for the issues now coming to the fore. …”The overarching policy of substantial expansion of the dairy industry with a corresponding increase in forest cover to offset increased agriculture emissions must be questioned and challenged.  It is unjustifiable to continue down this road permanently altering the landscape and depopulating the area.” stated the MEP.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Enviva releases data on supply chain sustainability

By Daryl Worthington
Bioenergy Insight Magazine
January 26, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Enviva, the ‘world’s largest’ producer of industrial wood pellets, has released its latest Track & Trace data. According to Enviva, Track & Trace is a proprietary data system that enables the pellet producer to monitor every truckload of wood it procures from the forest throughout the entire supply chain process. Last year, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), in collaboration with the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Dogwood Alliance, released a report entitled: European Imports of Wood Pellets for “Green Energy” Devastating US Forests. In it, they claim that the logging practices being used to supply biomass to Enviva are “unsustainable”.  …Enviva claims that the Track & Trace system measures, maintains and validates its sustainability practices throughout the Southeastern US.

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