Daily Archives: March 22, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

US legislation would end ‘fire borrowing’, fund wildfires like natural disasters

March 22, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The way firefighting is funded in the US will change dramatically following the introduction of “must-pass” legislation—a $1.3 trillion federal spending plan—which includes funding wildfires similarly to other natural disasters.

In other Forestry news:

  • Ken Wu is in New Zealand warning about old-growth cedar imports
  • The USFS Chief launches review of sexual misconduct in the agency
  • An Alberta caribou specialist says protecting caribou doesn’t jeopardize jobs

In Business news: US lumber tariffs remain controversial in Maine; state newspaper organizations gathered in Florida to discuss newsprint tariffs; and the Swanson Group petitions for relief caused by Canadian lumber imports. On mass timber: more on BC and Washington State’s respective code leadership efforts; the CLT failure in Oregon; and an op-ed noting that CLT-wood “is only as good as the forest from which it came“.

Finally, emergency alerts will be mandatory on Canadian cell phones and it turns out elephant dung is an excellent source of cellulose for paper manufacturing.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

Read More

Froggy Foibles

From Poop to Paper

By The American Chemical Society
Technology Networks
March 22, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States

It’s not the first thing you think of when you see elephant dung, but it turns out to be an excellent source of cellulose for paper manufacturing… The researchers are presenting their results today at the 255th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). …“Animals eat low-grade biomass containing cellulose, chew it and expose it to enzymes and acid in their stomach, and then produce manure. …up to 40 percent of that manure is cellulose, which is then easily accessible,” Alexander Bismarck, Ph.D. says. …“You need a lot of energy to grind wood down to make nanocellulose,” Mautner says. But with manure as a starting material, “you can reduce the number of steps you need to perform, simply because the animal already chewed the plant and attacked it with acid and enzymes. …The dung-derived nanopaper could be used in many applications.

Read More

Business & Politics

US Tariffs on Canadian Lumber Are Controversial in Maine

By Marina Villeneuve and David Sharp
The Associated Press in the US News
March 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Paul LePage

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber have divided the nation’s most heavily forested state, where the governor says high prices are gouging the American people while others say the tariffs have steadied a struggling industry. Maine’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, claims the public is “held hostage” as lumber companies see record profits thanks to U.S. tariffs in addition to demand from post-hurricane rebuilding efforts elsewhere in the country. He also says Maine is now losing revenues because it can’t find buyers for its own wood. “It’s hurting more than it’s helping because the American people have to pay a higher price for their lumber,” LePage told lawmakers. But former state economist… said tariffs aren’t the primary reason builders are seeing sharply rising prices.

Read More

Newspaper industry fears impact of tariffs on paper from Canada

By Patrick Cloonan
The Indiana Gazette
March 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

An association of state newspaper organizations gathered Tuesday in Orlando, Florida, to discuss tariffs proposed by the United States government on Canadian newsprint and other paper production. …On Monday those industries announced formation of a coalition to fight proposed countervailing duties and anti-dumping duties. …“We’re trying to get answers on that and no one is saying anything,” said Mark Cohen, president of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, on his way to a meeting involving some of the larger newspaper organizations from such states as Florida, New York, Mississippi and Oregon, and some smaller regional groups. …“Newsprint is the second-largest expense for small newspapers after human resource costs,” said Susan Rowell, publisher of the South Carolina’s Lancaster News and president of the National Newspaper Association, a part of STOPP. 

Read More

Shipping at Chemainus sawmill comes to a standstill

By Don Bodger
The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
March 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

There hasn’t been a ship loading lumber at the Western Forest Products Chemainus sawmill dock since late November last year. That isn’t about to change anytime soon. …“We normally would have a ship every month, sometimes two,” pointed out plant chairman Randy Robertson. “Five to eight million feet per month would be loaded onto the ships. It is now being loaded at Duke Point.” …Robertson said mill general manager Clayton Storey expressed an interest in starting discussions a month ago about bringing vessels back into Chemainus. The cost analysis will supposedly determine whether it’s better to load at Chemainus or somewhere else.

Read More

Swanson Group petitions for assistance through U.S. Department of Labor

By Emily Hoard
The News-Review Today
March 21, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

GLENDALE — Potentially hurt by competition with Canadian softwood lumber, Swanson Group, a wood products company based in Glendale, asked the U.S. Department of Labor to help affected workers. Shelly Forsberg, a petition coordinator with the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, said a staff member at Swanson Group had asked her to file the petition, estimating about 36 employees may be laid off as a result of cutbacks to the business while it tries to compete with Canadian imports. …If the department finds Swanson Group eligible for assistance, the affected workers will meet with the program staff to discuss benefits, which include skills assessments, career counseling, training, income support, and reimbursement for relocation costs and a wage subsidy to make up for part of the difference between workers’ new wages and their old wages.

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

BC-pioneered wood construction on a roll internationally

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News in The Comox Valley Record
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC isn’t following Washington’s lead to make engineered wood construction mandatory for public buildings, but Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says the trend to international acceptance is good for BC’s forest products industry. Washington’s state legislature is considering a law to require cross-laminated timber (CLT) for public construction of 12 storeys or less. Donaldson said this week he isn’t currently considering a similar mandate, but he encourages wood construction whenever he can. …The BC ministry has a wood innovation group studying new techniques, and Donaldson has carried on B.C. and Canada’s international marketing efforts in Asia. …An international committee of engineers, architects, fire officials and other experts formed in 2016 to develop changes to the International Building Code. Their target is to have design and construction standards for tall wood buildings prepared by 2021.

Read More

Montreal Wood speakers offer solutions to labour challenge

By Tamar Atik
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
March 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

The sixth annual Montreal Wood Convention is taking place in Montreal… Stéphane Renou, president and CEO of FPInnovations moderated the human resources (HR) challenge in the manufacturing industry panel, which delved deeper into the labour issue and offered some recruitment tips to industry members. Joel Neuheimer from the Forest Products Association of Canada says key HR issues include access to fibre, carbon regulations, competitiveness, Aboriginal engagement and labour shortages. …Jeff Weber, executive vice-president and COO of EACOM discussed the value of investing in people and technology to attract talent to the sawmill industry. “Continuous improvement is a 24/7 endeavour,” he said. Weber said EACOM’s decision to invest in continuous improvement and specifically the human side is the reason for the company’s production increase year-over-year. Sylvain Messier, corporate projects and controls manager at EACOM said continuous development and acquisition of the latest technology attracts quality talent.

Read More

Locked Out of the Residential Market? The Case for a Prescriptive Post-Frame Building Code

By Sharon Thatcher and David R. Bohnhoff, PE
Construction Magazine Network
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Throughout the post-frame building industry there is the belief that this uniquely simple and adaptable framing system is on the verge of measurable expansion into residential housing markets. But going back through the archives at Rural Builder, it is evident that the industry has been hopeful for years. Unfortunately, despite continual overall growth, industry expansion into residential housing has remained fairly flat. What is holding it back? Is it a lack of knowledge on the part of residential builders, architects, building code officials, bankers and insurance companies? Is it a belief that the post-frame building system is not applicable to residential construction? Is it simply a lack of design innovation? When this question was posed to University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and registered engineer David R. Bohnhoff, his response was three simple words “prescriptive building codes.”

Read More

CLT subfloor collapses during work at OSU

By Josh Kulla
Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A section of subflooring failed last week during construction of the $79.5 million new Peavy Hall at Oregon State University in Corvallis. A 4-foot-by-20-foot cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel, made up of five layers of 2-by-6 Douglas fir boards glued together in a crisscross pattern, delaminated at one end and fell from the third floor to the second… The CLT panel that fell was manufactured by D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. of Riddle, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reported. Representatives of D.R. Johnson declined Wednesday to comment on the incident, referring all queries to OSU officials. …“That’s what we understand (happened),” Clark said, referring to delamination. “We have a third-party engineering firm evaluating what happened and what caused the failure. And we’re hoping that the investigation by the third-party firm will be completed next week.” The damaged panel, which was prefabricated off-site, was replaced within 36 hours of the initial collapse, Clark added.

Read More

New Washington Bill Wants to Make the State a Leader in Timber Architecture

By Tim Nelson
Architectural Digest
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

No longer confined to squat log cabins, timber projects are soaring skyward in the architectural world. …Even as new advances and perspectives have brought timber into the modern era, regulations governing its use in construction haven’t always kept pace. But with the recent passage of a bill that aims to update state building codes to allow for taller, more extensive timber construction, Washington state hopes to turn this architectural trend into a source of sustainable development. Authored by state senate Majority Floor Leader Marko Liias… “What the bill does is direct the state building code council to develop rules for the safe use of timber building materials.” …It’ll take a few months to a year for the building code commission to determine exactly how (and how tall) timber structures in the state of Washington should be designed.

Read More

Panel fails during construction of College of Forestry building at Oregon State University

Associated Press in Statesman Journal
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Construction on portions of the new College of Forestry building at Oregon State University has been halted after a large section of subflooring made of cross-laminated timber gave way between the second and third stories. …University spokesman Steve Clark said the placement of cross-laminated timber panels will resume when the evaluation is completed, and there are no plans to switch to more conventional materials. The building technique … has been used for years in Europe, but is relatively new in the United States. …Anthony Davis, the college’s acting dean, said he did not expect the failure of the CLT panel to increase the project’s cost or significantly delay its completion, which is scheduled for early next year. He said he still believes the completed Peavy Hall will serve as a compelling showcase for Oregon’s wood products industry.

Read More

Luxury Bed Manufacturer Fells Its First Responsibly-Grown Trees From Yorkshire Forest

Business Up North
March 21, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Leeds-based luxury bed manufacturer, Harrison Spinks has felled its first trees from its wholly owned and responsibly managed forest in Sand Hutton, Yorkshire. The timber, felled from Corsican Pine, Sycamore, Scots Pine and Mixed Broadleaves trees, will be used in its luxury divans and headboards. The bed maker – which was founded in 1840 and is one of Great Britain’s most established and innovative bed and mattress manufacturers – has been Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited for over seven years, meaning all the wood used in its products comes from responsibly managed forests. …Simon Spinks, Managing Director at Harrison Spinks said: “…we’re delighted that the hard work from our Forest Managers and Lumberjacks, or ‘Slumberjacks’ as we call them, is coming to fruition. …by owning and managing our forest we can ensure that more timber used in our [products] is renewable, responsibly managed and grown considerately.

Read More

Forestry

OPINION: National tree-planting effort would benefit people and the planet

By Rob Keen, CEO of Forest Recovery Canada
The Chronicle Herald
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

…In Canada, [Spring] means tree-planting. As Canadians, we understand the importance of our trees and forests, and recognize the benefits they provide. We inherently understand that planting trees is a good thing, and that by increasing forest cover, we are doing the environment, our economy, and ourselves a favour. What’s missing from this narrative, at least on the national stage, are the proper incentives and programs to help make it happen. …A nationally-co-ordinated tree-planting initiative is exactly what the federal government should be looking for in terms of a carbon-friendly conservation program. Simply put, planting trees is one of the easiest ways to take tackle climate change. …As trees are converted into products – such as lumber used in home construction or wood used in furniture production – the majority of tree-stored-carbon is retained by the wood to be further locked-up for many more decades.

Read More

Provincial forests minister open to meeting about Lantzville woodlot

By Nicholas Pescod
Nanaimo News Bulletin
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The minister in charge of forests is open to meeting with Lantzville councillors to discuss issues surrounding a woodlot within the community. Last month, Lantzville councillors voted in favour of sending a letter to Doug Donaldson, B.C.’s minister of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development, requesting an in-person meeting with him to discuss a proposed 60-hectare protective corridor within Woodlot 1475. …Following a tour Coastland Wood Industries in Nanaimo on Wednesday morning, Donaldson said he had received and read a letter from the district and would be happy to meet with Lantzville councillors to discuss a protective corridor within Woodlot 1475. “Definitely, I am willing to meet with Lantzville, or any community that has concerns,” he said.

Read More

Protecting caribou doesn’t jeopardize jobs

By Michael Bloomfield
The Edmonton Journal
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In 1978, I was hired as provincial caribou specialist. Five years later, I became the first casualty in the long battle to save Alberta’s caribou, a conflict heating up again. Advocacy for caribou, although my job, soon put me offside with the government of Alberta and the industries with whom it had a cozy relationship. I succeeded in 1982 in ending caribou hunting but achieving land-use changes was much harder. By 1983, I was pushed out the door. While I was privileged to spend the following 35 years serving people and the environment in Canada and around the world, caribou in Alberta have been driven towards extinction. …Portraying the situation as jobs versus caribou is cynical and untrue. Without more sustainable land-use and forest management, both will be lost.

Read More

Profits rain over community forest partners Ucluelet and Toquaht First Nation

By Andrew Bailey
The Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Toquaht Government Office looked like the scene of a lottery win last Thursday as the First Nation split a $1 million fortune with the District of Ucluelet. The two West Coast communities each received $500,000 cheques cut from the 2017 profits of their Barkley Community Forest Corporation partnership on March 14. After handing over both cheques, the chair of the corporation’s board, Terry Smith suggested more is coming. “We have paid all our outstanding bills. We have money put aside to take care of known liabilities,” he said. Ucluelet mayor Dianne St. Jacques was thrilled to see the community forest, which the two partners launched in 2015, begin to bear fruit.

Read More

Forestry fair plants seeds in students’ minds

By Richard Froese
The South Peace News
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

HIGH PRAIRIE — Job opportunities in the forest industry were presented to local Grade 9 students at a forestry career fair March 6 at the Edmo Peyre Hall in High Prairie. Students from High Prairie schools… examined the options of training and careers at the event, which was co-hosted by several industry partners. High Prairie Forest Products and High Prairie Tolko Industries were the local employers in the event, organized by Lesser Slave Forest Education Society. …Alberta Works, Careers the Next Generation, Registered Apprenticeship Program, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Rupertsland Institute, and Work Wild also participated.

Read More

New female Forest Service head launches review of harassment, sexual misconduct in the agency

By Elizabeth Flock
PBS NewsHour
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The U.S. Forest Service is implementing what it’s calling a 30-day action plan to address harassment, sexual misconduct, and retaliation in the agency. The changes come weeks after a PBS NewsHour investigation into these issues… Interim chief Vicki Christiansen announced the plan … last week… Recent news reports, she said, had “focused a bright light on a problem the agency has been combating for years” and “made it painfully clear that the policies prohibiting such behaviors are not enough.” A transcript of the call was given to the PBS NewsHour by two Forest Service employees. …The 30-day plan, called “Stand Up For Each Other,” includes “employee listening sessions,” staged across the country …Retired Forest Service firefighter Jonel Wagoner, who joined the Forest Service in the 1980s and alleged decades of harassment based on her gender, said she was skeptical of the “soundbites and fed-speak” she heard on the call.

Read More

United Nation’s World Water Day 2018

US Endowment for Forestry and Communities
March 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

…The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) is celebrating World Water Day by convening nearly 50 watershed protection experts from across the country to acknowledge successes and address future challenges in an effort to plan for the inevitable – a time when many areas “outgrow” or face life without a dependable water supply. The event is the first gathering of grantees for the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program, a partnership that is co-funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. “An estimated two-thirds of the fresh water in the U.S. originates in a forested watershed,” notes Carlton Owen, the Endowment’s President and CEO. “Healthy, well-managed forests produce cleaner, more reliable water flows, reducing drinking water treatment, transportation, and storage costs.”

Read More

Oregon senators help secure wildfire funding ‘fix’ in federal spending plan

By Kale Williams
The Oregonian
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The way firefighting in the west is funded will change dramatically following the introduction of a $1.3 trillion federal spending plan that includes a shift in the way the U.S. Forest Service spends its money. Currently, the U.S. Forest Service and other firefighting agencies have to divert funds from other programs when costs exceed their budgets. The workaround, known as “fire borrowing,” steals money from projects that include fire prevention, creating a vicious cycle that only prompts larger and more destructive fires down the road. The bill passed Wednesday, known as the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, creates an emergency fund that kicks in when the roughly $1.4 billion budgeted for fighting fires across the country is tapped. The additional money, up to $2.15 billion, will come from an emergency fund.

Read More

Forest reform package would fund wildfires like other natural disasters, Montana delegation says

By Tom Kuglin
The Missoulian
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Montana’s congressional delegation says reforms to forest management, including an end to “fire borrowing,” will be included in must-pass legislation this week. On a media call Wednesday, Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte detailed a forest reform package as part of an omnibus bill, which includes funding wildfires similarly to other natural disasters. The reform ends fire borrowing — the practice of using funds from other programs such as trail maintenance to pay for fires that exceed budgets. Under the changes, when fire budgets run dry, agencies may tap into natural disaster funding rather than their own budgets. “It allows the Forest Service to use more of its funds on timber management, forest management and recreation programs rather than fire suppression,” Daines said.

Read More

Blocked fire tower view in Bass River State Forest fuels controversy

By Michelle Brunetti
Press of Atlantic City
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

BASS RIVER TOWNSHIP — The New Jersey Forest Fire Service readily admits it can’t see the forest for the trees. Literally. Even when fire spotters climb to the top of the 80-foot Bass River State Forest fire tower, their view is blocked on three sides by nearby pines that have grown to the tower’s height. The tower oversees an area of about 50,000 residents… That’s why the state has a plan to clear-cut about 19 acres of white pine and other conifers that are causing the problem, said Forest Fire Service Chief Greg McLaughlin …But Bass River’s governing body opposes the plan, as do some environmentalists and hikers. Mayor Deborah Buzby Cope said the state should replace the aged tower, which is 10 years past its expected lifespan, with a taller one.

Read More

Foresters too silent on tech advances

By Aisling Irwin
SciDev.Net
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forest experts need to interact more with farming and mining businesses, agriculture and finance ministries in order to accelerate the use of scientific tools to restore global forests. It’s one of a series of recommendations published this month on how to achieve SDG 15 to manage forests in a sustainable way. …The problem is that new scientific findings … tend to stay within forest ministries, NGOs and research organisations… “Foresters need to get out of the forest,” said Avery Cohn, a professor of environment and resource policy at Tufts University. …For example, there is unprecedented access to increasingly detailed remote-sensing data — and this data, coupled with evidence-based research, needs wider dissemination, the event heard. …Scientists need to do more to disseminate successful practices and technologies such as these, combining their expertise with that of other fields, and working more closely with policymakers and the private sector, the report says.

Read More

Old-growth Canadian cedar ‘at risk from Kiwi importers’

By Chris Hutching
Stuff.co.nz
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Canadian forestry expert Ken Wu is in New Zealand on a nationwide tour explaining that imported cedar must come from certified sources to protect ancient British Columbia specimens . Cedar is the Canadian equivalent of New Zealand’s kauri with some forests 2000 years old, making up about one third of sawn timber imports with most of it from old-growth forests. The hard cedar requires little treatment as a fashionable cladding, although for general construction builders rely more on cheaper plywood and pine treated with chromated copper arsenic. Wu said importers can identify sustainably harvested cedar which is certified by the international Forest Stewardship Council.  

Read More

Ireland’s failing forestry policy spoils International Day of Forests

By Niall Sargent
The Green News
March 21, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Today marks International Day of Forests… While we are supposed to use this day to celebrate the benefits that forests and trees can bring, it is difficult not to look to the negative, in particular, Ireland’s poor forestry policy. Examining the State’s latest forestry report… it is clear that we need a reform of our failing forestry policy. While the report points out that forest land cover is at its highest level in over 350 years at 10.5 per cent, in reality, Ireland’s overall forest cover has barely moved in recent years  …The solution to improving our low forest cover should not be to increase plantations of alien conifers designed for clear fell, yet Sitka spruce remains the dominant species planted in Ireland. …It is high time to put our focus on planting native trees that do not require fertilisers or pesticide, unlike commercial non-native tree plantations.

Read More

MSPs pass bill modernising forestry regime

Scottish Legal News
March 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forestry in Scotland will be fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament after MSPs backed the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Bill. Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said the bill’s modern approach to forestry development, support and regulation will enable the Scottish government to better support the £1 billion industry and 25,000 jobs within the sector. …Mr Ewing said: “The act will give Scotland the modern framework needed to support more tree planting, sustain existing woodlands and create new ones, while also maintaining our forests. “We have a sector worth £1 billion to our economy, supporting over 25,000 jobs, and providing huge social and recreational opportunities for all our population. “Our forests, woodlands and trees form a key part of our countryside – they are natural assets I am determined to nurture and grow for current and future generations.

Read More

Health & Safety

No opting out: Canadians soon to get emergency alerts on their phones

By Michael Oliveira
The Canadian Press in CBC News
March 21, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada

Canada’s wireless providers are preparing for an update to the National Public Alerting System that will force smartphones to sound an ominous alarm when an emergency alert is triggered. In case of emergencies including Amber Alerts, forest fires, natural disasters, terrorist attacks or severe weather, officials will be able to send a localized alert that will compel compatible phones on an LTE network to emit an alarm — the same shrill beeping that accompanies TV and radio emergency alerts — and display a bilingual text warning. …”People cannot opt out of this,” said CRTC spokesperson Patricia Valladao. “There is a high importance that people — want it or not — receive these alerts.” …Similar alerting systems are already in place in other countries including the U.S.

Read More

Friends and Roseburg Forest Products staff remember life of Joel Kuhse

By Emily Hoard
The News-Review
March 20, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

DILLARD — Joel Roy Kuhse, a husband, father, volunteer and press operator for Roseburg Forest Products, died Monday night in an industrial accident at the company’s plywood plant in Dillard. Roseburg Forest Products is investigating the incident, according to a press release. Kuhse, 57, had worked for the company since April 2010. …Merica’s father-in-law, Dale Pritchett, worked at the press next to Kuhse at the plywood mill. Monday night, Pritchett found Kuhse motionless on top of his load at the mill and called for help. …In addition to benefits provided by the company and the Carpenters Industrial Council union, Roseburg Forest Products is establishing a fund for employee contributions to support the family. RFP spokeswoman Rebecca Taylor said the employee fund is a way for employees to show their support and express their grief.

Read More

Forestry industry ‘tick’ belies a different standard

By Farah Hancock
Newsroom
March 22, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: International

Seventy percent of New Zealand’s plantation forests receive a green tick from the Forest Stewardship Council despite high industry fatalities and 90 percent of forestry contractors breaching employee rights. … The Council’s social standards include ensuring workers are kept safe and well and their rights are protected. A December 2017 forestry industry audit… found widespread breaches of employment standards. …The FSC’s director general, Kim Carstensen, is currently visiting New Zealand. He said in order to achieve FSC certification, workers’ rights to health and safety and remuneration need to be met. …Forestry is one of New Zealand’s most dangerous professions and FSC-certified forests are not immune to tragedy. …Among the recommendations First Union has made reviewing the FSC national social standards are for union access to employees in order to discuss health and safety issues and a living wage for employees – even in situations where contractors or sub-contractors are used.

Read More