Daily Archives: April 5, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

500 forest industry leaders are in Prince George to talk turkey and tariffs

April 5, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

More than 500 forest industry leaders have gathered in Prince George for COFI’s annual conference to talk turkey and tariffs (and supply shortages, and pest threats and labour force turnover…). In related news: the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is hailed by the Business Council of BC, COFI and others; and FEA Canada (Wood Markets) released its annual survey of the “top 20” Canadian and US lumber producers.

In Forestry news: The BC Forest Practices Board is on the lookout for a new chair; Tolko is retooling for burnt timber; Cowichan Valley is reducing the danger of fires in “interface areas”; and Iceland is reforesting lands cleared by the Vikings a millennia ago. 

In Wood news; an engineer explains how tall wood can meet Ontario’s Building Code; mass timber is celebrated in Montreal; Toronto; and Sudbury; while the US concrete industry says this type of construction is “fueling fires nationwide“.

Finally, a back-to-the-future moment as paper straws are reintroduced as the solution to plastic straws in our landfills; and cell towers are disguised as… pine trees!

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Residents oppose plan for cell tower disguised as pine tree

Associated Press in the Lincoln Journal Star
April 4, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

OMAHA — Several Omaha residents are against the proposed installation of an AT&T cell tower disguised as a pine tree. The 92-foot tower would be placed at the main entrance to Omaha’s Memorial Park, according to the plan proposed by the cellphone provider and Brownell Talbot School. The tower would sit between the private school’s parking lot and the park. …Nearby trees are much shorter than the proposed camouflaged tower, said several neighbors. “It’s hard to see that a fake tree is going to fool anybody,” said resident Matt Johnson. “I understand why they want to put a cell tower there. But I don’t think it’s the right fix for the city, the park or the neighborhood.”

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Business & Politics

Top 20 Lumber Producers, Soaring Prices (But Subdued Production Trends) In 2017

FEA Canada (WOOD MARKETS)
April 5, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

FEA Canada/WOOD MARKETS’ 2017 annual survey of “top 20” Canadian and U.S. lumber producers featured mixed production trends despite a runaway lumber market in the U.S. With few mill acquisitions, almost all of the production gains arose from improvements at existing mills. Of the top 40 companies, 8 in Canada and 6 in the U.S. recorded production declines. …Total Canadian softwood lumber shipments declined by 1.7% to 28.0 billion bf while U.S. production increased by 3.7% to 33.9 billion bf. …The wild card for 2018 is the extremely high level of U.S. lumber prices (inflated partly by the imposition of U.S. duties on Canadian lumber and also because of only small increases in North American lumber output). High prices attracted a 50% increase in offshore exports in 2017 and there are a dozen new sawmill projects planned for the U.S. South. …at some point, this new supply (and imports) will put negative pressure on prices. 

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Local mill revival? Horgan name drops appurtenancy

By Andru McCracken
Rocky Mountain Goat
April 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

John Horgan

In his throne speech last month, Premier John Horgan said his government is interested tying timber harvests to local jobs, and in a follow-up interview, he named the policy he wants to see. Horgan told Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer that his NDP government wants to bring back a policy called appurtenancy. Appurtenancy refers to a policy that ensured Crown timber was processed in the same region where it was logged. After the BC Liberals rescinded the policy in 2003, forestry companies were allowed to ship logs to larger centres rather than process them in small forestry-reliant communities. Soon after the policy ended, both major mills in Valemount and McBride closed and their forest licenses were sold: 120 people lost their jobs in Valemount and 100 in McBride. …Prince George-Valemount Liberal MLA Shirley Bond said there are no details about Horgan’s promise. She wouldn’t say whether she supported the policy.

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Catalyst and Powell River mayor address market challenges

By David Brindle
Powell River Peak
April 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

In an internal memo sent to its Canadian and American employees on March 29, Catalyst Paper Corporation president and chief executive officer Ned Dwyer stated that a new United States Department of Commerce anti-dumping duty is a “critical challenge to our company.” The memo contained information about how the company is addressing the challenges, including growing offshore markets, closely working with federal and provincial governments, and actively lobbying the United States government. A 22.16 per cent duty on most of Catalyst’s uncoated groundwood paper, on top of a 6.09 per cent duty announced in January, “will hurt the market as well as manufacturers,” stated Dwyer. The CEO added that the company’s BC mills, including Powell River, are also dealing with elevated fibre costs, supply challenges and increasing energy costs.

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Forest industry leaders gathering in city

By Frank Peebles
The Prince George Citizen
April 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The lumber industry hasn’t faced issues so big or so complex in years. It’s a prime time in international trade history to have COFI hold their annual convention in Prince George where such topics as American border tariffs, Asian market potential, softwood timber supply shortages, new pest threats to the forest and the baby boomer turnover in the forestry labour force are all on the front burner at the same time. More than 500 industry and government leaders are in the city throughout the week to explore these issues in a concentrated fashion. According to COFI, this is the largest annual gathering of the forest sector in Western Canada. “Prince George is one of 140 communities across the province that depend on the forest sector” said COFI president Susan Yurkovich. …”This year, we are especially pleased to be welcoming new members from the coastal forest sector to the COFI family.”

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Trade deal good for B.C. and province’s forestry industry

By Greg D’Avignon, Susan Yurkovich, Stewart Beck and others
The Vancouver Sun
April 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

For over 250 years, British Columbia’s entrepreneurs, skilled workers and communities have contributed to a growing and successful forestry industry. …We often associate forestry with B.C.’s rural communities, supporting jobs, local businesses, and community facilities. That is entirely true, but it is also one of B.C.’s largest urban employers. …But make no mistake, all of these forest-sector benefits are dependent on open access to international markets and the export demand for our high-quality pulp, paper and wood products. …It is against these realities and market opportunities that we are particularly supportive of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). As a small, open economy, Canada depends on trade for our quality of life. …The CPTPP is good for B.C. forestry and forest dependent communities from Vancouver to Vanderhoof to Victoria. 

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Expressions of Interest extended for Chair of BC Forest Practices Board

BC Forest Practices Board
April 5, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Forest Practices Board is seeking an experienced leader who is respected by a wide range of forestry-interested stakeholders. Do you have a reputation for high standards, objective and balanced judgment, fairness and consistency? Are you an innovator with the vision to guide the Board? Do you thrive on objectively analyzing forestry issues of public importance and providing strategic direction? This is an opportunity to combine your experience working both on the ground in resource management and in administration, policy or legislation. The role of Board Chair will enable you to make a solid and lasting contribution to the stewardship of forest and range resources to benefit all citizens of British Columbia.

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Finance Minister Tom Osborne says government committed to mitigating impact of tariffs on Corner Brook mill

By Gary Kean
The Western Star
April 4, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Tom Osborne

While there isn’t any line in the provincial budget that offers financial assistance to Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, Finance Minister Tom Osborne says the government will do what it can to help the mill. …The mill is facing two levies the American government is considering slapping on newsprint and softwood products imported from Canada that could cost the paper company millions of dollars. Osborne said Premier Dwight Ball, along with Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady and two cabinet ministers from western Newfoundland — Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Eddie Joyce and Fisheries and Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne — have been working on the issue.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

12 Storey tall wood tower to be built on Toronto waterfront

By Lloyd Alter
Treehugger
April 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Things are happening so fast in the wood world these days that it is hard to keep up; we had not even covered Toronto’s George Brown College short list of architects for a tall wood building for its new waterfront campus when they announce the winner. It is Moriyama and Teshima, a long-time favourite in these parts, and Acton Ostry Architects, who built what is for the moment the world’s tallest timber tower in Vancouver, British Columbia. The 12 storey tall Arbour Building (sorry for all the Canadian spelling here, lots of extra e’s and u’s) “is expected to be net-positive, reducing the college’s carbon footprint, and in turn, lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Once built, students and researchers will learn to design, construct, operate, and monitor climate-friendly buildings.” It is also going to be a “smart” building, ” networked, intelligent, sensitive, and adaptable. 

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Developers of Montreal condo project embrace challenges of timber-based construction

By Betrand Marotte
The Globe and Mail
April 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

…Amid [new] developments [in Montreal] there is a new kid on the block: the eight-storey Arbora condominium-apartment complex. While on the outside appearing not much different from its neighbours, Arbora on closer inspection turns out to be quite special. The three buildings making up the complex are built with wood skeletons instead of the standard steel or concrete. Arbora’s promoters say the 366,000-square-foot development – made of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and clad in brick, steel-aluminum and fibre-cement – is the world’s largest residential project using a mass-timber structure. …“The innovation involved in construction brought about a certain level of complexity,” said Marc-André Roy, president of Montreal-based developer Sotramont, one of four partners behind Arbora. …In the end, everyone was reassured and even – in many cases – impressed, Mr. Roy said. “The firemen who came to us at first with skepticism and lots of questions ended up being quite taken with the product.”

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Canadian firms to design new Waterfront campus building

By Chau Nguyen
The Dialog | GBC Student Newspaper
April 4, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Two Canadian architectural firms have won the right to design The Arbour, George Brown College’s (GBC) tall wood building near the Waterfront campus.  The firms, Moriyama & Teshima and Acton Ostry are planning on using Canadian sourced wood for The Arbour, which is slated to be 12 storeys and the first tall wood building in Ontario. The building will be located in the East Bayfront neighbourhood, north of the Daphne Cockwell Centre for Health Sciences (Waterfront campus). Other than housing the first tall wood research institute in Canada, this low-carbon, net-positive building will also have GBC’s school of computer technology and a new child care facility. “We’re leading the way from an environmental point of view,” said Anne Sado, GBC’s president. “We want to make a commitment to create a low-carbon, net-zero building that would make a statement around the changes that we have to make to support the environment and sustainability.”

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Architecture school wins provincial design prize

Northern Ontario Business
April 3, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Sudbury’s McEwen School of Architecture has been recognized with a 2018 Design Excellence Award from the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA). The Laurentian University school was named as one of 10 recipients selected from more than 111 submissions. According to an OAA press release, the 20 finalists were judged on a number of criteria, including creativity, context, sustainability, good design/good business and legacy. …Located in the city’s downtown core, the McEwen School of Architecture consists of a new 36,480-square-foot steel and concrete studio wing and a new 15,670-square-foot cross-laminated timber (CLT) library wing. …“McEwen’s Library Wing is a CLT demonstration project funded by the Centre for Research & Innovation in the Bio-Economy (CRIBE). CLT is a sustainable engineered wood product that could be manufactured in many parts of northern Canada,” the OAA wrote in its analysis.

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Engineer outlines ‘Ontario-made’ solution to tall wood buildings

By Don Procter
The Daily Commercial News
April 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

David Moses

A technical manual that tells how tall wood buildings can be designed as “alternative solutions” to achieve performance standards that meet the Ontario Building Code will help building officials, architects, developers and constructors move forward in a new era of building. Ontario’s Tall Wood Building Reference, released late last year, offers a “distinctive Ontario-made solution” said David Moses of Toronto-based Moses Structural Engineers, who co-authored the manual with Steven Croft, principal of CHM Fire Consultants Ltd., of Ottawa. …“We understood that our building codes are so slow to change that we had to do something different,” he said. “We started to realize that there were target audiences that needed the assistance, to bridge this gap in knowledge.”

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Connecticut Concrete Promotion Council’s Build With Strength Campaign Focuses on Insulated Concrete Forms

By National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
ForConstructionPros.com
April 4, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

America is burning. Construction practices utilizing wood frame construction in low to mid rise buildings are fueling fires in multi-story buildings nationwide. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s (NRMCA) Build With Strength campaign is educating architects, engineers and specifiers on alternative design methods- specifically the utilization of insulated concrete forms (ICFs) in the construction of low to mid-rise residential and commercial buildings. …These ICF properties, when combined with concrete, produce a building that far surpasses a wood frame building as far as longevity, durability and environmental friendliness. …ICF’s, when utilized in a system with ready mixed concrete, are becoming a basic building technique for multi-story residential, municipal and commercial buildings due to their strength, energy efficiency and ease of construction.

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UMaine scientists envision smart mills, new papers for medicine and food packaging

By Lori Valigra
Bangor Daily News
April 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Doug Bousfield

The current potato chip bag will go the way of the dodo by 2025 if Doug Bousfield has his way. The University of Maine professor aims to develop fully recyclable packaging using cellulose nanomaterials derived from wood pulp. The cellulose nanomaterials hold promise for replacing the thin layer of noncompostable aluminum used now to keep oxygen from getting in to spoil the chips, and grease from the chips from getting out through the package to soil consumers. …Researchers like Bousfield are developing new types of paper and paper coatings that they hope will create new markets for paper. …Caitlan Howell, an assistant professor in chemical and biomedical engineering at UMaine is focusing on patient care using coated paper products that may eventually be more effective in diagnosing and preventing infections. …Other UMaine researchers are focusing on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to make paper mills run more efficiently and automatically.

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Waitrose builds on plastics pledge by switching to paper straws in cafes

Edie.net
April 4, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

UK — Waitrose has revealed it will build on a commitment to stop selling packs of single-use plastics straws later this year, by replacing all plastic straws used in its onsite cafes with Forest Stewardship Council certified paper alternatives. In January, Waitrose announced that it will stop selling packs of plastic straws at all supermarkets by September 2018. Before the phase out is completed in stores, Waitrose will convert all plastic straws in cafes to paper variants by the end of April 2018. ‘‘Plastic straws may seem insignificant but their impact on wildlife can be devastating. We hope this step will make a positive contribution to our environment.’’

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Klopper and Davis Architects propose a 10-storey timber hotel for Perth

Architecture AU
April 5, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A revised design for a hotel would see a 10-storey tower with an all-timber structure rise above an early 20th Century heritage building… The proposed Leadlight Hotel, by Perth-based practice Klopper and Davis Architects, has been presented to the Metropolitan Development Authority (MDA) for consideration. The hotel’s proponents had previously received development approval for a taller building that would not have involved the extensive use of timber. …The primary structural material of the hotel tower will be engineered timber, the entirety of which could be sourced and fabricated locally. The design proposes a combination of both cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. Adam Zorzi, director of developer Australian Development Capital, said, “Embodied energy is rapidly becoming a factor that builders and developers must consider, and timber is a far more sustainable product that … results in far fewer greenhouse gas emissions during construction.”

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Forestry

NSERC grant for the use of drone imaging in forestry

By Université TÉLUQ
Cision Newswire
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Wassim Bouachir

QUEBEC CITY – TÉLUQ University, in partnership with Groupe DDM, has received a $25,000grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) under the Engage Grant partner program for universities. The grant will fund the project “Using drone computer vision to estimate the number of planting microsites.” “Thanks to research, drones are being used more and more in applications with a real impact on the economy, society, and the environment,” said TÉLUQ director general Martin Noël.  …Professor Wassim Bouachir of TÉLUQ University’s Department of Science and Technology …adds that the project “will lead to innovative drone imaging solutions. This work is now possible thanks to the infrastructure of SmartForests Canada, a pan-Canadian initiative recently funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and in which TÉLUQ University plays a key role.”

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New Student Ranger Program launched in BC

BC Local News
April 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – Young people throughout British Columbia will have an opportunity to acquire a diverse range of job skills while working in the province’s spectacular natural environment, through the new BC Parks Student Ranger Program. This is the first program established with the proceeds that were generated from specialty BC Parks licence plate sales. “We are giving young adults a chance to gain important job skills in some of the most beautiful parks and protected areas British Columbia has to offer,” said George Heyman, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Strategy. “Student rangers will help protect sensitive ecosystems, while preserving the natural, cultural and historical values that British Columbians cherish.”

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Burned timber stumpage rates averaging $65 per cubic metre

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
BC Local News
April 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Stumpage rates for burned timber sales in Williams Lake and 100 Mile House are averaging about $65 per cubic metre, BC Timber Sales (BCTS) confirmed last week. “The market is showing this timber is in high demand,” said Lindsey Wood, a resource manager with the Ministry of Forests during a recent presentation to the Cariboo Regional District. A spokesperson for BC Timber Sales confirmed the bids represent the fact the timber is partially burned, has high Douglas-fir content, and the haul distances are short. In seven recent sales in Williams Lake and two in 100 Mile House — the stumpage rates ranged from $42.72 per cubic metre to $103.2 per cubic metre.

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For the love of toads

By David Brindle
Powell River Peak
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Breeding season is upon the western toad. Preparations have been made along Toad Alley at Inland Lake in Powell River’s backcountry to protect more toads and their little toadlets from being squished by bikers and hikers. Volunteer members from Powell River’s trail building Chain Gang and Powell River ATV Club were recently at Inland Lake completing some work to make life safer for the toads when they move en masse in their unique circle of life. The toads move in such large numbers that they have been known to close roads. Last August, approximately 1,800 finger-nail sized toadlets were crossing trails near Whistler every hour. …“The male toads all gather together in the same location and when the females come they basically are just swimming around and grabbing anything that looks toad-like in the hopes it’s a female,” said Wind. “The only way they know if they have a male or a female is the males are designed to squeak if they get grabbed from behind.”

 

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Six Cowichan Lake neighbourhoods lead the way to fire safety

By Lexi Bainas
The Cowichan Valley Citizen
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Doug Knott and Ross Forrest

Steve Vatcher, first lieutenant and fire risk manager for the Lake Cowichan Fire Department, handed out awards to the enthusiastic members of six local neighbourhoods. They were the first six communities on Vancouver Island to be certified FireSmart, he told them during a ceremony at Lake Cowichan’s council chambers on March 29. The idea behind FireSmart is to reduce the danger of fires in “interface areas”, where neighbourhoods are backed by wild forest land. It takes education and effort to reduce risks from wood piles, careless handling of waste wood, and much more. …In addition, Knott was honoured… for their assistance in fighting the wildfires in the B.C. Interior in the summer of 2017.

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Why is there logging near Ymir’s drinking water?

Letter by Jim Dorey
The Nelson Star
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

I visited the Quartz Creek Reservoir during the summer of 2017 to find the water level dangerously low. …Clear-cut logging will also cause lower summer water flows, which would add further strain to the flows into the treatment plant. …Why with all the forest in the Salmo valley would you log near Ymir’s drinking water? The local mills wrote that they have to log watersheds in order to survive. Do they really mean that they have to destroy communities for the sake of a little bit of fiber?

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Tolko gears up for processing wildfire timber in Williams Lake

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
The Williams Lake Tribune
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tolko Industries Ltd. Soda Creek Division will be on a heavier diet for the next two to three years because of the 2017 wildfires. …Normally the sawmill processes white wood such as spruce, pine and balsam or alpine fir, but now in the aftermath of the fires that has changed to 70 per cent of the feed being Douglas-fir. The change in wood density has had a noticeable impact on the machinery, Walter said. “We’ve had to slow our machinery down,” he noted. “It used to run at 450 to 520 board feet a minute and now our feed speeds are 390 for the dual ring debarker and 290 for the single ring.” …Charcoal from the burned bark is dangerous and very abrasive, so it is also important to thoroughly clean the mill weekly, Walters said.

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Chemo RV partners with West Fraser to replant thousands of trees

By Angie Mindus
The Williams Lake Tribune
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The owner and staff at Chemo RV are taking steps to be leaders in the wildfire recovery efforts. …Chemo RV has partnered with West Fraser to purchase and plant the trees, promising to plant 1,000 trees for every RV sold at their locations in Quesnel and 150 Mile House from April, 2018 until the end of October, 2018. …“The whole idea is to replenish what we all lost. It’s just about giving back to the community,” Bell said. “We had a catastrophic event that we aren’t going to forget any time soon. But now we’d like to put the focus on rebuild and regrowth.”

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Regional District of Central Kootenay to write to forest minister about Laird Creek logging

By Bill Metcalfe
Nelson Star
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Regional District of Central Kootenay board is writing a letter to Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson asking for an independent assessment of plans for logging at Laird Creek, which flows into Kootenay Lake near Balfour. They also want legislative changes to a process known as the professional reliance model. The RDCK’s letter to the minister will also relay public concerns about a timber harvesting proposal near Argenta because of its proximity to the Johnson’s Landing slide of 2012 that destroyed several houses and killed three residents. …“The community wants to see an independent qualified professional assess it,” said RDCK chair Karen Hamling about Cooper Creek Timber’s plans, “because there has been a slide there before. People are nervous and they want to be sure.” Al Walters of the Laird Creek Water Users told the Star his group has petitioned the RDCK about their concerns about the road.

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Approval being sought to expand Corner Brook Pulp and Paper harvesting on Baie Verte Peninsula

The Western Star
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

BAIE VERTE, NL – The Department of Fisheries and Land Resources is seeking approval for Corner Brook Pulp and Paper to harvest additional land in the Baie Verte Peninsula area. …The new areas will offset timber in North Twin area transferred to Corner Brook Pulp and Paper from the Crown in forest management district 10, according to the environmental assessment documentation registered with the province. …The undertaking states sustainable harvest levels will not be exceeded and will be balanced by reducing the proposed harvest levels in other approved operating areas. It was also noted that mitigations for caribou habitat are in place in the Three Corner Pond area, including seasonal restrictions during calving and post-calving times.

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Speakers focus on sustainable solutions in Moncton

By Tamar Atik
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Peter Robichaud

The Canadian Woodlands Forum’s 99th annual general meeting and 2018 spring meeting is taking place at the Crowne Plaza hotel in downtown Moncton, N.B. …“One thing that we spend a lot of time doing is to present issues and challenges that members of the whole supply chain face day-to-day,” Peter Robichaud, executive director of the CWF, told CFI. “We’re dealing with very hot topics in forest management, as well as looking at harvesting operations, and efficiency and productivity levels of our contractors that are doing the work, and then also focusing on taking the wood from outside and moving it in through the mill gates.”

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Portlander Receives Community Forestry Award

By Travis Loose
Portland Patch
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, OR — For more than 20 years, Mary Harrell has offered her assistance in educating thousands of Portlanders on the value and importance of the city’s trees and environmental infrastructure. This week, Harrell’s efforts were honored by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and the Oregon Community Trees nonprofit organization when they announced her as one of four recipients of the 2018 Oregon Urban and Community Forestry Award. Manager of the Friends of Trees’ Portland office, Harrell has been with the nonprofit since 1996, serving under every director the organization has seen, from founder Richard Siedman to current Executive Director Scott Fogarty.

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Washington Fighting Fire With Fire This Spring

By Emily Schwing
Oregon Public Broadcasting
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Forests and grasslands in Eastern Washington state are at high risk for large, intense wildfire. This spring Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to use controlled burning on more than 1,000 acres in Okanogan, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties. WDFW Prescribed Fire Manager Matt Eberlein said the controlled burns won’t prevent wildfires altogether, but they will reduce potential damage. …The areas chosen for burning include grasslands as well as Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forests where debris and slash were left behind after commercial logging.

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Conifers are encroaching on coastal meadows

By Mark Freeman
The Mail Tribune
April 3, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

GOLD BEACH — Wildlife biologists and an army of chainsaw-wielding volunteers are in the early stages of an ambitious effort to reclaim for wildlife portions of 334 acres of former forest meadows that are losing their long-term battles with encroaching fir trees. Lack of wildfire and commercial forest thinning have allowed Douglas firs and other conifers to overtake the edges of a series of Coast Range meadows in Curry County that are home to Roosevelt elk, black-tailed deer and forest birds such as grouse and quail. Under an agreement with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is cutting back these encroaching conifers to restore some of the fragmented habitats, said Bree Furfey, an ODFW wildlife biologist.

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Forestry Panel Addresses Controversy

By Camilla Mortensen
The Eugene Weekly
April 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Chandra Legue

GreenLane Sustainable Business Network will hold a forum on sustainable forestry April 12 to address last year’s controversy around seating a timber company representative on the environmental group’s board. The panel grew out of a contentious board election in November 2017, at which Casey Roscoe, senior vice president of public relations for the Seneca timber companies, joined GreenLane’s board. At the time, several board members threatened to leave, including Shawn Donille of Mountain Rose Herbs, who called Seneca’s joining of the GreenLane board “greenwashing.” At the April forum, GreenLane seeks to facilitate a civil dialogue “to explore different sides of the issues, challenges and problems faced by forest industry businesses, environmentalists and scientists.”

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Vikings cleared the forests, now Iceland is bringing them back

By Melissa Breyer
Treehugger
April 4, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Before the first settlers arrived, forests covered up to 40% of what is now barren Iceland. Reforestation has been challenging, but progress is being made. …While many might assume that the bare land has to do with location or climate, it has much more to do with the Vikings. …But now, thanks to the Icelandic Forest Service with assistance from forestry societies and forest farmers, trees are making a comeback. But alas, it’s not without some controversy. The only forest-forming species native to Iceland is downy birch (Betula pubescens). …But thanks to a changing climate, much of the downy birch that has been planted over the last half century has failed to thrive, and in fact, is dying. So there has been much effort made in identifying non-native species that are better suited for warmer temperatures, species such as spruces, pines and larch.

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Bob Brown Foundation holds tea party protest at Rapid River

By Lachlan Bennett
The Advocate
April 5, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

AUSTRALIA — Protesters have set up an impromptu tea party in the middle of forestry operations at Rapid River. Forestry operations were suspended after the protest commenced. …Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Weber said the globally unique rainforests of the Tarkine were “being logged right now for woodchips and the controversial Sarawak timber company Ta Ann”. “The logging of these ancient rainforests in the Rapid River is as bad as it gets for Tasmania,” she said. Liberal Braddon MHA Adam Brooks described the protest as an “irresponsible stunt” that disrupted workers in an area designated as a Permanent Timber Production Zone.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

New atlas shows projected impact of climate change across Canada’s major cities

By Noella Ovid
The Globe and Mail
April 4, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Toronto is expected to have more than 100 searing-hot days a year in the coming decades if it doesn’t reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new mapping project released by the University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre. …“Climate science has been something that has been inaccessible to Canadians. They hear about it in this top-down kind of way that the climate is changing and they haven’t been given the tools to see it,” said Dr. Ian Mauro, co-director of the project. …“We’ve got a big problem,” Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna said. …It’s forest fires that we saw in Fort McMurray and British Columbia, it’s flooding that we’ve seen in Eastern Ontario and Quebec.”

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The Government of Canada is helping Canadians understand and adapt to our changing climate

By Environment and Climate Change Canada
Cision Newswire
April 4, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

TORONTO – The Government of Canada is committed to helping Canadians understand and adapt to the ways climate change is affecting our environment, communities, and economy. Investing in climate adaptation is essential as we work to reduce carbon pollution and ensure a safe and prosperous future for our children and grandchildren. Today, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced in Toronto the Government of Canada’s work to create the Canadian Centre for Climate Services to provide reliable climate information, data, and tools as well as training and user support to help increase climate resilience across Canada. The Centre is an important part of implementing the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change.

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New pellet mill to transform landscape, create jobs

KRQE News 13
April 4, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

JEMEZ, N.M.  – Wildfires in the Jemez Mountains have left thousands of acres in the Santa Fe National Forest damaged. For many, that damage meant the loss of grazing areas, industry and other valuable lands. However, a new pellet mill is designed to change that.  “Having this mill here is a way for us to be able to take some of that material out of the forest and utilize,” that for economic development,” said James Melonas, a forest supervisor. After six years of hard work and planning, Walatowa Industries and local wood industry expert Terry Conely, are restoring the forests one load of damaged trees at a time. “Wood pellets are one thing that it doesn’t matter how crooked or how small or what you can make a wood pellet out of them,” said Terry Conely, TC Company owner. The factory will not only make pellets for burning, but it will also make wood chips for landscaping and even custom vigas for homes. 

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Health & Safety

Time to talk ticks

By Carolyn Grant
BC Local News
April 5, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

As the weather starts to warm up, people across the Interior Health region are spending more time outdoors. This can mean an uptick in tick bites. Ticks are small bugs, about the size of a sesame seed, which feed on the blood of humans and animals –and, sometimes, transmit diseases. Ticks are prevalent throughout the Interior and are typically found in tall grass and wooded areas. Signs of many tick-borne infections can be quite similar and include fever, headache, muscle pain, and rash. …Ixodes ticks are the species that transmit Lyme disease. They are more common throughout coastal B.C. but may be present in some Interior Health areas. While less than one per cent of Ixodes in B.C. carry Lyme disease, it is important to recognize the symptoms. 

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BC Forest Safety Council and FPInnovations work together to improve forest industry safety performance

By BC Forest Safety Council and FPInnovations
FPInnovations
April 5, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

Nanaimo and Vancouver – The CEO of the BC Forest Safety Council (BCFSC), Rob Moonen, and the President and CEO of FPInnovations, Stéphane Renou, are pleased to announce that the two organizations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work collaboratively on enhancing safety performance in the forest industry by sharing leading, innovative scientific and technical applications. Under the MOU, individual projects and financial support agreements for specific activities will be identified through consultation between the two parties, with FPInnovations providing research expertise and non-proprietary technical resources or materials to assist the BCFSC in improving or expanding the support it provides to the forest industry to reduce serious injuries and fatalities.

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