Daily Archives: April 9, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

COFI wrap-up includes Premier Horgan, CEO panel and a focus on fibre

April 9, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The Council of Forest Industries conference wrapped up last week with: Premier Horgan’s vision for the BC forest sector; CEO’s urging cooperation in the face of challenges and—not surprisingly—a focus on access to fibre. In other Business news:

  • Colin Robertson says it’s “lets make a deal” time for NAFTA
  • Marc Brinkmeyer says lumber prices will fall 20% as Canadian imports rise
  • North Carolina builder Matt Neil says lumber tariffs are raising home prices.

In Forestry news: ENGOs raise alarm over BC logging near critical whale habitat; BC adds funds to restore wildfire damaged forests; there’s no offseason for wildfire prevention in South Dakota; and a US report by a team of fire ecologies titled “everything you wanted to know about wildland fires”.

Finally, Oregon is betting that the skyscrapers of the future will be wooden, not the steel-boned towers seen today.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

What prize lies behind the NAFTA door?

By Colin Robertson, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
The Globe and Mail
April 9, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Colin Robertson

Donald Trump has decided it’s “Let’s Make a Deal” time for NAFTA. …Pursuing a big deal with negotiations suspended until next year, after the Mexican inauguration and new US Congress convenes. …So what would a revised NAFTA, even in a modest deal, look like? Dispute settlement is the red line for Canada and Mexico. The Trump administration is applying trade retaliation as never before. Canada has felt the U.S. sting on softwood lumber, Bombardier jets and newsprint. We also face tariffs on steel and aluminium – exemption depends on the NAFTA talks. Canada and Mexico must have redress, beyond the U.S. court system, from unilateral U.S. trade actions. …The negotiators and ministers have gone as far as they can go. If Mr. Trump is set on a “quick“ deal, then the three leaders must weigh in.

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Local start-up thrives with help from wood innovation funding and marketing and production experts

By Wood Innovates BC
Business in Vancouver
April 9, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

James Higgins and Vick Yau were fresh out of UBC when leading manufacturer Lynden Door took interest in their innovative vented door creation. But getting their company VanAir to that stage and beyond was quickly accelerated with the help of B.C. agencies that specialize in local wood projects. …The VanAir vented door provides ventilation in interiors without sacrificing acoustic and visual privacy. The door allows air to flow from one side, through its core, and out the other side. …Since its infancy, VanAir received support from associations that acquired funding from the Government of B.C.’s Wood First program. UBC Centre for Advanced Wood Processing (CAWP) is instrumental in taking Higgins and Yau’s prototype through the product development stage with Lynden Door.

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Horgan talks forestry at COFI convention

By Frank Peebles
The Prince George Citizen
April 6, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

…Horgan was the morning keynote speaker at the conference, his first time addressing the hundreds of forestry figures since becoming B.C. premier. It was his first opportunity to share his vision for the province’s backbone industry. He wanted to assure the crowd that despite his NDP government being new to them all, he was focused on maintaining their profitable ways. Even before he was made premier this past July he had already been to Washington, D.C., to get a personal orientation of the ongoing softwood lumber dispute. …Expanding foreign markets for B.C. wood was a main takeaway from that visit, and a philosophy already well ensconced in government dealings. …Running counter to the hopes of future prosperity is the official amount of wood allowed to be logged from the B.C. forest.

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COFI speakers urge co-operation, innovation in face of challenges

By Maria Church
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
April 6, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West
The B.C. forest industry gathered in Prince George this week to discuss industry trends, challenges, and solutions, and for the first time the audience at the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) annual conference included coastal companies. …The importance of co-operation among B.C.’s forest companies was running theme during the three-day conference. During the CEO panel, West Fraser’s Ted Seraphim, Sinclar Group’s Greg Stewart and Canfor’s Don Kayne all emphasised the progress in industry co-operation over the years, and the need for that to continue. The CEOs noted safety, in particular, as a priority for them, and an area in which mills are willing to learn from each other. …The conference saw a handful of presentations from government, including B.C.’s new Forests Minister Doug Donaldson, federal Minister of Transport Marc Garneau, B.C.’s Chief Forester Diane Nicholls, and new head of the Canadian Forest Service, Beth MacNeil.
 

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Not Surprisingly, Access To Fibre An Issue For COFI

By Cheryl Jahn
CKPG TV Prince George
April 6, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

PRINCE GEORGE — Premier John Horgan told the crowd at the Council of Forest Industries that this government is committed to the forest sector and will do what it can to ensure its continued success. …New developments in home construction. It also spoke to the need to continue with new market development, something Premier Horgan agreed with. …Premier Horgan had a message for the CEOs. Everyone, not just the big players, but smaller independents need access to fibre as well. “I’ve been working closely with the CEO’s of the major companies and also talking to the smaller operators that are actually desperately in need of more fibre for their operations to continue. So one of the messages today was ‘Let’s not leave the waste behind because of the rapid cut to address the beetle kill.’,” says Horgan.

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Making a living on lumber

By Elaine Williams
The Lewiston Tribune
April 8, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Marc Brinkmeyer

MOSCOW – The market price for lumber is at an all time high, but one of the nation’s top lumber executives doesn’t expect it to stay that way for long. Idaho Forest Group CEO Marc Brinkmeyer predicts… a 20 percent dip – as more Canadian wood enters the market in coming months. Last summer, fires dramatically reduced the amount of lumber imports into the United States from its northern neighbor. But that volume is expected to rise when logging season starts in May. A total of six new mills are being built in the southern part of Canada, bringing the total in that region to 57 and adding 11/2 billion of board feet to capacity, said Brinkmeyer, who leads one of the nation’s biggest lumber manufacturers. “Keep in mind, Canada’s forests are for jobs.

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Timber Report

By Rick Sohn
NR Today
April 7, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Rick Sohn

Log prices remain in 25-year record territory but have leveled off. Mortgage rates jumped as the Fed lifted the key interest rate to the highest in 10 years. Home prices continue to march upward. Recent trends of lumber, logs, home construction, and housing markets, are compared in this month’s timber report.  The price of lumber has dropped slightly, back to the January level. Yet, the price of logs remains strong, a 25-year record level at $893 per thousand board feet (MBF), due to the log shortage. Relative to January, the log price has leveled off. A standard we have used in this publication is whether or not the price of logs is more than double the price of studs. The current log prices are very strong, relative to lumber.

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Homebuilders group says lumber tariffs are raising home prices

By Russ Lay
The Outer Banks Voice
April 8, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Matt Neal

Kitty Hawk, NC — The Outer Banks Homebuilders Association is urging its members to contact members of Congress to urge repeal of the Trump Administration’s tariffs on Canadian soft lumber imports. Rising lumber prices have already increased the average price of a single-family home by $6,388 since January of last year. The NAHB points out that U.S. domestic production of softwood lumber is insufficient to meet the demand for construction of houses. …Canada supplied about 96 percent of the softwood lumber needed to make up that gap, and the tariffs have “acted as a tax” on American homebuyers, the NAHB contends. …Matt Neal, president of the Outer Banks Homebuilders Association, told the Voice “most builders here use Southern Yellow and other softwood pines and Canada has been a major supplier of the softwoods to local builders.”

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Jones Lumber Co. Buys Mississippi Mill

Building-Products.com
April 9, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Jones Lumber Co., Columbia, Ms., has purchased Rives & Reynolds Lumber, Natchez, Ms, allowing the company to expand its offerings by adding grade lumber to its production capabilities and opening up sales to the international market. Jones Lumber has multiple locations throughout Mississippi that are focused on building hardwood mats.  The addition of this mill in Natchez will allow Jones to expand its geographic footprint and diversify into the grade lumber business.  “…Wherever we go, it is our mission to enhance the lives of our employees and the communities they live in and we are excited to continue that charge in Natchez,” said Erik Toth, CEO of Jones Lumber Co.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Oregon Aims to Reach the Sky – With Wood

By Jayme Fraser
US News
April 9, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

VALE, ORE. — Oregon is betting that the skyscrapers of the future will be wooden, not the steel-boned towers seen today. Foresters, architects, engineers and state officials have invested heavily in “mass timber” technologies that allow wooden structures to stand taller and do so safely. …U.S. building codes do not provide guidelines for tall wooden structures, but Oregon hopes to change that. As part of an effort to replace lost logging and milling jobs, the state leads the country in researching and promoting “advanced wood products.””The architects and engineers feel like they found a new building material. They’re like kids in a candy store,” says Rob Freres of Freres Lumber in Lyons, which invented mass plywood panels. …”Environmental concerns drove a recent renaissance of wooden construction in Europe. In Oregon, it’s also fueled by the “shop local” ethos.

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Sappi to lift dissolving cellulose output

By Nick Hedley
Business Day
April 9, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Sappi expects to grow its dissolving wood pulp production capacity by about 50% over the next five years, says the group’s Southern Africa CEO, Alex Thiel. “Worldwide growth rates are about 4.5%. We’re quite fortunate in that our two main customers are really frontrunners and we see our capacity growth in dissolving pulp at about 8.5% per annum for the next five years — so we’re desperate in terms of adding capacity at this stage.” Sappi is investing in its dissolving wood pulp business to mitigate declining demand for paper. Dissolving wood pulp is used to produce viscose fibre for clothing and textiles, among other applications. “There’s strong demand, we’re getting good pricing,” Thiel told Business Day. Demand was being driven by a global shortage of cotton and a general preference for clothes made from viscose fibre rather than polyester.

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Forestry

No time machine for forestry: but local benefits could help

By Andru McCracken
The Rocky Mountain Goat
April 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Gene Runtz

For Robson Valley’s community forests, reintroducing a provincial policy that requires local wood be milled locally (called appurtenancy) won’t bring back old time prosperity, but the principle of tying wood harvesting to local communities could spur innovation in the local forest industry, managers say. Valemount Community Forest Manager Craig Pryor said the requirement to mill all wood locally would be devastating to the broader economy. Pryor points out that, in the Robson Valley area, the amount of wood that sustained CANFOR (and Slocan before it) has been divided up between BC Timber Sales, the now-existing community forests and the main tenure holder Carrier Lumber. He doesn’t think what is left would sustain a mill. Pryor suggested an alternative policy, like putting a portion of wood aside, perhaps 20%, that had to stay in the community for processing. 

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Northeast B.C. awarded $800,000 for forestry projects

The Alaska Highway News
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Northeast B.C. is receiving $803,050 for a pair of forestry improvement projects as part of a $134-million funding package announced Friday. The Forestry Enhancement Society of B.C. is handing out the funding to 71 projects across the province, with $99 million being given to groups in the Cariboo region to help regrow the forests that burned during the summer 2017 wildfires. In the Northeast, the Little Prairie Community Forest is receiving up to $500,000 for improvements, while the ministry of forests, lands, and natural resource operations will see $303,050, according to Steve Kozuki, executive director for the Forest Enhancement Society. …The Cariboo is receiving most of the funding because of the “extraordinary” situation caused by last year’s wildfires.

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Logging clash pulls NDP government from all sides, with whales’ ‘rubbing beaches’ at centre of dispute

By Justine Hunter
The Globe and Mail
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A pod of orca travelling in Johnstone Strait swims toward shore, coming breathtakingly close to the water’s edge before they turn aside. The whales then languorously sweep through the shallow waters, rubbing themselves on small, smooth pebbles that make the beaches in Robson Bight on the north end of Vancouver Island a critical habitat. …Dr. Spong is sounding the alarm about logging plans in Schmidt Creek, just around the corner from these beaches, which he fears will disrupt the whales’ unique and age-old traditions. …The B.C. government has issued logging permits for 221 hectares of old-growth forest in the area, with the blessing of the local Indigenous community, the Nanwakolas Council. …The NDP has long struggled with the balance between jobs and the environment − this case will also measure the party’s resolve to respect Indigenous self-governance.

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Sharing data can boost B.C.’s forestry industry, say tech experts

By Courtney Dickson
CBC News
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Information sharing between competing businesses and research facilities in B.C.’s forestry sector, could help grow the industry, rather than create more competition, according to tech experts. Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster Consortium was at the COFI Convention in Prince George on Thursday to talk about how superclusters can help forestry and other resource industries. Superclusters are innovation hotbeds, fuelled by dense regional economies that grow at rapid rates as a result of tight relationships between businesses, large and small, and post-secondary and other research institutions. With all the technology being used to understand B.C.’s forests, such as drones, ground surveys and satellite imaging, the sharing of information could ultimately lead to identifying potential hotspots for wildfires, figuring out how to manage forests, and understanding how infestations, such as the devastating pine beetle, spread. 

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Forest funds heritage in Lumby

Vernon Morning Star
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A major investment has been harvested for heritage in Lumby. The Monashee Community Forest has cut a cheque for $20,000 to the Lumby and District Museum. The funds will be used by the museum toward their building expansion project to build a learning centre to host seminars for children to learn about local history, industry, culture and recreation. ”The contribution by the Monashee Community Forest represents half of the estimated cost of the project; the museum already has the other half required, and so this contribution by the Monashee Community Forest will enable the museum to move the project forward,” said Jeremy Sundin, on behalf of MCF.

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B.C. adds funding to re-grow forests damaged by 2017 wildfires

By Ashley Wadhwani
Nanaimo News Bulletin
April 6, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The B.C. government continues to look ahead to what could be another summer of dry and extremely hot conditions, with funding announced Friday to restore more of the province’s forests. About $134 million is being divided to the regions that were hardest hit in last year’s wildfire season for 71 forest enhancement projects. The biggest share – $99 million – going towards projects in the Cariboo. The rest of the cash will be split between the Kootenays, Okanagan and coastal communities… About 30 per cent of those projects will be led by First Nations in the area. The fires on the Chilcotin Plateau, which includes Williams Lake and Quesnel, destroyed nearly 550,000 hectares of land, or roughly the same size as Prince Edward Island, making it the largest overall fire in B.C’s recorded history.

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Big Read: locked out of the woods

By Karly Blats
Campbell River Mirror
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

There are only two significant gaps and a handful of access agreements standing in the way of the Vancouver Island Spine Trail Association (VISTA) completing a 750-kilometre public trail system spanning the entire length of Vancouver Island. Those gaps lie between the Alberni Valley and Cumberland, and from the North boundary of Strathcona Park to the Gold River Highway. “Both of those pieces are mainly across private lands. [In the Beaufort Range] there’s a bit of crown land but it’s land locked crown land surrounded by private,” said Terry Lewis, VISTA director of operations. …But until access agreements to bridge the remaining gaps across private forest lands are negotiated, the trail will remain only 80 per cent complete.

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Crown wins appeal in legal fight with forest companies over cause of B.C wildfire

By Charlie Smith
The Georgia Straight
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Did lightning cause the Greer Creek wildfire near Vanderhoof in 2010? Or was it sparked by a logging contractor’s feller buncher, which is a piece of heavy equipment? That question has been at the centre of a lengthy legal fight between the B.C. government, Canfor Corporation, and one of its harvesting contractors, Barlow Lake Logging Ltd. It goes to the heart of determining liability for the $5.5-million cost of suppressing the 6,100-hectare wildfire. The blaze caused an evacuation of 30 homes and required the services of 60 firefighters, six helicopters, and two air tankers. On Friday (April 6), two out of three B.C. Court of Appeal judges upheld the B.C. government’s appeal of an earlier ruling. In 2016, B.C Supreme Court Justice Bruce Greyall dismissed the province’s claim of negligence, ruling that lightning caused the fire.  Appellate justices Daphne Smith and Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon ordered a new trial to hear the province’s claim of negligence.

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“More deer than the public will tolerate:” New Brunswick town aims to cut deer population

Canadian Press in The Chronicle Herald
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

ST. ANDREWS, N.B. — A picturesque East Coast tourist town is fighting to keep its deer population under control as residents deal with decimated gardens, damaged property and smelly surprises in their backyards. …St. Andrews boasts a warm climate, award-winning gardens and no natural predators — effectively creating a paradise for deer to live, eat, and reproduce. …A group of five fourth-year students from the University of New Brunswick’s faculty of forestry and environmental management are helping the town tackle this issue as part of their studies. The students looked at both lethal and non-lethal options for deer management, and are recommending a hunt and cull as the best way to deal with the infestation. …The hunt and cull recommendation may be controversial among residents, but Mayor Doug Naish said he welcomes the input from the UNB students.

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Cutting in Cumberland County: Even a clearcut can have its place

By Aaron Beswick
The Chronicle Herald
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Peter Allen

Peter Allen… he’s been at in Southampton, Cumberland County, for the past month — 40 minutes from his door just across the New Brunswick border in Point de Bute. …“I’m not saying every job is perfect, but most operators are respectful and try to balance the environment, the landowner’s interest and the fact that everyone needs to make a living.” And the job his crew was nearly finished on Friday was the one that raises everyone’s hackles — a clearcut. For the past month commuters driving into Halifax have been greeted by billboards claiming that 80,000 bird nests are destroyed each year by clearcuts. The controversial cutting technique will also fall under Bill Lahey’s microscope. The University of King’s College president is slated to release his independent review of this province’s forest practices by the end of this month.

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Everything you wanted to know about wildland forest fires but were afraid to ask

By Wild Nature Institute
Phys.Org
April 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

A team of fire ecologists released a report this week titled “Everything You Wanted To Know About Wildland Fires” summarizing the state of knowledge about forest fires on public lands. This report comes just days after the US Congress passed the Wildfire Suppression Funding and Forest Management Activities Act as part of the federal omnibus appropriations bill, and calls into question the activities prescribed in the Act and the faulty reasoning behind them. …The report, published by Forest Legacies, summarizes the latest science around the main wildfire issues, includes details on areas of scientific agreement and disagreement, and clarifies effective ways to coexist with wildfire. One of the key findings of the report was that large wildland fire complexes, including large patches of high-severity fire, generate critical ecological resource pulses of dead trees that are associated with extraordinary levels of biodiversity.

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City would get expert advice on treatment chemicals under emerald ash borer plan

By Nancy Hicks
Lincoln Journal Star
April 9, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The city of Lincoln would remove almost all of its 14,000 public ash trees over a 15-year period as part of the $22.8 million proposed emerald ash borer plan City Council members will consider in May. But during those 15 years, the city would treat some ash trees to slow down the death curve, reducing the number of trees dying each year, spreading out the cost of removing and replacing dead trees, and reducing the danger of having many dead, standing trees. The Community Forestry Advisory Board is recommending the city consult with experts when deciding what chemicals to use in response to warnings from several residents during a public hearing last month about the potential danger of some chemicals used to treat ash trees.

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There’s no offseason for wildfire prevention

By Senator John Thune
The Capital Journal
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

John Thune

South Dakota is no stranger to wildfires. In fact, while we’re technically still in the offseason, it was only a few months ago that the Legion Fire scorched tens of thousands of acres in Custer State Park… It was a good reminder, though, that there’s no offseason when it comes to discussing ways to reduce the risk of future wildfire incidents… Congress recently took an important step in that direction. Included in a newly enacted law, which I supported in the Senate, was a package of proposals that will take a significant financial burden off of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), one of the primary federal agencies that’s often tasked with both battling forest fires and helping to prevent them from happening in the first place.

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Bureau of Land Management to proceed with logging and burning near Marysville

By Tom Kuglin
Helena Independent Record
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Bureau of Land Management plans to proceed with logging and prescribed burning near Marysville in an effort to curb wildfire concerns. The agency announced Thursday the completion of environmental analysis including weighing issues raised from environmental groups and other federal and state agencies for the Marysville Landscape Restoration Plan. BLM owns about 14,000 acres of land 20 miles northwest of Helena and ruled that the project would not significantly impact the environment. Prescribed burning and some commercial and noncommercial logging would take place on about 3,700 acres, with BLM citing concerns about forest health and buildup of fuels as the need for the project. “In the (environmental assessment), we took a close look at vegetation conditions around Marysville and how they might have changed over the years,” BLM Butte Field Manager Scott Haight said in a news release.

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Group works to seek consensus on forest issues

By Gordy Sanders, chair, Montana Forest Collaboration Network Advisory Council
Montana Standard
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

All across the State of Montana, collaborative groups are working together to solve problems and develop solutions for our public lands. At the same time, we encourage our congressional delegation take a similar, collaborative and inclusive approach to charting the future of federal land management in Montana. Unresolved differences regarding National Forest management and a “winner take all” attitude have led to decades of bitter polarization and management challenges on the ground. Over a decade ago, we realized this attitude was extremely detrimental to achieving good public lands management outcomes.  …So, for the past 12 years, representatives of the timber industry, conservation community, U.S. Forest Service, non-profit sector and the state of Montana have been working to get to “yes”. Despite our differences, we have been successful in working within a shared common ground and a set of values and ideas that generates positive outcomes. 

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US Forest Service to burn up to 600 acres in Vermont

Associated Press in WAMC Northest Public Radio
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

RUTLAND, Vt. — The U.S. Forest Service says between 200 and 600 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest are going to be burned with prescribed fires as part of a project designed to improve wildlife habitat. The fires, in only a small portion of the 400,000-acre national forest, will reduce heavy accumulations of grass and brush to reduce the potential for large uncontrollable wildfires, to restore critical wildlife habitat, regenerate some vegetation and improve overall watershed conditions. The forest service says the prescribed fires are not likely to affect local residents, although smoke will be visible from the surrounding area and nearby residents may smell smoke.

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West Virginia University receives new forestry software developed by alumnus

By Conor Griffith
WVNews
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

MORGANTOWN— Forestry students at West Virginia University’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design have a new tool at their disposal, and it’s one developed by a fellow Mountaineer. The college soon will receive the Cruise Control Software from Lewis County-based Landmark Forestry. Cruise Control is a program designed to aid foresters in data collection and processing for forest inventory. It was created by 1986 forest resources management graduate and Landmark Forestry President Michael McWhorter to assist his employees in 2000. But he discovered it could be beneficial for all types of timber cruising and a way to estimate the amount of standing timber that a forest contains. “Exposing forestry students to the latest technology as related to their field of interest is paramount to having a well-rounded education, as well as being a little more workforce ready,” McWhorter said.

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Zagros oak forests would cry out if they could!

By Mohammad Ali Haqshenas
Tehran Times
April 8, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Zagros forests begin in northwestern West Azarbaijan province, along the Zagros mountain range, and extend to southern Fars province. The forests … cover an area of some 6 million hectares which is 40 percent of the country’s forest area. …Almost half of the oak trees in the forest areas of western Ilam and Kohgiluyeh-Boyer-Ahmad provinces are suffering from charcoal disease which can ultimately destroy the whole forest, said Omid Sajjadian, a board member of ‘Zagros green movement’ environmental group. …Illegal logging can be regarded as one the main causes of deforestation in the world and in Iran. A shocking report was broadcasted on TV on Friday night which showed the illegal logging activities in Zagros oak forests in Fars Province and the unbelievable low price that these old precious timbers are being sold at.

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Opinion: Rotorua needs to take advantage of growth fund

By Allison Lawton
The New Zealand Herald
April 7, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Shane Jones

….From a business perspective, the chamber hosted Minister Shane Jones on Wednesday at a lunch function. Jones holds the Regional Economic Development portfolio and also is the Associate Transport Minister; both of these portfolios are very important to our city’s economic growth and development. So, in real terms how is Rotorua benefiting from this coalition government? Within the space of five months, we know the Ministry of Forestry is being established in Rotorua. Jones was questioned about the reasons for the Rotorua location, and what the organisation structure will be. He stated Rotorua is the natural home for the ministry because of where we are located ie, surrounded by forests and the associated industries and skills supporting the forestry and wood sector. He added while the ministry will be small, it will be staffed by a chief executive, supported by a small, highly technical team.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Sustainably managed forestry is carbon-neutral

By Noelle Arena, Society of American Foresters
The Register-Guard
April 8, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Noelle Arena

It’s telling that Shannon Wilson’s Feb. 25 guest viewpoint, “To address climate change, stop clear-­cutting,” complains that some of Oregon’s larger environmental organizations “ignore” the carbon impacts of clear-cutting. Perhaps, rather than committing “environmental nonprofit malpractice” as Wilson asserts, these organizations are smart enough to acknowledge widely accepted, peer-reviewed science indicating that active forest management is indeed carbon-­neutral. The Oregon Society of American Foresters — along with the Oregon Legislature, the U.S. Congress and many other policy and scientific organizations — joins those environmental organizations in supporting the assertion that sustainably managed forests can reduce greenhouse gas concentrations by sequestering atmospheric carbon in trees and soil, and by storing carbon in wood products made from the harvested trees.

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Maine utility regulators OK $1.2 million subsidy for biomass plant

By Steve Mistler
Bangor Daily News
April 6, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

The Maine Public Utilities Commission voted Wednesday to approve a $1.2 million taxpayer subsidy to an embattled biomass company operating two plants in West Enfield and Jonesboro. The vote by the three-member commission largely followed the recommendation of PUC staff, which found last month that Stored Solar LLC met only one of its three contract obligations while falling well short of the other two. It maintained the agreed upon number of jobs but purchased less than 40 percent of the waste wood it promised and spent $1 million less on capital expenditures than it was supposed to. Some lawmakers said the $1.2 million subsidy should be reduced further based on that performance. But during deliberations held Wednesday, PUC chairman Mark Vannoy said the payment is far less than Stored Solar could have received.

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The Queen’s Green Planet: Documentary to see Queen and David Attenborough discuss climate change

Business Green
April 9, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

David Attenborough and the Queen

The Queen is set to star alongside broadcaster and environmentalist Sir David Attenborough in a one-off documentary special next week focused on the monarch’s plan to create a global network of protected forests across the Commonwealth. Set to air on ITV on Monday 16th April, the documentary is believed to be the first time Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has publicly acknowledged climate change as a threat to the planet. The show is also expected to demonstrate the Queen’s long-standing “passion for nature”, according to ITV. Titled The Queen’s Green Planet, the hour-long programme will centre on “often humorous” conversations between Elizabeth II and Attenborough, in a bid to promote the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) project.

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Health & Safety

Forestry Safety Association holding annual conference April 11 in Corner Brook

By Dave Kearsey
The Western Star
April 7, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada East

Dion Newman

…The Forestry Safety Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, under the leadership of executive director Dion Newman, will address concerns with safety in the workplace at its annual health and safety conference April 11 at the Corner Brook Civic Centre. In this province, statistics reveal, according to Newman, that there are 15 workers injured during every 24-hour period and that’s something he believes is alarming. Luckily, some of these people only require first-aid and others just miss a bit of time at work, but it’s cases like Shane’s that really cause heartache and show the human cost of an accident in the workplace. The Corner Brook native believes every effort has to be made to make things safer on the job site and it means everybody with a vested interest playing a role in making it happen.

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