Daily Archives: October 31, 2018

Today’s Takeaway

Spider’s propensity for human blood and Weyerhaeuser’s haunted house. Must be Halloween.

October 31, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

Spider’s propensity for human blood (there isn’t any) and Weyerhaeuser’s haunted mansion top the news on Halloween. A few headlines for those not searching for the paranormal include:

Finally, more on the historic code changes proposed for tall wood (and reinforced steel) in the US, and those that oppose them.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Scared by Spiders? Get Over It!

By Catherine Bartlett
Scientific American Blog
October 30, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States

Halloween is for celebrating the scary: imaginary monsters—ghouls, goblins and ghosts—along with real but scary-seeming creatures such as bats, black cats and spiders. …Although spiders are common houseguests year-round, during October they finally get their due, although it’s not necessarily favorable. With over 47,000 described species, around 3,400 of which live in North America, most Americans have spiders as roommates whether they like it or not. …These arachnids (part of phylum Arthropoda) eat billions of insects yearly—mosquitoes, for example. …Fortunately, spiders want nothing to do with humans. Over the last hundreds of millions of years of their evolution they’ve never once shown a propensity to take a blood meal from us, unlike ticks.

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Weyerhaeuser Mansion – The Haunted House on the Hill

By Ellen Tsagaris
The Dispatch-Argus
October 31, 2018
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US West

The Quad-Cities has been home to many violent crimes and macabre deaths. …One of our most famous ghosts is the ghost from Augustana’s House on the Hill, once the mansion of the Frederick Weyerhaeuser lumber family and home to beloved Dean Betsey Brodahl. The protective spirit is allegedly Apollonia Weyerhaeuser Davis, a daughter of the Weyerhaeuser family. Apollonia was the last family member to reside there until she died in 1953. Some of the ghostly happenings associated with the House on the Hill spirits include locked doors suddenly hanging ajar, antiques moved and rearranged, and water running from faucets that weren’t turned on before. …In fact, paranormal investigators who visited the Weyerhaeuser Mansion claim to have found evidence of supernatural visitors.

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Business & Politics

Conifex Announces Completion of Refinancing of Power Project

Conifex Timber
Global Newswire
October 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

VANCOUVER — Conifex Timber announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Conifex Power Limited Partnership completed a $70 million secured term loan with a syndicate of private lenders to refinance its existing loan.  The Loan has a 15-year term, is secured by substantially all of the power segment assets and bears interest at a rate of 6.10% per annum. The Loan is expected to be fully amortized over its 15-year term, which ends approximately 18 months before the remaining term of Conifex Power Limited Partnership’s Electricity Purchase Agreement with B.C. Hydro and Power Authority. 

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Quesnel Fire Dept receives equipment donation from West Fraser Mills

By Melanie Law
The Quesnel Cariboo Observer
October 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Members of the Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department have some new equipment to test out, courtesy of West Fraser Mills. The local mill donated $25,000 worth of equipment to local firefighters, including two rescue saws, one portable generator, two battery-operated LED flood lights and 50 pairs of work boots – a pair for each active member. …“We are pleased to support the Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department with important equipment. All of our operations are grateful for their dedication to keeping our community safe,” commented Chris Finch, general manager of the Quesnel sawmill operation.

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NAWLA – Building Something Special for 125 Years

By David Koenig, Building Products Digest
North American Wholesale Lumber Association
October 17, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

For 125 years, the North American Wholesale Lumber Association (NAWLA) has provided lumber wholesalers with services, camaraderie and a shared voice, one that resonates as strongly today as at any time in its history. Certainly, the road has not always been a smooth one. But the need for an organization like NAWLA has been unmistakable. Through the 1880s, most state lumber dealers associations were comprised of both wholesalers and retailers, who saw their roles as wholly distinct. Mills would manufacture the product, sell it to regional wholesalers, who would place it with local retailers, who would re-sell it to the final end-users. But by 1890, the economy began to falter, and some retailers—desperate to cut their costs—started going around the wholesalers and approached mills to buy direct. At the same time, some wholesalers started going around retailers by selling direct to end-users. Once fraternal groups suddenly turned acrimonious, and both retailers and wholesalers began abandoning the associations en masse.

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Impact of log yard detailed before port, Clallam commissioners

Peninsula Daily News
October 30, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

PORT ANGELES — The pivotal economic role of the Port of Port Angeles’ log yard was extolled Monday in a joint meeting of port and Clallam County commissioners.  Its virtues include hosting a customer that provides 80 percent of the wood fiber processed by Port Townsend Paper Corp., which manufacture kraft pulp, paper, containerboard and specialty products. The Port and Clallam County commissioners met in joint session at the port administration building to discuss issues of common interest and hear a 50-minute presentation by port consultant and Peninsula College economics Professor Daniel Underwood of Olympus Consulting. Underwood gave his report, “The Port of Port Angeles Log Yard: A Nexus for the Revitalization of Economic Welfare in Clallam County,” to port Commissioners Connie Beauvais, Colleen McAleer and Steve Burke and Clallam County Commissioners Bill Peach and Randy Johnson.

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Wood fiber costs for the world’s pulp industry fell for the first time in over a year

The American Journal of Transportation
October 31, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The two WRI global wood fiber prices indices fell slightly in the 2Q/18 after having increased for all of 2017 and early 2018. For most of the key pulp-producing regions, prices were down because of the strengthening US dollar, while prices in the domestic currencies generally have gone up the past year. In the 2Q/18, both of WRI’s global fiber price indices fell for the first time in five quarters, mainly because of the strengthening of the US dollar against currencies in all countries covered by the Wood Resource Quarterly. The 2Q/18 Global Softwood Fiber Price Index (SFPI) decreased slightly from the 1Q/18 but was still 7.8% higher than in the same quarter in 2017. Quarter-over-Quarter, softwood fiber prices fell the most in Brazil, Russia, Sweden and New Zealand.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

ICC moves tall wood regulations forward to full vote

By Kim Slowey
Construction Dive
October 30, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Oregon has already incorporated tall mass timber construction into its building codes… Many states incorporate all or part of the IBC into their construction regulations, but, if there is any doubt on the part of local officials as to the safety of wood high-rises, states can choose not to include the new provisions. And advocacy groups on both sides of the tall wood debate are likely lining up to influence state and local decision making in this regard.  The Portland Cement Association is an outspoken opponent of tall wood construction and recently sponsored an online survey that showed 75% of the 800 respondents believed raising the allowable height of wood buildings was a bad idea because wood was not strong and required more maintenance than other materials (33%); was a fire hazard (31%); would weaken and fail faster than other materials (10%); and would be less likely to hold up in natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes (8%).

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Historic Mass-Timber and High-Strength-Rebar Code Proposals Make Headway

By Nadine M. Post
Engineering News-Record
October 30, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Proponents of two historic code changes—one to allow taller mass-timber buildings and the other to allow use of higher-strength reinforcing steel—are optimistic after recent ballots at two different meetings moved the proposals closer to acceptance by code officials and standards developers. …The other historic change would be the adoption of provisions, also in the 2021 IBC, to allow mass-timber framing in residential and office buildings as tall as 270 ft. …The ICC’s online voting, which runs for two weeks beginning mid-November, will determine whether the primary proposal, called G108–along with the other 13 related proposals on mass timber also approved on Oct. 24–will actually be included in the 2021 IBC. Preliminary results of the online tally will likely be announced in mid-December. …TWB is introducing three new types of construction for the Type IV classification of buildings, each with different height possibilities based on occupancy classification and the design of the mass-timber system.

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Forestry

Prescribed burns in Valley

By Rob Gibson
Castanet
October 30, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

…”Quastuco Silviculture Ltd would like to notify the readers of Castanet that our fall forestry waste reduction activities will be commencing on Monday October 29th,” says Scott Overland, President of Quastuco Silviculture. …Companies like  Quastuco Silviculture are hired by Weyerhaeuser and Gorman Bros Lumber to burn operational waste on areas harvested over the previous year.  …”Our activities will be potentially viewable along major corridors from Oliver to Kelowna and Kelowna to Big White. Main areas where you may see smoke or fires at night are in the following areas: Naramata, Summerland, Peachland, Joe Rich, Oliver and Penticton.  

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NRCan Research Scientist to Deliver Doug Little Memorial Lecture

Prince George Citizen
October 30, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Dr. Michael Wulder

Free and open access to data generated by satellite remote sensing technology has made Dr. Michael Wulder’s job a lot easier – so much so that he will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Doug Little Memorial Lecture, set for Thursday evening at UNBC. The senior research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada will deliver a lecture entitled Sometimes a Crazy Plan Comes Together: How Open Data Unlocked Remote Sensing for Forest Monitoring. Wulder uses remotely sensed and spatial data to study and monitor forests across Canada, over a range of scales, contributing to national and international programs. “Having access to free and open data in a form ready for analysis means spending more

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McNeil silent on forestry review as clearcutters rev engines

Letter by Brad Armstrong, Friends of Nature
The Chronicle Herald
October 31, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Recently, a loud noise was heard coming from Province House in Halifax… the basement door being slammed shut on another government report — the Lahey forestry review. Just kidding. …Clearcutting on our Crown land base still continues on a daily basis. …Has the Department of Lands and Forestry not listened to anything in the last 50 years in terms of doing what the taxpayers have asked for — which is to responsibly manage the forests on our Crown/public lands? …The public has a right to know what our government is going to do in terms of implementing the Lahey report. The silence is deafening!

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

First Things First Okanagan speaker explores climate change and B.C. wildfires

By Barry Gerding
Pentiction Western News
October 30, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Rob Gray

Climate change is not as bad as you think it might be. It’s worse. The gloom and doom scenario is the current reality of how extreme temperatures are changing our environment and accelerating the risk of floods in the spring and forest fires in the summer, says Rob Gray, a forestry fire science analyst. “The current weather trend is a bit worrying. It appears we are going to have a mild winter so the drought conditions of the past two years are likely to carry over to next year,” said Gray.  “I did a podcast for CBC back in the spring of 2017 talking longer fire seasons, less snow in the winter, less precipitation in the summer and more dry lightning, look for that to start to kick in more within another two decades, and that’s what happened in 2017 and again in 2018.

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