Daily Archives: March 15, 2019

Today’s Takeaway

BC’s leadership in mass timber ‘years in the making’

March 15, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

BC’s engineered wood leadership was many years in the making [decades actually]. Stories celebrating the evolution include: more tall wood on the way (Business in Vancouver); what mass timber means for Vancouver Island (CHEK News); Kalesnikoffs to build mass timber facility (West Kootenays); and Portland readies for the largest gathering of mass timber experts in the world. Elsewhere: the World Council on tall buildings updates criteria for what qualifies as ‘all timber‘; and an Arkansas lawmaker says “if we want more trees, we should use more wood products“.

In Forestry/Climate news: Nova Scotia to regulate biodiversity; a US study on barriers to northward tree migration; and a climate project aims to help BC forest professionals rethink their prescriptions.

Finally, six years later Resolute vs. Greenpeace continues; and after seven years California’s drought is finally over.

Oh… and have a Happy St. Paddie’s Day weekend.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Froggy Foibles

Tree frog art installation goes up outside Powell River Public Library

By Paul Galinski
The Powell River Peak
March 14, 2019
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: Canada, Canada West

Powell River Public Library has taken a leap into a new art installation. A metal sculpture representing a Pacific tree frog was installed on the southeast corner of the library, adjacent to Alberni Street, after having been commissioned by the Rotary Club of Powell River. …Various options were explored, but it boiled down to a leaping Pacific tree frog that is indigenous to the area.

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Business & Politics

Shypitka tasks Province to renew Energy Purchase Agreement for Skookumchuck Pulp Mill

By Wylie Henderson
The Drive FM
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kootenay East’s MLA is calling on the BC Government to renew Skookumchuck Pulp Mill’s Energy Purchase Agreement to generate and sell green electrical energy to BC Hydro. Tom Shypitka touched on the subject at last week’s Regional District of East Kootenay meeting. The current agreement sees the mill burning biomass, mostly bark, with a portion of the generated energy powering the mill, and the rest is sold to BC Hydro. “They collect bark all over the Kootenay’s, close to 10,000 trucks a year,” says Shypitka. The biomass is burned at a high temperature, and the energy generated from that practice is used to power the mill, while the rest is sold to BC Hydro. The agreement was put into place in 2001 and expires at the end of the year.

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Kalesnikoff Lumber Company Announces New $35 Million Mass Timber Facility in West Kootenays

The Nelson Daily
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Kalesnikoff Lumber Company is pleased to announce North America’s most advanced, fully integrated, multi-species mass timber manufacturing facility in South Slocan, B.C. which will create 50 new, full-time, technology-centered local jobs. Kalesnikoff’s $35 million mass timber investment will encompass construction of a new 110,000 sq ft. building. …“We see mass timber as a natural and exciting innovation and next step for our company and team,” said Chris Kalesnikoff, Chief Operating Officer of Kalesnikoff Lumber Company. …This new facility is scheduled to open in late 2019 with a full product line by the summer of 2020, creating 50 new technology-centered, local jobs and expanded community benefits.  Kalesnikoff will begin recruitment later this year.

For another version of the story see the Nelson Star: Kalesnikoff announces $35 million South Slocan facility

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Heads should roll at Alberta Environment over misguided Domtar land strategy

By Keith Gerein
The Edmonton Journal
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Shannon Phillips

Incorrect and unreasonable. The phrase appears 17 times in a new Environmental Appeals Board ruling, describing the behaviour of the provincial government to stymie a housing development on the former Domtar industrial lands in northeast Edmonton. If anything, the words are an understatement. While professional in its language, the board’s report is scathing in the details, outlining an overzealous misuse of authority by Alberta Environment in pursuing a series of cleanup orders for the site. …To her credit, Environment Minister Shannon Phillips accepted the board’s recommendations and quashed her department’s orders. And did so before the election, which was the right thing to do even if wasn’t necessarily the politically astute thing to do.

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Old Edmonton Domtar site not a health emergency; developer ‘vindicated’ by environmental board report

By Emily Mertz
Global News
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Environmental Appeals Board released its report into the old Domtar wood treatment site in north Edmonton — now being developed into housing — and found “there is no immediate risk to these residents and other people.” The board said more cleanup and remediation work “needs to be done as soon as practical” at certain areas of the site and at the adjacent Verte Homsteader and Overlanders communities. “But none of this work is an emergency as suggested by the director,” the report reads. …“In the board’s view, disturbing the material on the site… would have posed a greater risk, particularly to the residents, than leaving it in place and taking the time to develop a well-considered plan and properly execute the plan to deal with the site.”

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Six years later, Resolute lawsuit against Greenpeace continues

By Gary Rinne
Thunder Bay News Watch
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY — A lawsuit filed by Resolute Forest Products against Greenpeace remains unresolved, six years after it was launched. A Superior Court justice in Thunder Bay is managing the case which is still in the discovery stage, with no trial scheduled as yet. In May 2013, Resolute filed a suit for defamation and economic interference, seeking $7,000,000 from Greenpeace Canada and two of its staff members. The company alleged it had been harmed by false statements about its management practices in the Canadian boreal forest. Greenpeace denied the allegations and charged that Resolute was out to silence its critics with a SLAPP  (strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuit.

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CO2 Solutions Begins Commissioning of its Carbon Capture Unit at the Resolute Pulp Mill in Saint-Félicien, Quebec

By C02 Solutions Inc.
Cision Newswire
March 14, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

QUEBEC CITY – CO2 Solutions Inc. today provided an update on the Corporation’s first commercial project with Fibrek General Partnership, a subsidiary of Resolute Forest Products Inc., and Serres Toundra Inc. The project involves the deployment of a 30-tonne per day (tpd) CO2capture unit and ancillary equipment at Resolute’s pulp mill in Saint-Félicien, Quebec and the commercial reuse of the captured CO2 by the adjacent Toundra Greenhouse complex. The Corporation is pleased to announce that the start of the commissioning of the CO2 capture unit officially took place on March 14, 2019. This start-up was preceded by the successful pre-operation verifications of each of the capture unit’s systems, after which the unit was put into operation and the first tonnes of CO2 were captured. The Corporation now expects to ramp up the overall capture rate to validate the unit’s nominal capacity of 30 tonnes of CO2 per day.

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Registration Opens for Forest Products Expo

Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Exposition
March 15, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Registration is now open to attend the 35th Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Exposition – EXPO 2019. This three-day event will be held June 26-28 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. Sponsored and conducted by the Southern Forest Products Association (SFPA) every two years since 1950, this event has traditionally included many of the biggest names in the business, attracting key representatives from the nation’s largest wood products manufacturers. The show for 2019 is shaping up to be another record event – larger than the 2017 show – continuing to benefit from an industry-wide recovery and many companies with ongoing upgrades underway. More than 150 companies are set to exhibit the latest equipment and services for the forest products industry, across nearly 55,000 square feet of indoor space. “More than 92% of the floor plan is under contract,” notes SFPA exposition director Eric Gee.  “Many exhibitors returning from the 2017 show have expanded their displays for EXPO 2019, plus we have many first-time exhibitors,” he adds.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood

By Graham Lawton
New Scientist
March 13, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

…“Wood could be used in cars,” says materials scientist Liangbing Hu at the University of Maryland. He recently received a massive grant to build cars out of high-tech wood, and he doesn’t have the road to himself. Engineers in Japan are also working on a wooden concept car due to be unveiled at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. But cars are just the green shoots of a growing wood revolution. In materials science labs and design studios around the world, people are working on an entire civilisation built from wood. In this future, steel, concrete, plastics and even electronics have been felled by wood. Wooden cars ply streets towered over by wooden skyscrapers with wooden windows. Wooden aeroplanes fly overhead, powered by wooden batteries. People wear wooden clothes and use mobile phones made from wood. It may sound like toy town, but it is deadly serious. [A digital subscription to New Scientist is required to read this full article]

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More tall wood buildings may be on the way in B.C.

By Joannah Connolly
Business in Vancouver
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Hardy Wentzel

There could soon be a rise – literally – in wooden residential buildings across the province, after the B.C. government announced changes to the provincial Building Code to allow for mass timber structures of up to 12 storeys, up from the previous limit of six storeys. …Hardy Wentzel, CEO of Structurlam, told Glacier Media in a recent interview, “CLT and other forms of mass timber have been used widely for more than two decades in Europe. Although mass timber is a nascent material here in B.C., we’re at a point where we’re seeing a groundswell of product acceptance in the marketplace – and B.C. is at the North American forefront of understanding and proliferation of the product.” …It is theoretically possible to build any height of building out of mass timber, even a skyscraper, said Wentzel – but he believes eight- to 10-storey buildings are the “sweet spot” in terms of what’s needed.

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New Heights: What mass timber construction means for Vancouver Island [VIDEO]

By Tess van Straaten
Chek News
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tess van Straaten

WATCH: Vancouver Island’s first 12-storey mass timber building touted as faster, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly. But what about safety concerns? Tess van Straaten takes a look. Construction crews are hard at work on two new condo towers in Esquimalt —part of a major building boom in the township. “It’s quite exciting actually, with the number of projects that have come through and been approved,” says Esquimalt mayor Barb Desjardins. One of those projects is Vancouver Island’s first 12-storey mass-timber condo tower. The 83-unit Corvette Landing will be built along Admirals by the entrance to CFB Esquimalt. “Where you had two single family homes, we will have a 12-stories of units so there’s a significant boost to the municipal taxes,” Desjardins says. Projects like this, and the record-breaking 18-storey Brock Commons Tallwood House at UBC, are pushing wood buildings to new heights.

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More tall wood buildings may be on the way in BC

By Joannah Connolly
Business in Vancouver
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

There could soon be a rise – literally – in wooden residential buildings across the province, after the B.C. government announced changes to the provincial Building Code… “Mass timber technology allows faster construction,”… said housing minister Selina Robinson in the March 13 announcement. “The faster we can deliver the homes that people need, the better for communities right across B.C.” The benefits have already started to be embraced by multi-family residential developers such as Adera Development Corporation. …Its latest such project is Virtuoso, a sold-out six-storey condo and townhome development at UBC’s Westbrook Village that won a Georgie Award on March 9 for Best Multi-Family Mid/High-Rise Residential Building. … Other construction companies are also embracing mass timber, including laneway home builders such as Rockridge Fine Homes. Rockridge is supplied by B.C.’s leading CLT manufacturer Structurlam.

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B.C.’s engineered wood leadership many years in the making

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News in Peace Arch News
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

For many B.C. residents, their experience with engineered wood construction began in the high school gym. …Since then it has been a steady evolution into cross-laminated panels and other “mass timber” elements, with the latest beam technology featured world-wide in the roof of the vast Richmond speed-skating oval built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. That evolution took another step forward this week, as Premier John Horgan… announce the B.C. building code is being changed from a limit of six storeys for wood construction to 12. …And the U.S. is considering an International Code Council recommendation to allow buildings up to 18 storeys high by 2021. …By 2016, the 18-storey Brock Commons residence at UBC was the talk of Asia. …FPInnovations, a federally-led wood research network with facilities at UBC, assisted with the design of Brock Commons, and the Canadian Wood Council, a national industry group, has funded demonstration projects in Asia. 

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CLT for the masses

By Joseph Gallivan
The Business Tribune
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, OR — Billed as the largest gathering of cross-laminated timber and other mass timber experts in the world, the International Mass Timber Conference is coming to Portland next week. With more than 1,200 experts from 22 countries expected to attend the conference (March 19-21). …The keynote speaker on Thursday is Paul Williamson, Managing Director, Modular Housing for Swan Housing in the U.K. …Swan designs modular two-story houses and some apartments which are built in a factory in Basildon, Essex, just east of London. Swan is a housing association, which in the U.K. provides low-cost social housing for people in need of a home.

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Are Iowa City apartments safe?

By Anna Banerjee
The Daily Iowan
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

…Justin Fox recently published an interesting project in Bloomberg titled, “Why America’s New Apartment Buildings All Look the Same.” …Except these aesthetic concerns are only the very beginning of the problems that these apartment complexes pose. Yes, they’re ugly, but are they even safe? Fox reports that stick framing… can pose major concerns in terms of fire safety for these apartment types. …The dangers of stick-framing were further extrapolated in the Fox piece. He cited the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which was devastating because of the wood-framing used throughout thousands of buildings. This type of construction is dangerous if it comes into contact with situations such as a large fire. That it is so prevalent in construction across the country, and in Iowa City, is a cause for concern.

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Tall Buildings Council Dubs New Tallest Timber Building

By Nadine Post
Engineering News-Record
March 14, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has dubbed the 85.4-meter Mjøstårnet, in Brumunddal, Norway, as the world’s tallest timber building. At the same time, the group amended the official guidelines to measure and rank building height – to recognize timber as a structural material. The update was prompted by the recent uptick of tall timber buildings currently under construction or in planning around the world. …According to the revised criteria, “both the main vertical/lateral structural elements and the floor spanning system must be constructed from timber.” An “all-timber” structure may include the use of localized non-timber connections between timber elements. A hybrid building of timber construction with a floor system of concrete planks, or concrete slab on top of timber beams, is still considered a timber structure.

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Forestry

Community forests conference delves into wildfire preparedness, management and recovery

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
The Williams Lake Tribune
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jennifer Gunter

A two-day conference focused on wildfire preparedness, management and recovery took place in Williams Lake this week. “We have about 79 attendees from throughout the province who include community forest managers, provincial government staff and researchers,” said Stephanie Ewen, manager of the Alex Fraser Research Forest. …On Tuesday, a draft protocol agreement between the BC Wildfire Service, woodlot licences and community forest agreement holders was released at the conference. …BC Community Forest Association executive director Jennifer Gunter said community forests are very motivated to be engaged in wildfire management and mitigation trying to protect their communities and also manage forests in a way that brings back resiliency. “We want to lay out a framework that community forests and woodlots can use in communication with the fire centre staff in their zone,” Gunter said.

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B.C. approves 314 new cutblocks in endangered caribou habitat over last five months

By Sarah Cox
The Narwhal
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The B.C. government approved 314 new logging cutblocks in the critical habitat of southern mountain caribou over the past five months, while simultaneously negotiating conservation plans to protect the highly endangered species, according to maps released Thursday by the Wilderness Committee. The new cutblocks cover almost 16,000 hectares in total, an area almost eight times the size of the city of Victoria. The Wilderness Committee discovered a sharp spike in logging approvals in the critical habitat of B.C.’s eight most imperilled caribou herds, where last October the group documented an additional 83 new cutblocks covering an area the equivalent of 11 Stanley Parks in size. “On the one hand B.C. says it’s protecting caribou while on the other they’re handing out permits to log habitat as fast as they can,” said Charlotte Dawe, the Wilderness Committee’s conservation and policy campaigner.

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City council to send another letter to Ministry of Lands, Forests about Snowden

By Twila Amato
My Campbell River Now
March 13, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – The City of Campbell River feel the response from the Ministry of Lands, Forests and Natural Resource Operations is not enough. Minister Doug Donaldson responded to a letter the council sent to the province regarding the Snowden Demonstration Forest and the BC Timber Sales’ (BCTS) plan to move ahead with timber harvesting in the area without a long-range plan. The letter from Minister Donaldson acknowledged the letter council sent on February 21st, but there was no indication of when a comprehensive forest management plan will be available. During Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Andy Adams said it’s important to keep in mind that Snowden is significant not just economically, but for recreation and tourism purposes as well.

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Tree Farm Licence 59 cut level gets a slight reduction

By Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
Government of British Columbia
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Effective immediately, the allowable annual cut for Weyerhaeuser’s Tree Farm Licence 59 in the South Okanagan will have an allowable annual cut level of 60,700 cubic metres. This is an 8% decrease from the previous cut level of 66,000 cubic metres per year set in 2018. This new, lower cut level takes into account changes in forestry practices to accommodate First Nations interests, including cutblock size, stream riparian zones and cumulative effects. “After carefully reviewing all the available information on timber and non-timber resources in Tree Farm Licence 59, and consulting with First Nations, I am reducing the allowable annual cut,” said Diane Nicholls, chief forester. “I am satisfied the new cut level is sustainable, considers the area’s biodiversity, wildlife and socio-economic concerns, and respects Indigenous interests.” The tree farm licence covers about 46,500 hectares, with approximately 43,000 hectares available for timber harvesting.

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Nova Scotia to become first province to regulate biodiversity

By Michael Gorman
CBC News
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Iain Rankin

The provincial government is taking the first steps to better protect biodiversity in Nova Scotia. Lands and Forestry Minister Iain Rankin tabled the Biodiversity Act on Thursday. The move is something requested in the independent review of forest practices. The act will help manage threats to ecosystems and better protect wild species, said Rankin. It closes gaps where the Wildlife Act, Endangered Species Act and other legislation might not have applied, he said. In particular, Rankin said the bill would better protect invertebrates, plants and their ecosystems along with species before they become endangered. “We needed something proactive to help keep common species common.”

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Ontario Woodlot Association holding 26th conference and AGM

The Belleville Intelligencer
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Ontario Woodlot Association will hold its 26th Annual Woodlot Conference and Annual General Meeting April 4 and 5 in Cobourg. …The event opener on Thursday, April 4 is a tour of the Northumberland County Forest guided by Todd Farrell, County Forest Manager. …The Ontario Woodlot Association, through its network of Chapters across the province… ensure the viability of private land forests in southern Ontario… promote sustainable forestry management and advocate on behalf of woodlot owners.

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Canada to host international summit to accelerate nature protection

By Environment and Climate Change Canada
Cision Newswire
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONTRÉAL – Nature is our most precious resource. Across the globe, people are waking up to the fact that we need to do more to protect our nature and its biodiversity – the animals, plants, and wilderness that we value and rely on. Canada is taking action, making historic investments in conservation and doubling the amount of nature we protect across our lands and oceans. But this is a global problem that requires a global solution. By bringing global champions of nature together, we can find the innovative solutions that the world needs. Today, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, announced that Canada will host a Nature Champions Summit in Montréal, from April 24 to 25, 2019, to ramp up global action to protect nature.

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Spruce Beetle replaces Mountain Pine Beetle as biggest insect threat to Colorado forests

By Deepan Dutta
Summit Daily
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Colorado State Forest Service released its annual report on the health of the state’s forests last week, and it showed the growing shadow of a lingering threat. The spruce beetle has now replaced the mountain pine beetle as the biggest insect disease threat to Colorado’s forests, as wildfire continues to threaten communities and drain resources. The cover of the report, which encompasses the state’s forest management efforts, features a photo of the Buffalo Mountain Fire last year. Record-high temperatures and record-low precipitation is blamed for the ferocity of that fire and the many others that sprung up across the state. The Buffalo Mountain Fire itself came close to destroying billions in real estate and the Colorado State Forest Service emphasized the economic impact of forests. When the forests are healthy, tourism and recreation are very good for the state economy; when it’s sick, fire and blight puts a major dent in both industries.

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The Alaska Roadless Rule decision is moving along. Some tribal governments say it’s moving too fast.

By Elizabeth Jenkins
Alaska Public Radio
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service quietly hit another milestone in its ongoing efforts to consider building new roads in the Tongass National Forest. Last month, it received comments on an important document from cooperating groups. The state has been providing feedback that could shape the outcome of the new rule, and so have Southeast Alaska tribes. But some of the tribal governments say the timeline has felt rushed for a decision that could have a major impact on rural Alaska. Joel Jackson, the tribal president of the Organized Village of Kake, said it’s impossible to separate the Tongass National Forest from the dinner table. “That’s the way I was taught from my father,” Jackson said. “He never liked the word ‘subsistence’ either. He always explained it to me, it’s our way of life.”

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Court temporarily blocks western Montana logging project

Associated Press in NBC Montana
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A judge has blocked a project that called for logging and prescribed burning in the Elkhorn Mountains near Townsend. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters on Tuesday ruled in favor of two conservation groups that sued to stop the project to cut conifer trees on 7 square miles and burn another 2 square miles. …The groups say the project includes 2 square miles of logging, building nearly 6 miles of new temporary roads and reopening 16 miles of previously closed roads. They say U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t properly analyze the project’s potential harm to threatened grizzly bears and the habitat of wolverines and threatened Canada lynx. Attorneys representing the U.S. Forest Service say the project would reduce wildfire threats. A U.S. district judge previously ruled in favor of the project.

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Judge halts Bureau of Land Management project in Elkhorns

By Tom Kuglin
Helena Independent Record
March 14, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A federal judge has halted a Bureau of Land Management grazing, prescribed fire and juniper removal project in the Elkhorn Mountains. U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters ruled in favor of Native Ecosystems Council and Alliance for the Wild Rockies on one of their five legal challenges to BLM’s proposed management in the Iron Mask area northwest of Townsend. She ordered both the project halted and that the agency perform additional environmental analysis. BLM signed an environmental assessment for the Iron Mask Planning Area in 2015. The project included planning for a roughly 5,600-acre property the agency acquired through the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Among the plans were about 1,000 acres of prescribed burning and cutting conifer trees on about 4,200 acres. The plan also called for a “forage reserve” grazing system, which would allow livestock grazing in cases where other grazing allotments were unavailable due to circumstances such as drought or wildfire.

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It’s over: California drought ends after 7 years

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

For the first time since 2011, California is completely drought free as the wet winter winds down. Abnormally dry conditions linger in less than 7 percent of California, the U.S. Drought Monitor said on Thursday, as storms have filled reservoirs, built snow pack and improved soil moisture. The state had experienced some form of drought for 376 consecutive weeks, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. …While Newsha Ajami, Stanford University’s Director of Urban Water Policy, described the drought report and this winter’s rain and snow as exciting, she said they are not signs for a wet future. …Above average amounts of rain and snow since have boosted water supplies. …But downpours have also triggered mudslides and flooding, including in areas burned by recent wildfires. 

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Study for Maine loggers group cites low pay as barrier to industry growth

By Lori Valigra
Bangor Daily News
March 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Donald Burr

Maine faces a shortage of loggers and log truckers that will worsen in the coming years, a study released Thursday found. The Pine Tree State’s labor shortage could stunt the growth of the $8.5 billion forest products industry, the study said. It honed in on the need to increase wages to attract workers so the industry can grow. The study, commissioned by the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, was prepared by the Maine Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Maine. “The root of Maine’s vital forest products economy — the logging industry — must be able to offer higher wages to compete for existing workers and attract new ones at a time when they are desperately needed to support a resurgent forest products industry,” Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine.

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As climate continues to warm, study finds several barriers to northward tree migration

Elyse Catalina, University of Maine
Phys.org
March 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Extensive land development, invasive species and too many deer may make it difficult for tree migration to keep pace with climate change in the Northeast, according to newly published research. The study, led by Kathryn Miller, a plant ecologist with the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Division, and Brian McGill, a University of Maine professor of ecological modeling, analyzed U.S. Forest Service data covering 18 states from Tennessee to Maine. The researchers found a large swath of land in the mid-Atlantic states that was severely lacking in forest regeneration. Even where present, species regenerating on the forest floor were different than those making up the forest canopy. Earlier studies have raised concern about regional regeneration, but this is the first to document the sheer extent and severity of the problem.

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The best way to preserve forests? Use trees.

By Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-ARK)
The Hill
March 15, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Regardless of your political ideology …we can agree on one thing: …the more public and private land we can dedicate to sustainable growing trees, the better our environment will be. Conversations surrounding forest management can quickly turn combative, as conservationists advocate for active forest management, but some environmentalists push for a hands-off approach. The solution to this impasse is simple, albeit counterintuitive. If we want more trees, we should all be using more products made from trees. The key to keeping forests healthy and resilient is strong demand for forest products – coupled with a commitment to replant more trees than we harvest. It’s Economics 101. Additional demand for wood building materials, paper and bioenergy raises the value landowners receive from keeping their land as managed forests. If you are a private landowner growing trees, and you are making money when you sell those trees, you’ll keep planting more trees.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

$2M project aims to spark new thinking on climate change

By Richard Watts
The Times-Colonist
March 15, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Robin Cox

Earth’s climate is changing and urgent action is needed to address that reality, says a Royal Roads University professor. “We are already locked into a certain amount of climate change,” Robin Cox. …She is heading up a new project called Resilience by Design, a $2-million effort funded by NRCan and the B.C. Climate Action Secretariat. Its aim is to help professionals think about climate change as part of their job. Professional foresters, for example, might want to change the varieties of tree seedlings used to replant logged-over areas. A forester might want to shift to species more tolerant of dry periods or to periods of heavier rainfall. …Resilience by Design will produce a number of courses for professionals… two courses will be ready by the end of this year.

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