Monthly Archives: May 2019

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Today’s Takeaway

Interfor to cut production as lumber demand remains elusive

May 29, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Interfor plans to curtail production in its Southern Interior BC operations as Madison’s says lumber demand remains elusive. In other Business news: more on Tolko’s cuts; a dryer fire sets back Skeena’s pellet plant in Terrace; Stora Enso invests in CLT; and forestry employment is up in Idaho.

In Wood Product news: mass timber makes progress in BC’s mid-rise and high-rise market; as well as in Oregon and Australia; while researchers at the U of Maryland develop ‘air conditioning‘ wood. Meanwhile, a coalition of non-wood associations call US support for CLT unfair; while the concrete industry questions the safety of stick-built construction in Philadelphia.

In Wildfire news: Alberta’s wildfire smoke dominates the weather; as other reports say wildfires are here to stay, and continuing to grow. Meanwhile, Canada is seeking ‘space-based capability‘ to monitor them. 

Finally, BC looks for input on the management of its private land forests.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Interfor to reduce Castlegar, Grand Forks mill hours next month to cut production

By John Brown
The Nelson Star
May 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Workers at the Interfor sawmills in Castlegar and Grand Forks are getting some unexpected time off next month. The company said Tuesday it was planning to temporarily reduce production across its operations in the southern interior of B.C. “due to a combination of weak lumber prices and continuing high log costs”. “We’re taking a little bit of down time in each of our three mills in June. It doesn’t mean it’s down for the month of June,” said Martin Juravsky, a senior vice-president and CFO for Interfor. The curtailment will see the mills shut down for several days in June, though Juravsky wouldn’t say what days the company will close. He also couldn’t say how many jobs would be affected. Juravsky said the curtailment is expected to reduce production in the region by approximately 20 million board feet in June.

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Sawmill a working tradition for Timmins family

By Maija Hoggett
Timmins Today
May 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Marc and Rene Picard

Since the 1950s, a member of the Picard family has been making a living at the Timmins sawmill. In 1976, Rene Picard was in his early 20s and needed a job. He wasn’t a ‘school person,’ and he had family working at the sawmill. He was hired; his job was piling lumber. From there, he did almost every production job possible until retiring a couple years ago after four decades at the mill on the banks of the Mattagami River. …The EACOM Timmins sawmill is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. That family atmosphere and opportunity for people working hard has been key to the site’s success. …“This place works because of the employees and the employees always had work, we’ve never shut down because it wasn’t a profitable mill,” said Fleury. To celebrate the mill’s centennial, a community celebration is being held this Friday, May 31

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Trade war chops off log revenue at Port of Astoria

By Edward Stratton
The Astorian
May 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

The trade war between the U.S. and China could chop about one-third of the Port of Astoria’s projected pier revenue in the coming fiscal year. The Port… estimates Astoria Forest Products will send out 6.5 log ships over the coming year. Chad Niedermeyer… said the company would usually expect to send out between eight and 10. Port staff projected $1.3 million in pier revenue, down more than 28 percent from this year. …The majority of the loss in pier revenue comes from the lack of regular log ships. …With the decrease in ships, Astoria Forest Products has cut its workforce by 40 percent, Niedermeyer said. Chris Connaway, the president of the local longshore union, has reported members having to go far afield to find work.

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Idaho’s Forest Products Sector: Hopeful for Stable 2019

Idaho at Work
May 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

Forest products, a traditional mainstay sector in Idaho, continues to play an important role in many Idaho communities. Idaho’s forest products sector — logging, wood product mills, paper factories and furniture manufacturing — provided more than 11,700 jobs in 2018. In addition, a few thousand more worked at trucking companies transporting logs, wood products and pulp. Employment has grown 35 percent from the recession-caused low point of 8,705 in 2010, but it is still 18 percent below its 2006 peak of 14,327 and far below its heyday in the 1970s. The job losses mostly resulted from the impact of technology. F…rom 1990 to 2000, the timber harvest on federal lands in Idaho fell from 704 million to 149 million board feet.

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LaSalle Parish is home to the state’s first lumber mill in over 2 decades

By Allison Bruhl
My Arklamiss.com
May 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

URANIA, Louisiana — Urania is now home to Louisiana’s first lumber mill in over two decades. Governor John Bel Edwards and LaSalle lumber company leaders celebrated the grand opening of the new facility sitting on 125 acres of land on Wednesday. …The sawmill project is a partnership between American-based Hunt Forest Products and Canadian lumber giant Tolko. “By working together these two family-owned companies are creating 115 jobs in the mill and other job and associated facilities and 300 indirect jobs,” Douglas George, Acting Consul General of Canada in Dallas, United States said. …Sourcing 850,000 tons of wood per year, Governor Edwards says it’s a power move to diversify the workforce and economy.

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UPS sued for workers’ role in $100M timber Ponzi scheme

The Associated Press in ABC News
May 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics, Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

A UPS store in Madison, Mississippi, is being sued for its workers’ role in a Ponzi scheme that cost investors about $100 million. The Clarion Ledger reports New Orleans attorney Alysson Mills filed the lawsuit last week. The lawsuit says the store’s employees were complicit in a timber scheme in which about 300 investors were promised high interest rates. In reality, new money was used to pay old investors. The lawsuit says workers notarized fake timber deeds and attested that grantors-landowners appeared before them, even though “no grant-landowner ever personally appeared.” Scheme leader Arthur Lamar Adams is serving a 17-year sentence for wire fraud. …The newspaper says the store said it had no comment.

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Stora Enso invests Euro 45 million in a new CLT production unit at Gruvön sawmill in Sweden

Lesprom Network
May 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Stora Enso’s investment in a new production unit for cross laminated timber at Gruvön sawmill in Sweden was inaugurated by CEO Karl-Henrik Sundström, Joakim Sveder, Mill Director, Gruvön sawmill and Leif Haraldsson, Municipal Commissioner of Grums. The investment in Gruvön sawmill amounts to Euro 45 million. The project has proceeded according to plan from the investment decision made in July 2017 to the start of commercial deliveries in the 1Q 2019. The investment has had a total employment impact of 60 new employees for the mill. This is Stora Enso’s third production unit for cross laminated timber as the company already has two production units in Austria.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Please take the naturally:wood survey – Enter to Win a Book on CLT Projects

naturally.wood
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

naturally:wood is conducting a short 5-minute survey about user experience on naturallywood.com.  Please help by completing their survey below.  Once you complete the survey, you can enter a draw to win a copy of 100 Projects UK CLT. Your opinion matters. As we work on improving naturallywood.com, we are looking for your feedback to tell us what information you would like to see on the website. Help us better understand how we can enhance our content and resources to better serve your needs. To begin the survey, click the link below. TAKE THE SURVEY Thank you for your participation!

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Vancouver wood building would be world’s tallest 40-storey

By Frank O’Brian
Business in Vancouver
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

If plans are hammered into reality, Vancouver’s Broadway corridor will see the world’s tallest wood residential tower and the largest Passive House project in the world ascend on West 8th Avenue over the next two to three years. Delta Land Development, working with Peter Busby of the architectural firm of Perkins+Will, has outlined a proposal for a mixed-use building that, if approved, would catapult Vancouver’s aggressive green building standards ahead by nearly a decade. BC recently approved mass timber buildings as high as 12 storeys, but Delta’s senior vice-president believes the Canada Earth Tower could win approval to push much higher. …“The best-case scenario is approval by the end of 2020, but it could easily be beyond that,” Robinson said. …The tower would use B.C. manufactured and processed mass timber, as well as engineered wood such as cross-laminated, glue-laminated and dowel-laminated timber.

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Canada Invests in Construction of Modern Tall Wood Building in Toronto

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
May 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

TORONTO – Investing in the long-term use of wood in Canada’s construction industry will increase the demand for Canadian wood products, create good, middle-class jobs for Canadians and help the Government of Canada achieve its climate change goals.  Adam Vaughan, Member of Parliament for Spadina–Fort York, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’sMinister of Natural Resources, today announced a $4.1-million investment to build a 10-storey tall wood building in Toronto. Construction of The Arbour, a $134-million project at George Brown College’s Waterfront Campus, will use an estimated 3,000 cubic metres of wood and will be a new, net-zero carbon emissions academic wood structure. Both during its construction and once complete, The Arbour will serve as a living laboratory where students and researchers will learn to design, construct, operate and monitor climate-friendly buildings. It will also house a new childcare facility to serve the growing community.

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Tall Wood is on the Up-and-Up in Toronto

By Natali Tarini
The Canadian Wood Council
May 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Arbour, a 10-storey building planned for George Brown College’s Waterfront Campus, is one of the winning recipients of the Green Construction through Wood (GCWood) Program. Launched by Natural Resources Canada, the GCWood Program encourages the broader awareness and domestic capacity for wood in Canadian construction. The Arbour, which will use mass timber products, will demonstrate wood’s ability to complement other building materials in innovative applications such as tall construction. “Today’s GCWood Program announcement is about diversifying options for builders and architects in Canada, and providing them with the science, research and funding to support the advancement of wood in tall construction,” explained Rick Jeffery, Interim President at the Canadian Wood Council. “It’s important to note that tall buildings are hybrid buildings. With a gap existing between wood’s capabilities and its perceived capabilities in construction, programs such as GCWood assure that wood is included in the discussions pertaining to building material choices.”

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Northern Ontario needs a wood pipeline

By David Robinson, Laurentian University
Northern Ontario Business
May 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

David Robinson

Over the next 25 years, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) will add population equal to the size of Toronto’s today. …That makes the GTA the most important emerging market in the world for Northern Ontario. It makes our strategy for the wood industry the key to Northern economic development. We have to build a wood pipeline from the vast resources of the North to the huge new market in the south. …Demand in this emerging market will not be for just any construction material; the massive construction project should be based on wood, and not steel and concrete. …The pipeline we need will not be made of Sault Ste. Marie steel. It will be a pipeline of brains and technology. It will be a pipeline of architects and developers, engineers and construction workers, sawmill and building inspectors who understand heavy wood construction.

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In the Eye of the Fire

By NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Imperial Valley News
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Gaithersburg, Maryland – “In experimental fire research, some of the most compelling data you can get is the visual data from video and photography,” says Matt Hoehler, a research structural engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). …With a prototype camera system… he has succeeded not just in getting close to a fire, but inside it. So far, the system has captured mesmerizing 360-degree video from a burning room… a kitchen fire and, most recently, a forest fire. The footage allows a viewer to immerse themselves in the scene and shift their gaze in any direction to look at different aspects of the fire. At the NFRL, scientists and engineers develop ways to measure fire and its effects to help designers, engineers and emergency responders find the best ways to protect people, buildings and other infrastructure. 

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Running Out! Supply of Ipe Wood Running Short for 2019

By Ipe Wood USA
ReleaseWire
May 28, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

…Ipe, the Brazilian hardwood lumber is again in short supply for 2019. Ipe is a natural wood that comes from central and South America… Because the wood is primarily used for decks, the season for decking is typically in March-July whereas the wood is mostly cut and exported in November-January. This means that lumber companies must properly prepare for the decking season to meet consumer demand. …in 2019 the supply does not seem adequate for the demand. In early 2018 Ipe Woods USA warned that prices were expected to increase. Within one month …prices were increased over 19%. …In 2019 we expect again that prices will increase towards the summer, luckily not by the same astronomical amounts that we saw in 2018. Ipe cannot be freely cut in Brazil either, it has areas and quantities that are pre-determined to help with sustainable harvesting practices.

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UPS sued for workers’ role in $100M timber Ponzi scheme

The Associated Press in ABC News
May 30, 2019
Category: Business & Politics, Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

A UPS store in Madison, Mississippi, is being sued for its workers’ role in a Ponzi scheme that cost investors about $100 million. The Clarion Ledger reports New Orleans attorney Alysson Mills filed the lawsuit last week. The lawsuit says the store’s employees were complicit in a timber scheme in which about 300 investors were promised high interest rates. In reality, new money was used to pay old investors. The lawsuit says workers notarized fake timber deeds and attested that grantors-landowners appeared before them, even though “no grant-landowner ever personally appeared.” Scheme leader Arthur Lamar Adams is serving a 17-year sentence for wire fraud. …The newspaper says the store said it had no comment.

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Wood, the New Steel? New Fangled Wood Product Showing Strength

By Robbie Harris
Radio WVTF Viriginia
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

A new kind of wood is taking root among forward-thinking designers and builders. It’s a called cross laminated timber, CLT for short.  The blog, Tree Hugger calls it a ‘dream material’ and Architect Magazine says it’s a trend to watch. A project now underway in Radford, will showcase not only the building material, but also and the new vista it opens in the forest. Everyone from bird watchers to train buffs, able-bodied and disabled, can get up there near the tree line to see the sights. …Kay Edge and her grad students in the school of architecture at Virginia Tech … began working on this viewing platform project, now nearing completion. …The CLTs are made from yellow poplar, also known as the Tulip Poplar … in their raw form, there’s no industry demand for them. But with the CLT process…their strength is competitive with steel, and just half the weight. 

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Philadelphia Legislators, Industry Groups Discuss Non-Combustible Construction

A Coalition of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
For Construction Pros
May 28, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Build with Strength, a coalition of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, hosted a roundtable discussion last week to address safety standard and building code improvements in Philadelphia in order to keep residents and first responders safe. The event was part of the organization’s ongoing campaign to educate citizens, local and state officials, and industry experts about the potential dangers of wood-framed construction, particularly in multi-story, residential and commercial buildings. Taking part in the discussion was State Rep. Joe Hohenstein. …“Fire safety, strength of materials and quality of the contractors—that’s what makes the difference,” adds Wildsmith. “People live in these buildings, they have families, they have kids. They’re living on the third floor of a stick-built; it’s crazy to me.” 

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Scientists develop a super-strong wood that completely reflects the sun’s heat

By Christian Cotroneo
Mother Nature Network
May 28, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

…Researchers at the University of Maryland have re-designed [wood] to make it entirely impervious to visible light, while only absorbing the slightest levels of near-infrared light. Translation? Rather than absorbing sunlight, the new wood could bounce it right back into the environment. In effect, homes made from this material would be able to prevent virtually all heat from seeping indoors, potentially easing our reliance on air conditioning in summer months. “When applied to building, this game-changing structural material cools without the input of electricity or water,” noted Yao Zhai, one of the study authors, in a press release. …The University of Maryland team claims the new wood packs a tensile strength of around 404 megapascals, or more than eight times that of natural wood. That puts it somewhere in the neighborhood of steel.

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How cross-laminated timber could change how Australian homes are built

By Jim Malo
Domain.com.au
May 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

The way Australian homes are built could be changed forever, with new research into a type of engineered timber showing it could cement its place as an environmentally friendly alternative to concrete. Australian cross-laminated timber can replace concrete in many situations, including being used as a foundation for a house. Studies have already been conducted on European CLT, which is being used in towers and building extensions in Australia now. …Aurecon and Lendlease have used engineered timber in some builds already, and Aurecon director Kourosh Kayvani said he saw a bright future for CLT. …“The other element is the biophilic nature. People have better feelings in a building with exposed timber.” …Mr Kayvani said the main limit for its uptake in Australia was a lack of local production.

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Australian-made mass timber put to the test

Industry Update (Australia)
May 30, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Paul Kremer & Mahmud Ashraf

Engineering researchers at Deakin University have begun testing Australian-made cross-laminated timber, to ascertain the full potential of this innovative and environmentally friendly construction material. …Unlike in Europe, Australian CLT is made using different grades of timber lamellas. Because of the different timber species used… research is required to verify the relative performance of Australian-made CLT. …As part of a recently formed collaboration, XLam Australia supplied Deakin with 3.6t of CLT panels. …The researchers, led by Associate Professor Mahmud Ashraf from Deakin’s School of Engineering, will test and analyse the strength limits of CLT. Dr Paul Kremer, XLam’s Head of Marketing, Strategy and Sustainability, says the research at Deakin will help the industry continue to push the boundaries of what is possible.

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Britain Vowed Big Changes After Grenfell Tower Burned. Why Are Thousands Stuck in Firetraps?

By Benjamin Mueller
The New York Times
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

LONDON — When fire broke out at Grenfell Tower in London, the flames were whisked through the 24-story structure with astonishing speed, killing 72 people in Britain’s deadliest housing fire since World War II. Outrage spread quickly when Britons learned the cheap cladding that shrouded the tower had turned it into a death trap. …Nearly two years after the Grenfell fire in June 2017, this is what we found of the government’s efforts: About 16,000 private apartments are still wrapped in the kind of exterior cladding that fed the Grenfell fire. Their owners feel trapped in tinderboxes they cannot sell. …A year before the fire, contractors re-clad Grenfell Tower with a form of low-cost aluminum paneling. The cladding was banned in the United States and many European countries because if a fire breaks out, it allows the flames to spread quickly. But English building rules were more lenient. 

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Plans Revealed for Melbourne’s Tallest Timber Tower

The Urban Developer, Australia
May 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Diversified property major GPT Group has unveiled plans to build Australia’s largest timber building that will sit atop Melbourne Central mall at 300 Lonsdale Street. The new 10-storey building will be a 19,400 sq m tower comprising a frame structure that will be exposed through a glass facade and made of cross laminated timber. The office extension, known as Frame, Melbourne’s first premium office tower to use timber will sit among rivalling towers being currently built by Mirvac, Dexus and Charter Hall in the city’s central business district. Timber construction has taken off around the country featuring in a new wave of new buildings, including Tzannes-designed International House Sydney in Barangaroo being built by Lendlease and Bates Smart’s CLT tower at 25 King Street in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

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Forestry

Canada explores potential of new satellite to help monitor wildfires

By Jeff Lewis
The Globe and Mail
May 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Canada is looking to the stars to help combat wildfires that researchers say are growing more intense and frequent as a result of climate change. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) and Environment and Climate Change Canada are soliciting proposals to develop “space-based capability” to provide near real-time information to support wildland fire management, measure carbon emissions and improve air-quality forecasting, according to documents posted on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website. Wildfire officials already glean information from U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites, as well as those of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the European Space Agency. But none of those are tailored to Canadian needs, said Joshua Johnston, a fire research scientist with the CFS and the principal investigator for the Canadian effort, known as WildfireSAT.

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Douglas-fir beetle infestation is a provincial crisis: B.C. expert

By Tyler Harper
The Maple Ridge-Pitt meadows News
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The infestation of Douglas-fir bark beetles that took over 90 hectares of forest just outside Nelson is a sign of what one local expert calls an impending provincial catastrophe. Gerald Cordeiro, with Kalesnikoff Lumber, first alerted Nelson city council to the infestation in October 2017. On Monday he returned to say the infestation had been mostly been removed, but the entire region is vulnerable. …“It’s not on the scale of the mountain pine beetle, but fir forests are generally not on the scale of pine forests in B.C. Cordeiro said a cutting permit was granted by the forest ministry to remove infested trees. Trap trees, which are fallen healthy trees, were also used to attract beetles. …Douglas-fir bark beetles kill trees within one to two years, after which the infested wood cannot be salvaged.

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UBC Okanagan aspires to be world class

By Ron Seymour
The Kelowna Daily Courier
May 22, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Deborah Buszard

Directors of UBC Okanagan have exceedingly high hopes for the institution as they peer into the future. Within a few decades, West Kelowna council heard Tuesday, the university could be among the best in the world…. Deborah Buszard, UBCO principal, told West Kelowna council. …Buszard noted her own background at long-established universities such as Dalhousie and McGill. …Coun. Doug Findlater encouraged UBCO to do more collaborative projects with major West Kelowna businesses, such as Gorman Bros. Lumber and Bylands Nursery, which he said exported their respective products over a wide area. “We’ve got some very unique businesses here that have a long reach,” Findlater said.

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Dry soil a challenge for treeplanters, seedlings

By Blair McBride
The Burns Lake Lakes District News
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Dry conditions are presenting challenges for the reforestation work of dozens of treeplanters working in the Burns Lake region in May. “It’s drier than normal this year,” as Earl Hughes, owner of forestry service company Waterside Ventures told Lakes District News. “If it stays dry the soils compact and it’s harder to put the shovel in the ground. It’s not too bad right now because we still have moisture from the winter.” The reforestation effort in the Nadina District will see more than 16 million seedlings planted this year, said Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRORD) spokesperson Dawn Makarowski. …For the May-June contract period, Hughes’ company of 50-60 planters is scheduled to plant 3 million trees, mostly pine and spruce and some fir and larch.

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IKEA Canada recognized for environmental leadership by Tree Canada

By IKEA Canada
Cision Newswire
May 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

BURLINGTON, ON – This spring, IKEA Canada co-workers will join Tree Canada in 19 different communities across the country to plant trees and shrubs as part of the retailer’s ongoing commitment to people and planet. To mark over 23 years of partnership, Tree Canada will honour IKEA Canada with its Ultimate Award at the tree planting event held today in Burlington, ON at LaSalle Park. Since the partnership began in 1996, IKEA Canada co-workers have planted more than 55,000 trees, including 18,700 seedlings, and the company has contributed over $1 million toward greening local communities. “We are proud of our longstanding partnership with Tree Canada, an organization which supports us in creating a positive impact on the planet,” said Melissa Mirowski, Sustainability Lead, IKEA Canada. “Our co-workers are our best sustainability ambassadors and look forward to coming together with Tree Canada every year to green our local communities.”

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Northwest First Nations protest provincial caribou strategy

By Ian Ross
Northern Ontario Business
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The province’s rollout of a woodland caribou recovery strategy in northwestern Ontario threatens the gains made by First Nations in natural resource development, said the chief of the Red Rock Indian Band. Matthew Dupuis and a group of protesters were taking to the road to delay traffic and hand out information pamphlets on the Trans-Canada Highway at the Nipigon Bridge on May 29. They take issue with Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan to create corridors for woodland caribou that they say is potentially devastating to communities and industry along the north shore of Lake Superior. Despite the change in provincial government, Dupuis said Queen’s Park continues to push the caribou recovery strategy, particularly at the forest management planning level, in an effort to change the “landscape of this area and how it’s managed.” The Red Rock Indian Band is leading the fight against the caribou strategy.

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University of Toronto begins Faculty of Forestry disestablishment process

By Michael Teoh
The Varsity
May 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

U of T’s Planning and Budget Committee (PBC) has unanimously recommended the disestablishment of the Faculty of Forestry and its restructuring as a graduate unit under the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The proposal must still be voted on by the Academic Board and the Executive Committee before being approved by Governing Council on June 25. If approved, the Faculty of Forestry would be disestablished, effective July 1. Under this plan, the existing Forestry programs would continue to operate, but administrative and financial duties, including Forestry’s budget, would be moved under the jurisdiction of the Daniels Faculty. Financial aid would continue at current levels following the potential restructuring, as would Forestry endowments. The restructuring proposal is motivated in part by the Faculty of Forestry’s projected long term financial unsustainability, and by the synergies between Daniels and Forestry programs.

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Thinning Forests, Prescribed Fire Before Drought Reduced Tree Loss

By Kat Kerlin
University of California Davis
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Thinning forests and conducting prescribed burns may help preserve trees in future droughts and bark beetle epidemics expected under climate change, suggests a study from the University of California, Davis. The study, published in the journal Ecological Applications, found that thinning and prescribed fire treatments reduced the number of trees that died during the bark beetle epidemic and drought that killed more than 129 million trees across the Sierra Nevada between 2012-2016. …The study also indicated that current rates of treatment are not sufficient to reduce the impacts of hotter droughts and large-scale bark beetle outbreaks. Expanding the use of managed fire under moderate fire-weather conditions, along with strategic thinning and prescribed burn treatments, may increase resilience across the forest, the researchers said.

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Fighting fire with fire: Should California burn its forests to protect against catastrophe?

By Ryan Sabalow, Dale Kasler and Maya Miller
The Sacramento Bee
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

It seemed like a good day for a fire — the kind that could safely thin out an overgrown forest, eliminate combustible underbrush and reduce the risk from an out-of-control wildfire. …But when a lightning strike ignited a small fire May 10 in the Tahoe National Forest… federal firefighters did what they almost always do: They raced to snuff it out. …A growing body of experts say California is neglecting a major tool in its battle against mega-fires: the practice of fighting fire with fire. These experts say state and federal firefighting agencies should allow more fires that don’t threaten the public to run their natural course. …“Nothing affects fire like fire,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics & Ecology in Eugene, Ore. …In California, the debate is complicated by a deadly history with wildfires.

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Here’s what you need to know about sudden oak death and what to do if your tree has it

By Sarah Bowman
IndyStar
May 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A dangerous disease that can kill oak trees has been detected in plants that have been sent to 10 states across the U.S., including Indiana. More than 70 Walmarts and 18 Rural Kings received rhododendrons infected with sudden oak death in the last several weeks.  The fungal pathogen has killed large tracts of oaks along the West Coast, and both federal and state officials are now working to contain it from spreading in Indiana and other affected states.  Here is what you need to know about sudden oak death and what to do if you believe your tree might be infected. Sudden oak death is a forest disease affecting oak trees that is caused by a fungal pathogen called Phytophthora ramorum. It is most common along the West Coast, as it enjoys damp, cool and windy conditions. This disease is different than oak wilt, which can be found in the Midwest. 

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Alabama faces shortage of loggers in the next 10 years

By Bryan Henry
WSFA 12 News
May 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

BUTLER COUNTY, Ala. – Jared Brogden is a 17-year veteran logger and easily manhandles a 25 ton, $300,000 loader. He loves his job. “To this day, I still enjoy it,” said Brogden. The industry faces a problem because there is a shortage of loggers on the way and forestry experts say they know why. “Over 60 percent of our logging workforce is over the age of 50,” said Ashley Rowe, director for workforce development for the Alabama Forestry Association in Montgomery. Coupled with the fact that not enough younger people are getting in the business. …The Alabama Forestry Association has come up with a plan to try to fill the gap: classes to recruit more harvesters. “Students who have never been in the woods before, no experience on equipment and we train them to give them basically everything they need to start out and work on a logging crew,” said Rowe.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Canada Leads the World in Accelerating a Clean Energy Future

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
May 29, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Amarjeet Sohi

VANCOUVER — A global energy transition is fundamentally changing the way we produce and consume energy. In a world increasingly seeking clean, affordable and reliable energy sources, Canada is positioned to become a supplier of choice. …Driven by the need to address climate change and other environmental concerns, as well as by rapidly changing markets and technologies, Canada committed to being a clean energy leader by taking concrete steps to develop policies and make investments that will lead to:

  • Smarter energy use for our homes, buildings, transportation and industry
  • Clean energy powering our communities and businesses;
  • Use of more renewable fuels, including biomass and renewable natural gas
  • Greater market access for our energy products, technologies and services

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Roadless areas are nature’s climate solutions

By Dominick DellaSala, William Ripple & Franz Baumann
The San Francisco Examiner
May 29, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

…Scientists are now saying that pristine areas, like roadless areas and unlogged forests, can buy us time as we transition to a carbon-free economy but only if protected from relentless development. Unfortunately, the fate of millions of acres of roadless areas in Alaska and Utah is now at risk from the Trump administration’s efforts to upend one of the nation’s landmark conservation achievements – the Roadless Area Conservation Rule of 2000. …Anyone in the Bay Area who cares about wild spaces ought to be alarmed by the pending extinction crisis and the administration’s efforts to usher in clearcut logging and road building in Alaska’s coastal temperate rainforests and Utah’s roadless forests. Here’s why. Muir Woods National Monument… these ancient forests function as a regionwide carbon warehouse, quietly absorbing and storing more carbon per acre than just about any forest on Earth.

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AB161 is much worse than just another piece of nonsense legislation

By Susan Shelley
The Orange County Register
May 28, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

…First it was plastic grocery bags. Then plastic straws. And now, California is looking at banning paper receipts. Assembly Bill 161 would make it illegal for stores to print a paper receipt unless a customer specifically asks for one, or unless state or federal law requires it… The bill has already passed the Assembly and is working its way through the state Senate. According to the American Forest and Paper Association, the U.S. economy creates 181,000 tons of paper receipts annually. …The cost of the bill, if enacted into law, would be very high. Retailers of all types would have to buy equipment in order to convert to electronic receipt technology. …Green America, the group that wrote the “Skip the Slip” claimed that an estimated 10 million trees were cut down every year to provide the paper used in receipts in the U.S. …AB 161 would shield retailers from consumer privacy laws, but the privacy concerns raised by asking consumers to give up that data have not been addressed.

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Forest Fires

Alberta wildfire continues to grow, but is spreading away from High Level

The Canadian Press in Global News
May 28, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

A fire burning near a northern Alberta town has grown slightly, but officials say firefighters are making good progress. The Chuckegg Creek fire, currently the largest in the province, is about three kilometres southwest of High Level, where crews have been creating a fire break to protect the town. “We are still experiencing the main area of spread away from the town of High Level,” Alberta Wildfire information officer Victoria Ostendorf said Tuesday afternoon. “The wind has actually been in our favor and allowed us to make great progress on the fire guard… It’s enabled our firefighters to work safely.” Ostendorf explained the active fire is now pushing back on an area that’s already been burned so there’s no substantial fuel for it to grow.

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More intense wildfires are here to stay, and we need to adapt, says report

By Micheal Brown, University of Alberta
Phys.org
May 28, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

…Zac Robinson, a mountain historian at the University of Alberta and former U of A mountain ecologist David Hik decided wildfires were going to be the main focus of the Alpine Club of Canada’s 2019 State of the Mountains Report. In its second year, the is a collection of expert summaries written to raise awareness about the ways a changing climate is transforming the alpine. The pair, along with fellow editor Lael Parrott, reached out to Lori Daniels, a University of British Columbia conservation researcher, to write an essay on the vital role wildfire has on ecosystem function and how that understanding has exposed shortcomings of past fire suppression and timber production, and how “learning to coexist with wildfire is critical as our society adapts to climate change.”

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B.C.’s wildfire smoke expected to blanket Alberta this summer — and could reach as far as Ontario

By Amy Tucker
The Star Calgary
May 28, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

CALGARY—Smoke from wildfires is going to be a big issue for Albertans again this summer, according to one meteorologist. While Alberta is shaping up to have mostly average temperatures and precipitation, the northern part of the province could be drier. …On top of that, a jet stream is expected to push potential wildfire smoke from British Columbia into Alberta. “Wildfire smoke is going to be a big story, I think, for the province of Alberta this summer,” said Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist with The Weather Network. …“The wildfire (season) is already off to a fairly strong start in northern Alberta. That, along with B.C. for this summer, is not an ideal pattern. We are going to have to watch out for the threat for more wildfires, and certainly, for more smoke as well.”

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After Paradise, Living With Fire Means Redefining Resilience

By Eric Westervelt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 29, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Dan Efseaff

Dan Efseaff, the parks and recreation director for the devastated town of Paradise, Calif., looks out over Little Feather River Canyon in Butte County. The Camp Fire raced up this canyon like a blowtorch in a paper funnel on its way to Paradise… Efseaff is floating an idea [of] paying people not to rebuild in this slice of canyon: “The whole community needs some defensible space,” he says. …“There are areas you just don’t build in,” he says. …He is up against the two-centuries-old American ethos to build, build, build, no matter the costs or the wisdom. …Politicians vow to rebuild. …But wildfire and recovery experts warn that this immediate impulse to re-create what was there before the disaster is misguided, expensive and dangerous. There need to be more areas where building is limited, they argue, especially with the extraordinary buildup of forest fuels and a warming climate.

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