Monthly Archives: August 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Brazil’s President takes umbrage over offers of help

August 28, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Brazil’s President took umbrage over offers of help with Amazon wildfires:

In other news: Canfor announces more curtailments in BC, while discussions on the province’s mill-closure crisis takes place in MackenzieValemount and Fort St. James. Meanwhile: USW ups rhetoric targeting Western Forest Products (who pays for interim benefits); Unifor does the same with Resolute (who holds the wood rights); and Trump pushes to reverse the roadless rule in Alaska. 

Finally, does BC need more Woodlot Licences

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Canada pushing for Amazon protections in free-trade talks with Brazil

By Mia Rabson
The Canadian Press in the Chronicle Journal
August 27, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, International

OTTAWA – Canada is forging ahead with trade talks with the South American Mercosur trading bloc, hoping to push Brazil to better protect the critical Amazon rainforest, a government spokesman said Tuesday. The talks are continuing despite Brazil’s initial rejection of international funding to help fight fires in the Amazon, apparently over a personal spat with France’s President Emmanuel Macron. …Environment groups last week asked the federal government to abandon those talks. …A spokesman for Minister Jim Carr said the talks will continue “because we are committed to diversifying our trading partners” but that trade is not the only thing on the agenda. “As part of negotiations, Canada is seeking environmental provisions that would be more ambitious than the current WTO guidelines, and include sustainable forest management and combating illegal logging and related trade”.

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Brazil, Bolivia assessing needs after Canada offers $15M aid for Amazon fires

The Canadian Press in Montreal Gazette
August 27, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, International

OTTAWA — Canada’s offer of money and water bombers to help Amazon countries battle raging wildfires … is still being assessed by Brazil and other nations in the Amazon basin, Canadian officials say. Adam Austen… said the $15 million Canada has put on the table itself is distinct from US$20 million …offered … at the end of the G7 leaders’ summit. …Austen said Brazil, Bolivia and other countries…are still looking at the separate proposal from Canada. “Countries are currently assessing their needs and Canada stands ready to help,” Austen said. …A Canadian official, speaking on background because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, indicated that separate from the G7 summit, Canada considered its own assistance after Brazilian authorities quietly began making inquiries about what Canada might do to help last week. Those inquiries resulted in the $15 million Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced while still in France for the G7 summit Monday.

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Lessons learned from Mackenzie Matters rally

By Bob Zimmer, MP for Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies
Kamloops Matters
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bob Zimmer

I recently had the honour of attending the Mackenzie Matters Rally in support of our local forestry communities. …I challenged the B.C. Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson to remember that decisions that are made in Victoria and Ottawa have real and lasting effects on our rural communities like Mackenzie. …Over the past few months, approximately two dozen mills in our province have been closed or curtailed temporarily. …This has also led to heavy impacts to other industries that rely upon the forestry sector. For example, the Truck Logger’s Association has predicted that the industry will shrink by 25 per cent in the coming months. …In Ottawa, the Liberals have failed to make a new softwood lumber agreement a priority. British Columbia also continues to pay the price for Justin Trudeau’s mishandled NAFTA negotiations and his failure to defend our trade interests around the world.

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Canfor closing Houston mill for one week

By Rod Link
Houston Today
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Calling its B.C. mill operations “uneconomic,” Canfor is closing its mill here and at two other locations for four days following the Labour Day statutory holiday next Monday. And its shifting operations here to a four-day week thereafter, something that “will remain in effect until market and economic conditions support a return to a full operating schedule of five days per week,” the company announced. Next week’s closures will affect mills in Prince George, in Bear Lake north of Prince George and in Fort St. John. The four-day work week goes in effect at its Plateau mill outside of Vanderhoof in addition to Houston.

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Weyerhaeuser focused on sustainability through provincial crisis in forest sector

By Andrea Demeer
Kelowna Capital News
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

In an industry that is experiencing plant closures and uncertainty, Princeton’s Weyerhaeuser Mill is holding its own. “Like all Weyerhaeuser mills, our strategy at Princeton is to stay focused on what we can control,” said general manager Jeff Larsen. The mill has approximately 200 direct employees and works with about 200 contractors in forestlands. …“We’re focused on… high-return capital projects, and driving value, recovery and reliability improvements.” …“We are seeing a critical time in the B.C. forest sector,” said Mina Lauden, vice-president of public affairs for the B.C. Council of Forest Industries. “The circumstances that have led to this crisis are a perfect storm of conditions which have been building for many years.”

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Upheaval could help Valemount, McBride: Forest Minister

By Andru McCracken
The Rocky Mountain Goat
August 27, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

According to Forest Minister Doug Donaldson, Valemount and McBride could gain from government programs being developed to transform the province’s hurting forest industry. Donaldson sent an appeal to the federal Minister of Natural Resources for help for forestry workers and BC communities impacted by a ravaged forest industry. Included in his request was a program to help transition the industry towards new horizons, including bioenergy. …The Valemount Community Forest is in the process of procuring a sawmill for undersized wood… but there is a looming struggle that must be solved: what to do with wood waste. Donaldson said his Ministry’s focus on forestry transformation plays to Valemount and McBride’s aspiration to set up bioenergy programs. “I see the benefits of these far beyond the direct communities being impacted right now,” said Donaldson.

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Regional mining and forestry could expand into the defence sector

By Stu Campaigne
My North Bay Now
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

While it seems as though the economic development team in Timmins, Ontario, may have jumped the gun in its excitement to announce the project, the other four major Northern Ontario cities, including North Bay, are said to be on board. Ross MacDonald, a business development specialist… said it is unlikely military ships or helicopters will be built in Northern Ontario any time soon but that doesn’t mean the region cannot supply components for them. The five major northern cities are working together to get fabrication businesses that supply mining and forestry in on also supplying the defence sector. …“So there could be opportunities for companies that maybe fabricate specialized products for the mining sector, forestry sector to modify their processes to supply these smaller components and services to go into the larger project.”

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Unifor says province ‘can make life uncomfortable’ for Resolute

By Gary Rinne
Thunder Bay News Watch
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

FORT FRANCES, Ont. — A spokesperson for Unifor forestry members is calling on Resolute Forest Products to cancel the restrictions it’s imposed on the use of the company’s Fort Frances pulp and paper mill. Unifor national representative Stephen Boon said “the games can end tomorrow” if Resolute removes the covenants attached to the recent transfer of the mill property to Riversedge Developments. “All it would take is for Resolute to say ‘we’ll lift the restrictions, we’ll allow a purchaser to come in and work a deal with Riversedge to operate that mill.’ That’s what we’re hoping for, and Resolute could do that tomorrow,” Boon said in an interview with Tbnewswatch.  One of the covenants prevents a purchaser from talking to the province about accessing the Crossroute Forest for wood supply.

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Norbord Announces Reduced Production Schedule for Line 1 At Cordele, Georgia OSB Mill

By Norbord Inc.
Cision Newswire
August 29, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

TORONTO – Norbord announced that effective September 5th, Line 1 of its two-line oriented strand board mill in Cordele, Georgia will operate on a reduced 10/4 schedule until further notice due to continued poor market conditions. US homebuilding activity has been pulling back since the fall of last year, resulting in lower-than-anticipated OSB demand to-date. The reduced production schedule at Cordele Line 1 will ensure Norbord continues to only produce what the company can sell as the market approaches the seasonally slower winter months. …The reduced production schedule on Line 1 will impact approximately 12% of the mill’s available capacity.

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Weyerhaeuser Distribution adds cedar expert in Texas

The LBM Journal
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

SEATTLE — Weyerhaeuser Distribution, a North American distributor of building materials including Western Red Cedar, has added Chad Kracht as product sales representative in the Texas market. Kracht, an expert in Western Red Cedar, brings more than 15 years experience in the distribution channel. “We are thrilled,”… said Mike Pollok, area general manager for Weyerhaeuser Distribution in South Texas. “Chad is extremely well-respected by his customers and the Canadian suppliers for his vast knowledge of Western Red Cedar.” Prior to joining Weyerhaeuser Distribution, Kracht was territory manager for BlueLinx in San Antonio.

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Brazil looks to neighbors for Amazon support, defends record

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Rodrigo Viga Gaier
Reuters in the Chronicle Herald
August 28, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Jair Bolsonaro

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday he would meet with other South American countries to set common policy for defending the Amazon rain forest, while his foreign minister told Reuters the nation should be seen as an environmental hero. In an indication that Bolsonaro is forging closer ties with neighboring countries, he accepted Chile’s offer of four aircraft to help fight the fires sweeping through the world’s largest rain forest. Speaking after a meeting with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said a meeting with regional neighbors except Venezuela to discuss the Amazon would be held on Sept. 6 in Leticia, Colombia….Bolsonaro waded back into a spat with France, saying Brazil’s sovereignty had “no price, not even $20 trillion,” a reference to an offer of $20 million aid announced by French President Emmanuel Macron.

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Finance & Economics

North American Wood Fiber Review

By Hakan Ekstrom
Wood Resources International
August 29, 2019
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Lower prices for pulp, improved weather for logging and healthy production levels at many sawmills in the US were all factors which resulted in lower wood fiber costs in most regions throughout Canada and the US in the 2Q/19, reports the North American Wood Fiber Review. In the US South, however, hardwood fiber prices continued their long-term upward trend to reach an all-time high.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Stakeholders tour northern Ontario sawmill to better understand lumber supply chain

By Don Procter
The Daily Commercial News
August 29, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Building with wood – especially mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber – “is taking off” in Ontario and it is a reason a group of southern Ontario architects, engineers and building union leaders toured forestry and mill operations in Timmins recently. “We’re starting to see architects, engineers and governments at all levels around the world recognizing the benefits of building with wood,” says Scott Jackson, of Forests Ontario, which helped organize the tour that included a visit to EACOM, which at 100 years of age is the region’s oldest and sawmill. …Jackson says the forest and mill operations tour in Timmins was part of the Forests Ontario’s It Takes a Forest awareness initiative.

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Firefighters call for better safety

By Dave Flaherty
The Oshawa Express
August 27, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

Oshawa’s firefighter union has joined the city in calling for stricter regulations for wood-frame buildings. This past June, city council resolved to ask the province to review its guidelines for fire safety during construction of five and six-storey wood buildings, and make such guidelines mandatory for all wood buildings with more than four storeys. The move came after a large fire that erupted at an apartment building under construction on Bloor Street West near Park Road South. …Peter Dyson, president of the Oshawa Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA) applauded the city’s resolution. “As the June 9 fire on Bloor Street West showed, fires in wood-frame buildings, in particular those under construction, burn unexpectedly large and hot, and have the potential to be extremely dangerous to firefighters and to the public,” he says. …Dyson says the OPFFA is offering its input to the city in regards to discussions on provincial legislation.

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Credit union brings cross-laminated timber to county

By Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
August 27, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

WARRENTON — The new Fibre Federal Credit Union branch at the North Coast Retail Center uses a cross-laminated Douglas fir roof, one of the first commercial structures in Clatsop County to incorporate the timber technology. The roof, however, comes from Austria, an example of the evolving nature of what many in the U.S. see as the new frontier for timber. The Longview, Washington-based Fibre Federal wanted an affordable way to use exposed wood for a more Pacific Northwest feel, said Chris Bradberry, the president of the credit union. Architects recommended cross-laminated timber… “It gave us that ability to have the architectural design we wanted,” Bradberry said of the technology. “It’s also quicker on the build.” …The posts, beams and roof all came preassembled from KLH Massive Wood in Austria. …“The Europeans have been doing this for like 25 years, so they’ve built up an infrastructure,” said Tom Williamson, a wood technology expert.

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New Land adds height to timber apartment tower proposal for downtown Milwaukee

By Sean Ryan
Milwaukee Business Journal
August 28, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

New Land Enterprises is adding height to its timber-framed Ascent tower in Milwaukee to create more parking and apartments, and expects it could be the second-tallest wood-framed building in the world. The Milwaukee developer is using mass timber columns and beams instead of concrete or steel for the 23-story structure… It is a new approach to the Milwaukee market, but mass timber is gaining momentum globally as a more sustainable building material. …The Ascent could become North America’s tallest mass timber building, and is drawing international attention. …New Land hosted a delegation of Taiwanese government, academic and architectural representatives. The group was visiting the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison and asked to hear more about the Ascent …Joining [the team’s] general contractor, Catalyst Construction, is Swinerton, a national builder with a Portland division specializing in mass timber. Swinerton is helping to vet potential timber beam and column suppliers from Canada and Europe, he said. 

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Forestry

Sending water bombers won’t solve Amazon rainforest fires, Canadian researcher says

By Jenny Peng
The Star Vancouver
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, International

Barbara Zimmerman

VANCOUVER—A researcher who has spent decades working in the Amazon rainforest with Indigenous Peoples says sending water bombers to Brazil would be a mere Band-Aid in the face of systemic problems. …The institute says it doesn’t have figures for the area burned, but deforestation as a whole has accelerated in the Amazon this year. …Barbara Zimmerman is the director of the Kayapo Project at the International Conservation Fund of Canada, a charity that aims to preserve biodiverse areas around the world. Though she applauds the Trudeau government’s announcement and his efforts to bring more attention to the Amazon fires, she says the measures are short-term solutions. “The entire problem is the lack of enforcement of Brazil’s laws, and as long as that continues, this will happen every year,” said Zimmerman

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Sask. activists raise concerns about 20-year plan to clear cut boreal forest

By Kendall Latimer
CBC News
August 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Advocates in the Prince Albert area say there isn’t enough public awareness and hasn’t been enough consultation for a 20-year logging plan for the nearby boreal forest. “When are we going to start paying attention to what we’re leaving for the next generations?” said Bryan Lee, president of the Fish Lake Métis. Sakâw Askiy Management Inc., a corporation responsible for 3.3 million hectares of boreal forest north of Prince Albert, has created a 20-year forest management plan for the area. Sakâw Askiy is comprised of several shareholders who harvest wood for product. …A month ago, Lee asked the provincial government for a meeting in Prince Albert to discuss his concerns. …Chris Brown, who is with the Ministry of Environment’s forestry department, told reporters that the loggers plan to emulate natural disturbances. 

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Captive breeding fails when we destroy natural habitat

By David Suzuki
Comox Valley Record
August 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

B.C. is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a captive breeding program to protect spotted owls. With an estimated six of the owls left in the wild in Canada, all in B.C., that seems like good news. But while the program includes some habitat protection, the province is also approving logging in habitat the owl needs to survive. It’s a major flaw in government-led conservation efforts. …Conservation would work better if land-use management regimes focused on maintaining habitat wildlife needs to survive before it’s too late. Instead, we wait until tipping points have been passed and then scramble to capture animals for breeding. …The main issue is the risk of releasing captive-bred wildlife into degraded habitat that couldn’t support it in the first place. 

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Tahltan, province sign ‘milestone’ land-use plan for Sacred Headwaters

By Quinn Bender
Terrace Standard
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Tahltan Nation has signed a “milestone” land-use plan with the provincial government aimed at preserving the Klappan Valley’s cultural and environmental assets, and guiding resource development. Among its directives, the Klappan Plan defines where resource management activities can occur and protects the Sacred Headwaters — the headwaters of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers — from industrial development for a minimum of 20 years. …A significant part of the agreement is a decision-making and management board comprised of three members of the Tahltan Nation and three representatives of the province. That collaboration, which went out of favour with the previous Liberal government, Donaldson says, is something the NDP government will delve into more with other B.C. First Nations to avoid scenarios where major projects are delayed or cancelled after significant investment due to poor planning and inadequate consultation.

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Dust control applied to Morice road

BC Local News
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Canfor has taken steps to control dust on the portions of the Morice River Forest Service Road for which it is responsible… said Canfor official Michelle Ward last week. The company is also applying water during dry conditions to aid in grading work as well as dust control. Dust control measures follow comments about dusty conditions from local residents. “Canfor completed the calcium application on the portion of roads that we are regular users of. Canfor has covered the cost of the work,” said Ward. …Industrial use of the road has increased this year due to activity relating to preparations underway to support the start of construction next year of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline.

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Terrace Community Forest Seeks to Enhance Timber Supply and Wildlife Habitat

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

TERRACE, BC—A Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC) funded project to commercially thin trees within the Terrace Community Forest (TCF) tenure is currently in the planning and development phase… The project is rehabilitating low value forests, enhancing wildlife habitat, and increasing the opportunity to recover wood fibre for other uses, such as making wood pellets. …“We’ve employed purpose-driven silviculture, harvesting, and spacing plans to affect change on the forest landscape within the TCF,” said Kim Haworth, General Manager of TCF. “Our Community Forest has, within its operating areas, a large contingent of unmanaged, high density second growth forest. As a result of this overcrowding, growth rates of all trees are negatively impacted and understory development of small shrubs and vegetation is non-existent, leading to poor biodiversity values necessary for wildlife sustainability. The work we’re doing, thanks to FESBC-funding, is changing that.”

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Opinion: Killing wolves to save caribou is not the right solution

By Sadie Parr, of Wolf Awareness Inc.
The Calgary Herald
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Alberta’s proposed conservation agreement with the federal government for woodland caribou… which is inviting public comment by Oct. 6, has several delusions to draw from regarding conservation, I will highlight three. First off, the scheme to construct a large fenced enclosure to grow caribou… is essentially a caribou zoo. Next, the stated goal is to articulate actions over the next five years… there is no explanation regarding how quality habitat will appear in light of continued habitat alteration by humans and a changing climate. Finally, the plan to continue the wide-scale killing of wolves… is glaringly unrealistic in terms of protecting functioning ecosystems, the ultimate goal for conservation. …The morality of causing harm to thousands of animals for any reason should be questioned .  We as a society must reflect upon the ethics involved in this conservation crisis.

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What do Coca-Cola, Chevron, Catalyst and North Cowichan all have in common?

Letter by Icel Dobell
BC Local News
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Icel Dobell

… If we stop logging our forests, we can sell carbon offsets… Before we spell out the exciting win-win possibility that may exist here in our Valley, first we want to give credit where credit is due — to council. On Wednesday, Aug. 21, council voted for the UBC partnership to lead the way with our forestry review, public consultation, and the weighty process about to unfold as we determine how, with the highest and best values paramount, we will manage and be responsible for the Six Mountain Community Forests. The vote has been cast and we are now moving forward together. New chapter, new verse, new story. …If we sell our carbon offsets to some unknown carbon producing industry are we selling our souls? The answer is no. UBC has informed us that we can choose who we sell to, just as companies choose who they will buy from. Enter Catalyst.

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Forest centre aims to plant seeds of Lahey report on private woodlots

By Michael Gorman
CBC News
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

While the Nova Scotia government continues to focus on implementing the recommendations of the Lahey report on forestry for Crown land, a group is stepping up to also make those recommendations possible for private landowners. The Family Forest Centre was created by the Nova Scotia Woodlot Owners and Operators Association. Andy Kekacs… said since Bill Lahey’s report owas released a year ago… there’re been lots of interest from private landowners. But there hasn’t been as much know-how. “Explaining what that actually means to people in terms of the specific practices that might change is really important,” he said. The group has created an online hub that will answer questions, help people get resources and understand how the concept of ecological forestry might affect their land, and offer programs for people interested in pursuing it.

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Anger growing in the region, union

By Mike Aiken
Kenora Online
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

FORT FRANCIS, ONTARIO — Unifor members are calling on the province to see wood rights tied to local mills. Steve Boon explains… “The whole point of the forest sustainability act is to  make sure that Ear Falls, Kenora, Fort Frances all have forests and they all benefit through mills and jobs. Obviously that’s not happening,” he said. …Boon says members are upset to see a restart at the mill in Fort Frances being blocked by Resolute, who continue to use wood from the Crossroute for operations in Atikokan and Thunder Bay. …Mayor June Call of Fort Frances outlined how the company had prevented the sale of the mill property to forestry companies  in 2014 and 2018. In response, Resolute said… a new buyer already has plans for the property, including an option to produce marijuana.

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Eco search engine sees surge in downloads as Amazon burns

Associated Press in The Times and Democrat
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

NEW YORK — Can you save the rainforest from your desk? A spike in downloads for a search engine that’s contributing profits to planting trees shows people are looking for ways to help as fires rage across the BrazilianAmazon. …Ecosia, a search engine founded in 2009, works with about 20 tree-planting organizations around the world in hopes of planting a billion trees by 2020. The Berlin-based company has pledged to plant an additional 2 million trees in Brazil in response to the fires. …The company estimates it can plant one tree for every 45 searches that people do. …Larry Chiagouris, a professor of marketing at Pace University, said switching to Ecosia requires little effort and “might make a difference,” but the best way to respond is to give directly to a charity that specializes in a cause and spends donations wisely. …A nonprofit called B Lab has certified Ecosia as a for-profit company with a social mission. 

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Commission ducks ban on herbicide spraying

By Lily Haight
The Port Townsend Leader
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Board Of County Commissioners is sending a letter to Pope Resources and state agencies to ask for the end of aerial spraying of known carcinogens, such as glyphosate, on harvested timberlands. But is a letter enough? For members of the public, who claim they were sprayed by a helicopter herbicide spray rig at a clearcut above Discovery Bay, a letter won’t stop whatever follows that kind of exposure to the herbicide more commonly known as Roundup, which University of Washington researchers have concluded is a carcinogen. …“We implore you… to find solutions that balance the well-being of our residents with the viability of the timber industry.” Passing a resolution to ban aerial spraying altogether is out of the county’s jurisdiction, said commissioner David Sullivan.

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Blame placing or solution seeking?

By Peter Aleshire
Payson Roundup
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Syliva Allen

Alas, the political debate about how to save the forest and the people in it reflects all the anger, blame placing and bafflement of our times. The recent forest health conference in Payson underscored that sad truth. The conference called together lawmakers, local officials, loggers, state officials, Forest Service officials and a host of experts. While they agreed on the urgency of the problem, often it seems like they talked past one another when it came down to the nuts and bolts of finding a solution. …In the end, everyone agreed on the goal – even if they sometimes clashed on the methods. …“Maybe if we get the federal government to work for us, we can get past the logjam of the numerous regulations — and keep our forest healthy,” said Sen. Allen.

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Montana has compelling interest in seeing Tenmile-South Helena forestry project proceed

By Tim Fox, Montana’s Attorney General
Helena Independent Record
August 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Tim Fox

…On behalf of Montana, I have intervened in a lawsuit that special interest groups filed to halt a forest management project aimed at mitigating these risks. The U.S. Forest Service conducted a thorough analysis prior to proposing the Tenmile-South Helena Project, which will reduce fuels and lessen the chances of a catastrophic fire in Helena’s backyard. It will also improve access, which will, in the event of a fire, serve the dual purpose of helping residents escape and firefighters enter. The state of Montana has a compelling interest in this federal case. Not only are the at-risk federal lands adjacent to state-owned lands, but a catastrophic wildfire in the Tenmile and South Hills areas could jeopardize lives, property, clean water, businesses, and even Helena itself. …For the health of our forests and safety of our communities, we can’t afford more obstruction of forest management projects.

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Logging truck insurance hot topic at annual Louisiana Forestry Meeting

By Hannah Treece
KPLC 7
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Jean Pierre Fontenot

LAKE CHARLES, La. – Hundreds of people from across the state convened at the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles this week for the 72nd annual Louisiana Forestry Meeting. One of the hot topics at the convention was insurance for logging trucks in the state. …Transportation jobs in the industry are currently facing challenges. “Mining, ranching, agriculture, farming, fisheries, even crabbing, have all increased their safety ability, not only to protect their own employees, but also not to cause property damage, injuries and fatalities of other people,” said Jean Pierre Fontenot. “There’s only one exception in that natural resource industry, that’s logging.” Fontenot is the Program Director for the North American Timber Program and the senior Vice President of Paragon Insurance Holdings. He said the dangers posed by logging trucks in Louisiana is just one of the reasons why it’s becoming harder, and more expensive, to find insurance as a logging truck driver.

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Inside the faltering fight against illegal Amazon logging

By Felipe Fittipaldi
National Geographic
August 29, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

…For the past 30 years, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources, known by its acronym IBAMA, has stood at the forefront of the uphill fight against Amazon destruction. Its agents have chased criminal loggers and gold prospectors out of indigenous territories. Its inspectors have uncovered elaborate fraud schemes. …But as the pace of rain forest destruction quickens this year… IBAMA is facing more than the wrath of its traditional foes. It’s also struggling under a new president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has called the satellite data “a lie”—and who makes no secret of his plans to roll back environment protections and open the Amazon to logging, mining, ranching. …Despite the heated rhetoric, top IBAMA officials say there have been no substantive changes to the way agents conduct operations in the field. …But many of his field agents are more sceptical.

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Africa is the ‘fire continent’ but blazes different from Amazon

By Carley Petesch
The Associated Press in the Toronto Star
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

DAKAR, Senegal – As the world has watched … the fires burning in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, satellite images show a far greater number of blazes on the African continent. NASA [says Africa has] at least 70% of the 10,000 fires burning worldwide on an average August day…experts say the situation there is different [from the Amazon] and not yet a growing problem — though it could become a threat in future. …Globally, the amount of area burned declined by about 25% over the past two decades, largely because of savannas and grasslands being converted to agriculture, said James Randerson, an earth systems scientist at the University at California, Irvine. Randerson said the tropical forests of Africa have yet to see widespread deforestation driven by industrial-scale agriculture that is transforming parts of the Amazon. But, he said, global economic forces could potentially change this as countries in east Asia, particularly China, seek to expand trade relations with African nations.

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Amazon fires at ‘tipping point’ for health of rainforest, expert says

Agence France-Presse in the Japan Times
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

YOKOHAMA – The fires tearing through the Amazon represent a “tipping point” for the health of the rainforest, the head of a top global forestry management body said Wednesday, urging the world to do more to save the trees. The situation in the Amazon is “very urgent,” stressed Gerhard Dieterle, executive director of the International Tropical Timber Organization, an intergovernmental agency group that promotes sustainable forestry use. “This is something that might affect the integrity of the Amazon as a whole, because if the forest fires spread, the grasslands become more prone to forest fires,” Dieterle said on the sidelines of a conference on African development in Yokohama. “Many experts fear it may be a tipping point” for the rainforest, as the latest figures show a total of more than 82,000 fires blazing in Brazil, even as military aircraft and troops help battle them.

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Indigenous leaders denounce Amazon fire as terrifying plague

By Survival International
Scoop Independent News
August 28, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Indigenous leaders across Brazil’s Amazon region have denounced the devastating fires as a “plague” and a ‘terror” that “makes our children sick and kills the animals.” …Renowned indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara said, “the predatory behaviour of loggers, miners and ranchers, who have a powerful lobby in the National Congress … has been getting much worse under the anti-indigenous government of Jair Bolsonaro, who normalizes, incites and empowers violence against the environment and against us.” …Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “These appalling fires are not accidental. The attack on Amazonia is facilitated because of Bolsonaro’s assault on indigenous people and the environment, to a degree we’ve not seen for 50 years. The Amazon is being destroyed and its indigenous peoples are being destroyed at the fastest rate in generations. The best way to address the climate crisis is to fight for the land rights of indigenous peoples.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Using Every Twig; USDA Sustainable Logging Study to Spur Renewable Energy

By Robbie Harris
Radio WVTF Viriginia
August 28, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Chad Bolding

The world is watching as parts of  the largest rain forest on the planet burns in South America. …In the U.S., leftovers from logging operations are instead, being used to create renewable energy.  A new, 3-year, east coast wide study will explore environmental and economic best practices. Chad Bolding will lead the Virginia Tech portion of the study, which will examine forest residue collection in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. …He says, at this point, one of the biggest challenges appears to be balancing the high value of cut timber with the costs to reclaim the residues left behind.  “Residues are the lowest value product in the forest, so we can’t let the ‘tail wag the dog’.  We have to minimize the impact on the round wood production, while also gaining the residues at minimal cost and efficiency.”

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Local Forestry Assessment to Help Canadians Understand Climate Change Impacts

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
August 28, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

OTTAWA – Climate change presents both challenges and opportunities, which is why it is important for Canadians to be aware of its impacts. …The Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced $194,000 for the Canadian Institute of Forestry to undertake a detailed regional case study that will strengthen the forest sector’s ability to adapt to climate change. Valued at $470,000, the Northern Prairie Forests Integrated Regional Assessment project will bring together public and private sector stakeholders and local communities to assess Saskatchewan and Manitoba forests’ vulnerability to climate change. The assessment will recommend regionally appropriate climate change adaptation actions and support increased use of climate change considerations in planning and decision-making.

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Health & Safety

Nakusp mayor says logging truck fire shows need to review rules

By John Boivin
Arrow Lakes News
August 28, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

The mayor of Nakusp is calling for better co-operation between government departments after a logging truck caught fire on the highway north of the village last Thursday, sparking a forest fire that burned for days. Tom Zeleznik says the fire got progressively worse while several groups of responders figured out who could tackle it. “It’s very frustrating,” he says. “Here you have local resources able to tackle a fire like this, they have the training, but because of jurisdiction and liability, they can’t. Their hands are tied.” Zeleznik, who’s also a member of the local volunteer fire department, was one of the first people on the scene of the fire, near the Halfway River. A logging truck’s load started smouldering as it pulled onto the highway. After trying to douse the logs with an extinguisher, the driver called in to his head office. …Zeleznik hopes fire officials from various departments will review this incident to see how it could have been handled more effectively.

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Forest Fires

While all eyes are on Brazil, Bolivia battles its own vast Amazon fires

The Associated Press in CBC News
August 27, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

While global attention has been focused on fires burning across the Brazilian Amazon, neighbouring Bolivia is battling its own vast blazes, which have charred an area nearly as extensive as the nation of Lebanon. At least 20,000 fires were burning across the country as of the Tuesday, and a total of 950,000 hectares had been burned so far this year — most of that in weeks — according to Cliver Rocha, director of the national Forests and Lands Authority. While some of the fires were burning in Bolivia’s share of the Amazon, the largest blazes were in the Chiquitania region of southeastern Bolivia, a zone of dry forest, farmland and open prairies that has seen an expansion of farming and ranching in recent years. The College of Biologists in the capital, La Paz, has estimated that the fires have destroyed $1.1 billion US worth of timber.

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