Monthly Archives: September 2019

Today’s Takeaway

Two Frogs in the midst of a logging truck convoy!

September 26, 2019
Category: Today's Takeaway

Yesterday, the Tree Frog Forestry News team was in Vancouver to meet with forest sector exhibitors at the Union of BC Municipalities convention trade show. But, we weren’t the only ones heading to the Vancouver Convention Centre—within an hour of our arrival, more than 200 logging trucks converged on the downtown core.

Kelly and I were two of hundreds of people who flocked to the foot of Burrard Street to catch a glimpse of the convoy. Surrounded by a waving and cheering crowd, where voices competed with a symphony of truck horns, I couldn’t help but be emotionally moved by the experience. I was in the concrete jungle of Vancouver and all around me, people were eagerly showing their support for these rural contractors and their plight.

After reporting stories of the growing controversy for weeks, to see first hand the passion that drove these truckers from BC’s interior was powerful and impressive. You can see from the headlines in today’s news that the convoy was greeted with cheers and support through every town along their route. It’s easy sometimes to loose sight of the human factor in this world of digital news—yesterday was a bittersweet reminder that behind every story are real people. We were proud to stand in support of this important sector. 

Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor

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Special Feature

Convoy aims to shine light on B.C.’s struggling forestry sector

By Dara Hill
Merritt Herald
September 25, 2019
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Merritt was rumbling with excitement on the morning of Sept. 25, as an estimated 200 logging trucks took off for Vancouver to demand government action on B.C. struggling forestry sector. “We respectfully demand the B.C. and federal government engage in immediate action to rectify this dire and quickly deteriorating situation that sees the largest employment sector in British Columbia in dire straights,” a news release from the event organizers reads. …The project, dubbed the BC Logging Convoy, came together thanks to the hard work of local forestry professionals. “At over 63 years in business, we are the longest running logging company in Merritt B.C., and this is the worst crisis we have ever,” wrote Frank Etchart, owner of Nadina Logging, in a news release. “I care deeply about my town and my employees, and I feel it is my duty to protect my family and theirs.”
[This story has some great pictures]

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Logging Trucks arrive at Vancouver Convention Centre

By Sandy McKellar
Tree Frog Forestry News
September 25, 2019
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

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Business & Politics

Teal-Jones Group to invest $31.75M in two Virginia lumber mills

Augusta Free Press
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Tom and Dick Jones

British Columbia-based Teal-Jones Group is investing a total of $31.75 million to expand sawmill and dry kiln operations at two recently acquired lumber mills in Virginia. At Pine Products Inc. in Henry County, the company will invest $21 million and create 67 new jobs and at Potomac Supply, LLC in Westmoreland County, the company will invest $10.75 million and create 59 new jobs. …The company is committing to source 100 percent of its net new timber purchases from the Commonwealth, which over the next four years is expected to top $100 million. “This major investment by Teal-Jones Group in Virginia’s forestry industry is evidence of the world-class workforce, critical infrastructure, and abundant natural resources that make our Commonwealth the best place for business,” said Gov. Ralph Northam. …Teal-Jones Group is the largest privately held forest products company operating on the West Coast of Canada. The family-owned company, operates eight mills in Canada, as well as mills in Antlers, Oklahoma, and Suma, Washington. 

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U.S.-China trade war hurting Canada’s largest railway, says CN executive

by Christopher Reynolds
The Canadian Press in the Chronicle Journal
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

MONTREAL – A slumping global economy and the U.S.-China trade war are hurting freight volumes and revenue, says Canadian National Railway Co.’s chief financial officer. “Our volumes are much weaker than expected. This is not a CN phenomenon, this is an industry phenomenon,” Ghislain Houle told a CIBC investor conference in Montreal. …The increasingly rocky relations between China and the U.S. have seen the White House levy tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese products, with Beijing targeting more than 5,000 American goods in retaliation. “People think that if these tariffs remain that now companies will start pushing those tariffs to the consumer and that could impact consumption,” Houle said. …Disappointing lumber, coal and crude volumes have dented revenues, Houle said, citing high stumpage fees in B.C., low commodity prices and oil production curtailment in Alberta, respectively.

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BC NDP harming jobs, lives with top-down policies: Wilkinson

By Jeremy Hainsworth
Sunshine Coast Reporter
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Andrew Wilkinson

B.C.’s NDP government has a master plan that residents are expected to accept without their concerns being heard, opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson charged Sept. 26. “That is wrong,” he said. The message he said he’s hearing about government, the Liberal leader said, is, “Don’t talk down to me.” Wilkinson cited as an example the arrival of hundreds of truckers at the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities Vancouver conference Sept. 25 to demand that the concerns of the beleaguered forest community be heard in Victoria. “That’s not how democracy works,” he said. He said the forestry industry has been damaged by increased stumpage rates, making the sector unable to compete with lower costs in Alberta or other areas.

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Pellet plant coping with Canfor production reduction

BC Local News
September 27, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Houston Pellet Plant has so far been able to find enough material to fill the gap caused by the Canfor mill’s temporary closures which began late last year, a challenge that will continue as the mill is now shifting to a four-day week schedule. …“We are chipping low grade logs that cannot be used as sawlogs, cant logs or pulp logs,” says Jason Fisher of Pinnacle Pellet. He said the need to find sources other than sawmill waste is company-wide as mills across BC. …“It is important to note that Houston Pellet is a partnership between Pinnacle Renewable Energy and Canfor and Canfor has been working with us to mitigate the impact of their schedule changes.” …Pinnacle Renewable Energy is the third largest company of its kind in world and now has eight pellet-producing plants in western Canada. …It has one plant in Alabama.

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More than 70 handed lay-off notices at Crofton mill

By Robert Barron
The Chemainus Valley Courier
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

More than 70 workers at the Catalyst Crofton pulp and paper mill have been laid off. Travis Gregson, president of Unifor Local 1132 which represents about 85 of the approximately 570 employees at the mill, said the mill’s newsprint and package grading machines were shut down on Wednesday. …Gregson said the work curtailment is expected to last about two weeks, but management set no hard date for when the machines will start up again. …He said the work curtailment is related to the ongoing decline in demand in newsprint around the world, the growing trade war with China, where many of the mill’s products are sold, and the current high cost and lower grade of wood chips. The mill usually receives its wood chips, used to produce pulp and paper products, from Western Forest Products, but the workers at WFP have been on strike since July 1.

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Study pushes B.C. forest sector toward new path

By Chuck Chiang
Business in Vancouver
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Susan Yurkovich

Despite a tumultuous 2019 that saw the B.C. forestry sector become one of the province’s most embattled industries, there is a possible light at the end of the tunnel. …That is among the messages delivered by COFI in a report called Smart Future: A Path Forward for B.C.’s Forest Products Industry. The report comes as a wave of shutdowns and operational reductions… has hit the sector since May, causing more than 1,000 people to lose their jobs. …“We are in a transition,” said COFI president and CEO Susan Yurkovich. “Mills have been curtailing operations … so we are going through this difficult period. But… it’s really important to work to support workers and communities as we transition… we also need to set ourselves up for the future.”  …One of the overarching themes of the report is the B.C. forestry sector’s need to move up the value chain in its products.

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How to keep Canada’s forestry sector growing

By Eric Miller, President, Rideau Potomac Strategy Group and author of Branching Out: How Canada’s Forestry Products Sector is Reshaping its Future.
The Province
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Eric Miller

If you surveyed 1,000 Canadians and asked them to provide an example of an innovative sector, most would not name forestry. Yet, in an age of increased trade protectionism, worsening forest fires and concerns about environmental impact of materials from cement to plastic, Canada’s forest products industry is meeting these challenges head on. Private public partnerships through investments in organizations like FPInnovations, Canada Wood, and the Canadian Wood Council have been key in advancing the Canadian opportunity domestically as well as globally. Yet as science transforms the materials of daily life and new markets enter the global middle class, the question before us is how do we fully unlock the economic and environmental value of Canada’s forest products industry. …Canada’s working forests provide solutions to fight climate change while bringing good-paying jobs to families …The future will be made of wood. Let’s all commit ourselves to making sure it’s Canadian.

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Forestry workers being used as pawns

By Al Bieksa, USW Local 2009
Prince George Daily News
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Al Bieksa

Every good chess player knows about sacrificing their pawns. …The king in this analogy is the NDP government, the opponent is the forestry industry, and the pawns, unfortunately, are the forestry workers of B.C., their families, their communities. …It was the previous government that opened the doors to raw log exports with hardly a whimper from the forestry industry at that time. …Yes, raw log exports have created a significant problem for the survival of mills in BC. …The industry rebellion started with the provincial government’s announcement that it will be making a series of legislative, regulatory and policy changes over the next two years. …The NDP followed up with more rules that further riled the industry. …But now the forestry industry was enraged. Their response was simple. Close mills. Threaten the dismantling of the B.C. forestry industry. Use the naivety of B.C. citizens to rebel against the government and its policy.

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B.C. Liberal leader says forest workers ‘expendable’ under NDP

By Tom Fletcher
BC Local News
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Andrew Wilkinson

Local politicians gave B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson their loudest applause for his call to do more for the province’s struggling forest industry. Speaking to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention Thursday, Wilkinson described the plight of logging truck drivers who drove from all over the B.C. Interior to circle the Vancouver convention centre demanding action from the provincial government. …Communities that have lost sawmill employment, such as Vavenby and Vanderhoof, have effectively been told “you’re expendable,” Wilkinson said, adding that Donaldson recently said in a radio interview that people who are losing their jobs at Hammond Cedar in Maple Ridge can get a job on the Pattullo Bridge replacement project. Asked about that risk, Wilkinson told Black Press that government is about “best practices,” and Alberta has out-competed B.C. with similar conditions. “They’re dealing with the same government in the U.S.A.,” he said.

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Striking loggers receive support at Campbell River rally

By Marissa Tiel
The Cowichan Valley Citizen
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Striking loggers received words of encouragement from union and government leadership at a rally in Campbell River today. Hundreds of United Steelworkers (USW) union members and their supporters gathered in the lot below Western Forest Products’ (WFP) second-storey office in the Discovery Harbour Centre. …The crowd heard from USW Local 1-1937 President Brian Butler, who said the union wasn’t willing to agree to the 24 concessions brought to the bargaining table. “Somewhere they calculated that our members are weak.” …The crowd then heard from USW Local 2009 President Al Bieksa, who was visiting from the Lower Mainland. …Jeff Bromley, the USW Wood Council Chair then addressed concerns over health benefits. …Another rally is planned for WFP’s Nanaimo office, but a date and time were not announced.

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B.C. government offers support for logging communities but says they need ‘to bend and change’

By Justin McElroy
CBC News
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Selina Robinson

On a day where hundreds of logging trucks drove across B.C. to protest the loss of jobs in the forest industry, the provincial government said some change in their work was inevitable.  …during her address to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM), Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Selina Robinson acknowledged to mayors and councillors from across B.C. the “challenges many of your communities are facing due to the mill closures” and said the province would continue to rely on the forest industry. But she also made no apologies for the government’s strategy on the forestry file, highlighting new announcements this week around the expansion of wood frame construction around the province. …The logging trucks were aiming to arrive at the annual UBCM conference, where municipal and provincial delegates are meeting all week. …some cabinet ministers could hear the blaring horns as they went about previously scheduled town halls with delegates

    

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Another option to consider with regards to Northern Pulp and Boat Harbour

By Kingsley Brown – president of the Nova Scotia Landowners and Forest Fibre Producers Association
The Western Star
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Northern Pulp cannot close by the Jan. 31 deadline because of the charade imposed on Nova Scotia by the Boat Harbour Act. Arbitrary closure of the forest industry should not be left to errant politicians while more reasonable and democratic options exist. Although well-intentioned, to make an enormous injustice to First Nations go away, the Province and Pictou Landing First Nation, without consultation with the industry or mill owner, trapped themselves with a deadline that couldn’t possibly be met. …Our association, representing woodlot owners in the eastern half of the province of largest woods activity… has been an active participant in industry’s efforts to keep the mill open. No further abuse of First Nations is first place in its strategy. …To bring integrity to an unseemly mess, our Association, Cape Breton Privatelands Partnership, North Inverness and Baddeck Valley Woods Cooperatives and mainland interests have been working on an innovative option to serve the public interest.

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Ontario Investing in Eastern Ontario Forestry Jobs

By Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
The Government of Ontario
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

John Yakabuski

EGANVILLE, ONTARIO — John Yakabuski, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, visited Lavern Heideman & Sons as part of National Forest Week to see how the province’s investment is helping create more local jobs and increase overall production. Ontario is investing $4 million over five years, contributing to improved productivity in the company’s forestry infrastructure and secondary manufacturing operations. This investment is helping protect 90 local jobs, create 18 new local jobs and streamline operations. It will also enable the company to significantly increase production levels and produce higher-value products. …In September 2018, the Ontario government announced its plan to develop a provincial forest sector strategy to unleash the potential of the sector. …Ontario’s forest industry… generating more than $16.6 billion in revenues and supporting 155,000 direct and indirect jobs in communities across the province.

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Cascades Receives Bronze Parity Certification From Women in Governance

By Cascades Inc.
Cision Newswire
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

KINGSEY FALLS, QC – Cascades, a leader in eco-friendly recycling, packaging and hygiene solutions, was awarded the bronze Parity Certification by the Women in Governance organization. This certification recognizes Cascades’ policies and programs aimed at encouraging women’s professional growth and leadership. …”Cascades is committed to increasing the number of women working at the company and having a greater gender balance,” said Cascades President and Chief Executive Officer, Mario Plourde. We see this is a business issue as well as a matter of respect and equity, as it has been shown that having a better balance helps increase corporate profitability,” he added.

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‘It’s a Crisis’; Lumber Mills Slash Jobs as Trade War Cuts Deep

By Austen Hufford
The Wall Street Journal
September 26, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The big bet that U.S. hardwood lumber companies placed on China over the past two decades is collapsing. China was a savior of sorts for the industry after the financial crisis last decade. Customers there kept buying oak and ash boards in large quantities, while construction and furniture production fell in the U.S. Now, after Beijing placed retaliatory tariffs of up to 25% on imports of lumber and other U.S. wood products, exports of hardwood lumber to China have fallen 40% this year. The lower demand pushed U.S. hardwood lumber prices down 20% in August from a year earlier and prompted companies to seek government assistance. A slowing Chinese economy also has reduced demand. “It’s a crisis the likes of which we just never had to deal with before,” said Matthew Gutchess, president of Gutchess Lumber Co. in Cortland, N.Y. “The demand elsewhere is just not absorbing what China is dropping.”

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Oregon Forestry Department’s slow debt collection causes financial crisis

By Ted Sickinger
The Oregonian
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

The Oregon Department of Forestry has failed to collect nearly $100 million it is owed for wildfire costs dating back as far as 2015, creating a cash flow crunch that is undermining core operations and forcing its leaders into a financial shell game to pay the bills. In June, agency leaders restructured a $50 million line of credit with the Oregon Treasury to avoid default. Then they borrowed $18 million from the Department of Administrative Services to cover two months of payroll costs – loans they’re required to “repay” in coming months but will immediately renew to keep cash on hand. Meanwhile, the agency has been forced to drain internal cash reserves that support other departments, tapping one fund that is supposed to support state forests for $27 million and another for private forest landowners for $15 million. Those funds must be repaid, too, and officials acknowledge that their temporary subsidization of fire costs is hampering work in other areas.

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Company plans $31M factory at Lincoln paper mill site, will employ 100 people

By Charles Eichacker
The Bangor Daily News
September 25, 2019
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Nick Holgorsen and Ralf Meier

A North Carolina company that makes a composite wood material used in construction plans to invest $31 million into opening a new factory in Lincoln that will employ about 100 people. LignaTerra Global LLC will build its new 300,000-square-foot plant on a section of open land that was formerly part of the former Lincoln Paper and Tissue mill site, but that the town bought early last year. The company initially planned to open its plant at the former paper mill site in Millinocket but withdrew those plans late last year as a local economic development group struggled to resolve an old federal tax lien on the property. …Nick Holgorsen, LignaTerra’s managing director and co-founding partner said Lincoln’s proximity to forests and big Northeastern markets with a demand for building materials, the region’s workforce and the helpfulness of town officials all played a role in the company’s decision to open a plant there.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

11-storey mass timber social housing building proposed for Kingsway in Vancouver

By Kenneth Chan
The Daily Hive
September 26, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

The northeast corner of the intersection of Kingsway and Windsor Street in Vancouver’s Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood is slated to become a social housing project. …With funding assistance from both the federal government’s National Housing Strategy and the municipal government, there will be 88 social housing units, with a unit mix of 42 studios, 15 one-bedroom units, 27 two-bedroom units, and four three-bedroom units. …The design will utilize mass timber and off-site prefabrication construction techniques to support new emerging wood technologies and expedite the construction process. This potentially includes utilizing cross-laminated timber (CLT) instead of concrete slabs. A number of green building design elements will help the project achieve a Passive House certification.

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WoodWorks Extends Deadline for Its 2020 US Wood Design Awards

WoodWorks – Wood Products Council
September 26, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — WoodWorks, which provides education and free project support related to the design of commercial and multi-family wood buildings, has extended the deadline for its 2020 US Wood Design Awards. The awards recognize excellence in wood design, engineering, and construction, as well as innovative projects that showcase attributes of wood such as strength, beauty, versatility, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. The extended deadline for nominations is Oct. 14, 2019.

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The latest central Ohio apartment feature: wood framing

By Jim Walker
The Columbus Dispatch
September 25, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Code changes and cost issues are leading developers to frame mid-rise apartment buildings with wood instead of steel and concrete. Throughout town, apartment complexes up to six or even seven stories are framed with wood. While Ohio code limits wood buildings to 85 feet in height, developers elsewhere are looking to frame far taller buildings with wood. Many of those apartment buildings going up in central Ohio are adding a new feature to multifamily living: wood construction. A change in building codes allows apartments built largely of wood to rise six or seven stories high, compared to the more traditional three or four stories. “It’s the norm now,” said Amit Ghosh, the chief building official with the city of Columbus. …“Wood is renewable as opposed to concrete and steel,” Oakley said. “It’s also easier to achieve good sound ratings between floors with a wood structure. With a four-inch concrete floor, every footstep will translate.”

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This company wants to disrupt the $90B paper industry with books made of stone

By Elizabeth Segran
Fast Company
September 25, 2019
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Karst notebooks look like those of any other luxury paper brand… But while the $90.6 billion worldwide stationery industry relies largely on wood pulp, the Sydney-based startup creates notebooks that are made largely from stones that are mixed with a small quantity of resin, a type of plastic. …the pages are also waterproof and tear-resistant. They are also fully recyclable, biodegradable, and carbon neutral, manufactured through a process in which stone—otherwise known as calcium carbonate—is ground up. In this state, stone is actually a very malleable and versatile material. It is commonly used in toothpaste, makeup, and pharmaceuticals. …As consumers become increasingly aware of climate change and the destruction of the planet, Karst’s founders believe that they’re eager to find more sustainable alternatives to the products they use every day.

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Forestry

Fuel mitigation projects moving ahead despite mill curtailments, says ministry

By Max Winkelman
The 100 Mile Free Press
September 26, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Fuel mitigation projects in the 100 Mile House Forest District are going ahead despite recent mill closures, says district manager Patrick Byrne. …On Sept. 17, the provincial government announced that it would be making $15 million available to establish a new short-term forest employment program, focused on fire prevention and community resiliency project. “[Those funds] are gonna be targetted to shovel-ready projects that the regional offices have ready to go. The purpose of that is to create short term opportunities for contractors, opportunities for local workers to get some access to employment and do the important work that needs to be done in the communities,” said Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Forest.

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Sechelt Briefs: Community Forest

Sunshine Coast Reporter
September 26, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Sunshine Coast Community Forest didn’t harvest much timber in the second quarter of 2019, but a report presented to Sechelt council Sept. 18 said it hopes to start harvesting its next cutblocks before the year is out. The logging is on hold pending approval of a five-year Forest Stewardship Plan, which the Community Forest board said has been delayed as a result of the new Joint Decision Making Protocol between the shíshálh Nation and the province. The Community Forest’s second quarter update said it sold nine cubic metres of the 114 cubic metres it harvested “as a result of a boundary issue on our tenure” for revenue of $1,043 in the quarter. Overall the Community Forest’s operating arm, Sechelt Community Projects Inc., posted a six-month net loss for the beginning of 2019 of $199,813 after taking into account investment and other income of $32,597 and $15,250 in court-ordered legal costs recovered from the local group Elphinstone Logging Focus. [Scroll down to the second story on this link]

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Industry asked to remain cautious about open burning

By BC Wildfire Service
Government of British Columbia
September 26, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The BC Wildfire Service reminds its industry partners to use caution when carrying out industrial and high-risk activities, since the Southeast Fire Centre is experiencing a heightened number of Category 3 incidents. Since April 1, 2019, the Southeast Fire Centre has responded to 158 wildfires, about 32% of which have been human caused. The fire danger rating in the Southeast Fire Centre is predominantly “low.” However, anyone conducting an open burn must stay vigilant and burn responsibly while following all burn regulations. Anyone planning to conduct an open burn in the Southeast Fire Centre must check the local venting index before starting to burn. The Venting Index must be “good” on the day the fire is lit and “good” or “fair” on the following day. 

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Keeping Campers Safe: Wildfire Risk Reduction at Agur Lake Camp

Forest Enhancement Society of BC
September 23, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

SUMMERLAND, BC: Agur Lake Camp, near Summerland, is B.C.’s only fully accessible campground for people with disabilities and their families and caregivers. The camp provides an oasis for rest and rejuvenation from the challenges of living with an illness or disability. Recently, the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC) funded a wildfire risk reduction project which resulted in the removal of fuel from over six hectares of land, a project critically important to the infrastructure of the camp itself. …In 2015, the BC Wildfire Management Branch identified that the Camp was in the wildland urban interface and  categorized the area as a high to extreme fire threat. … Janice Mallory, Agur Lake Camp Society board president said, “through the FESBC-funded projects, we were able to extend the safe area out as far as possible away from the camp and keep it safer for the campers and the camp itself.”

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Shuswap projects left with uncertain future after rural dividend funding suspended

BC Local News
September 25, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

In an effort to prop up the province’s struggling forestry sector, the B.C. government suspended its rural dividend program, leaving some Shuswap groups which had been counting on the funding in a tight spot. …Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson issued a statement on Sept. 24 calling on the B.C. government to reinstate the fund immediately. Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo called drawing from a fund meant to help rural communities diversify their economies ‘mean spirited.’ …He said projects such as Salmon Arm’s Innovation Centre, which was assisted by rural dividend funding, will benefit the community for generations. “To cannibalize that program and to take away the opportunity for other communities to access funds for programs like the Innovation Centre at the very time we’re trying to diversify local economies, it seems like robbing Peter to pay Paul to me,” Kyllo added.

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‘Alarming’ extinction threat to Europe’s trees

By Helen Briggs
BBC News
September 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The conker tree has been put on the official extinction list. Ravaged by moths and disease, the horse chestnut is now classified as vulnerable to extinction. The tree is among more than 400 native European tree species assessed for their risk of extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). About half face disappearing from the natural landscape. …Experts are now turning their attention to plants, with an assessment of all 454 tree species native to the continent. The report found… 42% are threatened with extinction (assessed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered). Among endemic trees – those that don’t exist anywhere else on Earth – 58% are threatened. Species highlighted include the horse chestnut, which is declining across Europe, and most of almost 200 trees in the family that includes the rowan and mountain ash.

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Putting forestry workers at the centre of climate policy

By Edward Miller – unionist and human rights advocate
The Daily Blog New Zealand
September 27, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

As students across the world strike for climate action, NZ is putting most of its climate change mitigation eggs in the forestry basket. However, the industry and its workers are hurting on the back of falling demand from China. Can more active Government procurement policy be used to help sustain the industry? A 20% drop in demand for NZ logs caused log prices to collapse between June and July, plummeting by around $36 per cubic metre to around $165 per m3, on the back of slowing demand from China. Two months on, those prices are proving slow to rise. New rail links between China and Europe have reduced transit time from a 45-day turnaround to a 12-day one, threatening to reduce long-term demand for NZ softwood. Forest owners are putting some harvesting on hold, and the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA) has said that many contractors are either letting staff go or putting them on reduced hours. 

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Merkel promises €500m to revitalise German forests

By Phillip Oltermann
The Guardian
September 25, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Angela Merkel’s government has promised more than half a billion euros to revitalise the country’s crisis-hit forests in the fight against climate change. A third of Germany’s landmass is covered in woodland… But a combination of storms, drought, forest fires and aggressively spreading bark beetle plagues have so far this year destroyed swathes of German forest equivalent to more than 250,000 football fields, forcing the government to convene an emergency “forest summit”, held on Wednesday in Berlin. …Germany’s federal government has announced making available €547m over the next four years to remove dead trees and plant new ones, with state contributions boosting the emergency fund to €800m. …Representatives of the forestry industry have already warned the funds won’t be enough to replace lost forests.

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Trees can help tackle climate change so think globally and plant locally

By Stuart Goodall, CEO of Confor: promoting forestry and wood
The Scotsman
September 26, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Stuart Goodall

It’s great news that Glasgow is to host a UN climate summit at the end of 2020. It’s also very fitting – Scotland passed world-leading climate legislation a decade ago and in April… Since then, Scotland has smashed its tree planting target for the first time and the Scottish Government has raised its target to 12,000 hectares for the coming year. …Scotland has the opportunity to showcase how tree planting and using more wood can play a very significant role in delivering zero carbon emissions. …The facts are that modern forestry is built on small and large woodlands, with a mixture of species. Productive trees must be part of that to make the day-to-day products we all use, including embedding carbon in the timber frames of new homes. We must also reduce our reliance on timber imports and stop exporting our forest footprint. Those who claim to care for our environment really need to think about that.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

The climate strike is far from fact-challenged

By Jenna Cocullo
BC Local News
September 26, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Climate action is not some new fad that will come to pass or a way for millennials to now spend their time. Climate change is real. Teachers and school boards who support their students on the Friday for Futures walkouts are doing the right thing. …Look at Greta Thunberg, she was only 15 when she began her campaign to save the planet and this week, at the age of 16, she has the ears of the most powerful people in the world. …Canada is not one of the world’s leading absorbers of CO2. When trees die, get cut down or burn they release CO2 into the air. Canada is not a carbon negative country, we produce more than we absorb and given our wildfire season we are emitting a lot of carbon into the air. …Globally, forest areas are not growing. 

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Separating Fletcher’s facts from fiction

By Matthew Beedle
BC Local News
September 26, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Tom Fletcher – in a condescending attempt at being the adult in the room – has contributed to the spread of misinformation on climate change. ….I’m grateful to Tom for providing a piece that makes for a perfect assignment in my college classroom on how to find reputable sources and determine fact from fiction. …Fletcher introduces a false dichotomy in insisting that wildfires are “the inevitable result of 60 years of wildfire suppression to preserve timber,” when it is both fire suppression and warming that play a role. …He then puts in a not-so-subtle dig against modeling. …Fletcher writes that “globally, forest area is growing”. This is indeed true! Tom, however, says that this reforestation is due “largely to agricultural technology”. The peer-reviewed study finds that the abandonment of large farms is an “other” area of new tree growth… montane systems have gained tree cover and many arid and semi-arid ecosystems have lost vegetation cover.

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Picketers block entrance to Ministry of Environment in support of Global Climate Strike

By Kendra Crighton
Saanich News
September 24, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Access to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy building was blocked Tuesday morning by a group of about 50 picketers, aiming to emphasize the connection between the forest and the climate crisis. Activists are asking Minister George Heyman to … take bold actions in order to pressure cabinet to include the following as key parts of the governments’ climate action strategy; phase out industrial logging of old-growth forests, a transition of control of the forest economy from large corporate tenure-holders to local communities and economic reconciliation that respects Indigenous law, sovereignty and land stewardship practices. Torrence Coste, with the Wilderness Committee, points out the most effective effort … is simply leaving fossil fuels in the ground. “Old growth forests in particular are our best weapon and out sturdiest shield,” he says, cut off by the honks of passing cars — an indication of solidarity with the picketers.

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Aerosols from coniferous forests no longer cool the climate as much

By Lund University
Phys.org
September 25, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Emissions of greenhouse gases have a warming effect on the climate, whereas small airborne particles in the atmosphere, aerosols, act as a cooling mechanism. That is the received wisdom in any case. However, new research from Lund University in Sweden can now show that the tiniest aerosols are increasing at the expense of the normal sized and slightly larger aerosols—and it is only the latter that have a cooling effect. …Some are harmful to our health, while others reflect sunlight. One of the important natural sources of aerosols is the fragrant terpenes from coniferous forests. …Through chemical reactions with the ozone in the atmosphere, the terpenes are transformed into highly oxygenated organic molecules which stick to aerosol particles that are already in the air. …However, the new study shows that this “coniferous forest effect” has diminished due to industrialization.

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Open Letter: An urgent need to put forests on the global agenda

By Marc Palahí (Director EFI), Robert Nasi (Director General CIFOR) and Tony Simons (Director General ICRAF)
Center for International Forestry Research
September 26, 2019
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Climate change has reached a tipping point, becoming a climate crisis that is having a domino effect on many of our world’s forests. It is now crucial for global leaders to come together and hold an Earth Forest Summit. We need to discuss the future of our forests and agree on their governance and actions for the benefit of people and our planet. The benefits of our forests transcend national boundaries, our strategies and actions should too transcend them. It is an ironic reverse of evolution to consider that when trees first emerged 380 million years ago the world was 10oC hotter and CO2 concentrations were 10 times what they are today. Forests made our planet more habitable, and their destruction will make it distinctly uninhabitable for humans and much other terrestrial life. …The world’s forests are the largest terrestrial carbon sink we have. 

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Health & Safety

Investigators probe Campbell River helicopter crash

By Alanna Kelly
CTV News
September 25, 2019
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ed Wilcox

Investigators continue to probe a helicopter crash in Campbell River that claimed the life of a pilot on Tuesday. …Ed Wilcock, the owner of E&B Helicopters, was the sole person on the helicopter when it crashed at about 11:25 a.m. Wilcock was well known and had decades of flying experience on Vancouver Island. A former co-owner of E&B Helicopters remembered his friend and partner as “very focused and very driven.” “Anybody in the community already knows him,” Alder told CTV News on Tuesday. “He’s done a lot for this community. He’s going to be missed, big time.” …Wilcock was given a lifetime-achievement-in-safety award by the BC Forest Safety Council in 2017, citing his “understanding and appreciation of workers’ safety in the forestry industry.”

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Forest Fires

The big picture of the Amazon fires

By Julianna Santos, University of Melbourne
Phys.org
September 26, 2019
Category: Forest Fires
Region: International

…But the fires in the Amazon rainforest this year are different. Thousands of fires are continuing to ravage the rainforest in Brazil in the most intense blazes for almost a decade. The Amazon is the largest rainforest area remaining on Earth. It is home to unique wildlife and ecosystems, and plays an important role in carbon storage and global climate. But why is the Amazon is burning? What’s the relationship between these fires and the political situation in Brazil? And what are the local and global implications of these fires? …The fires in the Amazon are a result of the combination of three main factors: deforestation, farming and climate change. Research from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) shows an 88 percent increase in deforestation in June 2019 in comparison with the same period last year. …And there is hope. …There just needs to be political will, and a fair political system, behind it.

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