US legislation would end ‘fire borrowing’, fund wildfires like natural disasters

March 22, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The way firefighting is funded in the US will change dramatically following the introduction of “must-pass” legislation—a $1.3 trillion federal spending plan—which includes funding wildfires similarly to other natural disasters.

In other Forestry news:

  • Ken Wu is in New Zealand warning about old-growth cedar imports
  • The USFS Chief launches review of sexual misconduct in the agency
  • An Alberta caribou specialist says protecting caribou doesn’t jeopardize jobs

In Business news: US lumber tariffs remain controversial in Maine; state newspaper organizations gathered in Florida to discuss newsprint tariffs; and the Swanson Group petitions for relief caused by Canadian lumber imports. On mass timber: more on BC and Washington State’s respective code leadership efforts; the CLT failure in Oregon; and an op-ed noting that CLT-wood “is only as good as the forest from which it came“.

Finally, emergency alerts will be mandatory on Canadian cell phones and it turns out elephant dung is an excellent source of cellulose for paper manufacturing.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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