Monthly Archives: October 2018

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Today’s Takeaway

Wood is good for everything, even clean water

October 24, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

A famous Canadian wildlife painter is calling on government to stop issuing logging permits in BC mountain caribou habitat; a fisherman in Nova Scotia used his boat to stop Northern Pulp from mapping a new effluent outfall; and a California research team has invented a process to turn wood into drinkable water!

The good news stories today include an announced Phase 2 in the San Group sawmill development in Port Alberni BC; a successful new forestry venture for a Northern Ontario First Nation; and the University of Winnipeg launches a new section of their Climate Atlas of Canada with a focus on forests.

Lastly, I can’t help but brag just a little about the 2018 summer Festival of Forestry Teachers’ Tour. After 51 years, this group of volunteers continues to successfully introduce BC teachers the wonderful world of forestry!

–Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor

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BC tightens oversight of resource projects with new superintendent of professional governance

October 23, 2018
Category: Today's Takeaway

The BC government introduced legislation to tighten oversight of resource projects, create whistleblower protection and oversee the professional associations. Is it a means to restore public trust (BC Gov’t) or a lost opportunity (ABCFP)? In other Business news, more on: the San Group expansion, Irving’s plea deal; and Random Lengths lumber and panel report.

In Wood Product news: the US Forest Service celebrates CLT; DeckExpo promotes Southern Pine and Western Red Cedar; but the concrete, cement and steel industries say the US Code Council’s advocacy guidelines are suppressing information on the devastating consequences of allowing wooden high-rise buildings.

Finally, Prince Harry’s environmental message; a survey of US family forest owners; and an online map of the impact of climate change on Canada’s boreal forest.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Commerce taking hard look at softwood subsidies

By Brian Bradley
The American Shipper
October 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration is accepting comments through Nov. 18 on any subsidies, including stumpage subsidies, provided by certain countries that exported softwood lumber or softwood lumber products to the U.S. from Jan. 1 to June 30. Under the Softwood Lumber Act of 2008, the Commerce secretary must submit to Congress a report every 180 days on any subsidy provided by countries exporting softwood lumber or softwood lumber products to the U.S., including stumpage subsidies. Commerce submitted its last subsidy report on June 20. …The agency said… Brazil, Canada, Germany and Sweden exported softwood lumber to the U.S. accounting for at least 1 percent of U.S. imports of the product.

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New sawmill is only ‘phase one’ for San Group

By Susie Quinn
Alberni Valley News
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Building a new sawmill beside Catalyst Paper is just one part of San Group Inc.’s plans for expansion in the Alberni Valley, says co-owner Kamal Sanghera. San Group and Catalyst Paper announced last week that San Group has purchased 25 acres of land on the Port Alberni Catalyst Paper mill site to build a new sawmill.  …Under terms of the new deal, San Group has purchased 25 acres of the Catalyst Paper mill site in Port Alberni, in the corner bordering Stamp Avenue and Roger Street. …If the sawmill is successful, there are plans for expansion, Sanghera said. “Phase 2 is a manufacturing plant.” The company would look at manufacturing value-added products. “What we are trying to do is utilize the maximum fibre out of the forest; unused fibre is available out there in the bush. “

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New mills, new jobs boost Port Alberni in Langley company’s $70-million project

By Jeff Bell
Victoria Times Colonist
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Port Alberni’s economy has received a huge boost with news that Langley’s San Group Inc. will put $60 to $70 million into a trio of mills and provide employment for about 135 people in three phases. The centrepiece will be a HewSaw mill, designed in Finland, that specializes in small-dimension wood. To build the new sawmill, family-owned San Group, based in Langley, is buying 25 acres at the Catalyst Paper site in Port Alberni, and will provide Catalyst with wood chips. …“They will use the steam from the Catalyst mill to run kilns, and the chips from this process will go into paper,” said Port Alberni Mayor Mike Rutten, who was briefed on the plans. …The company will take cedar, for example, and laminate it to other wood to create a high-value product with a cedar finish for uses like home exterior and flooring.

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‘Everyone is not going to be as friendly as me’: Survey boat mapping Northern Pulp effluent pipe forced back to shore

By Sueann Musick
The Chronicle Herald
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

CARIBOU, NS – Fishermen have forced a survey boat believed to be mapping a potential route for Northern Pulp’s new treated effluent pipe back to shore. The incident happened this morning after fishermen got word that the boat was in the strait. Kathy Cloutier, director of communications for Paper Excellence Canada, which owns Northern Pulp, had said on Oct. 22 that the company was looking at a new route which would have an outfall location off Caribou Point. A coalition of fishermen from the region immediately issued a release opposing the plan. Pictou County fisherman Allan MacCarthy said that he got word Oct. 23 that the survey boat doing work for Northern Pulp’s new outfall was in the Caribou Harbour, so he left Caribou Harbour himself and met the boat in the channel.

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First Nation forestry dev-corp is a big winner

Northern Ontario Business
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Jason Rasevych, Mark Bell and Bill Spade

What began as a capacity-building exercise has evolved into a groundbreaking First Nations-owned and operated forestry venture and tenure model in northwestern Ontario. Agoke Development Corporation received top honours in being named the winner of the Business Partnership of the Year Award at the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund (NADF) Business Awards held in Timmins, Oct.18. The three First Nation communities of Aroland, Marten Falls. and Eabametoong, collectively manage the 10,900-square-kilometre Ogoki Forest, 400 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.  Their corporation handles the silviculture programs and access road maintenance while protecting culturally sensitive areas and wildlife habitat. “Commercial forestry has always been a challenging business environment for our First Nations,” said Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum in a news release. “Historically, we’ve been economically marginalized with little or no opportunity.

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Tariffs, Trade and Son of NAFTA

Hardware+Building Supply Dealer
October 19, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Chicago — Why is there no solution to the U.S.-Canada softwood lumber trade dispute? And can President Trump unilateral withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement? These were some of the questions posed during a presentation called Lumber and Wood Products Trade Issues Update, the final presentation of the 2018 ProDealer Industry Summit. And the answers to these and other questions were complicated. Stephen Claeys, a partner at Wiley Rein LLP and expert on international trade law, provided background on the softwood lumber dispute… “It comes down to who owns the trees,” he explained. “In Canada, it’s the Queen of England. In the U.S., it’s private landowners.” …A previous trade agreement expired in 2015, and a getting a new deal might take a while. Why? Claeys pointed to several reasons. First, there are many seats at the table. The national governments, the provinces, Canadian industry and the U.S. industry. 

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Weyerhaeuser funds wood product truck driving program in Maine

By Robert Dalheim
Woodworking Network
October 24, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

DEXTER, Maine – Wood products and timberlands giant Weyerhaeuser is teaming up with a Maine technical center to build upon a commercial driver’s license training program. Tri-County Technical Center in Dexter, Maine will train high school junior and senior students how to load and drive logging trucks. Students – a maximum of 10 to start – will have the opportunity to either intern with a company during summer months or be selected for an apprenticeship opportunity leading to full-time employment, reports Mainebiz. Maine is the only state in the country that trains and licenses students under 18. Weyerhaeuser is funding the program because of an overall driver shortage, say program runners.

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Tougher trade policies can give Maine’s sawmills a chance to thrive

By Jared Golden, Democratic candidate for the 2nd Congressional District
Bangor Daily News
October 23, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

“No round stick of wood should ever leave Maine.” Have you heard that before? Spend time in the small towns of Aroostook, Somerset or Penobscot counties and you just might. This phrase is echoed by the people of northern Maine who have watched their communities — built on the sweat of cutting, hauling and sawing wood — wither away while those outside our border make money off Maine’s resources. Harmful trade policies impacting our forest product industry have hamstrung northern Maine for the better part of a century. Conversely, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have done a great job looking out for their industry. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., corporations and lobbyists that benefit from this imbalance have succeeded in enacting trade and migrant labor policies that hurt those whose livelihoods depend on Maine wood being cut by Mainers, hauled by Mainers and sawed by Mainers.

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ND Paper Completes Acquisition of Old Town, Maine Pulp Mill

By ND Paper
Cision Newswire
October 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. — ND Paper, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited, on Friday, Oct. 19, completed its acquisition of the Old Town kraft pulp mill from OTM Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of CVG, Inc. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement, ND Paper acquired the bleached kraft pulp mill, plus approximately 100 acres of real property, for an undisclosed sum, payable in cash. Prior to its idling in the fourth quarter of 2015, the Old Town Mill manufactured and distributed approximately 155,000 air dried metric tonnes (admt) annually of bleached hardwood kraft pulp.  After a series of phased capital investments, ND Paper expects the Mill will restart in the first quarter of 2019 and ultimately produce 275,000 admt annually of unbleached kraft pulp.

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Timber product exporters wary of potential Chinese dumping

By Emir Zainul
The Edge Markets MY
October 22, 2018
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Datuk Low Kian Chuan

KUALA LUMPUR: The far-reaching consequences of the escalating trade tensions between the US and China are also a concern for the timber product export industry, according to new Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) chairman Datuk Low Kian Chuan. While manufacturers of furniture, wood-based panels and commodities like rubber and palm oil may benefit from the diversion of investment and demand from the two countries, there is the potential that excess Chinese timber products may be dumped into export markets that Malaysia currently supplies to, like Europe and Japan, Low said. “For example, Chinese plywood may potentially flood the Japanese market, which is currently the largest market for Malaysian plywood.” he told The Edge Financial Daily in a recent interview.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

DeckExpo Delivers Treated Southern Pine Message

Southern Forest Products Association
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

Throngs of builders collected treated Southern Pine facts in Baltimore while attending the recent DeckExpo, co-located with the Remodeling Show and JLC Live. The Wood, Naturally display and adjacent demonstration clinic provided visitors with the latest information about lumber products, including pressure-treated Southern Pine and Western red cedar. SFPA’s Eric Gee and Cameron Goodreau coordinated the display on behalf of the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and were joined by Sydni Dobson and Katie Juhl from the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (SLMA), as well as Jay Poppe of the Western Red Cedar Lumber Association(WRCLA). …“These project demonstrations highlighted the design flexibility of using real wood,” Eric noted.  “Things built with wood are created, rather than assembled” added Mark Clement.

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Groundbreaking Brock Commons blazes new construction trail

By Jean Sorensen
Journal of Commerce
October 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

The University of B.C.’s Brock Commons Phase 1 student residence, now the world’s second tallest wood building, is reshaping traditional construction through fabrication and winning awards for its’ construction crew. Three B.C. construction companies have received Vancouver Regional Construction Association Silver Awards: Urban One Builders Construction Management (general contractor — $15-$50 million), Seagate Structures Ltd. (Chairman’s Trade Award for trade contractor up to $1 million), and Trotter & Morton Building Technologies Inc. (mechanical contractors — $3-$9 million). “The wood structure came together in nine weeks,” said Urban’s senior project manager Karla Fraser, as that work included 16 wood storeys plus envelop and concrete floor topping. Throughout the build, prefabrication components, just-in-time delivery, and crews employed on carefully sequenced work cycles sped the building’s rise. …Fraser credits modelling and animation with taking a proposed project and transforming it into a virtual reality allowing the whole construction team to visualize the process.

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Industry groups call out advocacy suppression at Code Council Conference

By Build With Strength Coalition
Concrete Products
October 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association-backed Build With Strength coalition, along with allies the Portland Cement Association and Steel Framing Industry Association, are challenging International Code Council “advocacy guidelines” that restrict communications during the group’s Annual Conference, Public Comment Hearings and Expo, October 21-25 in Richmond, Va. The event is …scheduled vote on a proposal essentially validating design of wood framed buildings taller than the International Building Code’s current five- to six-story threshold.  “The ICC proposal …signal to …building departments across the country that combustible tall wood buildings are an acceptable form of construction,” Build With Strength notes. Under the guise of fairness, the coalition adds, the Council underscores a preference “to shelter membership from viewing critical materials. …the ICC should welcome, not restrict, as much information as possible so that membership can make fully informed decisions. …combustible wooden high-rise buildings are on the table, and it deserves the highest level of care and educated consideration.”

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Can Future Cities be Timber Cities? Google’s Sidewalk Labs Asks the Experts

By Olivia Jia
ArchDaily
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Steel and concrete facades have dominated contemporary cityscapes for generations, but as pressures from climate change pose new challenges for design and construction industries, some firms are turning to mass timber as the construction material of the future. But could it be used for structures as complex as skyscrapers?  In Sidewalk Labs’ inaugural City of the Future biweekly podcast, which focuses on new ideas and innovations poised to transform city life, hosts Eric Jaffe and Vanessa Quirk investigate the potential of—and pushback against—an emerging mass timber industry. …As fires plagued early cities, however, a shift towards steel and concrete as more trusted construction materials—both mass energy consumers and non-renewable resources—became commonplace. Michael Green, one of the world’s leading experts in building skyscrapers out of wood and principal architect at Michael Green Architecture (MGA), hopes to change that.

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The Forest Service Celebrates Cross Laminated Timber during Forest Products Week

By Melissa Jenkins, Forest Service
US Department of Agriculture
October 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

During National Forest Products Week we celebrate the value of America’s forests and recognize how vital they are to our well-being and national prosperity. …By supporting forest products markets, we are … contributing to a more sustainable building sector. The Forest Service is working to develop the U.S. market for cross-laminated timber, or CLT, and other mass timber technologies. …the International Code Council is examining whether or not tall wood buildings up to 18 stories will be included in the 2021 International Building Code. A final decision will be made later this year. The state of Oregon has already adopted the proposed provisions for the International Code Council under its Statewide Alternate Method, and Washington State legislation already embraces mass timber construction. The U.S. Department of Defense is already using CLT in some of its on-base housing because of the incredible resiliency of the materials and their resistance to explosive forces.

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Massive housing complex blaze in West Oakland was site of fire 6 months ago

By Sarah Ravani and Michael Cabanatuan
The San Francisco Gate
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A massive fire at a large residential construction site early Tuesday in West Oakland — the East Bay’s sixth major conflagration at a housing development in a little more than two years — has renewed concerns that a serial arsonist is targeting projects across the region. That suspicion was fueled by a second discovery Tuesday morning: a gas can, rag, match, hammer and the remnants of an intentionally set fire that burned itself out 10 blocks away at an under-construction apartment complex not far from the Oakland-Emeryville border. …Reports of Tuesday’s three-story-complex fire came in around 1:59 a.m., said Nick Luby, a deputy fire chief with the Oakland Fire Department. “It’s just a big pile of kindling… Small timber, it just grows quite quickly.”

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Wood-powered generator pulls drinkable water from the air

By Robert Dalheim
Woodworking Network
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

VENICE BEACH, Cali. – An amazing new device uses wood chips and biomass so siphon clean and drinkable water out of thin air. Developed by Skysource/Skywater Alliance, the WEDEW (Wood-to-Energy Deployed Water System) device sits inside a shipping container, creating clouds from outside warm air. Warm air is then filtered and joined with generated cold air inside the container, producing condensation. Water can then be channeled from the container through a bottle refill station or tap. WEDEW is capable of producing 900 gallons of water per day and can run for up to 15 years. That’s enough water for 100 people every day, say designers. …Designers chose biomass and wood chips as the fuel source because of their low cost and environmental friendliness. “It’s a carbon-negative technology,” says David Hertz, a California-based architect who helped lead the project, told FastCompany.

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Stronger, cheaper, greener: Moving towards mass timber

By Maria Church
Wood Business – Canadian Forest Industries
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Ethan WoodWorks

Ethan Martin is in the business of myth busting. As a licensed structural engineer and regional director for WoodWorks in the U.S., Martin educates architects and engineers about the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel. …At the 2018 Timber Processing and Energy Expo in Portland, Ore., Martin was there to educate an audience of lumber producers… that mass timber is the future of the forest products industry. But that doesn’t mean it is in competition with dimension lumber mills. “The whole concept of CLT was to compete against concrete.” …Lack of suppliers is a roadblock to growing the mass timber market, according to Charles Gale, principal at Doug Fir Consulting. …Vaagen Timbers is a recent addition to the mass timber industry. The company, formed in 2017, is currently constructing a CLT and glulam facility in Colville, Wash.

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Huge fire decimates another East Bay housing development under construction

By Sarah Ravani
San Francisco Gate
October 23, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A massive fire early Tuesday in West Oakland destroyed multiple buildings in the latest incident of an East Bay housing development going up in flames. Crews arrived to West Grand Avenue and Filbert Street after receiving reports at 1:59 a.m. that a three-story complex was on fire, said Nick Luby, a deputy fire chief with the Oakland Fire Department. “It’s just a big pile of kindling,” Luby said of the construction site. “Small timber, it just grows quite quickly.”  A total of six structures in different phases of construction were burned in the blaze. Four of the buildings that were in the early stages of construction were completely lost, Luby said. As of 6:30 a.m., two of the remaining buildings that were nearly done were still burning. “The smoke is our biggest challenge right now,” Luby said. “Daylight will give us a whole new perspective.”

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Red Stag to showcase timber construction in new projects

By Geoff Lewis
Stuff.co.nz
October 24, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Rotorua-based timber products company Red Stag is about to embark on several building projects to showcase the potential of timber as a construction material in large-scale building projects. Red Stag is New Zealand’s largest saw miller, employing 300 people with annual turnover of $220 million. The building projects come ahead of plans to build a $35 million Cross-Laminated-Timber plant near its Whakarewarewa plant at Rotorua to be operating in 2019 and producing laminated panels up to 16.5m in length and 4.9m wide. The first project will be five-level apartments at Clearwater Resort on the northern outskirts of Christchurch using cross laminated timber, and other panel products. The Ministry of Primary Industry through its Primary Growth Partnership is covering about 8 per cent of the $20m Clearwater project. [END]

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Pancreatic cancer: Chinese tree compound helps destroy tumors

By Jasmin Collier
Medical News Now
October 22, 2018
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research, finds that a synthetic analog of a compound found in a rare Chinese tree can be used to tackle treatment-resistant pancreatic cancer. New findings may drastically improve the outlook for people who have pancreatic cancer. The American Cancer Society (ACS) report that around 55,440 people will develop pancreatic cancer in 2018 and around 44,330 people will die as a result. …New research offers much-needed hope; scientists have found that a derivative of camptothecin — which is a Chinese tree bark compound whose anticancer properties were discovered over half a century ago — can effectively kill pancreatic cancer tumors.

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Forestry

Outcry over planned logging

Castanet
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Logging planned for an area east of Penticton frequented by cross-country skiers and mountain bikers has sparked outcry from some user groups. The forest surrounding a network of trails approximately four kilometres up the Carmi Forest Service Road is slated to be logged in sometime in 2019. The block is being managed by BC Timber Sales, under the purview of the Ministry of Forests. Users of the trails say they first learned about the harvesting plans when they ran into forestry workers in the area hanging ribbon earlier this year. “Apparently they contacted a few groups, and no one really said much about it in response, so BCTS just decided that it was OK,” said Neda Joss, the organizer of an online petition opposed to the plan that has garnered more than 500 signatures in 72 hours.

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Painter Robert Bateman joins activists calling for end to logging in caribou habitat

By Liam Britten
CBC News
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Robert Bateman

A famed B.C. painter and naturalist is among those calling on the province to stop issuing logging permits in the habitat of critically endangered mountain caribou. Robert Bateman joined representatives from several environmental groups Monday at his Victoria gallery to make the demand. He believes habitat loss is the biggest threat to endangered herds.  “I’ve seen so many things that have disappeared or become scarce,” Bateman, 88, told All Points West host Robyn Burns. “I think there are a lot of precious things that are disappearing before our eyes and they don’t need to. …Wilderness Committee, one of the advocacy groups joining Bateman on Monday, said in a statement that the province has authorized logging in 83 areas of “critical” habitat for eight of the most imperiled southern mountain caribou populations.

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The Future of Forestry is Here

BC Forest Innovation Investment and TimberWest
TimberWest
October 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

For forest companies, like TimberWest, the health of the trees and associated ecosystems are paramount.  From seedling to maturity, the trees must be monitored and any problems addressed.  Monitoring methods are changing dramatically through the convergence of new technologies such as LiDAR, and the ability to deploy sensing technology using drones. …LiDAR… is now being used for forest research to more accurately examine everything from the height and diameter of trees to ground terrain evaluation and plot-level wood volume estimates. In the just-released video Forest for the Trees: How technology is transforming BC’s forest industry, University of British Columbia forestry professor Dr. Nicholas Coops emphasizes LiDAR and drone use are just two more recent examples of the forest sectors technological revolution, and the types of technology incorporated into every-day forest management.

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Forest management post wildfires, focus of Federation of BC Woodlot Association’s AGM

By Monica Lamb-Yorski
Williams Lake Tribune
October 19, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Woodlot licensees, joined ministry, industry, local government and academics from around the province for the Federation of BC Woodlot Associations AGM held in Williams Lake, many seeing firsthand the impacts of the 2017 wildfires. Organizer and federation president Brian McNaughton said more than 100 delegates attended and during a panel discussion on Saturday, there were numerous ideas advanced for necessary changes to the way public forests are managed. “It set the stage for further discussions and the actions to need to occur,” McNaughton said. “While woodlot licenses may be a small forest tenure, many are fixed on the land base in critical areas that interface with communities and public infrastructure. This conference showed how seriously woodlot licensees take their responsibilities to manage the land and forests responsibly.”

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Lynden girl wins best wildlife photo in national photo competition

By Julia Lovett
The Hamilton Spectator
October 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

A monarch butterfly perched on a cornflower won the top prize in the Earth Rangers’ Living Forest Photo Contest under the best wildlife photo category. And it was a nine-year-old girl from Lynden who captured it in her lens. …The competition, held jointly by Earth Rangers and Forest Products Association of Canada, challenged young rangers to photograph wildlife in their natural habitats and, according to Gelderman, she was shocked when she learned she had won. …The contest featured two other categories. They included best forest landscape and best tree photo.

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A Survey of Industrial-Scale Multigenerational Family Forest Owners Across the United States

By Chuck Henderson
Dovetail Partners
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Chuck Henderson


This project focuses on families who own large tracts of forestland in the United States and manage them for economic return. …Specifically, this project seeks to understand the intersection of the family, business and forestry characteristics of these firms with the objective of sharing best practices and opportunities for the future. Forty-three families participated in the project. …The responding family firms had a median of 98 years in business and four and a half generations of ownership. Over three quarters of family firms intend to continue to own and manage their forestland “for many generations to come”. …As these families continue to grow in generations and members, it will be important for them to bolster their family processes as they have their businesses… it is often family sustainability that is hardest to achieve. 

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National forest logging on upward track, official says

By Mateusz Perkowski
The Capital Press
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The volume of timber cut from Northwest national forests is increasing due to collaborative planning and growing state involvement in logging projects, according to an Oregon forest supervisor. For example, the Willamette National Forest — Oregon’s foremost timber producer and a regular top contender nationally — aims to generate 100 million board-feet in 2020, up from about 75 million to 80 million board-feet in 2018, said Tracy Beck, the forest’s supervisor. Last year, 66 million board-feet were harvested from the forest, according to federal statistics. Contrary to the common belief that federal logging projects are being tied up in litigation, lawsuits have only been a filed against a handful of the hundreds of projects in the area, Beck said at a recent timber industry tour in Corvallis, Ore. …“I really feel like collaboration has helped keep us out of court.”

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Growing spruce beetle populations spurs another officially recognized outbreak, hitting the Mat-Su Valley the hardest

By Jacob Mann
Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

WASILLA — Spruce beetles are only a quarter-inch long but in 2018, these tiny bugs took a huge bite out of Mat-Su Valley forests, killing about 506,000 acres of trees, according to data from the U.S. Forest Service website. “We’re currently in a spruce beetle outbreak in Southcentral Alaska,” Jason Moan, Forest Health Program Manager for the Alaska Division of Forestry, said. True to their name, these beetles’ primary victims were spruce trees. Their host of choice is white spruce, the hardest hit in recent years, leaving miles of red, dead trees stripped of their pines.  According to the U.S. Forest Service, nearly 558,000 acres of trees were decimated across Southcentral, primarily affecting the Mat-Su Valley and the northwestern Kenai Peninsula (48,000 acres). The last major spruce beetle outbreak ended around 1997, closing the final chapter of the notorious “90’s Spruce Beetle Epidemic,” that killed several million acres of trees.

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Forest Service keeps tabs on bugs that threaten fir forests

The Chronicle Journal
October 23, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

LEWISTON, Idaho – State and federal entomologists are tracking the spread of a tiny invasive insect that feeds on fir forests. The Lewiston Tribune reports the Idaho Department of Lands says the balsam woolly adelgid has the ability to rearrange the species composition of Northwestern forests, and it’s already been found in northern Idaho. The wingless insect is from Europe and was first introduced to North America in the early 20th century. With no native predators, the bug has flourished. “There is not a very effective group or guild of predators that feed on this insect,” said Tom Eckberg, an entomologist and forest health program manager for the Idaho Department of Lands at Coeur d’Alene.

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‘Without trees we won’t survive’: Prince Harry’s environmental message on Queensland visit

The Guardian
October 22, 2018
Category: Forestry
Region: International

In the local language, Queensland’s Fraser Island is called K’gari, meaning paradise, and that’s just what Prince Harry says he found during his visit. The Duke of Sussex turned his focus to the environment on the seventh day of his royal tour of Australia. His first engagement was to dedicate the K’gari/Fraser forest to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy, a network of forest conservation initiatives, which involves most countries of the Commonwealth. He said the project was committed to raising awareness of the value of Indigenous forest and to saving them for future generations. “Put simply, without trees and forests we don’t survive. It is a symbiotic relationship and one that so many people still fail to realise,” he said in his dedication speech.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Online maps show impact of climate change on Canada’s boreal forests

The Canadian Press in the Calgary Herald
October 22, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

WINNIPEG — New online maps let viewers zero in on how climate change will affect their part of Canada’s boreal forest. “It’s designed to give information that’s relevant to people where they live,” Danny Blair, co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg, said Monday. The centre released its climate atlas of Canada last spring. This week, they’ve added information that details how things are likely to change in the boreal forest. …Blair and his colleagues divided the entire country into a grid of squares 10 kilometres per side. Using a combination of 12 international climate models, they made their best projection as to how each of those grid squares would be changed. …The point of the maps, he said, was to give Canadians a plain-language tool they can use for themselves to understand what’s coming.

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New Climate Atlas Explains How Climate Change Threatens Canada’s Forests

The University of Winnipeg
October 22, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Today the Prairie Climate Centre at the University of Winnipeg launched a new section of their groundbreaking Climate Atlas of Canada that explains the effects of climate change on Canada’s forests: climateatlas.ca/topic/forests/. The recent release of the IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5 °C underscores the fact that climate change threatens our irreplaceable forest ecosystems and economies, and that preserving Canada’s forests is an essential strategy to help fight climate change. Canada’s forests are some of the largest in the world. They have enormous economic, cultural, environmental, and recreational value for Canadians of all walks of life. And they are already showing the impact of our changing climate. Invasive insect pests, record-breaking wildfires, and drought have already taken a toll on trees across the country.

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Report: Efforts to suck carbon from air must be ramped up

By Seth Borenstein
The Associated Press in The National Post
October 24, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — The nation needs to ramp up efforts to suck heat-trapping gases out of the air to fight climate change, a new U.S. report said. The report Wednesday from the National Academy of Sciences says technology to do so has gotten better, and climate change is worsening. By mid-century, the world needs to be removing about 10 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the air each year. That’s the equivalent of about twice the yearly emissions of the U.S. …The technologies outlined include the simple and the futuristic: Plant more trees and manage forests better, and limit the amount of land used by people. …Conserve soils better so they can store more carbon dioxide and produce more food. …Conserve and restore coastal plants, like marshlands and sea grass beds. …A relatively new technology called direct air capture. …Burning more biofuel — like wood.

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Over 120 groups from around the world declare large scale forest biomass energy a dangerous ‘delusion’

By the Dogwood Alliance
WENY News
October 24, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Asheville — A loud chorus of civil society organizations representing hundreds of thousands of people around the world has come together to release a new statement expressing concern over the use of forest biomass for renewable energy. Dogwood Alliance has joined these groups concerned that biomass is a societal delusion for climate change mitigation and who have increased their commitment to working collectively for real solutions that protect and restore forests. …We call on governments, financiers, companies and civil society to avoid expansion of the forest biomass based energy industry and move away from its use. Subsidies for forest biomass energy must be eliminated. Protecting and restoring the world’s forests is a climate change solution, burning them is not.” One hundred twenty-three organizations from over thirty countries have published this joint statement.

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Availability of nitrogen to plants is declining as climate warms

By University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Science Daily
October 22, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Researchers have found that global changes, including warming temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, are causing a decrease in the availability of a key nutrient for terrestrial plants. This could affect the ability of forests to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce the amount of nutrients available for the creatures that eat them. “Even if atmospheric carbon dioxide is stabilized at low enough levels to mitigate the most serious impacts of climate change, many terrestrial ecosystems will increasingly display signs of too little nitrogen as opposed to too much,” said study co-author Andrew Elmore of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

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Himalayas facing severe global warming disruption, say foresters

The Economic Times of India
October 24, 2018
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

SHIMLA INDIA — Being sensitive to temperature variations, mountain ecosystems in the Himalayas are facing severe disruption from global warming as they are witnessing melting glaciers and major ecological and geophysical changes, wildlife biologists say. The prevention of soil erosion and the preservation of native flora and fauna are increasingly becoming a big challenge, says a book, “The Great Himalayan National Park: The Struggle to Save the Western Himalayas”, by environmentalist Sanjeeva Pandey and Canadian research scientist Anthony Gaston. …The unpredictability of weather and natural changes that have struck the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh in the past two decades are clear indicators of a marked shift in weather patterns in the region. The state government recognises that climate change is enhancing pressure on the forests, biological diversity and the local environment.

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Health & Safety

Faulty coupling cited as cause of fatal 2017 logging train derailment in Woss

By Alistair Taylor
The Comox Valley Record
October 24, 2018
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

Eleven rail cars loaded with logs rolled unrestrained towards a crew of five workers sitting unsuspectingly in a “speeder” and a backhoe near Woss on April 20, 2017. …Three workers, Roland Gaudet, Jacob Galeazzi and Clement Reti were killed and two were seriously injured, a WorkSafeBC report into the incident says. The report was released after a Freedom of Information request by the Victoria Times-Colonist. The cause of the crash was determined to be faulty coupler components failing to engage on a car attached to a braked rail car that anchored the string of 12 cars. That coupling failed, releasing the 11 cars connected to it. In addition, a safety mechanism called a derail then failed to stop the free-rolling cars. …The incident happened on Western Forest Products’ Englewood Railway at Woss.

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