VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Western Forest Products announced that a wholly owned subsidiary of Western has entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets of Calvert Company located in Washington State for consideration of US$12.0 million, including inventory of US$2.5 million, subject to a customary post-closing inventory adjustment. Calvert is one of the oldest glulam manufacturers in the U.S. and has more than 60 years of experience producing high quality glulam beams in multiple species, including Douglas fir, southern yellow pine and yellow cedar, for industrial, commercial and residential projects around the world. Calvert has manufacturing facilities in Washougal, Washington and Vancouver, Washington with a combined annual glulam capacity of approximately 35 million board feet on a two shift basis. Calvert’s operations employ approximately 60 employees and produced approximately 13 million board feet of glulam in 2021 on a single shift basis.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Conifex Timber Inc. announced today a delay in the resumption of operations at its power plant in Mackenzie, British Columbia following the previously disclosed dispatch period. In the course of annual maintenance of the power plant, damage to the plant’s turbine has been discovered. The boiler, generator and other long lead-time equipment have not been impacted. Conifex is working with its contractors to assess the damages and the required work plan. Until such assessment and plan are completed, there can be no assurance as to when the power plant will recommence operations, however Conifex does not currently anticipate the power plant to be operational during the third quarter of 2022.
The Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) announced that Tolko Industries has officially joined the Association. …Tolko has operated in Alberta since 1994 when their OSB mill in High Prairie first came online. Their other two other divisions in Alberta include an OSB and LSL facility near Slave Lake, as well as a dimensional lumber mill in High Level, which is also home to a joint venture state-of-the-art pellet plant they own with DRAX. Combined, Tolko’s three facilities directly employ almost 700 workers. …AFPA President and CEO Jason Krips, “Tolko is a company that is known for their values, and their focus on diversity and inclusion, Indigenous partnerships, and innovation. We are excited to welcome them to the Association.” …Tolko’s Vice President, Indigenous & Government Relations and Sustainability, Janis Simpkins, will sit on AFPA’s Board of Directors and will help provide governance, oversight, and strategic leadership to the Association.
You are invited to participate in the 19th Annual Global Buyers Mission™ (GBM) – an invitation only trade event developed to bring together pre-qualified international buyers of wood products from around the world, with Canadian manufacturers of products that include finished materials, building supplies, mass-timber components and panels, remanufacturing products and service suppliers. To apply for booth space, email 
This month Logan Lake kicked-off their youth FireSmart program. The team approach to the project includes the District of Logan Lake Fire Chief and the Logan Lake Wellness, Health and Youth Society and the Logan Lake Community Forest. The team will be conducting fuel treatments over 4.8 ha of a wildlife tree retention area in the southern portion of Logan Lake Community Forest fire salvage permit. Hand treatments will be applied to green reserve patches to improve resilience in the areas where there is expected green tree survival post the 2021 Tremont Creek fire. 
Canfor Corporation today announced a $50,000 contribution to help the Village of Radium Hot Springs reach its $400,000 campaign goal to Save the Radium Bighorn Herd. Radium Hot Springs’ magnificent Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep are recognized as a species of special concern, reflecting the vulnerability of these beloved animals. “As a forestry company with a significant presence in the Kootenay Rockies region of B.C., we are very proud to make this contribution supporting conservation of the Radium-Stoddart herd,” said Michelle Ward, Senior Director, Communications & Government Relations. “The community, including our own employees who call Radium home, has shown great commitment to increase awareness of the risks faced by the sheep and to accelerate the building of a safe wildlife overpass for Radium’s One Mile Hill.”
Using an innovative approach, the Hupacasath First Nation in Port Alberni is benefiting from nearly $112,000 in funding from the B.C. government as part of the Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy Program. Since time immemorial, people of the Hupacasasth First Nation have inhabited their territory on central Vancouver Island. Now, from the pristine forests of the Alberni Valley, they are creating Kleekhoot Gold bigleaf maple syrup from 100% bigleaf maple sap. This species creates syrup with an indescribable, unique flavour different from the eastern Canadian sugar maple. Doug Routley, Parliamentary Secretary for Forests, along with Josie Osborne, MLA for Mid Island-Pacific Rim, visited the Kleekhoot facility. “By locally producing maple syrup from the abundance of bigleaf maple trees unique to the west coast of British Columbia, the Hupacasath First Nation is showing us how we can all benefit from our forests in new and sustainable ways,” Routley said.
A man with roots in Prince Albert has been named one of 11 recipients of a special scholarship by the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), and he is the only one from Saskatchewan. …Andy Goodson is currently in his second summer as a Green Dream intern and has been working at Tolko Industries Ltd. “Working in forestry has been a life-changing experience for me. There is a lot to learn in the field. Every day presents its own unique set of challenges,” he said in a statement. “There’s no better way to put things into perspective than through writing, and I look forward to doing just that in the Green Dream internship program.” Goodson graduated last spring from the Integrated Resource Management program at Saskatchewan Polytechnic and is working on an eight-month term with Tolko Industries Ltd., Meadow Lake Woodlands. …FPAC’s Green Dream Interns receive a scholarship to support their ongoing education. 
UBC Faculty of Forestry’s Future Forests Fellowship (FFF), one of the largest single awards in the world given to an incoming doctoral student in forestry, is once again available in 2022. Made possible by a private Canadian foundation, the award, amounting to $280,000 over four years, was created to underscore just how much forestry research impacts global current and emerging ecological issues. It is awarded to a student who demonstrates leadership skills and who’s intended studies fit within one of the Faculty’s areas of research excellence. “Once again, we are so grateful to the foundation for this extraordinary opportunity to attract outstanding candidates from all over the world,” says Emma Tully, UBC Forestry Assistant Dean, Development, Alumni and External Relations. “We are looking for future leaders who are able to think critically about the many environmental challenges our planet faces and provide imaginative solutions that tackle those issues head-on.”
As an Environmental Studies major at UCLA, I began to better understand and appreciate the natural beauty and environmental services the forests on Vancouver Island provide. When I began researching and organizing to protect forests in Canada as an intern with Environment America, I became immersed in information about the resources that can be extracted from these important forests. However, this was not my first time thinking about forests in terms of wood products. My grandfather grew up on the island, and he worked for British Columbia Forest Products (BCFP), which was the largest logging company in the mid 20th century. …As an intern at Environment America, I learned how to campaign for the protection of forests critical to the climate, biodiversity and people, without villainizing the people who rely on the logging industry.
Please join us for this special oral history listening party hosted by the Forest History Association of British Columbia (FHABC). Widely respected as an innovator and significant industry contributor, Viv Williams discussed his long career in logging contracting (Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Skidegate Inlet, South Bentinck Arm, Spuzzum Creek) in interviews with Arnold McCoombs (1990) and Gerry Burch (1998). The Forest History Association’s Oral History Committee has made an audio-visual edit of this interview material and will host a (45 min+) Listening Party. If you are not already a member of FHABC, please consider joining by going to 
Wildfire season in Canada has not ended yet, but Yukon has reported that this year’s total burned areas have surpassed the 25-year average. Unusually dry and hot weather combined with lightning sparked over 160 fires last week in the territory. Firefighting was so intense that crews from BC were called on to control the flames. As of July 13, 2022, Yukon saw 138,639 hectares burn due to wildfires. By comparison, the average area burned of the territory within a 25-year period was at 101,621, according to a report by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). It was also noted that the amount of area burned to date is more than five times the area burned last year during the same period. The total area burned in Yukon in 2021 from year start to July was only 22,648 hectares.
Blockades in the Fairy Creek area were on hold in winter and spring due to dangerous weather conditions in the remote mountains around protest camps. Joshua Wright, an environmentalist who has been raising awareness about old-growth logging on Vancouver Island, says the camps are being re-occupied but it’s difficult because of the RCMP. “Fairy Creek is essentially a fortress if anyone does any action, there RCMP crack down really hard, the industry is blocking all of the gates, to get into Fairy Creek without trespassing into worksite you essentially have to walk a 40 km round trip,” he said. …Teal-Jones, a Surrey-based logging company, has a revenue-sharing agreement with Pacheedaht First Nation. Last year it secured an injunction against the blockades in Tree Farm Licence 46, which covers a large area of southern Vancouver Island.
VANCOUVER, BC
WorkSafeBC announced today that the preliminary average base rate for 2023 will remain unchanged at 1.55 per cent of employers’ assessable payroll. This will be the sixth year in a row that the average base rate has remained at this level, consistent with WorkSafeBC’s goal of keeping rates stable. Annual base premium rates are driven by provincial injury rates, return-to-work performance and the resulting cost of claims, as well as investment performance relative to required rates of return. Each year, the costs in some industries go up, some go down and others stay the same. In 2023, 50 per cent of employers in B.C. are projected to experience a decrease in their industry base rate, 37 per cent will see their industry base rate increase, and 13 per cent will see no change. …The Workers Compensation Act requires WorkSafeBC to set premium rates annually for employers in order to pay for the workers’ compensation system.
