Vancouver — The Association of BC Forest Professionals is recognizing 17 forest professionals with awards for their outstanding service and contributions to bettering the practice of forestry across the province in 2021. “Peer recognition of a job well done or extended excellence over the course of a career is both humbling and meaningful to the forest professionals responsible for caring for one of BC’s most treasured resources,” said Garnet Mierau, RPF, ABCFP president. The awards are based on nominations submitted by other forest professionals. The winners were honoured at the ABCFP’s 74th annual forestry conference and AGM, held virtually February 2-4, 2022.
shishalh Nation, BC – On Thursday, January 27, 2022, shishalh Nation (shishalh) and A&A Trading Ltd. (A&A) took another important step in advancing their economic relationship and supporting the work of reconciliation. In 2018, shishalh and A&A fundamentally transformed their work together through a new Relationship Agreement. We are now continuing that work through the purchase by shishalh of 10,000 m3 of annual volume from A&A, with financial support from the Province of British Columbia.
After nearly seven years at the helm, Susan Yurkovich has advised the Board that she will be stepping down as President and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries and BC Lumber Trade Council later this Spring. Susan has provided outstanding leadership to our industry during a time when the BC forest sector has faced massive policy change, recovery from major wildfires, a fifth round of the softwood trade dispute, shifting global trade, volatile markets, and a renewed focus on the importance of forests and low carbon forest products as a sustainable resource to help in the fight against climate change. In our complex business, she has represented our industry and our interests with exceptional skill on both the provincial and national stage. Susan brought a renewed energy and focus to our organization when she took on the role in 2015 – growing our membership, uniting the coast and interior and working collaboratively with industry leaders from across the province and the country.
In November 2021, a series of floods affected western North America – with BC hit particularly hard. …Mercer Celgar, Mercer Peace River, and Cariboo Pulp & Paper were all affected by the disruption. …Though the corridor links to Vancouver were disrupted, Mercer has been able to request alternate routings by rail through the US by an east route, which will then route back through the west US. Similar to Cariboo, Mercer Celgar experienced an increased volume of product but the mill was able to move this by trucking to a local reloading facility, moving onto a US carrier to Vancouver from there. Mercer Celgar was also able to negotiate additional capacity with warehouse vendors to facilitate local trucking from the mill site and, where appropriate, additional space in strategic warehouse locations in the US. From these locations, we were able to ship direct from the mill eastbound and then south into the US. 
Mercer International and Valmet have signed a long-term agreement to accelerate Mercer’s global digital transformation program. The implementation of the agreement starts with the replacement of distributed control systems (DCS) at the Mercer Peace River pulp mill in Alberta and the Mercer Celgar pulp mill in British Columbia with the Valmet DNA Automation System … a single automation system for process, machine, drives and quality controls. Its intuitive user interface makes the most meaningful information available to users based on their roles – regardless of their location, enabling collaboration and real-time performance optimization based on data analytics anywhere and anytime. Mercer will benefit from better and connected DCS data communication and analysis of real-time performance across all their operations. 
Western Forest Products is considering curtailing operations at its Chemainus sawmill starting next week due to a log shortage, CHEK News has learned. “Due to log supply challenges, we anticipate it may be necessary to temporarily curtail operations beginning sometime next week at our Chemainus sawmill,” a company spokesperson told CHEK News. Should curtailment occur, Western Forest Products says the move would impact a little more than 160 employees. “Taking downtime at the mill would have a temporary employment impact on approximately 165 employees,” the spokesperson said. Western says they are working hard to secure logs in order to continue operating but that harvesting levels are seasonal and based on weather conditions. “Winter weather typically challenges log availability at this time of year,” the spokesperson said.
Join us for our next Friday Webinar Series session where our focus will be on: Managing Developer and Owner Expectations and Hurdles for Integrating Mass Timber Products Into Hybrid Building Systems. Today, Developers and Owners have high expectations when considering Mass Timber. They like that it is environmentally friendly, that it provides similar strength to steel and/or concrete within a smaller footprint and a lighter weight-bearing load, that it builds at faster completion times than conventional builds, that it is fire resistant and rated to North American code requirements. This session explores managing these expectations and the hurdles when integrating mass timber products into their new building projects.
B.C.’s forest watchdog has identified four key areas where the management of forestry practices can negatively affect water and outlines potential opportunities for the province to improve regulations. A report by the Forest Practices Board says that at least a third of the public complaints it has received since 1995 have involved the potential for forestry and range practices to affect water … It says that while the board usually found forest licensees were in compliance with provincial laws, gaps in legal requirements mean that forestry activities, including harvesting and the construction of forest service roads, can contribute to the risk of landslides, flooding and other water-related problems downstream. … The report outlines how the province could improve forest management by making water a core value in forest planning, creating a legal requirement to manage cumulative effects in watersheds and renewing watershed restoration efforts to reduce the impacts of historical logging.
Old-growth logging protesters locked themselves together in an effort to get their message across on the highway in Nanaimo this morning. Extinction Rebellion members and supporters blocked … traffic for about 20 minutes before Nanaimo RCMP arrived and directed protesters to the roadside. Three protesters remained and were arrested, including two – Howard Breen and Vic Brice – who had bike-locked themselves together at the knees. Extinction Rebellion’s protest Thursday was part of a Save Old Growth campaign that has disrupted traffic on numerous occasions this month in Nanaimo, Victoria and elsewhere. … Breen, who super-glued himself to logs in Nanaimo harbour last year, said in the release that the planet is “on life support” and criticized B.C.’s forestry practices.
Effective immediately, Shane Berg, British Columbia’s deputy chief forester, has set a new allowable annual cut (AAC) level for the Okanagan Timber Supply Area (TSA). The new AAC for the Okanagan TSA is 2,462,800 cubic metres. It is a decrease of approximately 20% from the previous AAC of 3,078,405 cubic metres, which included an increase to allow salvage of stands affected by the mountain pine beetle, and 7% below the AAC set in 2006, prior to the mountain pine beetle epidemic. Numerous comments were received from First Nations, licensees and residents of the TSA, regarding this determination. The new AAC accounts for Indigenous Peoples forestry principles, limits on harvesting in community watersheds, wildlife habitat and a national park reserve area.
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s proposed Watershed Security Strategy provides an opportunity to improve forest practices and reduce the impacts to water, according to a new report. The report looks back at 28 audit and investigation reports published by the board in the past 15 years that involved forestry and water concerns, and identifies four main issues with current forest practices. The report also identifies four opportunities for improvement:
A protester superglued their hand to the surface of Highway 1 during a protest against old-growth logging in West Vancouver, B.C. A group gathered on the stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway leading to the ferry terminal in West Vancouver Wednesday morning, including the activist who used glue to make their point. Most held yellow and black signs with the message, “Save Old Growth.” One person was taken into police custody before the demonstration was broken up and the highway reopened. Co-ordinator Ian Weber told CTV News that the goal of these protests is to permanently end all old-growth logging in the province. “We’re just ordinary people who are terrified about our future. We want a habitable planet and we’ve seen, this past year, so many tragedies,” he said. …Weber said, “We’ll end with a big bang on (Jan. 31)” then, after some time off, the group will “come back at you with even more” in March.
B.C.’s latest round of grants from the CleanBC Industry Fund pays for conversion of equipment at five pulp mills to reduce their natural gas use, while most of the rest of the $70 million goes to natural gas production facilities in Northeast B.C. to get them to switch processes to electricity. Environment Minister George Heyman and Forests Minister Katrine Conroy announced the 
NANAIMO — Millions of dollars will be invested into a major Nanaimo employer to reduce its natural gas consumption. A little over $12 million is committed through the CleanBC Industry Fund to upgrade the biomass boiler system at Nanaimo Forest Product’s Harmac Pacific pulp mill. Nanaimo Forest Products president Levi Sampson said the upgrades are an important investment to not only creating a cleaner environment, but the mill’s 320 full time staff. “All those wages work their way back into the community. When the company does well a lot of that works its way back in and allows us to be part of making upgrades and being part of projects like the Clean BC project,” Sampson told a Monday, Jan. 31 news conference. Nearly $617,000 will cover the facility’s largest pulp dryer and ventilation system to recover waste heat and lower natural gas consumption.