Region Archives: Canada

Residents should anticipate hearing the sounds of helicopter logging on Crown Land in the Williams Lake area in the next few weeks. The Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development announced Wednesday it will begin the second year of helicopter logging operations to minimize the spread of Douglas fir beetles on Crown land. “Douglas fir beetle populations are currently higher than normal in parts of the Cariboo,” the ministry noted in a press release. “The insects normally attack small groups of trees and a significant infestation will weaken and eventually kill a tree over the period of about a year.” As part of the Williams Lake Beetle Management Unit 2017 Treatment Plan, helicopter harvesting will be done on steep slopes in the Williams Lake area to remove infested trees.

David Lindsay (and frog!)

“Forestry is all about managing balance.” – Dave Lindsay
Dave Lindsay has worked in the forest sector as a biologist for 42-years. Over the span of his illustrious career, Dave has conducted world-leading research, written policy and collaborated on forestry and environmental regulations that helped shape the industry. His passion, knowledge and experience contributed to BC emerging as a leader in sustainable forest management. …TimberWest would like to sincerely thank Dave for his dedication to TimberWest, his colleagues, and the many people he helped influence and mentor along the way. He has profoundly changed the way we work in the forest, and TimberWest wishes him the very best for his well-deserved retirement.

Airborne Laser Scanning data—also known as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)—enables the accurate three-dimensional characterization of vertical forest structure. Airborne Laser Scanning data have proven to be an information-rich asset for forest managers, enabling the generation of highly detailed digital elevation models and the estimation of a range of forest inventory attributes (e.g., height, basal area, and volume). Good practice guidance synthesizes current knowledge from the scientific literature and practical experience to provide non-experts more detailed information about complex topics. With this guide, our goal is to inform and enable readers interested in using Airborne Laser Scanning data to characterize, in an operational forest inventory context, large forest areas in a cost-effective manner. 

Walter Tarnowsky

At Catalyst Paper, one of our core values is to engage stakeholders on issues of mutual interest. This was of particular importance last month when the company was directed by the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District to remove of one of three gates from the Sproat Lake weir, which is a permanent structure that maintains minimum lake levels during dry summer months. It was our responsibility to ensure that all watershed stakeholders were informed and consulted before we took action. As soon as we completed that process, we acted without delay. We now know that the removal of one gate from the weir had a negligible impact, accounting for about one percent of the total flow during the flood condition. …We agree that a hydrology study would help the region better understand the complexity of the Alberni watershed.

The Valemount Community Forest was able to catch up on burning piles of wood debris left over from logging operations thanks to helpful weather over the past weeks without smoking out Valemount, according to manager Craig Pryor. But when it comes to lighting logging leftovers on fire, Pryor is not a fan. “It’s a cost. It’s a liability. It is bad PR. There is not much good about burning,” said Pryor. “We don’t want to burn; we’d rather use it.” Pryor has been working hard on solutions. A pellet plant, for example, could turn that waste into useful fuel and create jobs for the community, he said. But Pryor said pellet plants report being too far away to use waste wood from here. 

The city of Port Alberni approved an application on Monday to the Rural Dividend Program for funding towards the creation of a Wildfire Suppression Centre of Excellence in the Alberni Valley. The economic development department prepared an application … for the fourth, and most likely final, intake of the province’s Rural Dividend Program, which grants funds to help rural communities stabilize their economies and create long-term employment. A Wildfire Suppression Centre of Excellence would aim to develop solutions to the escalating issues of economic, social and environmental damages caused by interface and wildfires worldwide. According to economic development manager Pat Deakin, the project would involve the creation of innovative approaches to better protect structures and communities from wildfires in the future.

Twenty education and child care practitioners from across Western Canada were in the Comox Valley last week for a five-day course focusing on how to implement nature-based learning into educational programs. The Child Nature Alliance of Canada — a non-profit organization based out of Ottawa — puts on the Forest Practitioners course throughout the country. The course brings educators together to learn about nature-inspired education and how it can benefit young children. Nature-based learning differs from traditional learning in that students primarily learn and play outdoors in environments such as forests or beaches, rather than in classrooms.

The WildSafeBC Program is hoping to expand beyond the city borders of Vernon next year. Frank Ritcey, provincial WildSafeBC coordinator, wants to enlist the Regional District of North Okanagan to expand the reach of the local public wildlife awareness and education initiative. …The program, organized by the BC Conservation Foundation, looks to reduce human-wildlife conflict through public education, innovation and cooperation. WildsafeBC is an off-shoot of the Bear Aware program, a realization by the BCCF that other wildlife beyond bears pose conflicts with communities and were on the increase. …Feeding wildlife, he noted, is the worst thing Vernon residents can do, because if they find a food source they will keep returning.

Vancouver, BC – Internationally, inventory mapping for foresters has benefited considerably from developments in drone and lidar technologies. Many senior forest managers are now focused on how the new systems deliver better deicsion-making by foresters on the ground out in the woods. Service providers understand that forest managers need a way to tailor the data being collected to the questions they need answered. …Forestry technology solutions are now widely available and well-supported internationally. Several international experts and foresters are coming together from countries with strong technical networks to a new forestry technology conference in early March 2018. The ForestTECHX 2018 conference will provide leading managers and technical staff from key forestry companies with a timely and independent overview of lidar, geomatics and data collection tools.

Grab a camera and show the world what Alberta’s forest industry means to you. The Alberta Forest Alliance (AFA) is seeking help from the next generation of filmmakers in producing a promotional video on the forest industry. It’s calling on youth in grades 6 to 10 with a keen interest in video production to create a piece showcasing the positive impact the forest industry has on their lives, community and province. Ray Hilts, executive director of AFA, emphasized the importance of forestry to rural communities and said the contest is a way of highlighting that.

Some of the most harmful industries to Ontario’s wildlife are able to carry out activities and projects with no government oversight or public accountability, a new report by three environmental groups says. The report states that a 2013 amendment to a previous regulation is allowing certain industries to be exempt from certain laws under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits any harm to species at risk and their habitats. “I think that it’s fairly terrifying,” said Sarah McDonald, a lawyer at Ecojustice, one of the three organizations that developed the report. “Many of the industries that are exempted engage in activities that have widespread harmful impacts on endangered species and are not subject to any sort of oversight or public accountability.”

Brian L. Horejsi

Re: “Huge salvage job ahead in B.C. forests,” column, Nov. 16. Outside of “public” servants and privileged corporations who have been so deeply embedded in the exploitation of B.C. forests for the past 50 years they can no longer think beyond “get as much as you can, as fast as you can,” I can’t imagine any rational or knowledgeable observer believing forest management has been “done right” in this province. But hold on. Columnist Les Leyne apparently likes what he sees. “Rushing in to extract” value is something he admires. And if there were such things as scientific standards, conservation or protection of old-growth and biodiversity, and a regulatory permitting decision process, he parrots the corporate timber industry and thinks we should “overturn” those standards.

The B.C. government is “pursuing profit over culture and community” by selling logging rights on Haida Gwaii without permission, the president of the Council of the Haida Nation says. Kil tlaats ‘gaa, whose English name is Peter Lantin, compared the current mood among Haida people to 1985, when members of the Haida nation erected blockades to prevent the harvest of old-growth forests on Lyell Island. “The pent-up frustration on Haida Gwaii has built up to the place where it’s going to blow out,” he said. Kil tlaats’gaa said the province’s actions underscore deeper divisions over the future of Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off B.C.’s west coast whose physical beauty draws tourists from around the globe but whose economy is also heavily reliant on a decreasing number of forestry jobs.

Regarding the logging in watersheds, I advise everyone to have a look at the Google maps with the satellite view. Pan around the West Kootenays to areas like Nancy Greene park and you will see a lot of harvest. These guys have had their day in the sun and now they want to tip toe through people’s back yards. When I was in the Selkirk College Forestry program in 1986 we learned of the fall-down effect. Slocan Forest Products (remember them?) learned this effect and now they are a memory. Eventually, the mature timber that can be put through a sawmill diminishes because they are logging so hard. I have to laugh that the government considers we are logging in a sustainable fashion: utter hogwash! We are harvesting fiber faster than it can grow back.

WINNIPEG — An invasive beetle that has already ravaged millions of trees in Central Canada and the U.S. has made its first appearance in the West. The emerald ash borer, a highly efficient killer of ash trees, has been confirmed in a tree in a Winnipeg neighbourhood. “At this point, we have to assume it’s as bad as it sounds,” said Krista Ryall of the Canadian Forest Service. Ash borers, originally from China, are already so prevalent in Ontario, Quebec and the eastern U.S. that scientists fear some species of ash may be wiped out. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said the toll may eventually reach eight billion trees. “All of our North American ash species are vulnerable,” Ryall said.

Ed Morrice

College of New Caledonia graduate Alex Tranq received high praise for his recent research focused on forestry and climate change, but his good fortune began with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Tranq’s research topic, for which he took home second place in the Applied Research and Technology Report contest of the Canadian Technology Accreditation Board on Friday, was decided through the game of chance. His topic, which focused on evaluating western larch trees as a future crop in the rapidly warming climate of Prince George, was one of four ideas initially presented to a group of students by instructor Ed Morrice. …Morrice, who supervised Tranq’s research, believes that the questions raised in Tranq’s paper have practical implications for the region’s forestry industry.

Local mayors and regional district staff met this weekend with Premier John Horgan in Prince George to discuss such issues as lumber markets and softwood duties; timber supply in the wake of last summer’s wildfires and increasing beetle infestations; and the pending legalization of marijuana. …In co-ordinating the meeting, Simpson focused specifically on Prince George, Quesnel and Mackenzie – the three pulp mill locations – and the areas which provide fibre for those mills. “With the whole issue of the changing timber supply, what can we do to avoid what happened on the coast, where the manufacturing sector collapsed because the governments of the day didn’t start answering the questions of what kinds of investments do we need in the manufacturing centre to match the changes that are happening on the land base?” said Simpson.