Canadian forest ministers signed on to a wildfire strategy to raise awareness of wildfire risks. In related news: Canada’s armed forces could lead a disaster response; new alerts makes it easier to understand air quality conditions; researchers put the “let burn narrative” to the test; and a BC fire chief says stop spending money on the outcome and start spending on prevention. Meanwhile: Quebec is in high fire risk after hot, dry start to June; and Stanley Park falls victim to climate change.
In other news: Saskatchewan invests to grow indigenous workforce in forestry; Alaska promotes greater indigenous stewardship of its forests; a Montana tribally-led effort to restore the whitebark pine; scientists warn against Western Australia’s prescribed burn regime; an Australian developer considers 55-storey mass timber tower; and New Zealand researches look at the benefits of short rotation forestry.
Finally, amid temperature records, Hollywood unveils Miss Freckles: Princess of Climate Change.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
A strike looms for more than 9,000 workers at the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA ), which could disrupt supply chains across North America. The work stoppage for customs and immigration agents could occur as early as Thursday after the recent release of a federal Public Interest Commission report, which sgave the workers the legal right to strike. …Mediation sessions between the union and federal officials are scheduled to begin Monday. CBSA personnel represented by the PSAC and CIU voted 96% earlier in May for taking the strike. …Workers have been without a contract for over two years, union officials said. …Mike Burkhart, vice president for Canada at C.H. Robinson, said the biggest impact would be to truck freight moving into Canada. …For cross-border operators, the potential CBSA strike is another headache on top of a potential strike by railway workers at CPKC, who recently voted for a work stoppage action.
In a May 2, I concluded that Lumber is in a bearish trend and the trend is always your best friend. The path of least resistance of physical lumber futures could depend on the Fed’s monetary policy path over the coming weeks and months. Higher rates will likely be bearish, while rate cuts could ignite an explosive upside move. Nearby July physical lumber futures were at the $527 per 1,000 board feet level on May 1 and have only edged higher to the $538.50 level on June 1. …We could see a sudden rally if mortgage rates fall below 6%, as many existing homeowners have financing at or below the 3% level. The existing home shortage means the demand for new construction could soar, and lumber is the critical ingredient in homebuilding. …Lumber prices are stuck in neutral, for now. When they decide to move, watch out, as another period of explosive and implosive price action will likely follow.
Fueled by a lack of existing inventory and pent-up demand, single-family permit growth is occurring across all tracked geographic regions of the nation. The opposite holds true for the multifamily sector, according to the latest findings from the NAHB Home Building Geography Index for the first quarter of 2024. After continued declines in the growth rates of the single-family Index, all markets moved into positive territory for single-family construction. This marks the first time since the first quarter of 2021 for which all regions are showing year-over-year growth. Single-family growth rates declined to lows in the first quarter of 2023, but as lack of existing inventory and pent-up demand started to have a larger effect, single-family construction moved upwards over the year. …Looking at single-family HBGI market shares, small metro – core counties continued to have the largest market share at 28.8%.
WASHINGTON — Month after month, global temperatures are setting new records. Meanwhile, scientists and climate policymakers warn of the growing likelihood that the planet will soon exceed the warming target set at the landmark Paris 2015 climate talks. Making sense of the run of climate extremes may be challenging for some. Here’s a look at what scientists are saying. The European Union’s climate-watching agency Copernicus declared last month that it was the hottest May on record, marking the 12th straight monthly record high. Separately, the World Meteorological Organization estimated that there’s almost a one-in-two chance that average global temperatures from 2024 to 2028 will surpass the hoped-for warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times that was agreed in the Paris talks. And one more: Earth warmed at a slightly faster rate in 2023 than 2022, a group of 57 scientists determined in a report in the journal Earth System Science Data.
Forests are great carbon sinks. Globally, forests remove nearly all of the two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide that is currently being removed from the atmosphere every year. These days, companies can buy “carbon credits” for the carbon that is stored in living forests and offset this against their own greenhouse gas emissions. International financiers estimate that by 2050, Africa could be selling US$1.5 trillion in carbon credits per year, mainly from its forests. Environmental social scientists Constance L. McDermott, Eric Mensah Kumeh and Mark Hirons are co-authors of a 
California’s largest wildfire so far this year was significantly surrounded Monday after blackening a swath of hilly grasslands between San Francisco Bay and the Central Valley. The Corral Fire was 75% contained after scorching more than 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) during the weekend, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. One home was destroyed and two firefighters were injured. The wind-driven fire erupted Saturday afternoon on land managed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of the country’s key centers for nuclear weapons science and technology. The cause was under investigation. Thousands of people in the area, including parts of the San Joaquin County city of Tracy, were ordered to leave for evacuation centers Saturday. Evacuation orders were lifted when improved weather allowed firefighters to make progress against the flames. The wildfire presented no threat to any laboratory facilities or operations.