Blog Archives

Today’s Takeaway

Biden administration kills the National Old Growth Amendment

The Tree Frog Forestry News
January 9, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

The Biden administration officially jettisons effort to protect old-growth forests – Here’s why. The move is supported by Republican Senators and industry, and now environmental groups are holding out for the update to the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. All groups agree that shelving the proposal was the best option.

In Forestry news: While British Columbia faces 7 big environmental decisions this year, today it is all about water – a lawsuit look to protect licensing rights in the Shuswap; a First Nation on Vancouver Island sues for repeated flooding; and a private timber company sells it’s working forest to the Capital Regional District to help protect water supply.

In Business news: worry and disbelief surround tariff rhetoric; a second US port strike is avoided; and Oregon approves a key permit for the biofuels industry. In Canada, $2.5 million is secured for a biofuel refinery in Ontario; and a perfect t-shirt from lumber is developing.

In wildfire news: how climate change is fuelling the Southern California fires in January,  Canadian firefighting equipment is in Los Angeles; and the health risks of wildfire smoke continue to grow.

Finally, a look back at Jimmy Carter and the sad saga of a 9-ton Northern California peanut.

Suzanne Hopkinson, Tree Frog Editor

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Finance & Economics

How climate change is reshaping home insurance in California — and the rest of the U.S.

By Natalie Escobar
KNKX Public Radio
January 14, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US West

Insurance rates in California have been slowly ticking up for years, though climate change isn’t the only driving factor, according to Meredith Fowlie, who researches the links between wildfire risk and insurance prices. In her research it’s clear that the worsening wildfire seasons have been a major driving force behind California’s market instability… In totality, “California has been suffering from an insurance crisis like we’ve never seen,” California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara says… If the past few years have demonstrated anything, it’s that traditional insurance models have had trouble accounting for the “known unknown” risks that climate change poses, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Kousky says, making it difficult to provide coverage affordably. What has become clear, though, is that it’s a problem that U.S. homeowners are not going to be able to ignore. “It’s the one place where I feel lots of Americans are seeing the costs of climate hit their pocketbooks,” she says.

Related coverage from The Globe and Mail: Damage from natural disasters in Canada hit record $8.5-billion in 2024, as industry group warns some regions may become uninsurable [requires a subscription]

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

How to Build More Homes Quicker

By Ehsan Noroozinejad and T.Y. Yang
The Tyee
January 2, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

In 2024, the Canadian government released a new housing plan aimed at building more homes and addressing housing unaffordability. As part of that plan, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that $600 million in funding will be provided to build homes cheaper and quicker using “innovative technologies.” The funding is earmarked for building more housing, including prefab and modular homes, by automating processes and using materials like mass timber construction, robotics and 3D printing… Building materials like mass timber, including cross-laminated timber, offer a renewable low-carbon substitute for conventional materials, reducing a building’s carbon footprint. These modern methods have been successful internationally, producing quality construction that is quickly completedHowever, systematic obstacles like governmental inertia and mismatched incentives must also be tackled to unlock their full potential in Canada.

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B.C. researchers aim to make the perfect T-shirt — from lumber

By Stefan Labbe
Business in Vancouver
January 9, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

A B.C. researcher looking to make the perfect T-shirt has turned to a material so ubiquitous it’s been both a major source of the province’s wealth and the bane of its international trade agreements: softwood lumber. Stephanie Phillips, a researcher at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design, has been working with colleagues at the University of British Columbia to create a high-quality T-shirt that surpasses all others. Why a T-shirt? “It’s really easy to look at. It’s really easy for people to understand. It’s what I call an archetypical product,” Phillips said.  The research is the latest B.C.-based effort to try to make the fashion industry more sustainable… “Canada hasn’t really been a big contributor to the textile industry, and it would be lovely to make our mark”.

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Forestry

Canada’s plans to plant two billion trees best accomplished by looking close to home

By Ivan Semeniuk
The Globe and Mail
January 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

In the 19th century, the forests that surrounded some of Canada’s oldest and most populated cities were key to the economics of European settlement and helped lay the foundation for a new country. Now, those same places could become essential to Canada’s future – not through further clearing and development, but by encouraging the trees to grow back. That’s the takeaway from a comprehensive analysis that seeks to optimize the country’s 2 Billion Trees effort… “It’s asking where in Canada are we going to achieve the highest growth rate of trees at the least cost,” said Ronnie Drever, senior conservation scientist with Nature United who led the study… The findings show that the best return on investment are not to be found in the remote boreal wilderness but in diverse pockets of land that are relatively close to the cities and towns that most Canadians call home. [A subscription required to read this article]

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Lake Babine company signs log supply deal with Smithers mill

By Thom Barker
The Interior News
January 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Lake Babine Nation’s forestry company has signed a long-term log supply and forest management agreement West Fraser, which owns the Pacific Inland Resources sawmill in Smithers. Lake Babine Nation Forestry Limited Partnership (LBN Forestry) will supply the mill through its new First Nations Woodland Licence (FNWL) and provides for West Fraser to work with LBN Forestry in the sustainable long-term management of the licence, consistent with Lake Babine Nation’s traditional values. “This agreement is a significant milestone marking the implementation of the Lake Babine Nation Foundation Agreement that was signed with the Province on September 18, 2020,” said Chief Wilf Adam… Adam noted the new FNWL also provides increased governance over the Nation’s resources, which supports improved fibre security to forest sector businesses in the region.

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Parks Canada working to reduce wildfire risk in Jasper, Banff national parks

By Peter Shokeir
Western Wheel
January 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Parks Canada assures it is actively preparing for the upcoming wildfire season through risk reduction work in Jasper and Banff national parks this winter. Natalie Fay, external relations manager for Banff National Park, said in a media briefing Parks Canada uses a variety of tools and strategies such as prescribed fires, mechanical logging and tree thinning as well as the creation of community fireguards to help reduce the impacts of wildfire and climate change. “While we can never completely eliminate the risk of wildfire, Parks Canada is taking important steps to reduce that risk across the mountain national parks using safe and effective fire management,” Fay said. “Our agency is taking action to create healthy fire-resilient landscapes and communities.”

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Minister of Forests Visits Terrace, Hopeful for Industry

By Jaylene Matthews
CFTK-TV BC North
January 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The newly appointed BC Forests Minister was visiting the Northwest this week and says the forests industry is looking hopeful in the region. BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar has been meeting with local workers, community leaders and first nations leaders in the leadup to the BC Natural Resources Forum, to talk about the future of forestry. “And I think, it was perfect to see the light, the sun shining because, I’m feeling optimistic, as is the community about the future of forestry for, for this community in particular, but also for the region as well.” Parmar’s very first decision he made as Minister of Forests was to approve a tenure license tied to the Skeena sawmills for the Kitsumkalum First Nation.

In related news: Bulkley Valley community invited for foresting planning open house

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$33.3M land purchase will help protect water supply

By Jeff Bell
Victoria Times Colonist
January 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A $33.3-million agreement to purchase the Kapoor Lumber Company lands next to the Sooke Lake Reservoir and the Sooke Lake Watershed will provide a buffer to help make the region’s main water supply more secure, says the Capital Regional District’s board chair. Sidney Mayor Cliff McNeil-Smith said the CRD has identified acquiring the lands as a priority for years, but the 4,875-acre (1.973-hectare) parcel only recently became available. The purchase was recommended by the Regional Water Supply Commission, and will be funded through long-term debt to be repaid by water users over many years… Under its agreement with the CRD, the Kapoor Lumber Company, which began in the 1920s, will continue to use sustainable logging practices in the parcel until September, when the CRD assumes ownership.

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Lawsuit looks to protect Shuswap farmers’ water from logging

By Heather Black
Today in BC – Black Press
January 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A group of Shuswap farmers in Turtle Valley near Chase have filed lawsuits against BC Timber Sales (BCTS) in an effort to protect their drinking water. The Upper Chum Creek Water Users Association, as well as impacted farmers Christine and Scott Adderson and Hillary and John McNolty, have filed a judicial review petition and notices of civil claim in supreme court to try and stop the BCTS’ planned auction of four cut blocks in the Skimikin and Ptarmigan Hills… Bids close on Jan. 15, but impacted water users hope to halt the process through legal action after trying for over a year to have BCTS complete a hydrologic assessment of the proposed logging.

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Human recreation pushing the forest’s largest carnivores further than previously thought

By Michael Brown
The University of Alberta
January 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Human recreation on mountain trails is displacing grizzly bears and wolves from their natural habitats, even when the trails are hundreds of metres away, according to a new study from the University of Alberta. The research underscores the need for more effective planning to ensure that recreationists and wildlife can coexist, particularly in the busy Bow River Valley, which has long served as a natural corridor connecting the prairies to the Continental Divide… Though trails that never receive any use from humans have little to no effect on wildlife, only half of grizzlies studied would venture within 300 metres of trails with the highest human use. This effect was more pronounced in wary wolves, whose radius of comfort extended to 600 metres from the busiest trails. “We initially thought bears might use hiking trails as efficient routes when humans weren’t around, but they actually avoid these areas altogether,” says the author.

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Lil’wat Forestry launches old-growth forest research project

By Luke Faulks
The Pique News Magazine
December 24, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Lil’wat Forestry Ventures (LFV) is leading a data-collection project to assess old-growth areas within the First Nation’s traditional territory. The Old Growth Stewardship Data Collection Project will give the Nation a snapshot of the forest to help promote wildfire management, wildlife habitats and the growth of traditional plants. The key to the project is old-growth forest management. Decades of fire suppression policies preventing forest fires have led to unnaturally dense forests that don’t leave enough space for native plants and wildlife to thrive. “I’m sure if you live in the Sea to Sky, you see how thick some of the forests are,” said Klay Tindall, general manager at LFV. “That’s not normal.”

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In the National Parks, Fire Crews Do More Than Fight Fires

By Cameron Walker
The Atlas Obscura
January 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

In September 2020, as crews outside Yosemite National Park worked to contain the oncoming Creek Fire and evacuate those in its path, archaeologist Jennie Leonard was racing to protect something that couldn’t leave: the giant sequoias in the Mariposa Grove. Leonard and her fellow resource advisors—who protect species, cultural items, and other resources from wildfire and fire-suppression activities—covered the bases of the ancient trees with structure wrap, a fire-resistant aluminum fabric. Each tree, Leonard recalled, “looked like a baked potato.” Advisors offer suggestions, not commands, but they learn to quickly identify how to protect resources in a variety of circumstances. On one fire, they might help position a fire crew campsite so that firefighters won’t haul gear through invasive weeds and accidentally spread seeds. On another, they might indicate where a bulldozer can safely construct a fireline to prevent erosion into a salmon-rich stream.

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New National Tree Canopy Assessment Tool Now Live

Accesswire Press Release
January 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

A national tree canopy assessment tool is now available for the first time, making it possible for cities to view the status of their local and regional tree canopy and how it’s changed over time… The national tree canopy assessment will help community leaders to assess tree loss and prioritize tree planting projects in areas of need, utilizing high-resolution aerial imagery. Users can view land cover statistics, development patterns, and individual tree canopies, all summarized down to the census block group. This interactive resource is available at TreesAtWork.org. More resources, data and information will be added to the website in 2025, including a downloadable National Baseline Canopy Assessment Report detailing the state of tree canopy in urban areas across the country and in-depth reporting on the impact of strategic investments in trees in cities nationwide.

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Why it matters that Oregon just lost its chief forester

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
January 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Calvin Mukumoto

The resignation of Oregon’s top forestry executive last week comes at a pivotal moment for environmental policies in the state. Lawmakers are a week away from convening a legislative session that’s expected to tackle Oregon’s critical wildfire funding issues. And forestry officials are scrambling to finalize two major overhauls to endangered species protections on public and private lands… The state forester has long been a highly political role, juggling policy input from Oregon’s robust timber industry, timber-dependent counties and environmental advocates. “There’s nothing about the job that is easy,” said Board of Forestry chair Jim Kelly… But for many, state forester Cal Mukumoto’s resignation didn’t come as a surprise, even for Mukumoto himself. “Without the confidence of the Legislature and the governor’s office, I think it didn’t leave me many options but to resign,” Mukumoto said.

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Firefighting planes are dumping ocean water on the Los Angeles fires − why using saltwater is typically a last resort

By Patrick Megonigal
The Conversation
January 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Firefighters battling the deadly wildfires that raced through the Los Angeles area in January 2025 have been hampered by a limited supply of freshwater. So, when the winds are calm enough, skilled pilots flying planes aptly named Super Scoopers are skimming off 1,500 gallons of seawater at a time and dumping it with high precision on the fires. Using seawater to fight fires can sound like a simple solution – but seawater also has downsides… A novel experiment called TEMPEST was designed to understand how and why historically salt-free coastal forests react to their first exposures to salty water… Our research group is still trying to understand all the factors that limit the forest’s tolerance to salty water, and how our results apply to other ecosystems such as those in the Los Angeles area. Tree leaves turning from green to brown well before fall was a surprise, but there were other surprises hidden in the soil below our feet.

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Missouri asks for help reviving white oak trees, a critical part of the state’s forests

By Jana Rose Schleis
KCUR
January 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Foresters across the country are asking private landowners for help saving white oak trees, and Missourians have eagerly answered the call. More than 40 people recently signed up to help the University of Missouri Extension and the state Department of Conservation plant and raise white oak tree seedlings. The project is a part of the White Oak Initiative, a more than 15 state effort that aims to make forests more suitable for the trees. Brian Schweiss, a sustainable forestry specialist with MU Extension, said the white oak is a critical component of the forest ecosystem and supports wildlife. However, young trees are struggling. “We have a lot of mature white oak, but we don’t have a lot of young trees that are coming up, replacing the mature trees that are harvested or died.”

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Time for Gov. Kotek to look at saving Oregon’s old-growth forests

By Noah Greenwald
Oregon Capital Chronicle
January 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order calling for the protection of the last mature and old-growth forests on federal lands, but the Trump administration poses an existential threat to what’s left of these ancient trees… Last year the Oregon Board of Forestry, which oversees state forest management, approved proceeding with a habitat conservation plan that will make roughly 45% of our state forests off limits to most logging. Unfortunately, roughly 9,500 acres of mature and old-growth forest, nearly one-quarter of what remains, have been left out of these conservation areas and will be clear-cut. This is where Kotek’s leadership is badly needed. She can provide a ray of hope in light of Trump’s vow to let timber and other extractive industries plunder our federal public lands.

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Forest Officials Reopen Public Engagement Process on Long-awaited Flathead River Management Plan

By Tristan Scott
The Flathead Beacon
January 7, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Resource managers tasked with managing the Flathead River’s three forks under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act announced they’re rebooting a public-engagement process despite falling short of a goal to have completed the draft plan and environmental assessment months ago. The Flathead National Forest published its “proposed action” document for public review on the agency’s project website... The document lays out several recommendations to mitigate direct human impacts to natural resources, including prohibiting motor-vehicle camping or parking on gravel bars; requiring solid human waste containment within 200 feet of the river’s edge; and requiring a metal fire pan or fire blanket for campfires above and below the high-water mark within the Wild and Scenic River corridor on the North and Middle forks… The last management plan was adopted in 1980.

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Tree farmers with deep West Seattle roots win national award

By Anne Higuera
West Seattle Blog
December 29, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Robert Wise, 1960

If you go to a tree nursery, they will often tell you that the best time to plant a tree is today. For one West Seattle family, the best time started 70 years ago, when their grandfather began purchasing regenerating timberland with an eye to the future. Just this month, Robert Wise’s vision and his family’s work stewarding that land led to his grandchildren and their spouses being named National Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year by the American Forest Foundation… While the Wises were raising their two sons and daughter in the city, Robert wasn’t initially able to realize the dream of owning his own timberland. But in 1954, he had the opportunity.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Forests may be more resilient to climate change than previously thought

By Ammara Khan
University of Toronto News
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Forests may be more resilient to climate change than previously thought. A team of international researchers have found that increased inputs from plant roots can keep carbon levels in soil stable even as temperatures and nitrogen deposits in the atmosphere rise. The collaborative research project, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, looked at the effects of increased temperatures due to climate change and increased nitrogen in the atmosphere released by burning fossil fuels – two environmental threats that had been studied separately… the research team found when rising temperatures were coupled with higher nitrogen levels, the plants added more carbon to soil by increasing their growth, activity and root turnover (the rate that their roots grow, die and decompose), maintaining soil carbon levels.

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Calgary company considering northern BC as potential site of biomass diesel manufacturing plant

By Ted Clarke
Prince George Citizen
January 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

In 2023, Expander Energy  Inc., and Rocky Mountain Clean Fuels Inc., announced a project to produce low carbon bio-synthetic diesel fuel by combining pieces of waste wood and synthetic gas using a patented gasification process. Expander Energy CEO Gord Crawford said his company is working on a feasibility study funded by the federal government’s Clean Fuels Fund to determine new locations for future gasification plants that turn forest products into fuel. Northern BC is being considered as a potential plant site. “These plants won’t be located in Vancouver, they’ll be in Prince George, Fort St.. John, places like Fort St. James, rural and remote.”… Northern BC has all the elements needed to support a carbon-neutral project, including fibre supply, renewable energy from the electrical grid and an existing track record of industrial development.

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Humboldt County supervisors to discuss ‘critical shortcomings’ in proposed wood pellet project

By Ruth Schneider
Times Standard
January 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors will return to the topic of a massive wood pellet project… Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone proposes sending a letter with comments on the project proposed by Golden State Natural Resources that would create two wood pellet processing plants in Tuolomme and Lassen counties to harvest trees cut down in forest thinning projects, trucking the pellets to the Port of Stockton where they would be shipped to international energy markets. The proposed letter outlines various concerns about the project and urges more transparency… A critical complaint of the proposal is about the risk of Golden State Natural Resources partnering with Drax Global, a power generation company that has a history of environmental violation complaints both in the U.S. and abroad.

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Canada investing $2.5 million towards proposed biofuel refinery in town

By Ken Keller
Fort Frances Times
January 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Marcus Powlowski

The federal government is investing more than $2 million in a project that could see a revolutionary new industry take root in Fort Frances. In a media event held yesterday, Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski made an announcement of $2.5 million that will be going to Wanagekong-Biiwega’iganan Clean Energy Corporation (WBCEC). The investment from the federal government will help fund the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) phase of a project that is working to establish an industrial plant that will turn local wood waste into low-carbon fuels. WBCEC is an entity made up of the ten local First Nation communities in the southern end of Treaty #3 working in partnership with Vancouver-based Highbury Energy Inc., who made the announcement of their partnership and plans to establish a biofuel refinery in Fort Frances in December 2024.

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U.S. company offers its Northwestern Ontario timberlands for carbon removal project

By Gary Rinne
NWOnewswatch.com
January 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

An American company that controls some large patches of forest northwest of Thunder Bay is considering the potential sale of its timberlands for use as a carbon offset initiative… Wagner Forest Management – based in New Hampshire – owns 195,000 hectares of forest in eight former Abitibi-Consolidated freehold blocks located roughly between the Dog Lake area, Graham and Sioux Lookout. It purchased the blocks from Abitibi in 2005 in a bidding process in which the Ontario government also participated. Last July the company extended an invitation to investors interested in the potential development of its holdings as “one of the largest nature-based carbon removal projects in the Voluntary Carbon Market.”.. Wagner’s forest management practices are currently certified through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

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Prime apple-growing areas in US face increasing climate risks

By Sara Zaske
WSU Insider
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Some of the most productive apple regions in America are facing big challenges from a changing climate, according to a Washington State University study. Researchers analyzed over 40 years of climate conditions that impact the growth cycle of apple trees from bud break and flowering through fruit development, maturation and color development. While many growing areas are facing increased climate risks, the top three largest apple-producing counties in the U.S. were among the most impacted: Yakima in Washington, Kent in Michigan and Wayne in New York. In particular, Yakima County, the largest of the three with more than 48,800 acres of apple orchards, has seen harmful trends in five of the six metrics the researchers analyzed.

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The Search for a Somewhat Sustainable Aviation Fuel

By Katie Brigham
Heatmap
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

There’s no quick fix for decarbonizing medium- and long-distance flights. Batteries are typically too heavy, and hydrogen fuel takes up too much space to offer a practical solution, leaving sustainable aviation fuels made from plants and other biomass, recycled carbon, or captured carbon as the primary options… That creates an opportunity for developers of second-generation sustainable aviation fuel technologies, which involve making jet fuel out of captured carbon or alternate biomass sources, such as forest waste. These methods are not yet mature enough to make a significant dent in 2030 targets… But this tech will need to be a big part of the equation in order to meet the aviation sector’s overall goal of net zero emissions by 2050, as well as the EU’s sustainable fuels mandate.

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High winds, lack of rain and climate change stoking California fires

By Matt McGrath
BBC News
January 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The impact of a changing climate is evident in the bigger picture for the state. California has experienced a decades-long drought that ended just two years ago. The resulting wet conditions since then have seen the rapid growth of shrubs and trees, the perfect fuel for fires. However last summer was very hot and was followed by dry autumn and winter season – downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches of rain since October, more than 4 inches below average. Researchers believe that a warming world is increasing the conditions that are conducive to wildland fire, including low relative humidity. These “fire weather” days are increasing in many parts of the world, with climate change making these conditions more severe and the fire season lasting longer in many parts of the world, scientists have shown.

In related news: Here’s how California has increased forest management and wildfire response in the face of a hotter, drier climate

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Frozen forest discovery hints at future alpine ecosystem changes

Bu Diana Setterberg
Phys.Org
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Montana State University scientists say the frozen remnants of an ancient forest discovered 600 feet above the modern tree line on the Beartooth Plateau may portend possible changes for the alpine ecosystem if the climate continues to warm. A paper about the discovery is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It describes what scientists have learned by studying the remains of a mature whitebark pine forest that formed at 10,000 feet elevation about 6,000 years ago, when warm-season temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were similar to those of the mid-to-late 20th century… The results of the study suggest current climate conditions could lead to trees moving upslope into areas of the plateau that are now tundra.

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USA BioEnergy secures land for $2.8-B Sustainable Aviation Fuel plant in East Texas

Hydrocarbon Processing
January 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

USA BioEnergy (USABE) announced it has closed on the acquisition of 1,600+ acres of land in East Texas for its new $2.8-B advanced biorefinery, designed to convert wood waste into sustainable, net-zero aviation fuel (SAF). The landmark SAF facility already secured a 20-year offtake agreement with Southwest Airlines and is at the forefront of advancing ultra-low-carbon fuel, which is much needed in the future of aviation… Once blended with conventional jet fuel, the SAF could produce the equivalent of 2.59 billion gallons of net-zero fuel and avoid 30 million metric tons of CO2 over the offtake agreement term.  According to USABE calculations this will enable approximately 112,000 short (less than three hours) or 7,000 long haul (more than 10 hours) net-zero airline flights per year.

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Amid outcry, solar farm owner says it no longer wants Michigan forest to expand

By Kelly House
Bridge Michigan
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

A proposal to lease 420 acres of state land near Gaylord for a solar energy development is on shaky ground after attracting criticism from lawmakers, including calls for “mass firings” of state employees involved in the plan… In Michigan, legislation passed last year requiring utilities to achieve 100% clean energy by 2040. To meet that mandate, Michigan may need to devote another 209,000 acres to wind and solar energy… In turn, state officials have been evaluating state land for renewable development… But developing state forests for clean energy comes with climate tradeoffs. Trees are a known carbon sink, and logging them to install solar panels can sometimes cancel out the climate gains… Lawmakers also object to solar farms on state land because they are viewed as more destructive to habitat and public access. “This is going to permanently, for many, many years, destroy that property’s ability to be enjoyed by sportsmen, by wildlife”.

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What’s the dollar value of a forest that you can’t cut down?

Bt David Brooks
Concord Monitor
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

What is a living forest worth in money? That’s a simple-sounding question which has flummoxed New Hampshire for a long time… New Hampshire Division of Forests & Lands just released a registry of five carbon credit programs in the state. That includes 7,200 acres in and around the Ossipee Mountains mostly owned by Lakes Region Conservation Trust that in 2018… The trust can harvest trees as long as they don’t cut the property back to less than the 2018 baseline. If they cut too much, they have to repay some of the credits. As you might expect, there’s a lot of work involved to ensure the project actually adds to carbon capture – properties already protected by easements aren’t eligible – and to monitor lands to make sure trees aren’t being cut without anybody knowing.

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New building materials could lock away billions of tons of CO2

By Joshua Shavit
The Brighter Side of News
January 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The quest to limit global warming and stabilize Earth’s climate hinges on achieving net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. This goal requires balancing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions with greenhouse gas removal. While traditional carbon capture and storage methods have been proposed, they often involve significant challenges and risks. A promising alternative lies in the materials we already use extensively: building materials such as concrete, asphalt, wood, and bricks. Civil engineers and earth systems scientists from institutions like UC Davis and Stanford University have explored the ability of construction materials to act as carbon sinks. Their findings, published in the journal Science, indicate that these materials could lock away billions of tons of carbon dioxide.

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Shell and Microsoft top list of 10 biggest carbon credit buyers in 2024

By Jim Giles
GreenBiz
January 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The two companies at the top of credit leaderboard paid vastly different amounts and backed very different projects to achieve their ranking… Microsoft focused almost exclusively on carbon removal credits. Close to 80 percent of the credits it retired were from projects that generate energy by burning biomass and then capturing and storing the associated emissions. Because the biomass captures carbon dioxide as it grows, the process, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), can be carbon negative. Shell focused on projects that avoided greenhouse gas emissions. The company retires credits to offset its emissions and, unlike Microsoft, also helps clients acquire credits. It used more established credit types, retiring 9.4 million forestry and land use credits and 2.4 million renewable energy credits.

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Climate change: what the latest science is telling us

By Gloria Dickie
Reuters
January 6, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International
Globally, forests appear to be struggling. Here is some of the latest climate research:
  • Global warming is drying waterways and sapping moisture from forests, creating conditions for bigger and hotter wildfires from the U.S. West and Canada to southern Europe and Russia’s Far East.
  • Between 10% and 47% of Brazil’s Amazon will face combined stresses of heat and drought from climate change, which could push the Amazon past a tipping point, with the jungle no longer able to produce enough moisture to quench its own trees.
  • Forests overall failed to absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as in the past, due largely to wildfires in Canada. That means a record amount of CO2 entered the atmosphere.
  • While the vast Arctic tundra has been a carbon sink for thousands of years, rising wildfire emissions mean the tundra is now releasing more carbon than it stores.

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Health & Safety

Forestry company breached worker privacy with dashcams

By Bob Mackin
Prince George Citizen
January 13, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: Canada, Canada West

A division of a forestry and construction company with an office in Prince George lost a review of an arbitrator’s decision that awarded fallers $4,000 each for breach of privacy. At issue was the installation of dash cameras in the company’s four-wheel drive pickups in Campbell River… They began installing the dash cameras in February 2023, prompting the United Steelworkers, Local 1-1937 (USW) to file a grievance. They stated the purpose for the rear-facing dash camera included  “road conditions not seen by the forward-facing camera” and monitoring “distractions in cab – eating, texting, smoking, horseplay.” USW did not take issue with collection of GPS information or video from the forward-facing cameras while the crew bus was in motion. Its grievance was about the audio and video collected by the rear-facing camera and video by the forward-facing camera while the vehicle was idle.

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Is the Pink Fire Retardant That Planes Are Dropping on the California Fires Safe?

By Hiroko Tabuchi
Business and America
January 14, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

From above the raging flames, these planes can unleash immense tankfuls of bright pink fire retardant in just 20 seconds. They have long been considered vital in the battle against wildfires. But emerging research has shown that the millions of gallons of retardant sprayed on the landscape to tame wildfires each year come with a toxic burden, because they contain heavy metals and other chemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment. The toxicity presents a stark dilemma. These tankers and their cargo are a powerful tool for taming deadly blazes. Yet as wildfires intensify and become more frequent in an era of climate change, firefighters are using them more often, and in the process releasing more harmful chemicals into the environment.

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Forest Fires

What to know about the devastation from the Los Angeles-area fires

AP News
January 14, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Fires burning homes and businesses in Los Angeles for a week have killed at least 24 people, displaced thousands of others and destroyed more than 12,000 buildings in what might be the most expensive conflagrations in the nation’s history. The blazes started Jan. 7, fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds that have posed problems for the large forces of firefighters deployed across several areas of the sprawling city. Cal Fire reported that the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires have consumed about 63 square miles (163 square kilometers). Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fires. They could be the nation’s costliest ever.

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Tree that hit power line caused one of North Dakota’s most devastating fires

By April Baumgarten
Inforum
January 6, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

In reports released Monday, Jan. 6, the State Fire Marshal’s Office detailed how an Oct. 6 fire that destroyed 30,549 acres, killed two people and traveled between Ray and Tioga started. It was one of two fires that burned nearly 90,000 acres and nearly engulfed the two small cities in northwest North Dakota… The tree hit the power line and broke it in half. The downed lines then ignited dry grass. Photos included in the Fire Marshal’s report showed the broken power lines and impact points on the tree, which reportedly was taller than the power lines… Officials are still determining what started a second fire that started the same day near U.S. Highway 85 about 30 miles north of Williston.

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Forest History & Archives

Jimmy Carter and the sad saga of a 9-ton Northern California peanut

By Hailey Branson-Potts
Los Angeles Times
January 9, 2025
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States

In the spring of 1977, President Jimmy Carter, the former peanut farmer who had just taken office, was offered a big gift — if you can call it that — from the misty Northern California coast. A 9-ton redwood peanut. The roughly hewn goober had been strapped to the back of a logging truck, hauled across the country and parked near the White House. It was offered to Carter amid a protest by loggers angry and anxious about his administration’s plans to expand Redwood National Park along California’s northern coast and eliminate their jobs… The creation — and Carter’s expansion — of Redwood National Park has long been a touchy subject along California’s rural, economically depressed North Coast, where the once-thriving logging industry cratered over the last half-century.

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