Category Archives: Today’s Takeaway

If you share your plumbing-based functions, your three-storey micro apartment can become portable. New CLT micro-living spaces provide neo-archaic biourbanism spacial modules that can be erected overnight! If that doesn’t make you feel good, Austrian fibre producers are launching a new luxury fabric made entirely from sustainable wood that will mimic silk. And, putting the final nail in the feel-good coffin—Beck Fastener has invented Lignoloc, wooden nails for use in pneumatic nail guns!

A recent announcement by the BC government to review the professional reliance model in the natural resource sector has generated some heated discussion. Today, Christine Gelowitz, the CEO of the Association of BC Forest Professionals writes in the Vancouver Sun that her association is willing to work with government to ensure that the system meets the needs of British Columbians. 

Finally, the fire stories continue. In California, fires dominate headlines, we have one for you. And while BC pays its outstanding wildfire bills, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction is hosting a webinar about protecting buildings from exposure to wildfire. 

—Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor

Wildfires in California have killed 10 people and more than 100 are missing in a late-season surge of devastation. The record fire season has triggered discussions in BC on how to change the composition of forests, while the US focus is on ways to improve forest health by cutting more trees. Other headlines include:

• After devastating wildfires, BC Interior residents thankful for community strength
• Fuels management can be a big help in dealing with wildfires (Oregon)
• Wildfire safety starts at home (Illinois)
• Big boost in federal firefighting budget proposed by western congressmen

Failing provincial action on caribou herds, the federal government is warning of tougher rules in the boreal, the David Suzuki foundation called the failure to meet the caribou deadline a “black eye” for Canada, while a new study in Scientific Reports says DNA barcoding technology can help keep tabs on “all the organisms at once”.

Citing the advantages of “clean growth”, Canadian Federal Minister Jim Carr announced a program to facilitate building code changes that will allow tall wood buildings up to 12 storeys. Pushing the envelope further, an 80-storey wooden skyscraper is proposed for Chicago.

In Business news, trade tensions are expected to come up in a Trudeau-Trump meeting this week, Ottawa tells the US Trade Commission that Canadian lumber helps the US and a judge strikes down the deception lawsuit against Menards over claims it deceived its customers with nominal rather than actual lumber dimensions.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

Some college students in Maine are among a new wave of loggers, who are trading in axes for high tech machines (and extra training). Focusing on the basics, the Pacific Forestry Centre is promoting two conferences that speak to the plant diseases that threaten Canada’s timber crops. 

Other forestry headlines include:

• Why does this famous protector of trees now want to cut some down? (Oregon)
• Federal forest act prompts burning debate in Washington (Arkansas)
• Battle over two owl species takes flight at 9th Circuit (Oregon)
• Scorched earth of Portugal fires may hold seeds of a renewal

A new report on the lessons learned from Lumber IV (by Elaine Feldman, Canada’s former lead negotiator) speaks to what really matters in the NAFTA negotiations. In the Journal of Science, the world’s longest-running study on forest soils and climate change says soil warming stimulates periods of abundant carbon release. And the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities released a report that calls for changes in the way forest and forest products research is addressed.

Finally, the Forest Stewardship Council kicks off its triennial global FSC General Assembly in Vancouver, BC this weekend, the organization’s highest decision-making forum.

Happy Thanksgiving (weekend) to our Canadian readers. The frogs will be back on Tuesday with full bellies and the weekend headlines.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor