Although the term was coined in the early 1960s to describe traffic jams in Philadelphia the day after US Thanksgiving, and has become associated with hordes of unruly mall-customers, Black Friday has a more fateful and historic connotation in Australia. This due to their Black Friday fires in 1939, where on January 13th [a Friday no less], a total of 69 sawmills were burned and 71 lives lost.

Sticking with the Aussi theme: Brisbane is now home to Australia’s tallest engineered office building; and a research paper by Planet Ark (Wellness + Wood = Productivity) speaks to wood’s impact on workplace satisfaction and productivity.

Elsewhere, BC Forest Safety Council news, the Steelworkers on Tolko’s Merritt mill shutdown; FPAC and FPInnovations on the fed’s Fall Economic Statement; and forestry tidbits from Saskatchewan, Poland and Papau New Guinea.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor