Lumber consumption continues to exceed forecasts despite drop in residential and nonresidential construction spending. In related news: Resolute hopes to reopen idled El Dorado mill; Boise Cascade reports positive earnings; and supply shortages a concern for Wisconsin builders.
In Wood Product news: stories on the value of old barns and bent wood; and mass timber innovation comes to Washington state, UK, and Australia. Meanwhile: the US seeks limits on habitat for species-at-risk; Covid-19 is blamed for a rise in Oregon’s human-caused wildfires; and thousands remain evacuated due to a Southern California wildfire.
Finally, the most sasquatch sightings per capita, and wood coffins at your farmers market!
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
…Oregon has the highest rate of reported Sasquatch sitings per capita, according to data collected by the Bigfoot Field Research Organization that for decades has hoped to prove it’s real. The BFRO’s official Oregon sitings reports is 254, the group states. With 4.2 million residents, that means six reports per 100,000 residents… “Oregon is definitely one of the best states to see a sasquatch in the world,” said Matt Moneymaker, executive director of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and start of a handful of Bigfoot-chasing cable television shows. …Most cryptozoologists will tell you that if Bigfoot is real, it likely is a surviving version of gigantopithecus. That was the world’s largest primate when it inhabited the forests of China and India from as far back as 9 million years ago. …a licensed Bigfoot trap was set up on federal lands in 1974 in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. It caught a few beavers but no sasquatches on six years of operation, records show.
Utilities now have a host of new tools to communicate the environmental benefits of one of their most visible assets: the wood utility pole. There are an estimated 130 million to 150 million wood utility poles in service in North America, bringing electricity and communications services to every corner of the continent. While the poles are prevalent in the electricity distribution system, the “green” benefits they offer is often overlooked. Utility poles are made from wood, a naturally sustainable material. While wood offers many structural and workability benefits, it also serves as a carbon sink, or reservoir of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. A new calculator can help quantify how much carbon is held in a utility’s inventory of wood poles and crossarms. The Wood Utility Pole & Crossarm Calculator is available in an online version or as a downloadable Excel based calculator from WoodPoles.org. It was developed by the North American Wood Pole Council.
From its starting to point as a tree to its product form as a beam or piece of furniture, wood used in architecture and interior design goes through several stages and processes. A renewable resource and popular traditional building material, wood is also often cited as a promising construction material of the future, one that is suitable for the new demands of sustainability. But unlike concrete, whose molds can create even the most complex curves, wooden architecture most commonly uses straight beams and panels. In this article, we will cover some techniques that allow for the creation of curved pieces of wood at different scales, some of which are handmade and others of which seek to make the process more efficient and intelligent at a larger scale.
The Virginia Department of Forestry’s seedling nurseries in Augusta and Southampton counties produce millions of tiny trees for landowners, foresters and conservationists. The Garland Gray Forestry Center in Courtland yields 32 million pine seedlings annually for landowners throughout Virginia and beyond. The Augusta Forestry Center grows, processes and ships a popular variety of hardwood seedlings, providing dozens of species to beautify landscapes and serve landowners. The VDOF seedling program has been active for more than a century, restoring millions of acres of Virginia forestland. Both nurseries are state entities that are entirely self-funded and employ dozens of part-time and seasonal workers. …Josh Bennicoff, the center’s manager, said the 80 acres of baby loblolly are the future of Virginia’s woods. Landowners intent on reforestation typically plant about 500 trees per acre.
The BC Forest Safety Council is actively monitoring the COVID-19 situation to determine how we can best support forestry workers, contractors and employers throughout BC. We continue to follow guidance from public health officials and will adjust and enhance our resources and information to ensure all necessary precautions are being taken to minimize the risks of COVID-19 transmission and illness to forest sector employees. 
PORTLAND, Ore. — A fire on private timberland along Fir Mountain Road in Hood River County has scorched about 70 acres but is not threatening any structures at this time, the Oregon Department of Forestry said Sunday morning. The fire, about 8 miles southeast of Hood River, may impact some roads in the area. Officials with ODF said the fire is burning in slash piles, nearby standing timber and smaller replanted trees. Winds pushed the fire outside some of the fire lines that were dozed in the very early hours of Sunday, but a fireline is being built, officials said. Water tenders are being used as well as a helicopter with water bucket.
BANNING, California — Evacuation orders remained in place early Monday for thousands of people after a wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles exploded in size and forced crews to battle flames in triple-digit heat. The Apple Fire in Riverside County consumed more than 31 square miles of dry brush and timber, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. As of Monday morning, it was 5% contained. The cause was under investigation. Officials allowed flames to run up the side of Mount San Gorgonio, an 11,000-foot peak, because it wasn’t safe to let crews work in such steep, rugged terrain, said Lisa Cox, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. …One home and two outbuildings were destroyed, Cal Fire said. No injuries were reported. Evacuation orders and advisories were issued for about 8,000 people in mountain, canyon and foothill neighborhoods.