Daily News for June 15, 2020

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Today’s Takeaway

Governments launch programs to support local forest companies

June 15, 2020
Category: Today's Takeaway

The Newfoundland and Virginia governments launched programs to support their respective forest sectors amid COVID-19. Meanwhile, organizations releasing their economic policy proposal wish-lists include three Ontario building associations, and the US Hardwood Federation. In related news: a suite of economic indicators suggests US homebuilding will soon rebound, but supply will likely lag demand.

In other news: the US Agriculture Secretary unveiled a vision for more development in national forests; Ontario’s proposed species-at-risk extension gets pushback; deforestation in the Amazon continues to rise; and more fallout due to recent mill closure announcements in Mackenzie, BC and Duluth, Minnesota. 

Finally, eight updates to our Conference and Events page due to COVID-19.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Updated Conferences and Events Page

Tree Frog Forestry News
June 15, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The Tree Frog Forestry News started to track cancelled and rescheduled events and conferences at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We realized quickly that this resource needed a stand alone page in our website, and as such, created the Conference and Events tab in the news section of our site. Focusing mainly on North American events, but with some significant international programs as well, you can check this list to see new conference dates and details about online/virtual substitutions. We’ve add some new listings and updates today. If you see something you think we should include please send along a link for consideration. 

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Mackenzie Mayor calls on BC Government for sustainable forestry plan following mill curtailment

By Catherine Garrett
My Prince George Now
June 14, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

As the Paper Excellence mill in the District of Mackenzie goes into indefinite curtailment, the community is left with questions. …Mackenzie Mayor Joan Atkinson has said this latest closure will mean all three major employers in the town have shut their doors. Conifex Timber has curtailed its sawmill since mid-April due to COVID-19 and Canfor’s sawmill has been on an indefinite curtailment since July 2019. …In a community of about 3,700 with a workforce of about 2,000, and losing between 700 to 800 jobs, that works out to just under 19 percent of their population. …“We went through this exact scenario in 2008 and 2009, we lost tax money. It took us three or four years to get back to pre-curtailment days in (those) closures.” …“We don’t want handouts from the government, we want jobs. We want a secure industry and some longevity to this community,” she said.

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Three building associations urge stimulus, action to boost homebuyer liquidity

By Don Wall
The Daily Commercial News
June 15, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Three residential building stakeholder associations have released a study with 20 recommendations they say will encourage housing demand, boost building capacity and lead Ontario’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery. The Canadian and Ontario Home Builders’ Associations and the Building Industry and Land Development Association submitted the plan to the Ontario Jobs and Recovery Committee. …Proposed measures include eliminating security deposits for Ontario Land Transfer Tax on affiliated transfers, transferring mortgage tenancy to the date of occupancy for new condominiums and freezing municipal increases to property tax reassessment and development charges. The stakeholder associations also call for measures to replace traditional municipal agreements that hoard refundable deposits paid by developers with surety bonds, freeing up billions in potential investments that otherwise would remain parked. Another measure to encourage demand calls for introducing 30-year amortizations for insured mortgages.

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Newfoundland and Labrador putting $9.6 million into developing forest sector and creating jobs

By Diane Crocker
The Telegram
June 12, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Gerry Byrne

CORNER BROOK, N.L. – Fisheries and Land Resources Minister Gerry Byrne announced $9.6 million in funding for the forest sector in Corner Brook on Friday morning. …The funding will be used to support employment in rural communities and help open new markets and products for renewable, resource-based businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes $5.7 million for forest industry development projects, $400,000 for secondary forestry processing innovation pilot projects, and $3.5 million to establish forestry biomass market opportunities. “We’re doing this not only in response, as an economic, a recovery response to COVID-19, but we’re also doing it as a recovery plan and an economic opportunity well after COVID-19,” said Byrne. He said there’s an opportunity that never goes away, and that is the opportunity to develop the forest products industry.

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Hardwood Federation issues COVID-19 related policy proposals

By Thomas Russell
Furniture Today
June 12, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The Hardwood Federation has issued several policy proposals to U.S. Senate leaders to gain support for workers and companies in the hardwood sector during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. …“Like so many American industry sectors, we have been hit hard by the devastation caused by the COVID-19 virus, with many companies reporting declines of 50% and more,” the letter continued. “Coming so closely on the heels of the significant harm done to our companies as a result of the U.S.-China trade dispute, many are seriously concerned about their future viability.” … Additional measures that can be taken to protect workers and the industry include: Extending liability protections to businesses bringing workers back post-COVID-19; …Increasing government purchases of U.S. wood products for federal building and transportation projects; …Providing funding to research to increase domestic and international consumer demand for U.S. hardwood products.

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Virginia launches grant program to support local agriculture and forestry industries

WHSV News
June 12, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Ralph Northam

Virginia has launched a new grant program specifically to benefit agriculture and forestry-based small businesses across the commonwealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Ralph Northam announced the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund Planning Grant program. …”As Virginia’s first and third largest industries, agriculture and forestry will play a leading role in our economic recovery by making this program more accessible to our local government partners, we can grow the impact of their efforts.” …According to the governor’s office, newly revised guidelines for the program offer broad flexibility in the types of projects that can be supported and allow for a reduced local match requirement for economically distressed communities. …“Virginia’s agriculture and forestry sectors …can play a powerful role in re-building our economy,” said Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Bettina Ring.

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Finance & Economics

Housing Is Hot With the Economy in the Deep Freeze

By Conor Sen
BNN Bloomberg
June 15, 2020
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

The biggest reason we’re seeing home-price growth accelerating in the middle of a pandemic is that the disruption to the supply of housing is persisting longer than the disruption to demand — that is, would-be buyers. …Part of the reason for the quick rebound in demand is surely the decline in interest rates on mortgages to all-time lows. But as is always the case in the housing market, supply doesn’t respond as quickly as demand. …Even as demand rebounds, homebuilders may be slow to acquire new construction lots and might hold back on increasing production after getting the scare they did in March and April. …To the extent home prices rose too high because of supply distortions, we should see home prices leveling off or even declining. But it’s not clear that this will be a 2020 story. 

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Housing Activity Index Reaches All-Time High in May, Indicating Homebuilding Will Soon Rebound from Recession

By LegalShield Law Index
Business Wire
June 11, 2020
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

A suite of leading indicators of the economic and financial status of U.S. households and small businesses, saw its Housing Activity Index reach an all-time high, suggesting that homebuilding may recover more quickly than other sectors of the economy from the coronavirus-induced shutdown. A separate Real Estate Index tracking home sales likewise improved in May, suggesting that existing home sales may improve over the next three to six months. …“Our two main real estate sub-indices snapped back from April’s lows, indicating that while the U.S. economy may take months or years to fully recover from the COVID-19 recession, a ‘V-shaped’ recovery in residential homebuilding is increasingly likely”.

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How Has COVID-19 Impacted the Pacific Northwest Forest Sector?

By Gordon Culbertson
Forest2Market Blog
June 15, 2020
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US West

In the Pacific Northwest, the forest products industry has rebounded somewhat sooner than most believed. Lumber demand has surged in recent weeks, log prices are steady, and there is guarded optimism across the board now. There is indeed regional demand for high-quality PNW logs; although prices in March and April trended lower than they were pre-pandemic, there are indications that prices are now strengthening. …Despite the wild volatility in lumber prices, domestic log prices have yet to react too significantly. …Domestic and export log prices will demonstrate less volatility, but I also expect to see prices for both products increase and settle in the very near term.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Wood Identification and Screening Center moves to Oregon State University

By George Plaven
Capital Press
June 12, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

Cady Lancaster

CORVALLIS, Oregon — Tree poachers beware. A national laboratory established three years ago to combat the illegal timber trade is relocating to Oregon State University, expanding its database of wood samples and their unique chemical signatures that can be used to identify the origin and species of wood in products such as lumber, furniture and even musical instruments. The Wood Identification and Screening Center, or WISC, began as a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ashland, Ore. Now, with a five-year, $4 million federal grant from the Forest Service International Programs Office, the program is moving to OSU, where it will join the College of Forestry. Beth Lebow, the center director, said the move should be completed sometime later this summer.

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Swedish timber tower outfit secures EU cash

renews.biz
June 15, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Swedish engineering company Modvion has been granted €6.5m in EU funding to support manufacturing of its wooden turbine towers. …Funding will be used to build a development factory in the Gothenburg area, which will make a 100-meter unit for Varberg Energi. The company, which installed a first 30-metre unit on the island of Bjorko in April, has also signed declarations of intent with Rabbalshede Kraft for 10 towers, each at least 150 metres high. “This support from the EU is clear proof of the enormous potential of wooden wind turbine towers… We are now one step closer to being able to offer commercial, climate-neutral wind turbine towers,” said chief executive Otto Lundman. “We are seeing an enormous demand for our wooden wind turbine towers. Laminated wood is stronger than steel at the same weight and by building modularly, wind turbines can be made both higher and cheaper.”

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New height restrictions: A potential barrier on the road to net zero targets

By Andrew Carpenter
Builders Merchant News
June 12, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

ENGLAND — The Government’s recent consultation on extending the ban on combustible materials to more building types and lowering the height restriction in England. Andrew Carpenter, Chief Executive of the Structural Timber Association discusses how this ruling if adopted will severely inhibit our ability to decarbonise the UK construction industry. …Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s Energy and Environment Analyst ….rightly pointed out that this action would contradict other advice to increase timber construction because trees lock up climate-heating carbon emissions. But this also flies in the face of the support that the government itself has shown for offsite manufacturing to deliver much needed housing –  the most efficient of which are timber-based systems. …Furthermore, it is clear that the UK is out of step with the approach being taken by leading economies in Europe. 

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Forestry

P&G celebrates the 1st anniversary of FSC Canada National Standard

Forest Stewardship Council Canada
June 14, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

One year ago, FSC Canada launched a new National standard for responsible forest management which targets the most pressing issues threatening our forests today, including the woodland caribou crisis; the rights of Indigenous Peoples’; workers’ rights (including gender equity); conservation and landscape management. The new standard deliver breakthrough solutions to deliver collaborative, equitable and sustainable forest management to maintain biodiversity, particularly in the boreal, and to help fight climate change. …Companies such as Procter & Gamble, with brands like Charmin’, Puffs and Bounty are helping drive demand for responsibly-sourced forest products, and communicating to consumers the importance of choosing FSC. In celebration of our first anniversary we want to thank P&G for providing consumers with a unique way to show their support for responsibly managed forests, by purchasing products carrying our logo.

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BC’s planting season going OK, but planting on “crews-control” has its strains

By John Betts, Executive Director
Western Forestry Contractors’ Association
June 12, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC’s spring planting season is proceeding with far less calamity than we might have predicted under COVID-19 conditions. …But it is coming at a cost, particularly in the area of the mental health of workers and crews. On a WFCA call contractors described how the normal fatigue for this time of the season was aggravated by the looming social anxiety that many workers arrived with. Compounding that are the extraordinary limiting measures crews based in camps and motels have taken to protect themselves and communities from the virus. That strategy is working, but the lifting of restraints across the rest of society has many anticipating some kind of partial relief that might allow more interactions within their crew.. …Meanwhile, some contractors have resorted to outside counselling for some acute cases. Employers have also resorted to creative measures around their pods.

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Just which predator needs to be controlled?

By Trevor Hancock, retired professor
The Times Colonist
June 14, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Trevor Hancock

An opinion piece in this newspaper on June 4 from the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Thriving Orcas, Thriving Communities Coalition… warned that coastal communities are on the brink of extinction because they rely on recreational fishing, which is in jeopardy. Part of their proposed strategy to protect the orca and the chinook salmon — and their livelihoods — is “predator control. But just which predator is it that needs to be controlled? Ironically, two other reports released the same day made it clear; the chief predator is us. The first was a report from NatureServe Canada and the Nature Conservancy of Canada on the crisis facing endemic species — species that are found only in Canada. The second, released by the Sierra Club of B.C., was a report from three independent scientists on the state of B.C.’s old-growth forests.

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Forest management should sustain species at risk: Ontario Nature petition

By Brent Sleightholm
Elliot Lake Today
June 13, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Ontario Nature, a Toronto-based environmental charity, has started an online petition campaign to get provincial authorities to back off on plans to loosen regulations on forestry companies being considered as a way to get them through COVID-19 industry issues. The group says the Ontario government is proposing to extend the forestry industry’s exemption from complying with Ontario’s Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists say it took decades to put these protections in place, and removing them would cause irreparable harm to at-risk plants and animals. Julee Boan, Ontario Nature Boreal Program Manager said this proposal is open to public comments until June 18. 

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U.S. Unveils Vision for More Development in National Forests

By Nichola Groom
Reuters
June 12, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Sonny Perdue

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday unveiled what he called a “blueprint” for enabling energy extraction, mining, grazing and logging in federal forests by speeding up environmental reviews and permitting. In a memorandum to U.S. Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen, Perdue said more was needed to relieve burdensome regulations on industries and make federal forests and grasslands more productive. …Perdue directed the USFS to streamline processes and identify new opportunities for mineral extraction, expedite broadband development, and speed up permitting for grazing and logging. He also said the agency should increase recreation opportunities and open public access to more forest lands. The memorandum also seeks to speed up reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. …Environmental group Center for Biological Diversity said the letter “offers a dystopian vision” …that would increase pollution and carbon emissions, and harm wildlife.

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‘Chain saw medicine’ is not the solution, it is the problem

By George Wuerthner
East Oregonian
June 13, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

OREGON — The Forest Service is proposing to remove the prohibition against logging trees larger than 21 inches that grow in national forests on the east side of the Cascades in Oregon. The probation was put into place when ecological studies demonstrated the critical importance of larger diameter trees to overall forest ecosystem function. That ecological value has not changed, just the agency’s ideas about what constitutes “forest health.” The agency suggests thinning the forests will enhance the resilience of the forest against the “ravages” of wildfire, bark beetles, and other sources of tree mortality. The so-called need for “restoration” to what ails the forest by chain saw medicine reflects the agency’s Industrial Forestry Paradigm. By happy coincidence, such chain saw medicine “restoration” happens to provide wood fiber to the timber industry, and typically at a loss to taxpayers.

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Loggers call emergency meeting after mill idles

By Jerry Burns
Mesabi Daily News
June 13, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Area loggers have called an emergency meeting this week to discuss the impact of the coronavirus on the industry, which lost a major customer when the Verso Corp. paper mill in Duluth announced it would indefinitely idle. It’s the third area mill to announce a shutdown or reduction since the COVID-19 pandemic officially reached Minnesota in early March. The UPM Blandin Mill in Grand Rapids announced it would temporarily idle in April, and the Sappi mill in Cloquet instituted revolving layoffs later that month. The Associated Contract Loggers & Truckers of Minnesota …said action is needed to address timber sale prescriptions for spruce and balsam, while taking aspen and other special needs into account. For government agencies, that means deciding on permits, mixed species sales and how to structure future timber permits.

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Conservation Groups To Buy And Preserve 15,000-Acre Tree Farm In Bethel

By Fred Bever
Maine Public Radio
June 15, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

BETHEL, Maine — A coalition of land conservation groups is buying and preserving a 15,000-acre tree farm in western Maine that’s been in one family for 12 generations. Tom Duffus is Maine’s representative for the Conservation Fund. He says the Chadbourne parcels include white pine forests that fed the family’s sawmills for more than 100 years, as well as secluded trout brooks, and Tumbledown Dick Mountain. …Duffus says the property will continue to be managed to provide lumber, pulp – and jobs. He adds that some 3,500 acres of the properties will be managed for the health of the watershed of Sebago Lake, which provides water for one in six Mainers. He says the value of the deal is being kept confidential at the family’s request.

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Planting figures in Scotland are ‘very good result’, says Confor

Timber Trades Journal
June 15, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Stuart Goodall

Just under 11,000ha of new woodland were created in Scotland last year, according to new figures released on June 11. Stuart Goodall, chief executive of the forestry and wood trade body Confor, described the statistics as “a very good result in the light of major challenges” and said he was optimistic about future planting levels. Official statistics showed that 10,860ha of new woodland were planted from April 2019-March 2020, slightly down on the 11,200ha for 2018-19 – and below the new target of 12,000ha. However, Scottish Forestry said the figure was still the second highest since 2001 – and that prolonged bad weather followed by Covid-19 had caused significant disruption to the planting season and put the new target of 12,000ha out of reach. There was also optimism about 2020-21. With tree planting approvals for 2020/21 already over 9,000ha, and a further 7,000ha of applications being worked on.

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14 straight months of rising Amazon deforestation in Brazil

By Rhett Butler
Mongabay.com
June 12, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: International

BRAZIL — Deforestation in Earth’s largest rainforest increased for the fourteenth consecutive month according to data released today by the Brazilian government. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is currently pacing 83% ahead of where it was a year ago. The high level of deforestation through the first few months of 2020 means the year is shaping up to have a bad fire season. The rise in deforestation troubles scientists who fear that the combination of forest loss and the effects of climate change could trigger the Amazon rainforest to tip toward a drier ecosystem.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Oregon bids goodbye to coal power

By Nick Rosenberger
East Oregonian
June 13, 2020
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Since 1980, the Boardman Coal Plant has produced nearly half of Portland’s electricity. …That production — both of energy and emissions — will come to an end in just a few months. The Portland General Electric-owned facility, the last coal plant operating in Oregon, will close by the end of 2020. …There are nearly 600 coal-fired plants still operating in the U.S., though more than 200 others have closed in the last two decades due to declining revenue or environmental regulations. Those regulations are an attempt to reduce the effects of burning coal, the largest human-made contributor to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. …Corson said the company then considered torrefaction as a final option before closing the plant for good. Torrefied wood “certainly could be a viable fuel” at a plant like Boardman, said Matt Krumenauer, vice president of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

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Health & Safety

Wildfire smoke over much of Southern California

By Bay Area News Group
The Mercury News
June 12, 2020
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

Smoke is hanging over much of the U.S. Southwest because of wildfires in Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico. In California, the AirNow map of the U.S. Air Quality Index shows heavy smoke from the Mexican border over the San Diego and Los Angeles areas and extending to Visalia in the Central Valley. The principal cause is a cluster of wildires east of Tijuana, Mexico. …The largest fire in California is the Lime Fire, which has burned 900 acres in Ventura County since Wednesday afternoon. The Southwest’s heaviest smoke, with an air quality index of 500, was reported Friday morning in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, where the lightning-sparked Good Turkey Fire has burned 7,640 acres. That air quality is considered hazardous, and outdoor physical activity is discouraged for everyone.

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Forest Fires

Homes evacuated as 1,800-acre fire burns south of Helena; pre-evacuation issued near county line

By Jess Chaney
Helena Independent Record
June 13, 2020
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States

HELENA, Montana — About 20 homes were being evacuated after a wildfire sparked in Jefferson County south of Helena Saturday, and a pre-evacuation notice was issued near the Lewis and Clark County line.  Jefferson County Deputy Fire Warden Pat McKelvey said the size of the fire was estimated at 1,800 acres Saturday evening. Officials have not yet released information about the cause. The fire is burning in the Lump Gulch area near Sheep Mountain and has produced a significant amount of smoke in the Helena area. ….McKelvey said 30-40 mph winds were initially blowing from south to north but were expected to begin blowing from west to east, which was part of the reason for the evacuations.

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Wildfire near Cody grows to nearly 600 acres

By Juliana Sukut
Billings Gazette
June 14, 2020
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

A wildfire that broke out Saturday on Shoshone National Forest land about 25 miles west of Cody has grown to nearly 600 acres. The fire has activated three U.S. Forest Service engines, three Bureau of Land Management engines, four air tankers, three helicopters and the Park County Fire Department, according to Kristie Salzmann, Shoshone National Forest public affairs officer. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Salzmann said in a press release. On Saturday, two ranches were evacuated due to safety concerns from the fire, which also briefly closed portions of U.S. Highway 14-16-20. …Saturday evening Salzmann said the fire was 0% contained. 

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