Daily News for May 04, 2020

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Today’s Takeaway

Appreciation and concern over BC stumpage deferral

May 4, 2020
Category: Today's Takeaway

BC’s stumpage deferral announcement is appreciated by the BC forest industry, draws concern from the  US Lumber Coalition. In other COVID-19 news: BC home sales are forecast to fall 30%; a second punch for struggling BC resource regions; and according to forestry professor Rajat Panwar – it’s time to rethink our global supply chains. Meanwhile, Jim Snetsinger succeeds Wayne Clogg as Forest Enhancement Society of BC Chair; and updates on Canfor’s operations and the San Group fire.

In other news: an ICU made of wood blocks laminated with metal; champions and skeptics of cross laminated timber; a wood waste breakthrough in BC; wood energy investments in Maine; and a carbon calculator to measure emission reductions. 

Finally, a well known addition to the #TreeFrogICU. Say hi to Dr. John Worrall.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Special Feature

A well loved face has joined the #TreeFrogICU

By Sandy McKellar
Tree Frog Forestry News
May 4, 2020
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, United States, International

A face well known to anyone who attended the UBC Faculty of Forestry has joined us in the #TreeFrogICU! Many of us remember being singled out in his class – called by our surname to respond to questions posed in veiled simplicity! A warm welcome to Dr. John Worrall! We expect a few more late-comers to join the crowd today. And, we continue to reach out to others who may need a little nudge to get over their shyness! The world may be engaged in social distancing, but at the Tree Frog – we want to see your face, no matter what your work world looks like! Pictures can be sent to Sandy at sandy@treefrogcreative.ca

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Business & Politics

Forest Enhancement Society of BC Announces Interim Board Chair

By Aleece Laird
Forest Enhancement Society of BC
May 1, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jim Snetsinger

Steve Kozuki, Executive Director of FESBC, announced today that Wayne Clogg will be stepping down as Board Chair effective May 1st. Wayne has Chaired the Society since its inception in 2016 and helped to build FESBC into an effective organization that delivers funding for forest restoration, wildfire risk reduction, enhanced fibre recovery and greenhouse gas management in B.C. Jim Snetsinger will assume the role of interim Board Chair. Jim, a former Chief Forester for B.C., has been a Board member and the Vice Chair of FESBC since 2016. Wayne will continue as a director with FESBC to provide support and ensure a smooth transition.

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UBC forestry professor receives prize

By Glenda Luymes
The Vancouver Sun
May 3, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Nicholas Coops

A University of B.C. forestry professor has received a prestigious prize for his work predicting forest growth using satellite imagery. Dr. Nicholas Coops will share the Marcus Wallenberg Prize, sometimes called the Nobel Prize of the forest sector, with two researchers from the United States and Australia who developed the 3-PG model to predict tree growth and a forest’s ability to store carbon. Coops’ work on satellite imagery enables the model to make predictions on a larger scale. The open-source model is used by students and governments to “answer questions such as trends in the future growth of key forest species such as the Douglas fir in British Columbia,” said Coops, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing. The model has helped scientists determine how much carbon trees are pulling out of the atmosphere, as well as how much wood a forest will yield.

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Fire at Port Alberni mill under construction another setback for vulnerable forestry industry

CBC News
May 1, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

A fire has destroyed part of a new mill that was under construction in Port Alberni, B.C., in another blow to Vancouver Island’s forestry industry.  Firefighters from the Port Alberni Fire Department, as well as volunteers members from the Cherry Creek, Sproat Lake and Beaver Creek fire departments arrived on scene at 2 a.m. Wednesday.  Fire Chief Mike Owens said it was a large fire, but crews were able to quickly get it under control.   The Office of the Fire Commissioner is investigating its cause.  The San Group’s remanufacturing plant, located on Stamp Avenue, was weeks away from going into operation, but fire damage to the mill means that start will be delayed.  Kamal Sanghera, the CEO of San Group, said 75 per cent of the plant is operational and his team is working to find replacement machinery for the damaged equipment.

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Council of Forest Industries says stumpage relief is a good short-term measure

By George Henderson
My Cariboo Now
April 30, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Susan Yurkovich


Every little bit helps, but it’s not the silver bullet.  That is the reaction of the President and CEO of the Council of Forest Industries to today’s announcement that the province will defer stumpage fees for three months. Susan Yurkovich says there are a lot of challenges facing the industry right now… “We’ve got market issues, we’ve got trade issues, but fundamentally we also have a cost competitiveness issue, and that is what we’re facing as we try to get back up and running and look for opportunities that will come with economic recovery.” Yurkovich says if you are a high cost jurisdiction you tend to be the first one down and you stay down longer, something she says BC is not used to… “We have very efficient mills, so what we’ve got to do is find a way to get our fibre costs down so that we can compete with other jurisdictions.”

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COVID-19: Pandemic delivers second punch to struggling B.C. resource regions

By Derrick Penner
The Vancouver Sun
May 2, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Port McNeill-based Sea Wolf Adventures was looking forward to a banner year with bookings up 50 per cent, a new boat on order and plans to add staff.  Northern Vancouver Island needed a strong tourism season to rebound from the economic woes of the eight-month strike at Western Forest Products.  …“We’re probably over $200,000 now in lost revenue because of it, and then as this unfolds, we’ll lose our whole season.”  It’s not just the shutdown of restaurants and business that hurts, but the global recession expected to hit primary resource industries that support towns across B.C.  It is already hurting communities across the province — Interior sawmill towns experiencing new rounds of short-term layoffs on top of closures already plaguing the industry and mining towns in the Kootenays where Teck Resources has scaled back operations and spending.

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Small B.C. logging contractor fights $15M wildfire bill

By Jason Proctor
CBC News
May 2, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

A tiny B.C. logging contractor is fighting a whopping $15-million bill from the province to cover the cost of fighting a wildfire that ripped through the Peace region in 2016.  J. Sarver Trucking Ltd. — a company essentially made up of owner Jon Sarver — was handed the tab in April 2019, but details of the case are only emerging now because of an interim decision related to an appeal.  The bill consists of $12 million for firefighting costs, $3.7 million for damage to Crown timber and a $20,000 administrative penalty for allegedly causing the blaze in the first place.  Sarver’s lawyer said the magnitude of the order is unprecedented.   And it would ruin the 100 Mile House man.  “I have never seen a claim of this size or anything close to it, quite frankly. It is a very large claim,” said Greg Tucker, the head of Owen Bird’s insurance group.

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It’s time to develop local production and supply networks

By Rajat Panwar, Associate Professor, Appalachian State University, former UBC Forestry faculty member
California Review Management, Berkeley
April 28, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Rajat Panwar

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for multinationals to reconsider global supply chains. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented humanity with an existential crisis. The scientific community – epidemiologists, microbiologists, immunologists and others – will learn many lessons in this battle against the pandemic. The situation should also cause deep reflection among business management scholars, particularly those who study global production and supply networks (GPSNs) which have come under societal scrutiny during the COVID-19 outbreak. …As consumers learn that their essential drugs and food items come from far-flung places through extended GPSNs, health concerns are legitimate, as COVID-19 has rendered GPSNs vulnerable. …We have been going back, time and again, to corporate-led solutions to address the social and environmental problems that GPSNs create and exacerbate, but to little avail. …Economic de-globalization should be on our research agenda, and the development of local production and supply networks on our list of objectives.

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U.S. Lumber Coalition Statement on Announced New Aid Measures to Canadian Lumber Industry

By the U.S. Lumber Coalition
Cision Newswire
May 1, 2020
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON,  — The U.S. Lumber Coalition today expressed concern over recent announced and implied aid programs across Canada to benefit the Canadian Lumber industry.  The announcements of additional aid to Canadian producers are of particular concern in the already difficult market environment for U.S. producers and workers brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coalition will closely examine the details of each and every announcement of aid and will aggressively pursue any initiative that constitutes further aid to the already heavily subsidized Canadian softwood lumber industry. “The last thing the U.S. industry, its workers, and forestry dependent communities need at this difficult time is even more heavily subsidized and unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports further disrupting our markets,” said Jason Brochu, Co-President of Pleasant River Lumber Company, Maine. 

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Some downtime extended at Canfor mills in northern B.C., others to resume operations

By Jess Fedigan
Prince George Matters
May 1, 2020
Category: Business & Politics

Canfor is making some changes to its mills after curtailments and downtimes were issued. Canfor spokesperson Michelle Ward says the downtime at Houston, Isle Pierre, Polar and Radium has been extended until the middle of May, at the least. Meanwhile, on May 11, the Plateau, Chetwynd and Elko mills will start to resume operating at four-days per week. That same day, WynnWood will operate at full capacity (five-days per week). “We are continuing to assess market demand and operating economics, and will make capacity adjustments to align supply with demand as necessary,” Ward said.

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Finance & Economics

BC home sales and new construction forecast to fall by 30% in 2020: report

By Kenneth Chan
The Daily Hive
May 1, 2020
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada West

A new report analyzing BC’s economic contraction in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 includes a potential early forecast for the housing market. Central 1 Credit Union expects home sale volumes will plummet through the middle of the year, following the trajectory of the rest of the economy. There could be a 30% decline in home sale volumes by the end of the year. A similar rate of decline is expected for housing starts, with new residential construction forecast to fall from nearly 45,000 units in 2019 to 31,400 units in 2020. …Residential construction specifically is expected to account for $8.23 billion in provincial GDP, representing a drop of 11.4% over 2019’s $9.29 billion.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

A Timber-Based Building Method Draws Praise, and Skeptics

By Peter Fairley
Undark Magazine
May 4, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

Last September, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee… was in nearby Spokane Valley, heralding a new factory with an innovative product that, he said, answered the “kids’” calls for climate action. ….The plant — one of the largest of its kind in North America — produces today’s hottest sustainable building material, called cross-laminated timber, or CLT. …What fired up Inslee was that those panels are designed to replace steel and concrete — traditional construction materials whose production accounts for about 13 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. CLT panels, in contrast, contain the carbon-cutting dividends of photosynthesis. …But CLT’s Pacific Northwest juggernaut is lacking in one crucial element: Proof that it will really help slow climate change. …According to experts such as Yang, Simonen, and Diaz, more nuanced approaches are needed to assess CLT’s impact on the global carbon cycle.

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Architect – and U of T alumnus – designs ‘healthier’ temporary ICUs for COVID-19 patients

By Janet Rowe
University of Toronto News
May 1, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East

…University of Toronto alumnus Tye Farrow (architecture in 1987), and friend Ray Arbesman moved quickly to design temporary intensive care units in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Farrow … is known for creating buildings that wrap health-promoting features into their design. Arbesman is the founder of Nucap Industries, a global technology company, and the inventor of a novel mechanical system that can bind building materials together. Together, they’ve developed Solace Rapid Assembly – High Performance COVID-19 Inpatient Bed Solutions, and they’re hoping the project could soon help hospitals around the world that are struggling to care for COVID-19 patients. …Farrow’s design for the ICU structures is based on an innovative, never-before used building technique: wood blocks laminated with metal instead of glue. …The resulting blocks are as strong as concrete, but lighter and as easy to assemble as Lego. Even unskilled volunteers could build one of the 12-bed ICU units…

 

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California Promotes Architectural Innovation Through Mass Timber Competition

By Think Wood
Arch Daily
May 4, 2020
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

In California, the Governor’s Forest Management Task Force and the Office of Planning and Research announced the winners of their first-ever competition designed to highlight a category of engineered wood products known as mass timber. …Through the Mass Timber Building Competition, the State is awarding a total of $500,000 to four projects that demonstrate mass timber’s potential to help address multiple challenges while creating new rural economic opportunities. …California is the largest consumer of engineered wood products west of the Mississippi River, yet none is produced in the state. By showcasing opportunities for mass timber, State agencies seek to stimulate the demand for buildings constructed using mass timber and generate investor interest in potential in-state production capacity while advancing California’s climate change and green building objectives. …The winning projects in the competition are noted.

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Forestry

Arctic caribou move up migration due to climate change

By Kevin Ma
The St. Albert Today
May 3, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mark Boyce

Arctic caribou have moved the start of their spring migration up by almost two weeks to adapt to global heating, a new study suggests – but that hasn’t stopped their populations from plummeting. University of Alberta ecologist Mark Boyce co-authored a study with researcher Conor Mallory in Oecologia in January on how caribou in Nunavut responded to advancing spring green-up caused by climate change. Caribou are a vital resource for people in the north yet are in decline worldwide, Boyce said. “We don’t know for sure why the northern caribou are declining,” he said, but one of the chief suspects is global heating, as it’s one of the few factors present Arctic-wide. …Our best bet to preserving arctic caribou at this point is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Boyce said. “If we want caribou, we’re going to have to do something about climate change.”

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City of Port Alberni looks to restore historic sign

By Elena Rardon
The Alberni Valley News
May 1, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The City of Port Alberni wants to see an historical landmark return. A carved cedar sign, 25 feet wide by 11 feet high, has been stored in the city’s Public Works Yard for the past few years. The sign dates back to the 1980s, when the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce moved into their new offices on the Alberni Highway. …Local artist Kim Schroeder designed the sign, which encompasses the history and activities of the Alberni Valley, while Elmar Schultes was hired to carve it. …It was stored over the years at the Port Alberni Port Authority and Western Forest Products, until the chamber donated it to the City of Port Alberni in 2015.

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Elphinstone Logging Focus seeks stronger language from regional district on logging

By Sophie Woodrooffe
Coast Reporter
May 2, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors chose not to incorporate comments by a local environmental group into their feedback on BC Timer Sales’ logging plans.  Elphinstone Logging Focus (ELF) provided a series of points to directors for consideration in response to BC Timber Sales’ 2020-24 operating plan.  That plan, presented in January, proposes 17 new cutblocks, with five cutblocks comprising 117 hectares scheduled to be logged next year, two of which are on Mount Elphinstone.  …ELF wanted the SCRD to express its opposition to proposed blocks “situated directly in the Mt. Elphinstone Provincial Park expansion area,” and to oppose a cutblock (TA0526) planned for 2024, which ELF claimed falls within the Chapman Creek Drinking Watershed. 

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Read Island folks might buy a forest for the third time

By Binny Paul
Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News
May 1, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The tree loving, forest-buying, self-sufficient members of the community of Read Island are back to buy more forest land to preserve, a month after buying 20 acres of land.   Recently the Surge Narrows Community Association, consisting of members from the the islands of Read, Maurelle, Rendezvous, and Owen Bay on Sonora Island, raised funds to buy 20 acres of forest land on Read Island, which is located at the top of the Strait of Georgia near Quadra and Cortes.   …A landmark event for the community, Steeves said that it reflected the energy of the community and how everyone wanted to protect this small island from logging.  “The degree and percentage of logging on such a small island was distressing and for a very long time people on the island felt helpless about it,” Steeves said.

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Proposed timber sale reductions in forest could decimate timber industry

By Jaci Conrad Pearson
Black Hills Pioneer
May 2, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

NORTHERN HILLS — If the results of a U.S. Forest Service general technical report on timber growth and yield in the Black Hills National Forest are correct, and the measures proposed to address the results enacted, the Black Hills timber industry could be devastated, according to members of the Lawrence County Timber Committee and other forestry officials.  The report was made public on March 5, the Black Hills National Forest did not send notification to media outlets, nor is the announcement on the Black Hills National Forest website.  The report maintains that the forest is being harvested at a rate faster than what the growth is or sustainable yield would be.  Timber sales on U.S. Forest Service lands feed 80% of the timber industry in the Black Hills, an industry that contributes around $120 million annually to the local economy, supporting around 1,400 jobs.

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Tribes ask feds to stop work on Roadless Rule plan

By Ben Hohenstatt
Juneau Empire
April 30, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Eight Southeast Alaska Native tribes want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop working on a plan to rollback the Roadless Rule for the Tongass National Forest.  Tribal leaders delivered a letter this week asking Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, to halt rulemaking work and tribal consultation for a plan that would exempt 9.2 million acres of the Tongass National Forest from a federal rule prohibiting tree harvest and road construction.   The letter cited governments straining to meet demands created by COVID-19 as well as the inability to meet in person as reasons for the request for a rulemaking pause on the Roadless Rule exemption.  “Communities are using all existing resources to prepare and address this health crisis.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Forestry waste to produce green energy in B.C.

The Journal of Commerce
May 4, 2020
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

FRUITVALE, B.C. — B.C. residents could soon be getting their natural gas from wood waste thanks to a new partnership between FortisBC and REN Energy International Corporation. The renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility will be owned and operated by REN Energy and located near Fruitvale, B.C. making it the first time the technology has been used to produce RNG in North America. …RNG is a carbon-neutral energy that is normally produced by capturing methane generated by decomposing organic waste. This project will specifically use waste from sawmills and other wood product manufacturers and, rather than collecting the methane from decomposition, create syngas through gasification. …The project received regulatory approval from the British Columbia Utilities Commission in March and is expected to be in service in the summer of 2021.

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Forest service to help Maine firm invest in wood energy

Associated Press in the Bangor Daily News
May 2, 2020
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

EAST BALDWIN, Maine — A Maine company is set to receive nearly $350,000 in federal funds to generate heat and electricity for sawmills.  Limington Lumber of East Baldwin will also receive more than $700,000 in matching funds, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree said.  The money is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.  Pingree said the funding will help the company “to invest in local forest products, transition to renewable wood energy and help protect Maine’s forests.”  The company is slated to use locally sourced wood to cut down on energy cost and fossil fuel use, Pingree said. The forest service awarded the money as part of its Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Grant program. 

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Drax launches Biomass Carbon Calculator to measure supply chain emissions

Bioenergy Insight Magazine
May 1, 2020
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Drax has launched a Biomass Carbon Calculator to help the industry accurately measure emissions in the biomass supply chain. The new tool will allow the sector to identify where emissions reductions can be made and help to make a greater contribution to tackling climate change, according to Drax. The company is seeking views from a wide range of experts, including non-governmental organisations, academics and the biomass energy industry in a consultation on the new tool, to ensure that the methodology is as accurate and transparent as possible. The Biomass Carbon Calculator has already been independently reviewed against the greenhouse gas calculation methodology laid out in the Renewable Obligation, one of the main support mechanisms for large-scale renewable electricity projects in the UK, according to Drax. The review also verified the new tool for compliance with the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive II.

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