Suzano, the world’s largest pulp producer, announced the acquisition of two Pactiv Evergreen mills. In related news: ABC News has a feature on Montana’s lumber woes; West Fraser 100 Mile House had a dust silo fire; the Port of Vancouver is increasing its rail capacity; Canada’s housing starts dropped 9% in June; and the US share of homes built on slab foundations rose again. Meanwhile, the University of BC and Apple released a white paper on the future of bioproducts; and Forest Products EXPO 2025 early-bird prices end this week.
In Forestry news: Stand Earth calls for BC to protect its old-growth; the NY Times challenges traditional toilet paper; the City of Vancouver is being sued for logging in Stanley Park; and Arizona restores spotted owl habitat, while California’s wildfires may be creating more of it. In Safety news: a Northwest Territories’ firefighter is remembered, as Worker’s Safety Commission says they are not laying charges.
Finally, NASA says climate change is making each day longer—by melting the earth’s ice caps.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
TORONTO – Today, the Canadian Mental Health Association is pleased to announce an initial $450,000 contribution from West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd., a leading Canadian manufacturer of renewable wood building products. The funding will bolster the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Resilient Minds® program and enhance mental health support in rural communities. This contribution reflects West Fraser’s commitment to fostering mental health awareness and resilience among its employees and the communities where it operates. The majority of West Fraser’s manufacturing facilities are located in rural communities which can potentially be isolating with limited locally available mental health resources. …”At West Fraser, we recognize the importance of prioritizing mental health and supporting the well-being of those in our communities,” says 
The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority says a new four-lane overpass crossing the rail lines at Holdom Avenue in Burnaby will increase rail capacity for Port of Vancouver terminals, supporting the reliable movement of goods through the region. Construction the overpass crossing the rail lines at Holdom Avenue in Burnaby will begin later this year. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is delivering the Holdom Overpass project in partnership with the City of Burnaby, CN and the Government of Canada. …The rail corridor through Burnaby is the only rail connection to transport goods and commodities to and from port terminals located in North Vancouver, a vital link in the national supply chain. …The rail corridor moves more than 40 million metric tonnes of export cargo, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the port’s total international exports in 2023.
NAHB analysis of the Survey of Construction shows that 72.4% of new single-family homes started in 2023 were built on slab foundations, 16.6% were built with full or partial basements, and 9.9% with crawl spaces. The share of new homes built on slabs has risen steadily from 45.8% in 2000 to 72.4% in 2023. The largest increase occurred from 2022 to 2023, with a jump of 3.9 percentage points (pp), compared to an average increase of 1.93 pp over the previous five years. Conversely, the share of homes with full or partial basements decreased by 3.0 pp from 19.6% in 2022 to 16.6% 2023. In colder areas where building codes require foundations to be built below the frost line, most homes are constructed with full or partial basements. The divisions with a majority share of full or partial basements in new homes are West North Central (63.9%), followed by New England (62.1%), Middle Atlantic (48.1%), and East North Central (48.0%). 
These days, the toilet paper aisle is crowded with products that claim to be more sustainable, from bamboo and recycled material to products with “forest-safe” labels. But are they really better for the environment? …If you’re in the United States, your toilet paper likely comes from somewhere in North or South America. It could be a blend of trees from the United States Southeast and the boreal forest of Canada, or maybe from eucalyptus grown in Brazil. Those sources are chipping away at the planet’s old, intact forests and replacing native woodlands with vast monocultures is terrible for biodiversity. …your best bet is probably T.P. made from recycled material. Recycled paper keeps trees in the ground and requires fewer resources to produce. …Bamboo toilet paper shows promise as an alternative to tree-based products. …Bidet toilet seats use a jet of water rather than several rounds of wiping. [To read the full story you’ll need a subscription]
Vernon, BC — Vernon Fire Chief David Lind likens the Interior B.C. city’s new artificial-intelligence-driven wildfire detection system to a fire alarm in the forest. The system involves cameras and scores of air sensors scattered among trees and other high points, collecting data that is fed into an AI system for analysis. Its creator, Vancouver-based tech firm SenseNet, says it warns firefighters when it detects a pattern indicative of ignition and allows for a response within minutes instead of an hour or more when using traditional visual detection. “It’s an exciting technology in that it’s really applying almost that fire-alarm system that we see in large buildings, where you’ve got every section of the building covered by some type of a monitor feeding back into a system that provides early notification to everyone … and almost taking that and applying it in an outdoors setting,” Lind said.
Drought-like conditions in Banff National Park have led to a fire ban being issued – meaning no campfires starting on Saturday. Lighting or maintaining fires is prohibited in the park effective July 13 at 12:01 a.m., Parks Canada announced in a news release Friday. The ban includes all front and backcountry campgrounds. “After several days of hot, dry weather, Banff is experiencing drought-like conditions,” Parks Canada said. “This fire ban is to ensure the safety of visitors, and residents, and for the protection of park infrastructure.” …While naturally occurring wildfires, like ones caused by lightning strikes, cannot be avoided, Parks Canada asked everyone to do their part to prevent human-caused fires. …Earlier this week, Alberta Wildfire announced a fire ban for the entirety of the province’s Forest Protection Area.
CEO Letter: The First Nations Forestry Council and all our Nations continue to work towards being full participants in all facets of forestry, and we are making progress by being in the rooms and sitting at the tables. We attended some excellent conferences and want to acknowledge the efforts of all the organizations to showcase First Nations content, highlighting both successes and challenges. Through these interactions, we are developing stronger relationships that allow us to have hard conversations. I see that we are not just saying we will work together, but we are all at the table, truly collaborating to develop shared decisions. 
Commercial logging may proceed in a Forest Service project south of Anaconda, but all other activities must cease until a lawsuit is concluded, according to a federal judge. On Friday, two and a half weeks after hearing oral arguments, Missoula federal district judge Dana Christensen issued his ruling granting most of the plaintiffs’ request for an injunction to stop the Pintler Face Project on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. All noncommercial activity, such as thinning and prescribed burning, will be put on hold across the 73,000-acre project until the lawsuit is concluded, but Christensen allowed the four commercial timber sales to go forward to prevent economic hardship. The logging work is slated to start on July 16. …Mike Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies executive director, said he was happy that the judge said the plaintiffs are likely to win the lawsuit on the merits.
Rising sea levels are making each day slightly longer, and there’s no sign it’s going to stop, a new study funded in part by NASA and the Canadian government has found. …In short, as rising global temperatures melt the polar ice caps, more of the Earth’s water supply is converted to liquid, allowing it to swell the oblate bulge along the equator, when it might previously have stayed locked away in the ice. The swelling, in turn, changes the dynamics of how Earth spins in the first place, and invariably, the rotation decelerates. …the actual time it takes for a point on the Earth’s surface to make a full rotation is getting slightly longer, at a rate scientists say could get more severe as the perils of climate change deepen.
WorkSafeBC will be holding a virtual public hearing on 
