The United States joins Europe in pursuing carbon tariffs on products from countries with weak climate policies. In other Business news: wildfires cause lumber prices to spike again; Horgan says BC lumber profits should go to wildfire fight; BC forestry employment is up 5%; Universal Forest Products reports record Q2; and CN doubles revenue as regulators mull Kansas City Southern deal.
In other news: Ontario lawmakers call on Premier Ford to declare wildfire emergency; high lumber prices not benefiting New Brunswick landowners; US wildfires are burning-up carbon offsets; artificial intelligence is used to predict blazes; and Canada’s GHG approach may include a forest loophole.
Finally, Oregon’s magical marbled murrelet merry-go-round is called “unscientific”.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
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In the pre-dawn hours of July 18th, Antoine Moses, a 22-year-old Canadian tree planter, set a new world record for planting 23,060 trees in 24 hours straight – a tree on average every 3.75 seconds. Two Canadian tree planters, Antoine Moses from Blue Collar Silviculture and Kilty Elliott from Summit Reforestation, each supported in a collaborative effort by six-person pit crews, planted trees in a cut-block managed by Tolko Industries 100 km south of High Level, Alberta, in an attempt to set a new world record… The weather conditions were perfect, long daylight hours with approximately 19 hours of light, overcast skies, a high of 16 C and a low of 5 C and a light rain for close to half the day. For the five hours of darkness the pit crews provided light with high intensity lamps. The planting was documented using the guidelines laid out by Guinness World Records.
Today’s forestry contractors have access to a wealth of tools and data to help them manage their operations and improve their financial performance. However, it’s not always easy to understand and use all the information available. Building on its expertise in harvest diagnostics, FPInnovations has developed a new service called “Evaluation and Coaching” for forestry contractors. Over the past year, four Quebec entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this service and benefited from FPInnovations’ expertise. The method begins with identification of a specific aspect of their operations that forestry contractors would like to improve. An initial on-site meeting is then organized to observe operations and identify the performance indicators that will be measured during the project. An action plan is developed that identifies the targets and means to reach them. Regular meetings make it possible to take stock, confirm progress and provide advice on how to achieve the targets.
WASHINGTON — SFI and Project Learning Tree are pleased to share “The Forest Classrooms Raising Responsible Children.” The video was produced by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions and features USDA Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen. The video was first presented at the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit as part of the Better Lives Through Better Business series that explores the brands and organizations around the world working to improve global sustainability and support future generations. The video helps tell Project Learning Tree’s story through the voices of Forest Service Chief Christiansen, local youth, and PLT-trained educators, and features a handful of activities that can be found in the new Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide, an award-winning collection of 50 hands-on educational activities that get children ages five through 14 outdoors to learn about the natural world.
Last summer, as Will Harling captained a fire engine trying to control a wildfire that had … overrun a firebreak and raced towards his hometown, he got a frustrating email. It was a statistical analysis from Oregon State University forestry researcher Chris Dunn, predicting that the spot where firefighters had built the firebreak … had only a 10% chance of stopping the blaze. “They had spent so many resources building that useless break,” said Harling, who … works as a wildland firefighter for the local Karuk Tribe … The Suppression Difficulty Index is one of a number of analytical tools Dunn and other firefighting technology experts are building to bring the latest in machine learning, big data and forecasting to the world of firefighting… Researchers like Dunn hope their tools can help ease that pressure by making sure scarce fire resources are deployed as efficiently as possible.
Drought and water scarcity continues to impact most of the southern half of British Columbia. Most of these areas have experienced little to no rainfall over the last five weeks, with continued dry weather in the forecast. …Everyone needs to do their part to conserve water resources… Areas currently under Drought Level 4 (adverse impacts on people, fish or ecosystems are likely) include: the Salmon River, Coldwater River and Nicola River watersheds in the Thompson-Okanagan; the Kettle River, Lower Columbia Basin, and West Kootenay Basin; and the Eastern Vancouver Island Basin and Gulf Islands. Regions currently under Drought Level 3 include the entire Okanagan Valley, Similkameen, South Coast and Lower Mainland, Cariboo/Chilcotin, North and South Thompson Basins and parts of Western Vancouver Island. …If conservation measures do not achieve sufficient results…, temporary protection orders under the Water Sustainability Act may be issued to water licensees, to avoid significant or irreversible harm to aquatic ecosystems.
Two small communities nestled along Lower Arrow Lake in B.C.’s Southern Interior are now under evacuation orders. On Wednesday, the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) expanded its evacuation order because of the Michaud Creek wildfire that’s burning along the west side of the lake. The fire is estimated to be 2,670 hectares in size and is located around 21 kilometres south of Edgewood. According to the BC Wildfire Service, “strong winds are expected to increase well into today and continue to drive aggressive fire behaviour in the interior, southern interior, and southeast region of the province.” The evacuation order now includes the small communities of Edgewood and Needles, and runs north to Whatshan Lake, for a total of 356 properties.
