President Joe Biden visits Canada today – here are the top agenda topics. In other Business news: the US upholds hardwood tariffs on China; and Georgia-Pacific funds pulp research at Auburn University. In Product news: why mass timber is an architectural star (and why it is not); mass timber’s CO2 benefits; projects updates from Missouri and the Czech Republic; unique woodworking projects; see-though windows from paper; and Tolko, Gorman and Interfor ‘women in wood‘.
In Forestry/Climate news: Minister Steven Guilbeault criticizes Ontario’s caribou plan; scientist Justine Karst misconceptions about the wood wide web; the BC Forest Practices Board gives BC First Nation a passing audit; and US ENGOs say Gopher tortoises deserve endangered species status. Meanwhile: the lastest from BC Community Forests; a virtual BC old-growth update; and FSC Canada’s upcoming AGM.
Finally, hundreds evacuated courtesy of an early start to Spain’s forest fire season.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/business/2023/03/24/norad-haiti-migration-critical-minerals-to-top-agenda-for-trudeau-and-biden/20230323170348-8238dbe5631f18b5ad1c7cb61a1b248dbbea32d6ab665d717f899ce12dd51a99.jpg)
Please join us for the FSC Canada Annual General Meeting. A cocktail reception will follow the meeting. The AGM is a Hybrid Event. Please join us in person or virtually.
Doug Ford’s government wants to build 1.5 million homes in the next decade, but new data in its 2023 budget suggests the province is already off-target. The budget estimates there will be some 80,000 new housing starts — meaning “the beginning of construction work on the building where the dwelling unit will be located,” according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — per year for the next three years. That figure would need to nearly double for the government to reach its goal. The projections also mark a setback from 2022, when 96,000 new homes were built — the second-highest number since 1988. Ontario officials stressed the projections in the budget are based solely on figures derived from the private sector, and don’t include future policies and measures that could be implemented to help the province reach its goal. 
There’s a housing shortage in the US and labor constraints means it will last several more years, according to the chief executive of Beazer Homes, Allan Merrill. The US already has a multimillion-home shortage, he said, and with the Federal Reserve attempting to slow down lending and cool the economy by raising interest rates, it’s hard to expect any easing of that shortage. “Long-term [the housing shortage] puts a floor under demand in this country for newly built homes,” Merrill said. “We just have this structural deficit. I don’t see the mechanisms in place that are likely to close that shortage any time soon.” …”[I] just don’t see that from an entitlement standpoint or a labor supply standpoint that we’re likely to make a big dent in that at least over the next several years,” Merrill said.
In the 1990s, architects and builders in central Europe started experimenting with a novel material. …Called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, the product began to be used in buildings from Austria to Scandinavia. …The easing of code restrictions a few years ago, after safety testing, coincided with many companies setting environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals to touch off a timber boom. …The Wood Products Council counted 69 mass timber projects constructed across the US in 2013. By December 2022, that number had grown to 755. …Over the coming months, Bloomberg Green will delve into this shift in our series Timber Town. We hope you’ll follow along as we explore every stage in the process of making a mass timber building — and a mass timber city: from the forest to the design studio to the factory producing building components, to the construction site and, not least, to the wood-lined rooms where many people may one day live and work.
The impact of multi-storey building design considerations on embodied carbon emissions, cost, and operational energy has been revealed for the first time. Using a computer model, researchers estimate that up to six gigatonnes of carbon could be saved by 2050 if new multi-storey buildings follow certain recommendations during the design process. All these recommendations, which could also save between 28 and 44% of annual heating and cooling costs, use technology that is currently available. …The study found that increasing building compactness, using steel or timber instead of concrete frames, smaller windows with the optimal glazing for a given climate, and using mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, are the best way to decrease embodied emissions and operational energy. The most significant effects on construction costs meanwhile, were the choice of frame material and whether to install mechanical ventilation.
VICTORIA – An audit of non-replaceable forest licence (NRFL) A89359, held by Yucwmenlúcwu (Caretakers of the Land) 2007 LLP, found Yucwmenlúcwu’s planning and practices generally complied with British Columbia’s forestry legislation. The audit covered activities conducted between Sept. 1, 2020, and Sept. 22, 2022. Activities included forest stewardship and site planning, timber harvesting, wildfire protection, silviculture, and constructing, maintaining and deactivating roads and drainage structures. Auditors assessed these activities for compliance with the Forest and Range Practices Act (FRPA), the Wildfire Act, and applicable regulations and legal orders. “Our audit found that Yucwmenlúcwu complied with most requirements of FRPA and the Wildfire Act,” said Bruce Larson, vice-chair of the Forest Practices Board. “However, the audit identified some practices that need to be improved. Yucwmenlúcwu did not always conduct fire hazard assessments after harvesting or take precautions to prevent damage to nearby trees when burning slash piles.”
:format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/opinion/contributors/2023/03/19/ontario-commits-29-million-to-protecting-critical-caribou-habitat/boreal_caribou_2.jpg)
A new study published in the journal Nature analyzed satellite images from three major regions of tropical forest on Earth — Amazon, Central Africa and Borneo — and showed recovering forests offset just 26% of carbon emissions from new tropical deforestation and forest degradation in the past three decades. Secondary forests have a good potential to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and could be an ally in addressing the climate crisis, but emissions generated from deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human activity currently far outpace regrowth. The study provides information to guide debates and decisions around the recovery of secondary forests and degraded areas of the Brazilian Amazon — around 17% of the ecosystem is in various stages of degradation and another 17% is already deforested. Since Brazil’s new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, projects to curb deforestation are in place, but plans to protect recovering areas remain unclear.
…Scientists have long known that beetles can survive in extremely dry conditions — thanks to their unusual ability to suck water from the air through their rear ends. Now Veland Halberg and colleagues from Copenhagen and Edinburgh have figured out exactly how they do that… Because beetles are able to survive in extremely dry conditions, they’re difficult to control. Understanding how to interrupt their hydration on a molecular level could be the key, said Veland Halberg. He studied the inner workings of the red flour beetle to figure out how they are sometimes able to go their entire lives without drinking water but stay hydrated. The answer lies in the design of the beetle’s butt. Like other animals and insects, the beetle rectum absorbs remaining nutrients and water from bodily waste before it is expelled. But beetles do it better. As a result, beetle feces is practically bone-dry.
