Canadian and American federal agencies are proposing protection for their at-risk spotted owl populations. In other Forestry news: time for BC to fight fire with fire; positive audits for Babine First Nation, and Williams Lake Timber Sales; Ontario’s Black Ash recovery called too restrictive; California’s Sierra Nevada forests are becoming stranded; Oregon works to reduce wildfire risks; chemicals tell bark beetles which trees to infest; and mass spectrometry can identify smuggled wood.
In Business news: Canada’s foreign home buyer ban slows construction; First Nations may have right to say yes to economic development; Cascades reports positive Q4 results; and the strong start to US economy is not expected to last.
Finally, Forests Ontario recognizes contributors to forestry and the environment.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Canada’s ban on foreign purchases of residential property is creating barriers to construction of new rental housing, another unintended consequence stemming from a law that was supposed to help Canadians buy more homes by barring foreign competition. The ban, which is set to last for two years, has already led to the cancellation of hundreds of commercial property deals because the law’s definition of residential property includes land that is zoned for residential or mixed use. As well, the rules specify that no more than 3 per cent of any money going to a residential purchase can come from a foreign source. But developers and real estate experts say the new rules are hampering development of rental apartments, which the federal government has said is critical to help deal with the shortage of affordable housing.
A new 485-seat elementary school and learning centre in Kamloops will be a timber-built structure designed to deal with extreme summer heat. According to the B.C.Ministry of Education and Child Care, work on the $63.5 million project in the Pineview Valley neighbourhood in Kamloops’ southwest will begin next spring and be completed by the summer of 2026. …“Mass timber will be used in the new school’s design, where appropriate. It will also include greenhouse gas reduction measures that will set the building’s emissions at least 50 per cent lower than the current LEED Gold Standards,” the Ministry statement read. “In addition, the school will be built with a climate-resilient building design that will better equip the school to stay cool during extreme heat.”
VICTORIA – An audit of BC Timber Sales (BCTS) and timber sale licence holders (TSL holders) in the Cariboo Chilcotin business area, in the Cariboo Chilcotin Natural Resource District, has found compliance with British Columbia’s forestry legislation. “BCTS and TSL holders complied with requirements of the Forest and Range Practices Act and complied with almost all requirements of the Wildfire Act,” said Bruce Larson, acting board chair of the Forest Practices Board. “The one issue auditors found was that the TSL holders did not complete fire hazard assessments after logging. However, because they removed all logging debris that could pose a fire hazard as part of their standard procedures, this is considered an area to improve in the future.” The board examined forestry activities carried out between June 2021 and June 2022.
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A new study incorporating satellite data on organic material, or biomass, in tropical forests with experimental data about the effects of temperature and precipitation suggests that forests may lose substantial amounts of carbon by the end of the 21st century. Even with low continued carbon emissions, tropical forests, especially those in the southern Amazon, could lose between 6.8 and 12% of their aboveground carbon. With higher emissions, they could lose 13.3 to 20.1% of their carbon stores. The results highlight the need to reduce global temperatures rapidly to maintain the healthy forests best able to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The team reported their findings Feb. 6 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Fungi may help some tree-killer beetles turn a tree’s natural defense system against itself. The Eurasian spruce bark beetle has massacred millions of conifers in forests across Europe. Now, research suggests that fungi associated with these bark beetles are key players in the insect’s hostile takeovers. These fungi warp the chemical defenses of host trees to create an aroma that attracts beetles to burrow. This fungi-made perfume might explain why bark beetles tend to swarm the same tree. As climate change makes Europe’s forests more vulnerable to insect invasions, understanding this relationship could help scientists develop new countermeasures to ward off beetle attacks. …This ability of bark beetles to overcome the powerful defense system of conifers has led some scientists to wonder if fungi might be helping. …Combining pheromones with fungi-derived chemicals might be the secret to entice more beetles into traps, making them more effective.