The Canadian Competition Bureau has agreed to investigate ENGO claims that SFI ads are false advertising. In related news: a BC industry forester pushes back on old-guard hypocrisy; Canada to fund match-maker for cleantech and forestry; Biden’s oil and forest announcements are polar-opposites; building schools with wood cuts carbon emissions; and the USDA’s Wood Innovations Grant program is back.
In Business news: CP Rail expects regulatory approval for KCS merger; JPMorgan acquires 250,000 acres of Southern Pine forests; Stella-Jones upgrades North America’s telecommunications lines; BSW Group invests for UK growth; Pfeifer Group completes purchase of northern Finland’s largest wood processor; and the US Fed rate increase is viewed as a positive turning point for housing.
Finally, if you love forests, you also need to love loggers, sawmills and paper mills.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
What’s bad for Houston is bad for Smithers. In fact, Canfor closing its Houston mill, even if it is “temporary” as the company claims, is bad for B.C. This is especially true because it is not an isolated occurrence. …None of this should come as a surprise, however. While the death knell of B.C.’s forest industry may not be tolling quite yet, the current situation can certainly be characterized as its passing bell. …Premier David Eby announced $140 million in “investments” aimed at softening the fall for forestry workers facing unemployment… With the drastic drop off in stumpage fees and ongoing mill closures, where exactly will we be getting that money? From healthcare? New taxes? We don’t want to call the situation dire, but that is exactly what it is. We need better answers as to how B.C. is going to survive the death of forestry.
PHENIX CITY, Ala. — As more than 400 workers continue to be locked out of the WestRock paper mill in East Alabama, the company was looking to hire new employees Thursday during a job fair. The work stoppage as the result of a labor dispute between the company and three unions is in its 112th day. WestRock officials won’t say if today’s hiring event is related to the long-running labor dispute, but it didn’t stop hundreds of job seekers from showing up at a Phenix City hotel. While people lined up at the Courtyard by Marriott to apply for a job, some workers were still on the picket line 25 miles to the south in Cottonton. WestRock is looking for production workers to staff the mill that produces coated board, it is heavy-duty paper that is used in product packaging.
INTERNATIONAL BUILDERS SHOW — Rose Quint (NAHB) and Donald Ruthroff (Design Story Spaced) shared how home buyer preferences are shifting, characteristics desired by first-time and repeat buyers, and how builders can incorporate design trends to provide homes buyers want. …Quint forecast that the average home size and the market share of amenities such as three or more bathrooms and three-car garages would increase in 2023 due to the projected decrease in single-family starts. Homes will trend larger in part because many potential buyers will not have access to the market due to affordability concerns, shrinking the number of buyers and shifting the market toward buyers with higher levels of income. …Donald Ruthroff, founder and principal of California-based Design Story Spaces, shared how design trends are shifting to focus on the health of residents and to maximize smaller spaces.
As North America’s leading supplier of wood utility poles, Stella-Jones provides over one million poles per year to replace, upgrade and develop new electrical utility and telecommunications lines across Canada and the United States. Wood poles are the backbone of North America’s electric grid and are a renewable resource, providing equal or superior strength, resiliency and service life when compared to any “wood pole equivalent” structure constructed from alternative materials, such as steel, concrete and fiberglass. Stella-Jones’ quality poles are made from a variety of premium wood species to suit a range of climates. Our custom manufacturing services meet the demands of our customers’ unique specifications across the continent. …Stella-Jones draws upon decades of expertise in the pressure treatment of wood to maximize pole performance and service life with an array of wood preservative systems that support diverse climatic conditions and decay hazards.
WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced it will offer $41 million through the 2023 Wood Innovations Grant and 2023 Community Wood Grant programs to spark innovation and create new markets for wood products and renewable wood energy. Made possible in part by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, these grants expand wood products use and strengthen emerging wood energy markets, supporting sustainable forest management – particularly in areas of high wildfire risk. “These grant programs provide opportunities for communities and businesses to develop innovative uses and markets for wood, a renewable and economical resource,” said Forest Service Chief Randy Moore. …The application deadline for both grant programs is Thursday, March 23, 2023. …Since 2015, the Community Wood Grant and Wood Innovation Grant programs have provided more than $93 million to 381 recipients to support wood products and wood energy projects.
For the first time, WoodWorks and collaborators are bringing a mass timber mock-up live demonstration to the International Mass Timber Conference exhibit hall floor. Come see professionals build this mass timber structure — live — on Tuesday, March 28, only at the world’s largest mass timber event. Carpenters from the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute completed the build out of their WoodWorks provided mock-up (funded by Softwood Lumber Board and USDA-U.S. Forest Service). WoodWorks Mass Timber Construction Management Program seeks to engage with training centers, contractors, and community colleges to support the development of mass timber installation training programs across the United States. Learn more about the program in the demonstration area in the exhibit hall, or at WoodWorks’ booth #440.
Re: “
The Competition Bureau has opened an inquiry to see if forestry industry claims of sustainable management on vast stretches of Canadian woodlands are false advertising. The inquiry, announced late last year, comes in response to a complaint filed by Ecojustice on behalf of eight environmental groups. Ecojustice says that forest industry ads claiming the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) sets rigorous harvesting standards are dishonest and misleading. …Jason Metnick, for SFI said, “(The initiative) has a forest management standard that is based on objective performance measures and indicators”. At stake is Canada’s most commonly used method of assuring consumers that the wood and paper products they buy are harvested in accordance with modern ecological principles. It is promoted by the Forest Products Association of Canada and purports to certify sustainable forestry on more than 120 million hectares. But the Ecojustice complaint calls on the Competition Bureau to force the industry to retract those claims and pay a $10 million fine. …The Competition Bureau inquiry, which is not conducted in public, has the power to use the courts to compel evidence. :format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2023/02/01/we-were-poisoned-before-ontario-first-nations-voice-concerns-over-mining-claims/2023020112024-7ff53ca2e8b40074b12e7bfc814125d175968c272a77d9d71ab3488b859d94df.jpg)
JUNEAU, Alaska — The Biden administration released a long-awaited study that recommends allowing a major oil development on Alaska’s North Slope.” The move — while not final — drew immediate anger from environmentalists who saw it as a betrayal of the president’s pledges to reduce carbon emissions and promote clean energy sources. …Even as the land agency released its report, the U.S. Interior Department said in a separate statement that it has “substantial concerns” about the project. …Opponents have raised concerns about the impacts of oil development on wildlife, such as caribou, and efforts to address climate change. …Federal agencies have within the last week made two major decisions around resources in Alaska. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in southeast Alaska, the Tongass National Forest.
