Nova Scotia dedicates land for high production forestry with focus on timber production. In related news: Burgess BioPower reinvigorates New Hampshire mill town; Premier Eby says BC forest industry is facing a reckoning; ex-BC Minister Pat Bell says Canfor mill closure can be reversed; and Greg Jadrzyk ex-NFPA president, says pine beetle inaction is to blame.
In other news: Biden signs wildfire remediation law; RCMP say injunctions justify costs on resource standoffs; Montana invests in forest health; and BC invests to switch diesel to renewable energy. In Forest Product news: US groups say wood is the new concrete; opportunities in Japan’s building sector; Australian sustainable timber construction; and BC Wood’s updated Export Training Program.
Finally, a first-of-its-kind wood-traceability project at Portland International Airport.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Cellulosic nanomaterials are the microscopic building blocks of a tree. When we add these super structures to non-tree materials like concrete, steel, and plastics, we can make them stronger, lighter, and infinitely more sustainable. One millionth the size of the head of a pin, these unique physical and chemical structures make natural fibers as strong as steel, and 80% lighter. Sometimes, less is more. In the first project of its kind in North America, cellulosic nanomaterials were mixed with concrete to build a bridge in Siskiyou, California. The pilot project deonstrates how nanomaterials can be added to traditional building materials to make them stronger, thereby reducing the total volume of materials needed. In California, the addition of nanocelluose increased material strength by 20%, making it possible to cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third (33%).
At the UN Biodiversity Conference nearly 200 countries agreed to adopt the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Among the 26 targets set out in the draft document is the much-publicised “30 by 30” commitment: to protect 30% of Earth’s land and marine surfaces by the year 2030. UN figures indicate that only 17% of land and inland water ecosystems and only 8% of coastal ecosystems and ocean are currently protected …As scary as a 30% protected area target may be to the forest industry … we can’t ignore the issue. The papers I discussed in this essay don’t represent fringe beliefs; indeed, they have been published in mainstream journals, including Science and Nature. Moreover, the conservation biology community has been actively, and successfully, working to turn its ideals into political reality. What we can do is engage – with conservation biologists, policy makers, and all of the many other stakeholders in global forest management. If we don’t, we may find that many land use decisions are made without us.
MISSOULA, Mont. — 
BERLIN, New Hampshire — Since the mid-1800s, the economy of Berlin, New Hampshire, known as “The City that Trees Built,” revolved around the paper mill located in the heart of the city. Therefore, it was a devastating blow when the Fraser Paper pulp mill closed in 2006, as the community of Berlin and the rest of the region were dependent on the mill as a critical employer. “In 2008, an opportunity arose to bring new life to the shuttered mill by converting its existing black liquor boiler into a state-of-the-art, 75-MW biomass power generating facility, and Burgess BioPower was born,” says Sarah Boone, vice president of public affairs for Burgess BioPower. “Today, Burgess BioPower delivers 500,000 megawatt hours of local, clean and reliable power to New Hampshire annually, along with acting as an economic driver in the state’s North Country and beyond.” …Today, Burgess BioPower is the largest single buyer of biomass in the state. 
Biomass Magazine checked back in with industry experts on the impacts Russia’s invasion has had on the industry over the past year. Russia being banned from the market left a 2.5 million to 3-million-metric-ton shortfall, says Tim Portz, executive director of the Pellet Fuels Institute. …High demand for wood pellets—stemming from a combination of the Russian market exclusion and other sanctions—has pushed prices up drastically, explains William Strauss, of FutureMetrics. …Strauss says prices have reached up to over 800 euros ($846) per ton, with a long-term average of between 200 and 220 euros. Prices shifted downward in late November and early December due to warmer-than-normal autumn temperatures, allowing industrial pellet producers to scale back on the quantity of pellets sent to some larger buyers.