Weyerhaeuser announced resolution of its strike in Oregon & Washington. In other Business news: Northern Pulp seeks creditor protection in BC court; Ontario’s White River mill flourishes despite challenges; Hampton Lumber donates to Burns Lake, BC project; and Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert mill prepares for restart-construction. Meanwhile: BC’s Deputy Premier on Vancouver Island forestry; Algoma Steel looks to biomass for fuel; and StructureCraft’s latest bridge over the Bow River.
In other news: Prince Edward Island strikes emergency task force post-Fiona; a decade of drought and fire in Sierra Nevada; the Softwood Lumber Board’s investment update; Canada’s tree obsession is absurd (says Rex Murphy); the UK’s timber gap; and New Zealand’s forestry hysteria.
Finally, hang onto your pumpkins (literally) and have a safe and happy Halloween.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
The Woodland Trust and Forestry England warned revellers the fruit can lead to a series of problems for creatures – including hedgehogs, foxes, badgers and birds – and spread disease. …Kate Wollen, assistant ecologist at Forestry England, said: “We see many posts on social media encouraging people to leave pumpkins in the woods for wildlife to eat, but please do not do this. “Pumpkins are not natural to the woodland and while some wildlife may enjoy a tasty snack it can make… birds, foxes, badgers, deer, and boar unwell and can spread disease. …Pumpkin flesh can attract colonies of rats and also has a really detrimental effect on woodland soils, plants and fungi.” People are being urged to turn their pumpkin into soup or even into a birdfeeder – or add to the garden compost.
ONTARIO — Leaders in the residential sector say a new piece of legislation introduced by the Ontario government will help move the needle to get closer to the government’s goal to build 1.5 million new homes over the next 10 years. “The More Homes Built Faster Act will make it… easier to build more homes quickly,” said Dave Wilkes, CEO of BILD. …If passed, the legislation would ensure that cities, towns and rural communities have a mix of ownership and rental housing types, from single-family homes to townhomes and mid-rise apartments. The act, along with the Strong Mayors Act, is a step in the right direction and sets the tone on how the province is going to approach the housing crisis, said Luca Bucci, CEO of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association. …The plan, which contains 50 actions, aims to reduce government fees and fix development approval delays.
The Forest Practices Board can appeal certain decisions made by government officials under the Forest and Range Practices Act or the Wildfire Act, such as determinations of noncompliance, penalties or approvals of plans for forestry or range operations. When deciding whether or not to appeal a determination, the Board takes any public requests to appeal into consideration. In 2021, the Board appealed a determination by a Ministry of Forests’ district manager who found a person had harvested and removed Crown timber without authorization. The person had a licence to salvage wood for shakes and shingles, but the wood they harvested was outside their licence boundary. Although the government’s compliance and enforcement staff provided the district manager with evidence that the unlawful harvesting occurred in 2017, 2018, and 2020, the district manager only focused on the 2020 contraventions and levied a penalty of $12,000.
Central Okanagan Public School is offering a program segway to a career in resource management in the forestry sector. The Rutland Senior Secondary (RSS) forestry class embraces a hands-on learning experience open to all Grade 11 and 12 students in the school district. It begins in the second semester of the school year for Grade 11 and extends into the Grade 12 fall semester. Participating students will spend more of their time learning a variety of forestry related career job skills throughout the Central Okanagan. Corbett explained the forestry program differs a bit from other school district career oriented programs because it exposes students to a variety of forestry-related career opportunities rather than focusing on one specific career option….He said those interested in the program can speak to their school councillors and be set up to job shadow a forest industry professional to gauge their interest in pursuing a career in the forestry profession.
In a recent radio interview, Gov. Jay Inslee listed his priorities for dealing with the worsening wildfire situation in Washington as more fire suppression, more forest fuel reduction efforts and increased efforts to reduce global warming. These priorities are flawed. When I left the University of Washington with a forestry degree 45 years ago, it was well known that decades of fire suppression had accumulated dangerous fuel loads in our forests. The warning given was that if nothing was done to reduce these fuel loads, future wildfires would become much larger and would be harder to stop. …Reducing global warming will never fix this fuel load problem. …Eighty-five percent of all wildfires are human caused and therefore preventable. Any public education effort that reduces this number will free up fire suppression money to do more forest fuel reduction. Blaming the problem on global warming is counterproductive.
California’s Sierra Nevada mountains have swaths of blackened trees flanking its sprawling green forest ranges. A new University of California, Berkeley study quantifies that devastation, finding nearly a third of southern Sierra conifer forests have died in the last decade. California has seen devastating bouts of drought and record-breaking wildfire events in the last several years. From 2011-2020, a combination of fire, drought and drought-related bark beetle infestations killed 30% of forests in the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Lake Tahoe and Kern County, according to the analysis. “It’s kind of a wake up call,” said Zackary Steel, lead author of the study. On top of the overall decline in total conifer forest in the region, half of mature forest habitat and 85% of high-density mature forests were either wiped out entirely or became low-density forests. …government agencies are beginning to rethink old practices, and investing in wildfire resilience and forest health. 
As if the world’s rainforests didn’t have enough problems to contend with, even the transition to zero-carbon power is threatening to level them. Industrial mining ate up 3,265 square kilometers of tropical forest between 2002 and 2019, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Some 80% of that total happened in just four countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana and Suriname. With COP27… next week expected to increase the focus on the climate needs of developing countries, that’s raised concerns that there isn’t enough land to manage a shift away from fossil fuels. …If wealthy countries want the tropical forest lands that have already been cleared to be used more efficiently — and, where possible, returned to their natural state — then they’re going to need more, not less capital-intensive activity. Mining isn’t devoid of environmental impacts. But it’s a lot better than most of the alternatives. 
