The Forest Stewardship Council announced its 2022 Leadership Awards, recognizing uncommon excellence. Companies making news include: Kalesnikoff’s mass timber expansion plan; Commonwealth Plywood’s pending re-opening in Quebec; and Weyerhaeuser’s ongoing Lebanon mill strike. Meanwhile, BC Greens call for suspension of Drax’s licences; while Europe’s energy crisis creates a wood pellet squeeze.
In other news: the move to extend legal rights to nature; Idaho conserves 156 sq. mills of private timberland; North Carolina celebrates National Forest Products Week; BC Wood adds two new Board members; and WorkSafeBC’s latest safety news.
Finally, could this retired forester hold the solution to stopping catastrophic wildfires?
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
As much as 70 percent of European heating comes from natural gas and electricity, and with Russian deliveries drastically reduced, wood — already used by some 
ALBERTA — The extreme fire danger in forests around Sundre and Nordegg is not going to immediately decrease with the coming cooler weather, warned Alberta Environment. “We would like people to be extra cautious,” said department information officer Colby Lachance, since 67 per cent of last year’s wildfires were human-caused. Lachance believes warmer weather has potentially extended tourism. “We’re seeing more people in the forest at this time… so we’re asking Albertans to be extra cautious when outdoors,” she added. …Although there could be showers or snow in the Sundre and Nordegg areas on Thursday or Saturday, there’s no appreciable precipitation in the forecast for the next seven days. And Lachance said consecutive days of cold, rain or snow are needed to reduce the combustibility of dry vegetation. Although it’s very unusual to have fires this time of year, it’s been an unusually warm fall, she added.
SEATTLE – Forest Stewardship Council announced its 2022 FSC Leadership Awards, recognizing uncommon excellence that advances responsible forest management and forest conservation. …FSC Leadership Awards celebrate forest owners, builders, architects, retailers, paper mills, manufacturers, environmental organizations and many others who contribute to the movement toward responsible sourcing and forest management. Winners of the 2022 FSC Leadership Awards are as follows:
As counterintuitive as it might seem, logging could be one way to help make California’s woodlands more wildfire resilient. Unfortunately, the process is beset with its own unique set of supply chain problems. Freelance journalist Jane Braxton Little said the process is called selective logging, and it involves landowners working with foresters to identify individual fire-risk trees, which are then harvested for lumber. While there’s evidence that this practice could help mitigate future wildfires, there’s a critical problem: No one is able to buy the logs. This ultimately comes down to California’s overburdened sawmills, which are at capacity and often unable to take on new lumber, Braxton Little said. “The diminished capacity of the industry in recent years means they can’t always handle the supply,” she said. “It’s a narrow neck funnel that slows down the flow of timber logs from private, non industrial forest owners to the sawmills.”
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Gov. Brad Little and other statewide elected officials have approved a northern Idaho conservation easement as part of a program that has protected from development about 156 square miles (400 square kilometers) of private timberland. The Republican governor and other Land Board members on Tuesday unanimously approved the deal giving Idaho the easement title to 166 acres (67 hectares) in northern Idaho under the federal Forest Legacy Program. In return for the easement, the non-industrial family landowner, Hartland LLC, will receive a $275,000 payment. That money comes from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a popular federal program that supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects across the country. …For Idaho, the objective of participating in the Forest Legacy Program is to help maintain the cultural and economic stability of rural communities by conserving timberland. Other objectives include enhancing water quality and protecting wildlife habitat.
WASHINGTON — In the arid American West, wildfires now define summer. Recent years have seen some of the worst wildfires in recorded history. …Habitat degradation and other factors have caused populations of mule deer, a common species in many parts of the West, to decline across much of their native range. My collaborators and I recently published a study examining how mule deer use forests that have burned, and how wildfires affect deer interactions with cougars and wolves. We found that mule deer use these burns in summer but avoid them in winter. Deer also adjusted their movement to reduce predation risk in these burned landscapes, which varies depending on whether cougars or wolves are the threat. Understanding how mule deer respond to burns and interact with predators in burned areas may be essential for conserving and restoring wildlife communities.
This issue includes: How to reduce the risk of workers being struck by mobile equipment; Updates to OHS Guidelines; Product recalls; and new incident investigation report summaries. In the spotlight: October is manufacturing month, learn about new resources, how ergonomics can reduce injury risks, and how our online services help small businesses save time. Finally, WorkSafeBC will be speaking at the upcoming Manufacturing Safety Alliance of BC conference, October 27 and 28. This online conference is a global conference for leaders, safety and HR professionals, safety committees, worker reps, and OHS students committed to a safe and sustainable future for industry. For more details and stories, read our full newsletter in the link below.
Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, the union that represents forestry firefighters across the province says they’re “extremely disappointed” that such workers have been left out of expanded presumptive cancer and cardiac coverage. The changes, which expand presumptive coverage to eight new cancers as well as cardiac events that occur within 24 hours of a firefighter responding to an emergency, were debated in the House of Assembly yesterday. When asked about forestry firefighters not being covered under the legislation, the minister responsible for Workplace NL, Bernard Davis, says those workers are a “different animal.” He says the carcinogens emitted from forest fires are different from those emitted from the materials burned in house fires that cause the cancer. Davis says none of the work firefighters do is safe, but that group is not covered under the legislation.