It’s Thanksgiving in Canada and the frogs are off Monday. Check back tomorrow for a full summary of the weekend news.
Paper Excellence announced the indefinite curtailment of its paper operations at Catalyst Crofton. In other Company news: Resolute battles paper mill fire in Michigan; Lecta takes downtime at several EU paper mills; and Drax addresses ‘inaccurate views’ on biomass sourcing. In other Business news: BC, Washington, Oregon and California sign climate deal; FPAC welcomes call-to-action on supply chains; and Oregon’s wildfire survivors get grant money to rebuild.
In other news: US wood pellet exports are up 23% year-to-date; and the Softwood Lumber Board generated 526 million bf of incremental demand in Q2, 2022. Meanwhile: FSC to consider policy changes at General Assembly meeting in Bali; an Australian auditor general pans its logging regulator; and Bjorn Lomborg says net-zero emission policies are ‘ill-advised’.
Finally, Jimmy Pattison would boost stake in lumber companies if ‘the price was right’.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
For Canadian businesses to remain competitive on the world stage, we need to develop a more competitive, efficient, and effective supply chain system. Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) applauds the latest report released by the National Supply Chain Task Force and welcomes the action-oriented recommendations within to accelerate change across our country’s vital trade infrastructure. The report, 
CROFTON, BC — Paper Excellence today announced the indefinite curtailment of its paper operations at the Catalyst Crofton facility starting in early December 2022. Paper markets in China served by the mill have significantly weakened while there have been substantial cost escalations for chemicals, energy and wood fibre used at Crofton. The intersection of these pressures has materially impacted the financial viability of the paper operation. We expect to operate Crofton’s paper machines for 60 days following this announcement. …The mill’s pulp operations will continue production during the paper curtailment. Paper Excellence will assist customers and continue to supply them with production from its Port Alberni mill where possible. In 2021, the company invested in repurposing its Port Alberni paper machines to manufacture food and packaging grades. Paper Excellence is working with both Provincial and Federal Governments while it conducts studies at the Crofton facility to consider accelerating its conversion into natural food and packaging grades. 
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has greenlit a $422 million grant to help survivors of the 2020 Labor Day fires recover and rebuild. More than 4,300 homes were damaged or lost to the fires throughout Oregon in 2020. While it has taken two years to achieve, this federal funding is intended to ramp up the recovery process. Oregon Housing and Community Services will administer the grant funds through “ReOregon” which includes several programs to assist fire survivors. Public Information Officer Delia Hernandez said fire survivors who wish to apply for benefits should take several steps this fall. …Hernandez said ReOregon benefits should be available to fire survivors starting in 2023. Survivors should start collecting documents now to make sure they are ready to apply for ReOregon benefits.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says even under best-case scenarios, housing starts will fall well below the affordable housing supply targets it has set for Ontario, B.C. and Quebec to reach by 2030. In those three provinces and Alberta there will only be enough labour capacity over the next eight years to increase the number of housing starts by between 30 and 50 per cent. …”We didn’t think the challenges were this acute,” said Dana Senagama, at CMHC. Senagama’s report concluded Ontario, Quebec and B.C. will have to double the number of starts that they can produce under best-case scenarios to help reach CMHC’s national affordability target of 3.5 million more homes built by 2030. Alberta shouldn’t have as much trouble increasing housing supply, even under maximum capacity conditions, because it has fewer supply and price pressures and steady population growth.
The U.S. exported 880,876 metric tons of wood pellets in August, up from 649,186 metric tons the previous month and 647,923 metric tons in August 2021, according to data released by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. The U.S. exported wood pellets to approximately 20 countries in August. The U.K. was the top destination for U.S. wood pellet exports at 484,637 metric tons, followed by the Netherlands at 243,397 metric tons, Belgium-Luxembourg at 49,500 metric tons, Denmark at 49,039 metric tons and Japan at 39,640 metric tons. The value of U.S. wood pellet exports reached $150.74 million in August, up from both $119.89 million in July and $90.43 million in August of last year.
The price of paper is on the rise. That’s no real surprise to anyone in the printing and packaging industries. In 2021, we saw paper demand grow and supply sink which immediately saw the rise of prices. Issues from 2021 — such as raw pulp pricing increases and rising transportation costs — are also carrying over into 2022. Additionally, over the last several years, we’ve seen increasing numbers of paper mills shutter their doors around the world. Early this year PaperMoney outlined all the pulp and paper mill 
MISSOULA, Mont. — Foresters, nursery managers and urban planners have long sought funding to grow more trees, replant burned areas and help marginalized communities prepare for the effects of climate change. Suddenly, the money isn’t the problem — it’s figuring out how to spend it. “We went from a dripping faucet to a tsunami wave,” said Kasten Dumroese, national nursery specialist and research plant physiologist with the U.S. Forest Service. “It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.” That “tsunami wave” comes from a pair of bills signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021 and August of this year. The infrastructure and climate packages set aside billions of dollars to reforest millions of acres, plant trees in underserved communities, restore landscapes burned by wildfire, revitalize nursery programs and rehabilitate mined lands. …Despite the challenges … forestry leaders expressed confidence that they would capitalize on the possibilities presented by the investment.
The total area burned during this year’s wildfire season reached new records in nine European Union member states, new figure shows. As of October 1, more than 771,000 hectares had been scorched by forest fires in the 27-country bloc, itself the highest tally observed since records began in 2006, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Nine countries saw new records. They were Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. For six of them, the records were shattered by large margins because the annual averages recorded between 2006 and 2021 were extremely low. This is the case of the Czech Republic, where 1,436 hectares were burned this year compared to an average of just 9.06 in the 2006-2021 period — about 160 times higher.
The General Assembly of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), to be held in Bali on Oct. 9-14, is an opportunity for the FSC to ensure fairness and equality for stakeholders around the world, especially in encouraging improvements in forest governance, as well as the expansion of forest rehabilitation and restoration. …At the next General Assembly, one of the important points on the agenda to be discussed is the new policy related to the Policy for Association (PfA), Policy to Address Conversion (PAC) and the Remedy Framework. …If approved, the motion could support the FSC’s target of certifying 300 million ha of forests. The approval is also expected to expand the application of FSC certification in forest plantations worldwide, including in Indonesia. …One of the important points in this motion is the change in the cut-off date – the deadline for authorized natural forest conversion into forest plantations – from November 1994 to December 31, 2020.
In the latest of several climate agreements among Pacific Coast governments, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia have signed a new partnership recommitting the region to climate action. The Statement of Cooperation (SOC) promotes collaboration … on accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy, investing in climate infrastructure, …and protecting communities from climate effects, such as drought, wildfire, heat waves and sea-level changes. The SOC includes a major focus on equity, ensuring no communities are left behind in the transition to a low-carbon future. …The Pacific Coast of North America represents a thriving region of 57 million people with a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion. Through the Pacific Coast Collaborative, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, and the cities of Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles are working together to build the low carbon economy of the future. They share ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 80% by 2050.
