Canada’s worst-ever spring wildfire season has forced sawmills to shutter. In related news: hundreds of South African and EU firefighters arrive to help; US will soon need its firefighter volunteers back home; how the fires are being fought across Canada; and specific updates from Quebec, BC, California; and Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, perspectives on the degree to which climate change is the root cause of the fires (yes, no, and maybe so), the role of older vs younger forests; and the legal obligation of government to protect its residents from climate change.
In Forest Product news: the USDA invests $43 million in wood product innovation; North America’s first mass timber parking lot is coming to BC; hybrid timber floors in tall wood buildings; and Oregon to study the effects of fires on mass timber structures. Elsewhere: optimism despite Enviva’s operational woes; and the US extends its duty investigation on Vietnam plywood.
Finally, a ‘forests from the trees’ conversation with MNP’s Jason Fisher.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
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A new mid-rise, mixed-use building project on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia will boast North America’s first underground mass timber structure for vehicle parking, according to Massive Canada Building Systems. The Port Moody-based company specializes in fabricating mass timber materials and modular building manufacturing. It has just secured the contract to design and build a single-level underground mass timber parkade at the 1.3-acre development site of 718 North Road in Gibsons. Of course, underground parkades are typically built as reinforced concrete structures, but Massive Canada says it wants to challenge that assumption. They state that if mass timber structures — such as the tall trestle bridges in BC’s interior — are able to carry the weight of locomotives and freight trains and still stand a century later, a mass timber parkade can support a six-storey building.
WASHINGTON – The US announced that the USDA is investing more than $43 million to expand innovative uses of wood, including as a construction material in commercial buildings, as an energy source, and in manufacturing and processing input for wood products used in framing homes, making paper products and more. Made possible in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, these funds are being invested in 123 projects nationwide through Community Wood Grants and Wood Innovations Grants. Since 2015, the grant programs have provided more than $93 million to 381 recipients to support wood products and wood energy projects. Funded proposals under these USDA grant programs expand and retrofit wood energy systems and wood products manufacturing facilities and develop markets for innovative uses of mass timber and renewable wood energy. Projects also help to restore healthy forests and reduce wildfire risk, protecting communities, infrastructure and resources while curbing climate change. 
WASHINGTON — Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced that Oregon State University will receive $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the effects of fire on mass timber products, to determine sustainability for their increased use in new construction. …Building code officials and fire marshals often present concerns that mass timber may be too combustible for use in new construction due to lack of data on how mass timber responds to fire. Oregon State will use the funds to study how mass timber decays in fire and how much carbon is emitted during a fire in order to develop solutions for firefighter safety in mass timber buildings and providing the first data related to carbon emissions for a structure. Studying the effects of fire on mass timber structures may be able to alleviate barriers of using mass timber throughout the U.S.
Nearly everyone living in the eastern U.S. has been served a powerful reminder of the complex effects of climate change this week. …Most people understand that trees and forests play an important role in reducing climate change — that’s one reason there are so many popular efforts aimed at planting trees. But not all forests are alike. …It turns out the age and composition of forests makes a big difference in what role they play in preventing wildfires and storing carbon. Old growth forest is the best at both, but there is very little old growth left in either the western or eastern US. But a large amount of the forests on public lands is what foresters call “mature” forest, which is nearly as good as old growth and in fact is on the brink of becoming old growth. It is these older forests that will help us prevent future forest fires and will do the most to reduce climate change.
Today wood pellets made from sawmilling and harvesting residuals are in demand worldwide. Seen as low carbon, efficient and renewable clean energy, wood pellets support shifting away from fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. …The wood pellet industry plays a vital role in the New Brunswick economy, supporting more than 625 direct and indirect jobs, procuring $60 million in local services and goods annually and investing over $100 million in capital expenditures. …if we took the 400,000 tonnes of local wood pellets manufactured yearly at the five wood pellet plants in New Brunswick and used the fuel here, we could take 100,000 homes off coal-fired electricity and displace 200 million litres of oil. …Because bioenergy also provides a market for sawmill residuals, it also allows forests to be better managed for increased productivity, vigour, and health. …With the right investment, policy, and standard changes, we can make biomass mainstream in New Brunswick.
Travellers hoping to find the Horne Lake Connector open as a route around the Cameron Bluff fire Friday were instead met with signs telling them the road was closed. Mosaic Forest Management…says the gravel logging road is closed to the public and that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure specifically chose the Cowichan detour route instead. “Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure reviewed multiple options with Mosaic, including the Horne Lake route, and they selected the Cowichan route for public access as the safest alternative to Highway 4,” Mosaic said. …Another route that CHEK viewers emailed about is between the Comox Valley and Port Alberni, using Comox Lake Road. It connects with Ash Main and Beaver Creek Road, but it too is closed by Mosaic because of active logging. But that didn’t stop travellers showing up there, many saying they followed the map on their phone indicating the route was open.
Rain Friday morning brought some reprieve for crews battling the out-of-control Cameron Bluffs wildfire, which has grown to 208 hectares in rugged, steep terrain on mid-Vancouver Island. More rain could still show up … but hot and dry weather is expected to return. Bryce Moreira, fire incident commander, said that firefighters are seeing “just a little bit of open flame or smouldering ground fire, which is good news for the crews.” …Port Alberni-based businesses that rely on heavy trucks are looking at chartering barges to transport supplies and products in and out of their operations. After a brief shutdown, Paper Excellence is reopening its paper mill, and normally has 100 trucks moving per day, Pat Deakin, Economic Development Manager said Friday. Trucks used by the company are heavier than permitted by the province on the detour route. The San Group Global Forestry Products similarly has a few dozen trucks going back and forth daily, Deakin said. 
