West Fraser Timber announced that it is permanently curtailing a shift at two BC sawmills and one plywood plant. In related news: Sexton Lumber is impacted by Newfoundland wildfire; JD Irving plans to challenge US tariff announcement; US Lumber Dealers advocate for renewed softwood lumber agreement; China imports plunge in Q1, 2022; and Russian lumber litters shore from cargo ship. In other Business news: Stella-Jones and Conifex report positive Q2, 2022 results.
In Forestry/Climate news: decarbonization drives BC wood pellet exports; private landowners gain traction in US carbon markets; Britain looks to Canada to rate wildfire danger; tracking resilience of California’s sequoias; and on-line maps that track wildfires world-wide. Elsewhere: forest logging disputes in Vernon and Mount Cain, BC; northern Wisconsin; and Asheville, North Carolina.
Finally, old growth protestors shift tactics, use topless demonstrators to gain attention.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
In an email to members, the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce is lowering duties on many Canadian softwood lumber imports to 8.59%. …While NLBMDA welcomes the reduced 8.59% duty rate for many softwood lumber importers, the tariff remains a punitive tax on American consumers that weakens the U.S. housing market and prevents access to affordable homeownership by destabilizing the lumber supply chain. NLBMDA has heavily lobbied the Biden Administration and the Commerce Department to eliminate tariffs on Canadian lumber and negotiate a new Softwood Lumber Agreement. American builders get more than a quarter of their softwood lumber from Canada. NLBMDA continues to engage the Biden Administration on softwood lumber tariffs and is advocating for renewed Softwood Lumber Agreement negotiations.
VANCOUVER, B.C. – West Fraser Timber announced today it is permanently curtailing approximately 170 million board feet of combined production at its Fraser Lake and Williams Lake sawmills and approximately 85 million square feet of plywood production at its Quesnel Plywood mill. The curtailments will be realized through the elimination of one shift at each facility. The reduction in capacity is expected to impact 77 positions at Fraser Lake Sawmill, 15 positions at Williams Lake Lumber, and 55 positions at Quesnel Plywood and will occur over the course of the fourth quarter of 2022. The Company expects to mitigate the impact on effected employees by providing work opportunities at other West Fraser operations. Access to available timber is an increasing challenge in British Columbia and ongoing transportation constraints have impaired the Company’s ability to reliably access markets. These capacity reductions are necessary to better align West Fraser’s operating capacity with available timber and transport availability.
VANCOUVER, BC — Conifex Timber reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022. EBITDA was $20.1 million for the quarter compared to EBITDA of $37.8 million in the second quarter of 2021. Net income was $12.3 million or $0.31 per share for the year versus $26.1 million or $0.56 per share in the year-earlier quarter. …Revenues from lumber products were $68.7 million in the second quarter of 2022 representing an increase of 13% from the previous quarter and a decrease of 23% from the second quarter of 2021. …Our Mackenzie power plant sold 54.6 gigawatt hours of electricity… [which] contributed revenues of $4.8 million in the second quarter of 2022, a decrease of 40% from the previous quarter and an increase of 2% from the second quarter of 2021.
Montreal, Quebec – Stella-Jones Inc. announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2022. “Stella-Jones recorded solid results in the second quarter, above market performance, delivering sequentially higher margins and generating significant cash,” said Éric Vachon, President and CEO. “We are particularly pleased with the performance of our infrastructure-related businesses, which speaks highly to the wide reach of our expanded network and to our procurement and logistics capabilities to continue to meet strong demand. While inflationary pressures impacted costs of all product categories, we continued to successfully implement contractual price adjustments and generate healthy margins, underscoring the strength of our business model.” …Sales for the second quarter of 2022 amounted to $907 million, up from $903 million for the same period in 2021. …pressure-treated wood sales were unchanged compared to last year, while sales of logs and lumber decreased by $33 million. …utility poles, railway ties and industrial products increased by 10% compared to second quarter of 2021. 
“Fire conditions across the U.K. are really extraordinary, and particularly in the southeast of England,” Andy Elliott said. “We would use the word extreme.” …Elliott leans down to put a soil moisture gauge in the ground and reaches into the brush to collect crisp leaves and brambles which he places in a bag. These samples will be taken to a university lab where they’ll be ignited under controlled conditions to measure how flammable they are and how they could fuel a fire. It’s all part of a project involving universities and researchers across the U.K. to adapt a national wildfire danger rating system based on the 
Forces are gathering to halt logging in a watershed that supplies much of Vernon’s drinking water. Blue Nose Mountain resident Justin Oblak say he and other residents are concerned planned logging in the Duteau Creek watershed east of Vernon could impact water quality for tens of thousands of North Okanagan residents. The planned cutblock is within 700 metres of the Harvey Lake reservoir. Oblak says two areas are proposed to be logged, one on either side of the reservoir, which feeds into Duteau Creek. The push against the logging has been going on for months, but has just come to light. “The preservation of water quality and quantity within the Duteau Creek Watershed is a priority for the RDNO as owners of the Greater Vernon Water Utility,” the district wrote in a letter to Tolko Industries in April.
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina – Three days of objection resolution meetings left some advocates “cautiously optimistic,” but still wary of a 30-year forest land management plan they fear could increase logging in the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. “I felt like, maybe for the first time, the Forest Service is actually listening,” said Will Harlan, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. ……According to Forest Service spokesperson Cathy Dowd, following the objection meetings, the Forest Service team, led by reviewing officer and Deputy Regional Forester Rick Lint, will continue its work of reviewing all the objections and considering potential remedies. Lint will prepare a response to all of the objection topics that will be issued later this fall. …”The final plan could be out by the end of this year or early next year depending on the outcome of the review.”
Environmental and climate activists are calling on the U.S. Forest Service to halt logging of mature and old-growth trees that are crucial for storing carbon to combat climate change, including a project in northern Wisconsin. The Fourmile Vegetation Management Project in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is cited among the 10 worst logging projects on federal lands, according to a report released by a coalition of groups this summer. The project 7 miles east of Eagle River would log nearly 12,000 acres in parts of Oneida, Vilas and Forest counties. It’s expected to yield around 45 million board feet of timber. …”At ELPC, we are calling on the Forest Service to freeze all logging of mature and old-growth trees while this process goes forward, and especially in the Fourmile project area,” said Andy Olsen, a senior policy advocate with the Environmental Law and Policy Center or ELPC.
MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL — For decades, the mountain pine beetle has caused an unprecedented amount of forest mortality in western North America, tearing through pine stands from the Pacific Coast all the way to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Now, researchers at the Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center (MITPPC) are preparing for the impending arrival of one of the top threats to Minnesota’s trees. Brian Aukema, Ph.D., a professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and a researcher at MITPPC, answers questions about the species and why they pose a threat to Minnesota pine forests. …Do researchers expect the mountain pine beetle to arrive in Minnesota? …What are researchers working on currently? …How do you hope this research will better prepare the state for the impending arrival of the species?
For Sara Velazquez and her husband, purchasing the 55 acres behind their rural Pennsylvania home was the start of a lengthy effort to preserve and resuscitate the hilly forestland. The question was how to pay for that work. …One option could be logging, Nelson said. …In December, the couple signed a 20-year contract with the nonprofit American Forest Foundation’s Family Forest Carbon Program, which aims to help small-scale landowners with as little as 30 acres do something new: access fast-growing “carbon markets”. …Such efforts are now set for a major boost under climate legislation passed this week by the U.S. Senate, which would provide $450 million to push private landowners toward forest management practices with climate benefits, according to the American Forest Foundation. If passed by the U.S. House, the legislation would “unlock the power in family-owned forests to tackle climate change,” President Rita Hite said.
From wildfires consuming tens of thousands of acres across Europe, to millions of acres ravaged in Argentina’s Corrientes province in February, and hundreds of wildfires now burning across Canada, 2022 has seen plenty of extreme fire events fuelled by heat waves and droughts that scientists say have become more frequent. “Not only does it seem like these fires are getting larger, more deadly, and more frequent, it seems like they’re becoming more common across the globe,” says Dan Pisut, Environment and Climate Resilience Lead with digital mapping company Esri, in a story map titled “
