At 25 storeys the world’s tallest mass timber tower opens in Milwaukee, surpassing Norway’s Mjøsa tower by 1.2 meters. In other Business news: US hardwood coalitions oppose ending tariffs on China; Neiman curtails its South Dakota sawmills; US and Canadian construction slows down; and lumber’s contribution to rising housing costs.
In Forestry news: it’s National Forest Week USA (duly noted by Enviva’s CEO); the US seeks public input on old growth forest management; BC awards first-ever First Nations Woodland Licence; and perspectives on how best to protect California’s forests. Meanwhile, on the wildfire front: the Village of Lytton is threatened again; the Yukon sets record for area burnt; and the latest from Portugal and France.
Finally, how do woodpeckers avoid brain damage? It’s a biomechanical law.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Conifex Timber Inc. announced today a delay in the resumption of operations at its power plant in Mackenzie, British Columbia following the previously disclosed dispatch period. In the course of annual maintenance of the power plant, damage to the plant’s turbine has been discovered. The boiler, generator and other long lead-time equipment have not been impacted. Conifex is working with its contractors to assess the damages and the required work plan. Until such assessment and plan are completed, there can be no assurance as to when the power plant will recommence operations, however Conifex does not currently anticipate the power plant to be operational during the third quarter of 2022.
RAPID CITY, South Dakota — A local forest products company has announced they are reducing hours at their mills in response to a lack of available timber in the Black Hills National Forest. Hulett-based Neiman Enterprises made the announcement at their Hulett and Spearfish sawmills Thursday afternoon. The reduction in hours will eliminate a shift at the Hulett site and reduce work hours in Spearfish. The announcement comes about a year after they closed their sawmill in Hill City because of a timber shortage. Company president Jim Neiman says they’re still working with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners, despite their disagreement with the reduced timber harvest. A 2021 report by the U.S. Forest Service states that the current live saw-timber volume doesn’t support a long-term sustainable timber supply if harvests continue at the 181,000 ccf allowable sale quantity.
Wildfire season in Canada has not ended yet, but Yukon has reported that this year’s total burned areas have surpassed the 25-year average. Unusually dry and hot weather combined with lightning sparked over 160 fires last week in the territory. Firefighting was so intense that crews from BC were called on to control the flames. As of July 13, 2022, Yukon saw 138,639 hectares burn due to wildfires. By comparison, the average area burned of the territory within a 25-year period was at 101,621, according to a report by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). It was also noted that the amount of area burned to date is more than five times the area burned last year during the same period. The total area burned in Yukon in 2021 from year start to July was only 22,648 hectares.
Please join us for this special oral history listening party hosted by the Forest History Association of British Columbia (FHABC). Widely respected as an innovator and significant industry contributor, Viv Williams discussed his long career in logging contracting (Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Skidegate Inlet, South Bentinck Arm, Spuzzum Creek) in interviews with Arnold McCoombs (1990) and Gerry Burch (1998). The Forest History Association’s Oral History Committee has made an audio-visual edit of this interview material and will host a (45 min+) Listening Party. If you are not already a member of FHABC, please consider joining by going to 
The early decades of the current century have seen appreciation of our forest ecosystems sink to new lows through the promotion of “biomass,” for which trees are valued merely as fuel to burn in producing energy. And, of course, there is the long and storied history of lumbering and sawmilling, with corresponding values calculated in “board feet.” The single-minded and self-serving reductionist approach of industry’s profit-taking from our province’s forests contrasts sharply with the far more complex ecological reality. …The Lahey report calls for an ecological approach to forestry, based on the irrefutable conclusion that forestry practices should “give priority to protecting and enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity” as “the foundations on which the other values, including the economic ones, ultimately depend.” Surely this is the responsible path forward”. 
BILLINGS, Montana — U.S. officials solicited outside help as they craft definitions of old growth and mature forests under an executive order from President Joe Biden. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management issued a notice seeking public input for a “universal definition framework” to identify older forests needing protection. Biden in April directed his administration to devise ways to preserve older forests as part of the government’s efforts to combat climate change. Biden’s order called for… the defining and inventorying all mature and old growth forests on federal land. After that, the agencies must identify the biggest threats those forests face and come up with ways to save them. …Environmentalists have said millions of acres of public lands should qualify. The timber industry and its allies have cautioned against a broad definition over concerns that could put new areas off limits to logging.
The high heat and low water conditions produced by global warming weaken pine trees’ resistance to disease by hindering their ability to mount an effective defense at the same time that pathogenic fungi in their tissues become more aggressive, new research suggests. The study is the first to simultaneously examine metabolic gene expression in both host trees and the pathogens attacking them under normal and climate-change conditions. The findings help explain the mechanisms behind what has become a well-known fact: The warming world makes trees more susceptible to disease. The study was conducted on Austrian pines, which are native to southern Europe and used ornamentally in the United States. Researchers tested climate change conditions’ effects on the trees after infection by two related fungi that have killed large swaths of these pines over time. …[The trees] showed decreased capacity to carry out photosynthesis… While, both strains of the fungus … became significantly more pathogenic…
The expansive national forests of the Pacific Northwest hold significant ecological, cultural, and economic value for the American people. …Pew commissioned analyses, conducted by research nonprofit Conservation Science Partners, of the 17 national forests within the NWFP area to identify critical conservation areas for biodiversity, carbon storage, and climate resilience. These “high ecological value areas” (HEVAs) are currently unprotected places that contain the top 10% of ecologically valuable lands within a given forest. The data contained in these analyses can help the agency understand how to ensure the ecological health of the forests while balancing the multiple-use mandate to coordinate outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, wildlife and fish, and wilderness for the benefit of people and nature. Here are some highlights from the Conservation Science Partners reports.
A major environmental group has continued to pursue litigation blocking the same wildfire forest management techniques that are currently helping to save a mass of iconic sequoias in California. The Earth Island Institute, a California-based organization, filed a federal lawsuit in June asking the court to halt a “biomass removal and thinning” project proposed by Yosemite National Park and the National Park Service (NPS). The lawsuit argued the plan would benefit commercial loggers, negatively impact endangered wildlife and was unnecessary, asserting dead tree density was irrelevant to potential wildfire proliferation. Under the proposal, the NPS had planned to cut down “hazard trees” and remove biomass like fallen dead trees that could contribute to wildfires, according to project documents. On July 5, though, Yosemite National Park agreed to halt its plans pending a court decision in the case.
Over the past 35 years, tree mortality risk in Australia’s tropical regions has doubled, according to new research. Such mortality would radically reduce biodiversity as well as carbon residency time, a threat faced by tropical rain forests around the world. “Moist tropical forests are some of the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on the planet,” said lead author 
WorkSafeBC announced today that the preliminary average base rate for 2023 will remain unchanged at 1.55 per cent of employers’ assessable payroll. This will be the sixth year in a row that the average base rate has remained at this level, consistent with WorkSafeBC’s goal of keeping rates stable. Annual base premium rates are driven by provincial injury rates, return-to-work performance and the resulting cost of claims, as well as investment performance relative to required rates of return. Each year, the costs in some industries go up, some go down and others stay the same. In 2023, 50 per cent of employers in B.C. are projected to experience a decrease in their industry base rate, 37 per cent will see their industry base rate increase, and 13 per cent will see no change. …The Workers Compensation Act requires WorkSafeBC to set premium rates annually for employers in order to pay for the workers’ compensation system.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Crews are battling a wildfire that has shut down part of Yosemite National Park and the Sierra National Forest, caused road closures, and prompted evacuations. The Washburn Fire started spreading near the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and has burned 4,700 acres with 27% containment as of Friday morning. It has now crossed over into the Sierra National Forest, prompting more road closures. That includes Forest Routes 5S43, 5S06 (Mt. Raymond Rd.), 5S22 and 5S37. The forest service says the closures will help firefighters get resources to and from the fire and also keep the public safe. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but during a community meeting on Monday night, Yosemite’s park superintendent said it appears to have been started by humans. Concerns are growing as more than 1,500 firefighting personnel are currently working, having been called in from across California.
BEMPOSTA, Portugal — More than 3,000 firefighters battled Thursday alongside ordinary Portuguese citizens desperate to save their homes from several wildfires that raged across the European country, fanned by extreme temperatures and drought conditions linked to climate change. Central Portugal has been particularly hard hit by a spate of blazes this week. In the village of Bemposta, residents used garden hoses to spray their lawns and roofs in hopes they could save them from the raging wall of red flames that approached through the wooden hills late Wednesday. …Temperatures in the interior of the Atlantic country were forecast to hit 44 C (111 F) as hot, dry air blown in from Africa lingers over the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula. In June, 96% of Portugal was classified as being in either in “extreme” or “severe” drought. The hot air and parched ground, combined with strong winds, has created the perfect cocktail for severe wildfires.