RCMP’s Response Group denies all allegations of misconduct and collusion with BC resource extraction companies. In related news: an old growth update by four BC executives; Gary Mason says Save Old Growth campaign is a complete disaster; and Lawrie McFarlane says protesters are straining the social contract.
In other Business news: Grayden Smith is appointed Forest Minister in Ontario; Fort St. James First Nation signs deal with lumber companies; US Pulp & Paperworkers lobby Congress; Canfor modernizes its South Carolina plant; Sierra Pacific closes forestlands due to fire risk; and International Paper is featured on “How America Works”.
In Forest Product news: researches make headway with biomass-derived plastic substitutes; a 31-storey timber high-rise is proposed in Toronto; and a Victoria bylaw salvages demolition materials. On the Market front: the US housing market cools, as May sales jump prior to interest rate boost.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
COLUMBIA, South Carolina – Governor Henry McMaster and the S.C. Department of Commerce announced that Canfor Southern Pine, a leading producer of sustainable wood products, is investing $25 million to modernize its Hampton County facility. Founded in 1938, Canfor produces a variety of wood products and has a large footprint in South Carolina – including six facilities and a corporate office. With a focus on sustainability, Canfor wants to create a future as sustainable as the forests – with goals and targets that support people, the planet and communities. …The upgrades are expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
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Tanya Ball began her career as a social worker for the Kaska Dene First Nation. Now she runs a land guardian program, working to monitor and protect a vast stretch of the band’s northern British Columbia wilderness. …“Land guardians can help the land heal,” she said. “And the land can help the guardians heal.” Ball is at the forefront of the new way Canada protects its remaining healthy rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and plains. Crown governments would once rope off an area deemed particularly scenic or good for outdoor recreation and call it a park. No longer. “There’s no future when it comes to conservation where the federal government is involved (and) Indigenous people aren’t involved from the get-go,” said federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. “This traditional model is a thing of the past.” Conservation is now something Indigenous people lead instead of something done to them.:format(webp)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/tgam/6d18784d-53a9-484f-9164-e998d6ac64d9.JPG)
In the spring of 2020, a Quadra Island resident (the complainant) noticed that old trees had been harvested in woodlot licence W2031. The complainant believed that the woodlot licensee was not permitted to harvest old trees, therefore filed a complaint with the Compliance and Enforcement Branch (CEB) of the Ministry of Forests in the spring of 2021. CEB looked into the matter and found that the licensee had harvested the old trees legally. When the complainant learned this, he filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board on February 14, 2022, asserting that government enforcement was inappropriate. 
CORVALLIS, Ore. — For decades, researchers have known that fallen trees, logs and branches in water help fish survive. It turns out these things also benefit land-based creatures, from birds to bobcats, according to a recent study out of Oregon State University. …Ezmie Trevarrow worked on the project as an undergraduate researcher. She said 13 unmanned cameras set up along Rock Creek west of Corvallis showed just how active wildlife were around downed trees along the creek. …Altogether, 40 species were observed during the year in nearly 2000 videos. The most common activity observed was wildlife crossing the creek. “We have videos of cougars, a lot of bobcats. I have a black bear crossing a few times. I have a lot of videos of kingfishers smacking crayfish on logs,” said Trevarrow. …river restoration efforts …have included adding wood to the water… Now we know it’s good for land critters, too. 
WHITERIVER, Arizona — The 2002 fire dealt a near-fatal blow to the eastern Arizona tribe’s timber industry. In 2002, the Fort Apache Timber employed about 400 members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, sustainably harvesting ponderosa pine while maintaining habitat for the Mexican spotted owl and Apache trout. Running with two mills, the company’s annual income was about $30 million and was the tribe’s second-largest economic driver, earning national recognition as a model of tribal economic development. All that went up in smoke over three weeks in the summer of 2002…. the Rodeo-Chediski Fire. …Without the tall, straight trunks from the pines, the Fort Apache Timber Co.’s operations suffered a near-fatal blow. …And in the 20 years since the fire, the White Mountain tribe has worked to recover from the economic and cultural losses, rebuilding its forestry business and restoring the damaged watershed.
MEDFORD, Oregon — A new forest management plan from the Bureau of Land Management in Medford will help speed up proposed projects. But local activists fear the plan could hurt forests and endangered species. The Medford BLM district is planning to implement the first project using its revised forest management plan. The so-called Late Mungers project in the Applegate River Watershed would treat almost 7,500 acres of forest. BLM says the work would reduce fuel loads, thin overly dense forests and promote healthy habitats for the endangered northern spotted owl. But some members of the community, including Luke Ruediger, say the way BLM is moving forward with these projects cuts out opportunities for public comment. …Ruediger claims the plan is a guise for commercial logging in once-protected lands.
AUSTRALIA — …At the heart of this is greenophobia, the fear of things green, including environmentalists. It involves the blighted idea that people should be stopped from taking action to defend the environment, especially if it gets in the way of making money. …My foundation’s campaign to defend the takayna/Tarkine rainforest in north-west Tasmania has run up against the Chinese Communist party’s mining corporation MMG. …Tasmania’s laws match 