Transportation and infrastructure difficulties are hobbling Canada’s forest products industry, according to the American Journal of Transportation. In other Business news: Kamloops mayor approves of Kruger mill purchase; Mercer plans upgrades to CLT plant; the EU paper industry pushes back on Environment Committee’s proposed policy on biomass burning; a new connection system improves mass timber’s fire performance; and researchers want to build a Category 6 hurricane simulator in Miami.
In Forestry/Climate news: Canada releases report on forests and climate mitigation; Vermont foresters hope to assist forest migration; climate change could result in a net expansion of global forests; and most world-wide forest loss is due to expanding agriculture land.
Finally, Harry Gairns, a BC forestry pioneer, leader and mentor, dies at age 90.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Canada’s forest products industry has been having a hard time of late sending and receiving shipments and keeping up with production schedules. Extreme weather has played a part, but industry officials also complain that a fragile and under-performing transportation system is not serving the industry well. Part of the forest industry’s problems stem from global supply-chain issues which have had ripple effects across many transportation sectors, including the rail services that the industry relies upon to receive its raw materials and carry its products. …An extreme scarcity of available industrial real estate is also hampering forest products shippers. “Bottlenecks in key corridors are repeatedly slowing our supply chain down and hurting our global competitiveness,” said Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada. …The BC Lower Mainland is dealing with an extreme shortage of available industrial land, noted Robin Silvester, president and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.
Widespread acceptance of Mass Timber Construction has been hindered in the past by the spectre of fire. Now, a breakthrough MTC connection configuration developed and tested at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario may provide a welcome level of assurance. Professor Sam Salem, chair of Lakehead University’s Department of Civil Engineering, and graduate student Cory Hubbard were recently granted Canadian patent protection. …The system is currently patent pending in the US. …Salem and Hubbard’s investigation centred on the use of embedded rods rather than plates for column and beam connections. Specifically, the new configuration utilizes two fully concealed, mechanically fastened steel rods embedded inside the glulam beam sections. Being completely concealed inside the wood section and not exposed to fire timber has the advantage of offering superior fire performance compared to other connection systems.
Inside you will meet the entire FSC Canada team, discover how we are supporting the implementation and measurement of our National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS), carbon research updates, learn of the training initiatives related to woodland caribou and Free, Prior and Informed consent, and of FSC’s continued efforts to build brand awareness, increase market uptake and certification to help achieve our goal of certifying 100 million hectares of Canadian forest by 2030. Together we can ensure forests for all, forever.
Smoke was not the only thing that polluted the sky when several wildfires burned in the West Kootenay last summer. Noise pollution from helicopters was also a problem and — along with several complaints from regional district residents — the board of the Regional District of Central Kootenay has petitioned federal MP’s with a plan. RDCK board chair Aimee Watson has written a letter to South Okanagan-West Kootenay MP Richard Cannings (NDP), Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison (Conservatives) and Transport Canada about helicopter noise pollution in the regional district. The concern over the noise of helicopters — working in the region for heli-logging — was district-wide, Watson noted in her letter. …“Of particular concern is the ability for heli-logging operations to operate outside daytime hours and over built up areas.”
VICTORIA – The Cheakamus Community Forest Limited Partnership (CCF) has met almost all requirements of the provincial Forest and Range Practices Act, the Wildfire Act and related land-use orders, with the exception of a requirement to address fire hazards following logging activity. In one cutblock with two piles of logging debris … the CCF did not meet the requirements of the Wildfire Act to dispose of the piles to reduce wildfire hazards. Eight additional slash piles were also not disposed of but were located within the boundaries of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, where municipal bylaws supersede some sections of the Wildfire Act. However, Whistler’s bylaws do not include a requirement to address debris left after industrial activities. “Leaving this slash created a significant wildfire risk,” said Kevin Kriese, chair of the Forest Practices Board. …Adding, “the board is recommending the municipality update its bylaws to create a requirement equivalent to the Wildfire Act.”
Wildlife advocates are suing the U.S. Forest Service to stop another logging project in core grizzly bear habitat of the Kootenai National Forest. On Tuesday, wildlife organizations sued the U.S. Forest Service and the Kootenai National Forest in Missoula federal court over the lack of grizzly bear habitat analysis in the decision to okay the 
All around the Arctic Circle, trees are invading as the climate warms. …At lower latitudes, some warmer, arid regions are also seeing an uptick in trees, in part because increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are enabling plants to use water more efficiently and thrive in drier soils. And the fertilizing effects of CO2 are enabling existing forests to add more leaves and wood, increasing their biomass. It’s a startlingly different picture from what is unfolding in the tropics, where hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest are lost each year to chainsaws and fire, and climate change is stressing the remaining trees. But those tropical losses could be more than offset by gains elsewhere, some studies predict. …That might seem like surprisingly good news for curbing global warming. Forests often have a cooling effect. …But the calculus of forests’ climate effects is far from straightforward.
Metro Vancouver wants 40 per cent of the region’s urban areas to be shaded by trees by 2050, a target the regional authority called “ambitious but achievable.” That represents an increase from the current tree canopy, which currently averages 32 per cent, according to the Metro Vancouver Regional District board. “Protecting, restoring and enhancing nature and ecosystems maximizes their ability to provide climate resiliency benefits to the region,” the authors wrote. …In Vancouver, tree canopy decreased to 18 per cent in 2014 before increasing to its current level of 23 per cent, a large part of which involved planting more than 150,000 trees between 2010 and 2020. The current goal is to reach 30 per cent tree canopy by 2050.
OTTAWA, ON
As ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) becomes a hotter topic in both the global finance sector and the world of consumer brands, several major brands like Apple and Microsoft have announced ambitious goals to cut corporate carbon emissions alongside pioneering legislation that has already passed in several parts of the world to regulate carbon emissions. ESG in practice is about much more than just optics and good PR; it’s important for an organization not only to walk the walk, but to also talk the talk. Corporations must articulate their ESG strategy as part of their license to operate, maintain their reputations with the public, and nurture relationships with consumers in order access capital markets. …We believe carbon is the lightning rod, as it will likely be the key to any environmental scorecard moving forward.
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee this week made strong, but nonbinding, recommendations to put a brake on the EU’s total commitment to burning forest biomass to produce energy. While environmentalists cautiously hailed the decision, the forestry industry condemned it. A key recommendation urges that primary woody biomass (that made from whole trees) to produce energy and heat no longer receive government subsidies under the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED). Another recommendation called for primary woody biomass to no longer be counted toward EU member states’ renewable energy targets. Currently, biomass accounts for 60% of the EU’s renewable energy portfolio, far more than zero-carbon wind and solar. The Environment Committee recommendations mark the first time any part of the EU government has questioned the aggressive use of biomass by the EU to meet its Paris Agreement goals. A final decision by the EU on its biomass burning policies is expected in September as part of its revised Renewable Energy Directive.
The European Parliament’s ENVI Committee voted earlier this week on a series of key proposals that aims to cut the EU’s CO2 emissions by 55% until 2030. While Cepi says that the votes offer some positive provisions in principle, the organisation warns that paradoxical legal positions regarding carbon capture and biomass could undermine the pulp and paper industry’s decarbonisation initiatives and bioeconomy development. According to Cepi, the first vote… proposed that the use of forests as carbon sinks should support, rather than replace, other efforts to reduce fossil emissions. …Cepi considers this a “balanced approach”. However, another vote included an amendment to increase the target amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere by forests… which will “negatively affect the development of renewable and sustainable forest products” if a greater number of forests are ringfenced for carbon offsetting. …Cepi says that supporting the development of a European circular bioeconomy should be a priority for the EU.