The solution to Canada’s housing crisis can be found in the forest—so said Don Iveson at the COFI conference last week, but also Kapuskasing mayor David Plourde in Ontario. In related news: Premier Eby’s two-pronged fibre strategy for BC includes value-added manufacturing; Skeena Sawmill’s bankruptcy status remains unresolved; Oregon mill closures point to common challenges; and Sappi shifts the focus of its Maine paper mill.
In Forestry/Wildfire news: Canada shares outlook on wildfire season, as Senate committee is encouraged to study the growing challenge; Montana’s fire challenge includes a forest health crisis; and Arizona looks to get ahead with prescribed burns. Meanwhile: mass timber showcases from British Columbia; Paris; Brussels, and Sweden.
Finally, Friday’s slideshow from COFI and a new postage stamp for endangered frogs.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Jan Dell, a former chemical engineer, has spent years telling an inconvenient truth about plastics. “So many people, they see the recyclable label, and they put it in the recycle bin,” she said. “But the vast majority of plastics are not recycled.” …Only 5 to 6 percent of it is actually recycled, according to the Department of Energy. The rest ends up in landfills or is burned. …Davis Allen, with the Center for Climate Integrity, said the industry didn’t need for recycling to work: “They needed people to believe that it was working,” he said. …A new report, called “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling,” accuses the plastics industry of misleading the public about the viability of plastic recycling,” despite knowing the “technical and economic limitations”. …The American Chemistry Council called the report “flawed” and “outdated,” and says “plastic makers are working hard to change the way that plastics are made and recycled.”
Constructing a hybrid mass timber high-rise is now nearly as cost-effective as constructing a comparable concrete tower, states a study co-authored by PCL Construction, DCI Engineers, and Weber Thompson. The Hybrid Tall Timber: Mass Timber Residential High-Rise Study highlights the potential of mass timber to expand residential space in densely populated urban areas. The study suggests that mass timber construction could pave way for developing more buildings in the intermediate tower height range. Intermediate high-rise towers are said to be often not built to their full potential due to cost and code constraints. The study indicates that mass timber, a renewable material made from fast-growing lumber, could be more economical under certain conditions.
Five years after a devastating fire at the iconic Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, video shows the progress of renovation work. The 850-year-old Gothic building’s spire and roof collapsed in April 2019 but the main structure, including the two bell towers, was saved.
A forest fire that started in abnormally hot temperatures has burned through through more than 500 hectares of land in eastern Spain and forced 180 people to flee their homes, officials said Monday. The fire began on Sunday near Tarbena in the Valencia region as temperatures reached 30 degrees Celcius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), which is unusually high for the season. Heat, wind and low humidity fuelled the blaze which media reports said may have started with an agricultural fire. …Eight air units battled the blaze alongside firefighters and troops from the UME military emergency unit which is called in to help with larger fires. According to the AEMET national weather service, temperatures rose above 30C in more than 65 areas across Spain on Saturday, including places as far north as the Pyrenees, Galicia and the Castilla y Leon region.