Montana’s forest industry faces an uncertain future as Roseburg and Pyramid mill closures have a ripple effect. In related news: finally some truth on Montana’s mill closures; Missoula’s long history of lumber mills; Drax responds to report of chipping old-growth for pellets; and a Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper mill fire injures two. Meanwhile: the New Zealand Forest Owners have a new president; and the latest from the Softwood Lumber Board.
In Forestry/Climate Change news: the world is said to be warming faster than expected; Alberta scientists focus on the health impacts of global warming; researchers in Canada and South Africa look to the forestry value chain to mitigate climate effects; Ontario’s firefighter incentive payment plan is panned; and a new study on the effects of past fire-suppression bias in the US.
Finally, Captain Kirk shares his dream for life after death — I want to be a tree.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Vancouver is ramping up its commitment to sustainable construction with a new set of incentives aimed at promoting mass timber buildings. These incentives, developed through collaboration with stakeholders, will be closely monitored and adjusted based on real-world feedback over the next two years. Among these benefits is a new rezoning incentive that will offer additional height and floor area for mass timber buildings in the following types of buildings: Buildings in areas that allow 8 to 11 storeys can qualify for two additional storeys; and Buildings in areas that allow 12 or more storeys can qualify for three additional storeys. A new incentive in the Zoning & Development By-law will see an increase in the permitted height for mass timber, along with additional support at the pre-application stage. Mass timber, a product of B.C.’s thriving industry, offers structural integrity with lower embodied emissions compared to concrete. 
Bodies and minds are just as affected by climate change as sea ice and forests, says University of Alberta scientist Sherilee Harper. “Climate change impacts everything we care about,” she said. “It’s not just an environmental issue.” That’s why Harper, along with 30 or so colleagues from disciplines as wide-ranging as economics and epidemiology, have banded together into what she calls Canada’s first university hub to shift the view of climate change from an environmental problem to a threat to human health. “The hub is about helping people see that every climate change decision is a health decision,” said Harper. …Wildfire smoke, which last summer gave Canada some of the worst air quality on the globe. …There are mental health impacts as well, from the acute stress suffered by those forced to flee by flames. …Such hubs already exist in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, Harper said.
…To an extent not widely appreciated, the world is now warming at a pace that scientists did not expect and, alarmingly, do not fully understand. At a Financial Times conference this month, Jim Skea, the chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said last year’s spike in temperatures was “quicker than we all anticipated”. “Ocean temperatures were just off the scale in terms of historic records and we still need to do more work to explain it.” …Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City warned that the… surprising heat revealed that “an unprecedented knowledge gap” had opened up for the first time since satellite data began to give scientists a real-time view of the climate system about 40 years ago. This gap may mean we have a shakier grasp of what lies ahead — which is worrying when it comes to forecasting drought and rainfall patterns. 
