Daily News for May 17, 2021

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Today’s Takeaway

US trade chief pressured to lift duties on Canadian lumber

May 17, 2021
Category: Today's Takeaway

US Trade Representative Tai is under pressure from lawmakers & home builders to cut tariffs on lumber. In related news: most economists think the lumber price hike is a temporary quirk; few new sawmills are coming despite boom; BC supply constraints collide with insatiable demand; and surging prices beget forest poachers and work-site thieves, while some contractors opt for wood alternatives.

In Forestry news: FPAC pleads with feds to avoid government duplication; Ontario’s new environmental assessment rules head to court; ENGO’s say its a garage sale for the last of BC’s old-growth, BC First Nation tells Victoria to stay out of its business; and lessons learned from the Great Bear Rainforest initiative. Meanwhile, the USDA gears up for ‘dangerous‘ wildfire year, and fire season arrives in BC, Ontario and Oregon.

Finally, Rolling Stones’ Chuck Leavell celebrates Structurlam’s expansion to Arkansas.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

Should Joe Biden worry about soaring lumber prices?

By Alex Seitz-Wald and Jonathan Allen
NBC News
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — If a tree falls in a Canadian forest and a logger has to drive 16 hours to haul it out, does it crush the U.S. president’s economic agenda? That improbable question may be on the minds of some in Washington as skyrocketing prices of lumber… have emerged as troubling signs for the post-pandemic economic boom. Consumer demand is shooting up as some Covid-19 restrictions fall. But the supply chain has had trouble keeping up, pushing prices higher and leading to shortages. …Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she would make lumber prices a top priority. Builders and others want Biden to eliminate Trump’s tariff on Canadian wood. …For now, most economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, think the price hikes are just temporary quirks of the economy’s getting its idled engines back into gear. Like the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, they hope it will come and go without really signifying anything greater. 

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Despite Lumber Boom, Few New Sawmills Coming

By Ryan Dezember
The Wall Street Journal
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

North America’s sawmills can’t keep up with demand, which has sent wood prices on a meteoric rise. Don’t expect new mills to start popping up though. Executives in the cyclical business of sawing logs into lumber said they… aren’t racing out to build new mills, which can cost hundreds of millions dollars and take two years to build. In doing so they are breaking with conventional wisdom in the commodities business, which states that the cure for high prices is high prices. …Mill companies including Weyerhaeuser and West Fraser have set nine-figure budgets to boost efficiency and output at their existing mills, particularly in the South where there is a glut of cheap pine timber. Some forest-products executives said they are considering acquisitions. But there aren’t many new mills on the drawing board. …US lumber-making capacity has risen about 11% over the past five years, according to FEA. [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a subscription]

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U.S. trade chief pressured to lift duties on Canadian lumber

By Jarrett Renshaw and David Lawder
CTV News
May 16, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — As U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai prepares to meet her Canadian and Mexican counterparts on Monday to review progress in the new North American trade agreement, she is under pressure from home builders and lawmakers to cut U.S. tariffs on Canadian lumber. …Republican lawmakers have taken up the builders’ cause, asking Tai during hearings in Congress last week to eliminate the 9% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber imports. …On Friday, White House economic adviser Cecilia Rouse said the Biden administration was weighing concerns about commodity shortages. Tai said she would bring up the lumber issue with Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng. …But Tai told U.S. senators that despite higher prices, the fundamental dispute remains. …”In order to have an agreement and in order to have a negotiation, you need to have a partner. And thus far, the Canadians have not expressed interest in engaging,” Tai said.

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Surging lumber prices turn wood into a hot commodity for homebuilders and thieves

By Min Dhariwal
CBC News
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Between high demand, all-time high prices and high interest from thieves, plain old lumber has emerged as the hottest commodity of this year’s home, deck and fence construction season. “In the last year we were buying the same product for $10, $11 a sheet, now we’re paying in the neighbourhood of $90 a sheet,” said Garth Babcock, a construction manager for Akash Homes, which builds close to 250 homes each year in Alberta. …Akash Homes has been hit at several job sites this spring, causing losses of around $100,000. After dark, thieves use on-site machinery to load the massive bundles of wood onto their own trailers, saud Babcock adding, “they’re hot-wiring zoom booms on sites, taking product from maybe two or three builders in the same neighbourhood”. …Babcock says, “supplies are short, and we’re getting told in the future, not too far down the road we may not get as much wood as we need”.

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Lumber mania: How supply constraints in BC are colliding with insatiable demand in the US to push lumber prices through the roof

By Brent Jang
Globe and Mail
May 14, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Russ Permann [at Taiga Building Products] has watched lumber prices soar so high that even a small pile of softwood is now viewed as a precious commodity. …The psychology behind lumber markets has changed dramatically over the past year, catching the industry by surprise, from producers and wholesalers to retailers and home builders.  …“B.C. used to be an engine that you could turn up in times like this, but we don’t have that option anymore,” Mr. Permann said. …The causes of today’s lumber mania have their roots in the devastating impact of mountain pine beetles… further depleted supplies of wood fibre. …Susan Yurkovich, CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries… “We can’t just immediately put on sawmill production because we don’t have the fibre to jack up our production.” …Ric Slaco, who retired in February as chief forester of Interfor Corp., said that after witnessing many commodity cycles during more than 41 years in the forestry sector, even he is shocked by today’s imbalance between demand and supply. [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a subscription]

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Contractors Change Approach Amid Lumber Prices

By Robert Lothian
91.9 The Bend
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONCTON, New Brunswick — The increasing price of treated lumber and growing concern over the supply is causing some contractors to re-evaluate their business approach. For Martin Poirier, the Owner of Spartan Decks, it has meant avoiding the traditional materials and opting to build composite decking. The third-year business owner believes composite provides many pros compared to its expensive counterpart. Poirier says that composite is more attainable from a contractor’s point of view and also requires less upkeep for residents and comes at a lower cost. …Poirier says last year he sold about 36 decks made out of composite, compared to just four residents that chose to stick with a wood deck.

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As prices skyrocket, lumber and building supply companies expanding in central Maine

By Greg Levinsky
Central Maine
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Waterville-based Ware-Butler Building Supply and its parent company, Pleasant River Lumber Co., are growing after various recent transactions. It’s no secret as to why, seeing lumber prices have skyrocketed nearly 250%. …A $6 million, two-phase investment in their Jackman facility is one of the highlights among major investments the company is making across Maine over the next few years. “Our company has mills, trucking and logging and then we’ve got the retail side we’re growing very quickly,” Pleasant River Lumber co-founder Jason Brochu said. “On the mill side, we always have an investment mentality and the timing of the investments have to do with the markets.” …Investing in the mills raises the company to compete at a global level, according to its co-founder.

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ST Paper moves ahead with plans to acquire, convert Duluth’s former Verso mill

By Peter Passi
The Duluth News Tribune
May 14, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

DULUTH, Minnesota — ST Paper announced Friday it will purchase Verso Corp.’s idled Duluth mill and convert it to produce tissue, instead of the supercalendered paper the plant has manufactured in the past. …The converted plant is expected to employ at least 80 people on a full-time basis. …Verso cited weakened demand for supercalendered paper — a type of stock often used for advertising circulars — in its decision to halt production both in Duluth and at another mill in Wisconsin Rapids. …Sharad Tae of ST Paper… “Our tissue-manufacturing business has been expanding for the last 15 years… we hope to refurbish the existing machines in Duluth in two years’ time.” Bill Broydrick, a spokesman for ST Paper, said it will likely take about 18 months to ship and install the equipment needed for the conversion of the Duluth mill.

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Demand for lumber soars in Germany, and so do prices

Deutsche Welle
May 17, 2021
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The coronavirus crisis has hit many sectors of the economy in Germany, but the lumber industry certainly isn’t one of them. …Andreas Melzer runs a sawmill in Rüdersdorf just outside Berlin. …There’s never been so much unprocessed wood around in Germany, he says. …”The vast scope of logging last year can at least partly be attributed to the need to remove so many more trees damaged by storms or infested by bark beetles,” Holger Weimar from the Thünen Institute of International Forestry and Forest Economics. …So where is all that timber going? For the moment, quite a bit of it is going nowhere. Huge wood stacks are piling up in forests across the country as they wait their turn to be processed at a sawmill. …”In the US, building activities already went up tangibly last spring, but wood-processing capacities are limited,” Weimar elaborated.

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Finance & Economics

Timber? Why investors looking to get in on the lumber boom may be late to the party

By Stephanie Hughes
The Financial Post
May 17, 2021
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

A surge in demand for wood brought on by the pandemic housing boom has sent lumber prices to all-time highs this year, but investors looking to build on significant run-ups in forestry stocks may have a harder time going forward, according to at least one analyst. …The unprecedented surge… has also led to spectacular gains for companies in the lumber and forestry sector, with West Fraser, Canfor, Interfor, Western Forest, Conifex and Goodfellow, all seeing their share prices more than double over the past year. …This week, however, forestry sector shares pulled back from their recent highs, a breather that Cole Kachur, at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth, said was “probably a good thing.” …“If the commodity prices stay strong, there’s no reason that they can’t continue to have upward growth,” he said. “I just don’t think you’re going to see it in the same levels.”

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Pace of Canadian housing starts slowed in April, remain elevated

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation
May 17, 2021
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada

OTTAWA — The trend in housing starts was 279,055 units in April 2021, up from 272,164 units in March 2021, according to CMHC. This trend measure is a six-month moving average. “The national trend in housing starts remained elevated in April, despite a decline in the level of monthly SAAR starts from the record high set in March,” said Bob Dugan, CMHC’s chief economist. “In April, multi-family SAAR starts declined or moderated in most CMAs that had seen strong growth in this segment the previous month…. Nonetheless, the overall trend-level of activity remains elevated as a result of strong activity so far this year.” …The standalone monthly SAAR of housing starts for all areas in Canada was 268,631 units in April, a decrease of 19.8% from 334,759 units in March.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Rolling Stones keyboardist highlights Arkansas forestry in TV special

By Jeane Franseen
KATV
May 14, 2021
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

LITTLE ROCK — If you’re a Rolling Stones fan, the name Chuck Leavell probably rings a bell. The keyboardist for the legendary rock band visited a laminated timber manufacturing plant Friday in Conway to film for a TV show. Leavell decided a while back to combine two of his passions, music and trees. He created a special series for PBS called “America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell.” The episodes highlight sustainable forestry throughout the U.S. Leavell’s trip to Arkansas will be used in the show’s eighth episode. It focuses on the inside operations of Arkansas forestry. …Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and State Forester Joe Fox joined Leavell as he toured the plant. Fox is also the president of the National Association of State Foresters. [Video with story adds additional content].

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Ashland looks to generate investment around new forest industry product

By Maureen Milliken
MaineBiz
May 14, 2021
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The town of Ashland is launching a development program, Original Mass Timber Maine, that aims to build markets for structural round timber, a low-cost and carbon-friendly building product that is a perfect fit for the state’s forest industry, those behind the initative say. The three-year project, funded by a grant to the town from the Northern Forest Center and Forest Opportunity Roadmap coalition, is aimed at generating a sales pipeline for the Ashland area based on the timber product. Structural round timber products are up to 50% stronger than milled lumber, and are used for columns, beams, trusses and other structrual features. The product is cheaper to produce than other engineered wood products, like cross-laminated timber, officials said at a news conference Thursday. It also sequesters carbon at a higher rate that other wood projects, and makes use of timber that may not be suitable for milled lumber.

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How Clemson helped innovate the S.C. wood industry and influence design

By Clemson University
The Times and Democrat
May 16, 2021
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

When the South Carolina forest products industry desired to grow their timber on longer rotations, they needed a new market for their wood. …many private landowners wanted to sell their timber to live on in buildings, having useful, protected existences. In 2011, the South Carolina forest products industry asked Clemson University to help expand its market. This was the beginning of how the Andy Quattlebaum Outdoor Education Center came into existence, transforming an industry. Patricia Layton (director of Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute) … invited WoodWorks, the American Wood Council and a few others to meet with her, Gerald Vander Mey, director of University Planning and Design, and John McIntyre, a capital engineer, to talk about using mass timber and new, engineered wood materials. [Today] it stands as an example of mass timber construction, inspiring mass timber use in other buildings — several in South Carolina alone.

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Forestry

Here’s a path to protecting old growth and revitalizing economies

By Christine Smith-Marin, executive director of Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative
Vancouver Sun
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Christine Smith-Martin

In the Great Bear Rainforest, agreements between First Nations and the provincial government to protect and steward ecosystems have made Coastal First Nations the biggest seller of forest-based carbon offsets in Canada. As the “War in the Woods” heats up again in British Columbia, it’s the same old story: Loggers and government versus environmentalists, jobs versus trees… It’s true that only a small fraction of original old-growth forest remains in many areas of B.C. …This isn’t uncommon knowledge; it’s understood by all those in decision-making positions… The problem is that creating a new conservation-based economy is complicated and difficult, and in the short term a desire to maintain existing jobs and profits often wins out. …With the right mix of supporting government policy, a more community-based approach to commercial forestry, wood processing and manufacturing can maintain livelihoods while protecting old-growth and sensitive wildlife habitats and salmon streams.

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Forest industry needs a shake up

Letter by Dennis Perry
Pique News Magazine
May 16, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The fight to change the way B.C. manages its forests has been going on for a long time but you would not know it from the action on the ground. …I am writing to elaborate on the point Hammond makes in the Pique article “The forest for the trees, and that is what I would call the futility of forestry education and research in this province. …B.C.’s highest centre of learning, UBC’s Faculty of Forestry, should be leading the way with respect to researching, developing and promoting the highest level of science-based forestry practices in B.C. However, there is little evidence of this being enacted upon. …Why is it that in public discussion on the state of our forests and best practices the UBC Faculty of Forestry is never mentioned? …If the Faculty of Forestry is truly irrelevant then the system needs a major shakeup. 

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Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers and Mosaic partner to build new trails

By Kevin Rothbauer
Lake Cowichan Gazette
May 17, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Molly Hudson

A partnership between the Cowichan Lake Trail Blazers Society and Mosaic Forest Management is aiming to provide new recreational trails for non-motorized use. Mosaic, the timberlands manager for TimberWest and Island Timberlands, is providing the Trail Blazers with access to more than 1,000 hectares of private forest land in the Cowichan Lake area on which to build the trails. “We are proud to see this partnership begin,” said Trail Blazers’ president Bob Day. “To be able to work with Mosaic to provide first-class biking and hiking opportunities make this an especially exciting opportunity for our club and the Cowichan Lake area.” …“The new trail plan on Mosaic-managed private forest land in the Cowichan Lake area will be a popular addition to the town and surrounding area, said Mosaic’s director of sustainability, Molly Hudson.

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Ominous wildfire outlook if June rains don’t return to Okanagan

Pentiction Western News
May 15, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A lack of rain in March and April leading to gradual snowmelt has minimized flooding concerns across the Okanagan Valley watershed, according to environment management officials. But the flip side of that minimal precipitation is the forests are dry, possibly creating a hectic summer ahead for BC Wildfire firefighting efforts. …Regional approaches to practical water management issues were the focus of several guest speakers at a Zoom forum hosted by the Okanagan Basin Water Board on Wednesday. …Dave Campbell, with the BC River Forecast Centre, said snowpack levels have been steadily declining monthly since January …Bob Warner, with BC Wildfire, said as of May 10, 177 wildfires had burned just over 2,000 hectares across the province. Warner said it’s still early to read anything into those numbers yet, citing that in historically high fire seasons in 2017 and 2018, there was virtually no fire activity in May for either of those years.

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Drought is on Metro Vancouver’s horizon — will fixing water scarcity cost too much?

By Stefan Labbé
Sunshine Coast Reporter
May 15, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Metro Vancouver has banked at least 60% of the region’s future water supply on the Coquitlam Reservoir. But as it moves to secure municipal water for the next half-century, the fate of an Indigenous community and the river they live on is at stake.  …Heidi Walsh is Metro Vancouver’s director of watershed and environmental management, she is responsible for making sure the surrounding forest stays alive and healthy, fulfilling its role as a massive filter for our tap water.  …in the mountains, the greatest risk to the region’s drinking water is fire. …Thirty years from now, a nearly $2.8-billion infrastructure project is slated to boost the water extracted from the Coquitlam Reservoir, so that, by 2040, at least 60 per cent of the Metro region will be drinking the lake’s water. …Long before the Coquitlam Reservoir was a source of Metro Vancouver’s drinking water, the Kwikwetlem First Nation was synonymous with the river.

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COVID Planting Season 2021 Now on Start-Up Tenterhooks

By John Betts
Western Forestry Contractors’ Association
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Planting crews in Alberta and British Columbia are now in the field, or just about to mobilize, as the spring seasonal reforestation campaign enters an interregnum between implementing pre-work preventative COVID measures and discovering if any virus has made it onto crews and into camps. Over 5000 workers in the two provinces are under heightened social distancing, cohort management, and COVID symptom monitoring protocols for at least two weeks. After that period crews in BC can expand their cohorts and resume more normal socializing provided they have remained virus-free and stay isolated from communities. Alberta is expected to allow similar relief to crews as talks between that province’s health authorities and the forest industry continue. …Northern Health had cause this week to close two companies operating jointly out of Quesnel when more than three workers tested positive for COVID. Read more for resource roads and new WorkSafeBC emergency response planning.

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NDP sidestepping old growth issue

Letter by Rob Mercereau
Prince George Citizen
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A new report by the Wilderness Committee shows the shocking truth behind the ‘talk and log’ status quo that John Horgan’s NDP denies, as they continually sidestep any discussion regarding the measures being taken to address their promise to entirely enact the Old Growth Panel’s recommendations.  The NDP’s current smoke and mirrors tactic seems to primarily be to reference confidentiality in ongoing meetings with Indigenous stakeholders (upon which many of the recommendations rightfully hinge), but the reality, according to a quote from forest ecologist Karen Price, is that some Indigenous Nations have shared deferral mapping with the government with the disheartening result that industry has targeted these sites for approval for logging.  …At best, the government has given vague form-letter-type responses to anybody with concerns, including referencing closed-door meetings with Indigenous Nations, and at worse, there is no response or a politicking rhetorical spiel.

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Pacheedaht tells CRD to stay out of its business

By Darron Kloster
Victoria Times Colonist
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Pacheedaht First Nation says the Capital Regional District should mind its own business when it comes to forest resources on their traditional territory.  A motion led by Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt and supported by other directors recommending the CRD call on the province to protect old-growth stands in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew didn’t get to a vote during Wednesday’s CRD board meeting.  …Isitt said Thursday he changed the wording after the CRD received a terse letter from the Pacheedaht saying it did not welcome the “unsolicited interference or involvement” from the region’s governing body. He will introduce the new motion at the next meeting. …In its letter, the Pacheedaht said the nation “strongly urges the CRD board to … show an appropriate level of respect to the sovereignty and wishes of our Nation, respect our desire for self-determination and act appropriately by rejecting the proposed motion.”

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‘A Garage Sale for the Last Old Growth’

By Zoë Yunker
The Tyee
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Brenda Sayers

Two summers ago, Brenda Sayers knelt atop what was left of British Columbia’s likely ninth widest Douglas fir tree. Sayers, a member of the Hupačasath First Nation, has long fought to protect old growth in her territory on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  “The old growth holds a lot of our history,” she said. “That tree must have been 800 years old.”  It had been felled in the Nahmint Valley by companies given the go-ahead by BC Timber Sales, the province’s own logging agency, and the largest tenure holder in the province.  On Wednesday, B.C.’s forestry watchdog found that BC Timber Sales erred when it allowed that tree and the forests surrounding it to be clearcut. …According to the BC Forest Practices Board report, “gaps” in BC Timber Sales’ planning “occurred over a long period of time and are creating real risks to ecosystems.”

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Poachers in forest reserve should be treated harshly

By Robert Barron
Cowichan Valley Citizen
May 15, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Criminals who are treating North Cowichan’s 5,000-hectare municipal forest reserve like their own personal piggy bank need to be rounded up and prosecuted as soon as possible.  The municipality and the local RCMP had recently been alerted to the fact that people have been in parts of the reserve illegally cutting down large and marketable red cedar and Douglas fir trees.  Although against the law, I suspect that it may be common practice for some people to take blown-down trees and other wood waste from the MFR for firewood and that’s to be expected, but what is happening now in the reserve is on a far greater scale and is an insult to all those in the community who have been trying so hard in recent years for North Cowichan to develop a more environmentally friendly way to manage it.

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Tree poaching from public forests increasing in B.C. as lumber hits record prices

By Dirk Meissner
The Canadian Press in the Daily Courier
May 15, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

VICTORIA – Big trees, small trees, dead trees, softwoods and hardwoods have all become valuable targets of tree poachers in British Columbia as timber prices hit record levels.  Forestry experts and officials say reports of people sneaking into public forests to illegally saw down firs, cedars and maples are rising. Recent prices for B.C. softwood lumber reached $1,600 for 1,000 board feet compared with about $300 a year ago.  “It’s an economic motive for sure,” said Matt Austin, a B.C. Forests Ministry assistant deputy minister. “These trees can be pretty valuable.”  While the trees may be lucrative on the black market for thieves, they play a more vital stewardship role in the forests, Austin said.  Government natural resource officers have investigated situations where the poachers have caused environmental damage by taking down large Douglas fir or red cedar trees near sensitive waterways, he said. 

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Ford government’s sweeping Bill 197 heads to court

By Emma McIntosh
National Observer
May 17, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Hearings will begin Monday for three court challenges of the Ontario government’s contentious rewrite of environmental assessment rules. The Ford government passed the omnibus Bill 197 last July without public consultation, despite a warning from Ontario’s auditor general that doing so could be “not compliant” with the law. The suits, launched by a group of First Nations and two separate coalitions of environmentalists last summer, will be heard at the same time this week. …Bill 197, which the Ford government said was aimed at kick-starting Ontario’s economic recovery from COVID-19, tweaked 20 different pieces of legislation, including the changes to environmental assessments. Critics said the changes to environmental assessments amounted to a significant rollback of environmental protections. …The government posted notices on the registry, but did not hold consultations about Bill 197 before passing it, writing a clause into the legislation that would retroactively exempt it from the requirement.

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Forestry Group Looking To Avoid Government Duplication

By Mike Ebbeling
CKDR 92.7 FM Dryden
May 16, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Derek Nighbor

The Forest Products Association of Canada says they have had a solid working relationship with both levels of senior government over the years. President and CEO Derek Nighbor says they would like to strengthen that partnership this year by addressing one key barrier. “Increasingly we’re seeing the federal government trying to get into regulatory duplication around water, and around conservation, and around carbon. So we’re really pleading with the federal government. Let’s work together with the provinces.” Nighbor adds, “It’s tough dealing with duplication, additional costs and uncertainty. But in a tough economy like this one, we really got to get the regulatory environment right. So let’s get away from the duplicate of stuff that’s adding uncertainty and costs onto business.” Nighbor says right now forest companies operating in northwestern Ontario primarily work on provincial lands and deal with the Ontario government on consultations and approvals. [END]

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Fire season begins Saturday for some parts of Oregon

By Monica Samayoa
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 15, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fire season has come a month early for some counties in Southern and Central Oregon, leading to preparations for what could be another major wildfire season. The Oregon Department of Forestry declared a Saturday start to fire season in Klamath and Lake counties. Earlier red flag warnings, warmer temperatures and lack of rain have set the state up for what could be the worst drought in decades. That has fire officials prepping counties earlier than usual for abnormally dry weather and severe conditions that could lead to wildfires. “Where we are at with fuel conditions, lack of spring rains, extreme and exceptional drought, and continuous fire activity in Klamath County, Lake County, and around the state, Klamath-Lake District will be declaring fire season on Saturday,” ODF Protection Unit Forester Randall Baley said in a statement.

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Forest Service pulls controversial logging project near Yellowstone

By Brett French
The Billings Gazette
May 14, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A logging project west of Yellowstone National Park in the Custer Gallatin National Forest has been halted. The forest’s staff was waiting for a biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding grizzly bears, lynx and whitebark pine, but that won’t come before the agency’s Revised Forest Plan is published. The delay was blamed on workload and staffing capacity issues at the USFWS. Consequently, the Forest Service will have to reconsider the entire South Plateau Area Landscape Treatment Project under the new plan’s guidelines. “We are disappointed that we are not able to move forward with the objection process and final decision at this time,” said Jason Brey, district ranger for Hebgen Lake. “This project continues being a priority for the forest, and we look forward to revising the (environmental analysis) and incorporating new direction that will be found in the Revised Forest Plan.”

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Sequim couple to ‘retire’ tree donation efforts

By Michael Dashiell
Peninsula Daily News
May 16, 2021
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Laurel Moulton, Bruce and Pam Busch

SEQUIM — A Sequim couple’s green-thumbed community contributions are coming to a close, but their legacy of giving can be found along riverbanks, floodplains and streams across the North Olympic Peninsula.  After more than a decade of harvesting, growing and donating thousands of potted seedlings of Douglas Fir, Cedar, Noble and Hemlock trees to the Lower Elwha Tribe for river restoration efforts, Bruce and Pam Busch are “retiring” their project this May.  The Busches are headed for warmer climes in Arizona this month. …The project began, Bruce recalled, when he was volunteering for a park system-funded nursery and heard about people doing stream restoration.  The Busches noticed a number of seedling cropping up on their quarter-acre property off Towne Road. …In 2021, the couple delivered more than 3,000 plants. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Rouge National Urban Park Home to First of Canada’s 2 Billion Trees

By Forests Ontario
Cision Newswire
May 17, 2021
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Brynn Sissons

TORONTO – Forests Ontario, with Parks Canada and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), is planting the first trees to take root under the federal government’s 2 Billion Trees program. These trees are a first step towards a national planting target of two billion trees over the next decade. The 26,000 new trees being planted in 2021 by Forests Ontario and partners will help restore riparian buffers and wetlands, improve habitat connectivity, fix carbon, and enrich agricultural soils in Rouge National Urban Park – the largest urban park of its kind in North America. …Forests Ontario is also planting an eight-kilometre-long windbreak along a section of the park’s trail network through the organization’s 50 Million Tree Program (50 MTP). …”Forests Ontario’s efforts at Rouge National Urban Park in Spring 2021 demonstrate the versatility of the 50 MTP and the types of planting it supports,” said Rob Keen, RPF and CEO of Forests Ontario.

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England to treble its tree planting rates

By Pippa Neill
The Environmental Journal
May 17, 2021
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

ENGLAND — The government plans to treble its tree-planting rates, but environmental campaigners warn that it is still not enough. Around 2,340 hectares of trees are planted each year, but in an announcement due to be made tomorrow the government is set to increase this to 7,000 hectares annually by the end of this parliament. The England Trees Action Plan is expected to set out how woodland cover will be increased with tree planting, the focus will be on planting native trees and encouraging natural regeneration. …George Eustice… ‘We are putting plans in place… reflecting England’s contribution to meeting the UK’s overall target of planting 30,000 hectares per year by the end of this Parliament.

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Forest Fires

Wildfire burning north of Prince Albert pulp mill

By Teena Monteleone
paNOW
May 15, 2021
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

Water bombers and helicopters could be seen tackling a wildfire burning north of Prince Albert by the pulp mill Saturday afternoon.  Buckland Fire and Rescue confirmed to paNOW that they had crews at the scene too, but details are still scarce, including how big the fire grew and what caused it. There were reports on social media that lightning had gone through the area.  Witnesses submitted video showing the flames picking up around 5 p.m. but by 8 p.m. the billowing smoke had settled. 

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Ontario Ministry of Resources and Forestry reports new fires amid high hazard

The Thunder Bay News Watch
May 16, 2021
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

DRYDEN, Ontario – Three new forest fires were reported in Northwestern Ontario Saturday, as Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry warned of high to extreme fire hazard in southern parts of the region. The largest fire in the Northwest remained Fort Frances 5, located just south of Sturgeon Falls First Nation. First reported May 12, it stood at 144 hectares on Sunday and was listed as “being held” by the MNRF. …The ministry warned wildland fire hazard was considered extreme in the Fort Frances-Rainy River region, and remained high through much of the Northwest, including Thunder Bay.

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