Canfor’s 2023 financial results included a fourth quarter loss of $117 million. In related news: Kruger invests to increase tissue production; Enviva gets extension on bond payment; and Interfor appoints Christina Sistrunk to its Board. In Mass Timber news: a new report says BC needs upskilling and rail upgrades to grow production; how to address builder’s risk; and featured projects from New York and Portland. Meanwhile: US multifamily starts to decline in 2024; single-family shows signs of stirring; and Canada holds interest rates at 5%.
In Forestry/Climate news: Biden is urged to move on old growth protection; Oregon’s state forester recommends habitat conservation plan; a BC First Nation is disheartened by Land Act reactions; cellulose nanocrystals an opportunity for Quebec’s forest industry; and Nature Canada says government GHG review must include logging emissions.
Finally, BC wildfire workers can now take the time to focus on their own mental health.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
The Bank of Canada held its benchmark interest rate at 5%, a move widely expected by economists even as the central bank makes progress on tamping down inflation. The decision marks the fifth consecutive time that the central bank has held its key rate at 5%. Inflation in January slowed more than economists expected, with prices rising 2.9% annually, within the Bank of Canada’s target range of between one and 3%. The central bank’s core measures of inflation also slowed in January, a sign that price pressures are easing. While progress has been made on slowing inflation, the central bank flagged in a statement released alongside its decision that “underlying inflationary pressures persist,” highlighting that measures of core inflation are still in the 3 to 3.5% range, and that the share of components in the CPI that are growing above 3% declined, but remains above the historical average.
VANCOUVER, BC — Canfor Pulp Products reported its 2023 and fourth quarter of 2023 results: Highlights include: operating loss of $15 million; net loss of $13 million; 20% increase in pulp production in the fourth quarter reflecting improved operating performance at both the Northwood and Intercontinental NBSK pulp mills; Persistent challenges associated with the availability of economic fibre in BC. …Commenting on the Company’s 2023 and fourth quarter of 2023 results, CPPI’s CEO, 
The flagging shares of America’s largest wood-pellet exporter got a lift Tuesday after Enviva said it had agreed to extend a forbearance agreement with creditors through March 11. The forbearance agreement that Enviva struck last month after missing a bond payment expired. Enviva’s shares, which reached nearly $90 in 2022, have traded for less than $1 this year. They rose by more than 30% today. Enviva is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, the Wall Street Journal has reported. In addition to the forbearance extension, Enviva told investors in a securities filing that they should no longer rely on its financial reports for the first three quarters of 2023, which it said would be restated. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]
You’re planning a building: you need financing, a design, a general contractor and, critically, insurance. But if you’re planning to use mass timber in your building in North America, you may have to employ different measures to secure both builder’s risk (also known as course of construction) insurance and occupancy insurance. Here are several steps building owners and developers can take to ensure they’re covered at the right price. 
The Department of Energy announced March 4 that it is making $90 million available to help states and localities adopt and implement building energy codes, which set energy efficiency standards for new buildings, additions and major renovations. This is the second tranche out of a total of $225 million designated by the 2021 infrastructure law for building energy code modernization. In July 2023, the DOE awarded the first $90 million to 27 projects nationwide, including workforce development programs and a national network to support state and local governments as they develop new codes. …Homes built with current energy codes are nearly 40% more efficient than those built just a few years ago, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. In the release, the DOE touts the benefits that updated energy codes promise for communities: lower utility bills, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved grid reliability. 
British Columbia’s ombudsperson Jay Chalke says a decades-old portion of the Transportation Act has holes big enough that a logging truck could drive through. Chalke says it’s “unjust” that a section in the act allows some roads on private property to be automatically considered public if government money is spent on maintenance, without the property owner’s knowledge or consent. A report highlights cases where an owner couldn’t stop logging trucks from using the road through her property, while another thought he was using a public road to get to his property, but when it was blocked the Transportation Ministry said it couldn’t help because the road was private. …property owners are not compensated …when public roads are created and there’s no easy way to determine a road’s ownership. Chalke’s report makes seven recommendations, including that the law be amended to prevent new roads under the act and that a public notice system be created.
In a mystical moment on the back corner of Nelson’s Silver King Campus, students in the Selkirk College Forest Technology Program were introduced to an ancient Grand Fir that will soon find its place on the BC Big Tree Registry. First identified as a rarity by local freelance writer Jayme Moye, the massive tree was co-nominated for the registry by instructor Mandy Croppo’s second-year class. …In the nomination package, they named the tree Grandalf the Fir in homage of the wizard Gandalf The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. .. the two-year Forest Technology Program is one of four original programs offered when Selkirk College first opened its doors in 1966. With almost six decades of graduates, program alumni can be found in every corner of the industry across British Columbia and the world.
More than 200 forest ecologists and top climate scientists, including Jim Hansen and Michael Mann, have written the Biden administration urging it to quickly move forward on the president’s commitment to protect old-growth and mature forests on federal lands. The scientists made an urgent plea for an immediate moratorium on logging federal forests with trees 100 years old or older, many of which remain vulnerable to logging and dozens of timber sales nationally. They also asked for the establishment of substantive federal management standards to protect those forests. Federally owned old-growth and mature forests play an outsized role in storing carbon, offering a vital hedge against escalating climate change. At stake are 112.8 million acres of old-growth and mature forest on federal lands, according to a 2023 U.S. Forest Service inventory. Less than a quarter of those forests are currently protected against logging.
This month, in the wake of intensive scrutiny from policymakers and civil society, two federal departments, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Energy and Natural Resources Canada, are launching a review of how the federal government accounts for GHG emissions from the forestry sector. …Unfortunately, the review is leaving one of the biggest issues — a biased approach to reporting emissions from industrial logging — off the table. …This unbalanced accounting for wildfires leads to the misleading portrayal of clearcut logging in Canada as carbon-neutral when, in fact, logging is a carbon polluter on the scale of the high-emitting agriculture and building sectors. …Instead, the review only addresses the question of what baseline should be used to assess progress in emissions reductions in the sector (2005 or a business-as-usual reference level). It ignores calls from the environment commissioner and others to also review the way Canada estimates and reports logging emissions.
More firefighters will learn how to develop and improve their mental-health resiliency through enhanced access to a psychological wellness training program. The BC Occupational Awareness Training online program, administered by the BC Municipal Safety Association and First Responder Health, will be offered to BC Wildfire Service staff and include more training about how to manage daily stress and anxiety. “Firefighters are there for us in the most trying times of our lives and it can take a toll on their own mental health,” said Jennifer Whiteside, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. “Because they are so used to helping others through high-stress situations, it can be challenging for some first responders to take the time to focus on their own mental health.” …Launched in spring 2023, the online program is available to all municipal firefighters throughout the province and all BC Wildfire Services staff.