Louisiana Pacific announced strong earnings along with plans to restart its Peace Valley OSB mill in Fort St. John, BC. In related news: home construction in Canada’s suburbs fuelled a January housing-starts surge; US permits end 2020 on a strong note; while lumber prices defy the normal winter slowdown; and US builders seek gov’t support to ramp up lumber production. Meanwhile, BC’s Forest Professionals celebrate their 2021 award winners and FSC Canada endorses BC First Nations Forest Strategy.
In Forestry/Climate news: forests are carbon sinks and sources (World Economic Forum); our economic system needs to “value nature” (Trevor Hancock); creating the largest boreal protected region in the world (in Alberta); prescribed fires can save Arizona’s forests (Peter Aleshire); and to keep forests intact, and we must use them (Blake Hudson).
Finally, the hunt is on for centuries-old oaks to rebuild the spire of Notre Dame.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Vancouver, BC– The Forest Stewardship Council of Canada (FSC) has announced their full support of the BC First Nations Forest Strategy. “We applaud FSC for leading by example as the first forest certification system in British Columbia to align themselves with a Forest Strategy informed directly by Nations for over a decade,” tells Chief Bill Williams, President and Chair of the Board for the BC First Nations Forestry Council. Released in May 2019, the Forest Strategy was developed in collaboration with the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development to advance reconciliation and support the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It was fully endorsed by BC First Nations through resolutions passed by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, the First Nations Summit, and the BC Assembly of First Nations in 2019. 
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ARIZONA — The evidence continues to grow that vigorous use of prescribed fire — especially when combined with thinning projects — remains the only way to prevent sweeping changes in unhealthy, fire-prone forests throughout the west. Unfortunately, this year’s record-breaking drought forced the Forest Service to all but skip a season of controlled burns, since the fall never got wet or cool enough to allow a safe season of managed fires. However, a growing number of studies have underscored the need to embrace prescribed fires throughout the region — despite the short-term political and economic risks. …Not only can prescribed fires prevent the wholesale destruction of the region’s extensive ponderosa pine forests and the communities they surround — frequent, controlled, low-intensity fires can actually reduce the release of heat trapping carbon into the atmosphere. That finding could boost the quest to get more federal money to manage fires and thin forests.
Research demonstrates that demand for wood leads to increased forest area and productivity. Wood-based bioenergy supports markets that help protect our forests from conversion to other uses. …I grew up on forestland in the U.S. South and am a conservationist to the core. But those who assert that trees used for bioenergy simply “release carbon that would otherwise stay locked up in forests” misunderstand science, economics, history and the motivations of private property owners—and it may harm both our forests and our climate. …However, often lost in policy debates about … our forests is the key role of markets in reducing forest conversion… The positive impact of forest markets on climate change can be dramatic. …This is due to a fundamental principle … forest product markets cause forest landowners to make investments that increase forest area and forest productivity. …Only by sustainably using our forests will we be able to save them.
