Demand for lumber to remain strong in 2021, driven by a return of consumer purchasing power, millions of millennials entering the housing market and trade resumption with China. In other 2021 news: signs of a rebalance for biomass; Softwood Lumber Board to stay the course with demand generation; and maple syrup producers pan Quebec’s future lumber expansion plans.
In Forestry/Climate news: BC silviculture contractors lit up by Ottawa funding announcements; genetically engineered trees can help fight climate change; planting trees sounds nice but there are carbon downsides; and the area burned on US Forest Service lands in 2020 the highest in 110 years.
Finally, the Winter Solstice—Late dawn. Early sunset. Short day. Long night!
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
The upward trend in Canadian housing starts continued in November, when the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose 14.4% compared to October. Much of the growth stemmed from outside the single-detached segment, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Nationwide, starts tallied 246,033 in November, up from October’s 215,134. …CREA predicted that sustained growth in demand amid the gradual return of consumer purchasing power will lead to inventory shortages next year, especially in Ontario and Quebec. In turn, this will trigger an ever-intensifying cycle of price growth and market competition. …CREA is estimating an increase of 9.1% in the national average home price next year.
The dullness of these dun days of December has been lit up by a series of recent announcements out of Ottawa framing funding for our Federal Government’s 2-Billion Tree Commitment along with financial aid to the forestry sector for some of its safety costs due to the pandemic this year. The Fall Economic Statement 2020 included $3.16 billion over 10 years, starting in 2021-22, to plant 2 billion trees across our country as part of the Nature-based Climate Solutions strategy. That was followed by Natural Resource Minister Seamus O’Regan’s launch of his program to plant these trees on urban, rural, First Nations and private lands. It will be part of Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s overarching Healthy Environment and Healthy Economy plan. Minister O’Regan … intends to establish an advisory committee of experts on nature-based climate solutions.
…In Oregon, Washington and California, wildfires destroyed 14,689 homes this year, and 6.3 million acres of forests were burned. Surveying the damage, we shake our head and ask a simple question: Why couldn’t forest managers do a better job? That’s a simple question, but it has complex answers. … In the 21st century, forest managers are hogtied by politics, poorly written laws and environmental groups that use those laws to stop thinning and other types of projects. Left out of the mix are taxpayers. They — we — are the victims of a triple whammy. First, we get to run for our lives when our homes are threatened or destroyed by fires. Then we get to pay for firefighters. Then taxpayers pay to indemnify those who suffered losses. In California alone this year, those losses topped $2 billion. …That’s why it’s critically important that forest managers be allowed to do their jobs.
