The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday it will announce on April 25 whether it will impose the first of two duties on Canadian softwood. A spokesman for the department said any countervailing duties would be applied on imports about a week later. A decision on anti-dumping duties is expected to be released May 5, but…
Nearly a year after the massive wildfire that devastated Fort McMurray, a climate scientist says there may be more forest fires in Canada this summer. “If the forecast’s right that it’s a warmer than normal summer, we’ll probably have more fires,” says Mike Flannigan, a meteorologist and professor in the University of Alberta’s renewable resources…
Wandering through a Simcoe County forest surrounded by towering trees and thick leaf coverage, it’s hard to imagine 100 years ago the land could best be described as a barren desert. “If you went back 100 years in this area you would have very, very little forest cover. It’s surprising to people that there was…
anadian Biomass sat down with Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), to get his thoughts on the 2017 budget, which includes $1.8 billion to support clean technology. It’s going to take some work, Nighbor says, to put forestry biomass in a position to benefit from those dollars. Q: What’s your overall…
The province is tacking on an extra $10 million to the Forest Access Roads Funding Program. The money is a top-up to the $60 million announced by Queen’s Park in last spring’s budget for the program. A Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry news release said the money is earmarked for construction and maintaining forestry…
With Spray Lake Sawmill’s logging operations in the Ghost Valley coming to a close, residents invited Stephen Legault, from Yellowstone to Yukon, to speak to Ghost residents about the future of the land they fought hard to save from being clearcut. “We’ve all seen the ways in which clearcutting has affected our valley,” Sharon MacDonald…
Yukon’s Teslin Tlingit Council is getting a boost from the territorial government, receiving $150,000 as they work to convert ten community buildings to biomass heating. The First Nation is planning to use the money to assist with labour costs in converting the buildings, which currently run on propane and electrical heat, to a district heating…
The last uncut stand of Parry Sound pine, in Blair and Mowat townships south of the French River and straddling the Pickerel River, fell to the logger’s axe in the 1920s. It was a relatively young forest, and had so far been passed up due to the smallish size of the trees. Now, previous holders…
Changes to the building code in Nova Scotia will hopefully give a boost to sawmills, said a local operator. “Anything that uses more lumber is a positive thing for any sawmill,” said Eric Williams, a co-owner of Williams Brothers Ltd. in Barneys River. The province recently announced that it would align its building code with…
Anyone who read the most recent federal budget could be forgiven for thinking that the most important sector in Canada is clean tech. While there are opportunities to expand that sector, policy-makers would be wise to recognize that exports from natural resource industries like forestry are still the “lifeblood” of Canada’s economy, Jock Finlayson, chief…