Summers in Winnipeg in 2080 will be as hot and dry as they are today in the Texas Panhandle if worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions continue unabated, according to the first detailed climate-change projections conducted for the Canadian Prairies. If atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the current rate, Winnipeg in 2080 would experience daily highs of 30 C or more about 46…
In the fight against climate change, forests play a critical role — drawing more greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere than they emit. But when they burn, much of those stored gases are released back into the atmosphere. So far, the fires in Fort McMurray have released the equivalent of roughly five per cent of…
The multi-billion-dollar oilsands facilities around Fort McMurray weren’t the only large industrial operations at risk when wildfires tore through the region over the past week. Alberta’s $4 billion forest products industry also felt the heat, quite literally. Two industry players in particular — Fort McMurray-based Northland Forest Products, a big sawmill operator, and Boyle-based Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, one of Canada’s top pulp producers— suffered unspecified losses to…
There was an embarrassing moment at the beginning of PwC’s annual Global Forest, Paper and Packaging Industry Conference in Vancouver May 4 when guest speaker Michael Walton, Google’s (Nasdaq:GOOG) head of manufacturing, asked if anyone in the room could share an innovation his or her company had implemented that was a game-changer. Not a single…
The blackened landscape around Fort McMurray is far from a dead zone, despite a wildfire that has reduced more than 229,000 of hectares of boreal forest to cinders and ashes. Amid the charred skeletons of spruce and still smouldering muskeg, Alberta’s fire-loving insects are on the move. “Its really spooky if you ever go to a burn after it’s…
The city is preparing for another bug invasion. Winnipeg’s Urban Forestry Branch is conducting an inventory of Ash trees on private property in hopes of helping to prepare the city for the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle. “The Emerald Ash Borer is a destructive invasive pest that feeds on and kills all Ash…
Members of a Western Forest Products advisory group believe their meetings are dysfunctional and a waste of time, according to an internal review conducted by the forestry company. Amy Spencer, director of communications and government relations for Western Forest Products, said a review of the Mid Island Forestry Lands Advisory Group revealed a degree of…
There were two new fires confirmed in the Northwest Region by the evening of May 11. Thunder Bay Fire Number 14 is under control at 1.0 hectare and is located near Kajander Lake. Thunder Bay Fire Number 15 is not under control at 5 hectares in size. One fire of note is Kenora 018, in…
The provincial government has green-lit a logging project it hopes can strike a balance between appeasing the needs of industry and respecting the territorial rights of the Waswanipi Cree. Last week, the Liberal government authorized the construction of two logging roads that cut deep into Cree territory but imposed a number of environmental safeguards on them. The…
An audit of Community Forest Agreement CFA K1D has found that, while the Fort St. James Community Forest Corporation met many of the requirements of provincial forestry legislation, it also had some problems with operational planning, culvert construction, bridge construction and fire hazard assessments, according to a report released today. “While the auditors found a…