Thompson Rivers University has received a big grant towards creation of a chair position focussed on the future of our environment. The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia has granted $150,000 to the university in support of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) industrial research chair position. “This investment by the Real Estate…
Plans are well underway for the 2016 Interior Safety Conference. Building on the success of the Northern BC Forest Safety Conference, the forest industry is working to build a similar event in the BC’s Interior. This event is being held in partnership with the Interior Logging Association Conference which is being held on May 6…
The B.C. government has established 6,482 old growth management areas (OGMAs) under the Oil and Gas Activities Act, Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson has announced. The old growth management areas cover 186,198 hectares in 58 Landscape Units within the Sea to Sky Natural Resource District, the Sunshine Coast Natural Resource District…
Research scientists report that additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main culprit in the greenhouse effect, is stimulating forest growth at such a rate that carbon absorption is offsetting its release from beetle-killed B.C. forests. In fact, reports NASA, the entire planet has been “greening up.” That’s the good news. Now for the bad…
Canadians shouldn’t be naive. Our country rarely matters much at all to the United States when it comes to their political decision-making process. If we did, the Keystone XL pipeline would have been built, Country of Origin Labelling for livestock never would have happened and Americans would be paying for their own customs plaza in…
Sept. 18, 2006, is a day Mark Johnson will never forget. It was the day an attempt to save two minutes of time at work led to the loss of use of his left arm. Johnson was one of many workers across the province recognized during Day of Mourning ceremonies on Thursday. The annual Day…
Today marks the date Canadians remember those hurt or killed on the job. Wearing black armbands, employees of Merritt’s Tolko sawmill gathered outside their office around a half-mast United Steelworkers flag to recognize the National Day of Mourning. Across Canada, April 28 has been designated as a day that workers, families, employers and others come…
A fire that brought a wooden railway trestle bridge to the ground near Mayerthorpe is crippling for industry in the area, people in neighbouring communities say. Cornel Notenboom, president of ANC Transloading Inc., said the loss of the railway line will cause some delays. “This is a very large inconvenience for us,” Notenboom said. “We’re…
Last year, raging wildfires ripped through British Columbia, burning homes to the ground, causing nearly $300 million in damage, and in some cases, even death. More than 90 wildfires are currently active throughout the province, and Premier Christy Clark has warned that if scorching temperatures continue, this could be the worst wildfire season in three decades. In 2013, catastrophic floods launched…
“We may be the last generation to see any stands of healthy beech trees in our forests.” This was the dire prediction of Ernie Demuth, past president of the Bancroft Area Forest Industry Association (BAFIA), in his presentation to its annual meeting last week. Most people are familiar with Dutch Elm disease, which wiped out…