More than a thousand people from northern Ontario signed a petition this summer to stop the spraying of glyphosate herbicides, according to environmental groups in Thunder Bay, Ont. Glyphosate herbicide is used by the forest industry to reduce the growth of plants that compete with trees grown for logging and is deemed safe by Health Canada. However, the International…
Alberta is trying different ways to capture value from stands impacted by mountain pine beetle in particular small stem lodgepole stands with over 50 percent mortality. These stands have been avoided by forest companies because of their low commercial value but it left untreated they could have significant impact on the health and production of…
A system installed in the University of New Brunswick’s woodlot in Fredericton to maintain water levels is expected to ease tensions between humans and beavers. The area has a long history of beaver-built structures impacting human-built ones with the flood waters that result from the construction of beaver dams. “This area has been a problem area for quite some time, for…
Canfor Corp.’s Canal Flats sawmill in the east Kootenays has become the latest casualty in the British Columbia forest industry’s struggle to balance its production against timber supplies that are shrinking since the mountain pine beetle infestation. Canfor, on Wednesday announced it will permanently cease operations at the mill Nov. 9 due to “a lack…
Timber harvesting in Enderby’s watershed could be moving ahead. Tolko Industries presented plans for logging in the Brash Creek area to Enderby council Tuesday. “They have new plans for the watershed and we wanted to hear what they are doing,” said Mayor Greg McCune. “They explained the whole process and how the government regulates them.”…
Dutch elm disease will claim more than 6,000 trees in Winnipeg this year, up significantly from the number of trees that were lost to the disease last year. “We’re all concerned,” said City of Winnipeg forester Martha Barwinsky. “That’s a lot of trees. We haven’t seen the 6,000 mark for about 10 or 12 years.”…
Frontier Centre for Public Policy has released Senior Fellow Elizabeth Nickson’s paper “The Failures of Forest Certification and the Implications for the Public Wealth of the Canadian North“. In this paper, Nickson posits that the forest certification movement not only had a devastating effect on the value of the forest industry, there is evidence it…
The Nova Scotia government has released information about the $700 million taxpayers invested in or have earmarked for 78 companies through the defunct Nova Scotia Jobs Fund. But confidentiality clauses or rules, agreed to by previous governments, makes it hard to determine which of those investments are paying off and which are not. Case in point:…
The chasm separating British Columbia’s political and aboriginal leaders could not have been defined more clearly as the second annual all-chiefs meeting got underway in Vancouver Wednesday. B.C.’s Minister for Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, John Rustad, opened the two day gathering by calling advances over the past decade “remarkable.” “You’re seeing our government’s response to…
Canfor Corp. announced Wednesday (September 9) that is is permanently closing its Canal Flats sawmill, laying off 65 workers and nine staff members. The mill’s last day is to be November 9. It’s the second time in less than a year that the small village of Canal Flats has been hit with layoffs. Canfor cut…