The Department of Natural Resources has created a Forest Biodiversity Science Advisory Committee to enhance the management of Nova Scotia’s Crown-owned woodlands. The committee includes experts on forest science, biodiversity, ecological planning and spatial modelling. “I’d like to thank all the members of this committee for agreeing to take on this important work,” said Natural…
Building roads over swamps and muskegs has always been a challenge. Having them stand up to the weight of modern mining and forestry equipment has been even tougher. PRS-Neoweb, a geosynthetic polymer road base, aims to fill that gap by employing the strength of a honeycomb cell structure, coupled with a tough nano-engineered material. Using…
If the air feels just a bit fresher, it may be because the trees are making a comeback. Despite a lot of bad news on climate, our planet has become measurably greener, as seen from space. And that points to a way out of the climate crisis. A group of scholars at Australian, Chinese, Dutch…
Nova Scotia Power Inc.’s under-performing biomass plant in Point Tupper will save ratepayers more than $9 million in annual fuel costs, starting in 2016, because it is incapable of meeting its output targets. The plant is operating at about 70 per cent of its gross capacity of 63.8 megawatts. At its best, it can produce…
Alberta’s Liberal leader says the province needs to go after the former owner of a wood preserving plant to pay for the cleanup of lands west of Calgary’s downtown contaminated with nearly two million litres of toxic creosote. While taxpayers funded a $12.5 million containment wall that was constructed two decades ago to keep the carcinogenic liquid…
Firefighters have descended on a blaze in Green Timbers Urban Forest this morning. On Thursday morning, fire crews trucked water deep into the forest to douse a smoldering fire, which was about 60 by 120 metres in size. Water needed to be trucked into the area of the fire, which is about 250 metres south…
A woodcutter who works near Boundary Creek just off N.W.T.’s Highway 3 says he lost a year’s worth of work when a controlled burn went out of control. Kerry Smith says fire officials with Environment and Natural Resources were doing a back burn near his woodlot earlier this month to prevent a wildfire from spreading, but…
They’re unsightly and pesky, and have been known to induce a case of the heebie-jeebies. The elm spanworm has returned to the St. John’s area. Widespread outbreaks first started in the city in 2002, and since then, there have been several instances where the insect has infested large areas of the northeast Avalon. Councillor Jonathan Galgay told CBC Radio’s…
Concrete opposition Canada’s concrete industry has come out swinging against taller wood-frame buildings in general and the Quebec government’s recent decision to allow them in particular. The Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI) is arguing that taller wood buildings are not recognized by the National Building Code of Canada and are inferior to concrete buildings in terms…
In an ongoing conflict over building materials for mid-rise offices and housing, the Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute says the construction of 12-storey wooden buildings circumvents the Canadian building code process designed to ensure the safety of all Canadians. The Quebec government approved a building guide that would allow for the construction of wooden buildings up…