Canadian scientists are helping trees outrun climate change. “Trees are adapted to historical climate and the climate’s moving out from under them,” said evolutionary biologist Sally Aitken. “We’re using genomics to generate answers more quickly than they can.” Foresters have long known that the best seeds for replanting forests comes from trees in the same…
The Lytton First Nations Band has issued an evacuation order for 10 homes and an alert for another 65 properties because of a fast-growing wildfire south of Lytton, B.C. The B.C. Wildfire Management Branch says strong winds gusting up to 80 km/h are driving the 1,300-hectare blaze, which is burning up a steep hillside on the west side of the Fraser river, roughly…
The granddaddy of all trade disputes is getting ready to rear it’s ugly head again. The current softwood lumber agreement is set to expire in October. It has been in place since 2006 and was the result of a nasty 5 year legal battle between neighbours that killed thousands of forestry jobs across the country….
Premier Christy Clark, Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson helped Lee Doney, chair, Western Forest Products, celebrate $30 million in new capital investment in the Duke Point sawmill. Of the $30 million, $28 million will be invested in Western Forest Products’ Duke Point sawmill to modernize the sawmill, planer mill and install…
Western Forest Products is spending $30 million — most of it in Nanaimo — to upgrade three Vancouver Island sawmills. Lee Doney, company chairman, said today at the Duke Point mill: “Our harvesting strategies and continued demand for our western red cedar and specialty lumber products allows us to make the needed strategic capital investment…
Greenpeace is fighting back after members of North Eastern Ontario Municipal Association (NEOMA) likened the environmentalist group to “eco-terrorism.” During a press conference this week, the mayors of NEOMA member communities, including Timmins’ Steve Black, announced that they were banding together to fight environmental groups such as Greenpeace, which they believe are making it impossible…
When the “war in the woods” was in full swing in British Columbia, one of the front lines ran through the Walbran Valley on southern Vancouver Island. And now, after 24 years of relative peace, it may do so again as a dispute is set to spill out of the back rooms and into the…
The Possibilities Are Wide Open NICOLE LEIBEL “The better I do my job, the better everything else runs for everybody else.” Nicole Leibel moved from British Columbia to the Manitoba Winnipeg town of Swan River in 1987. Starting as a laborer at the Louisiana Pacific Canada mill, she worked her way up to a quality…
More than 12 million trees have died in California. A combination of drought, heat, and insects may be to blame. A new study is the first to examine the wide spectrum of interactions between drought and insects. Researchers first devised a framework to look at the effects that each stressor can have on tree mortality…
CSRD director Loni Parker spoke to the Revelstoke Mountaineer on why the CSRD will continue to campaign for enhanced community consultation regarding the proposed logging in Mount Macpherson’s recreational areas. Columbia Shuswap Regional District director Loni Parker says the province’s response to the CSRD board’s appeal for more consultation on logging issues like planned logging…