The RCMP has joined an investigation into a wildfire in northern B.C. over the possibility arson was involved. The police want the public’s help in the investigation of the Little Bobtail Lake fire southwest of Prince George that has already burned an area nearly 60 times the size of Stanley Park. Prince George RCMP Cpl….
Tembec is suspending operations at its three sawmills in Quebec due to the high cost of wood supply in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region. The company says the wood costs make its sawmills uncompetitive given the persistent weak market prices for lumber in North America. The move affects 360 direct jobs at Tembec. “Tembec has already expressed…
Residents of Palisades mobile park home in Spallumcheen say on windy days, they feel like prisoners in their homes. The residents live near Tolko mill’s co-generation plant and the business puts its ash pile close to the homes. “I probably wouldn’t be that upset if we moved into the industrial park and that’s the way…
A mysterious spike in the shares of a small Canadian pulp and paper stock is rumoured to foretell an exit of Greece from the euro zone. Fortress Paper’s stock has taken off in recent days despite the lack of any material catalyst, aside from speculation the company is positioned for a deal to print new…
British Columbia’s Forest Practices Board (FPB) is 20 years old. It was created in December 1994 to provide independent oversight of forest and range practices in B.C. and to help ensure compliance with legislation. In 1999, B.C.’s Supreme Court (and later the Supreme Court of Canada) upheld the board’s right to comment on the soundness…
Forest fires as news stories have always been popular. That has never changed. What has changed, however, is how the news media cover them. Not so long ago, the B.C. Forest Service welcomed reporters and photographers out to the front lines, to get up close to the fire and the forest firefighters working hard to…
Much ado has been made of late about the advantages and, increasingly, the potential disadvantages of using wood to create energy. Figuring out what’s what on that front has taken on new urgency, with renewable energy policies in Europe driving an unprecedented boom in the use of manufactured wood pellets to generate electricity. The vast majority of that wood…
The provincial government will take a close look at the recommendations from the coroner’s inquest into the fatal Lakeland Mills explosion and fire, B.C. Premier Christy Clark said Friday. Twenty-two of the 33 recommendations were addressed to provincial ministries and agencies, many of them aimed at Jobs Minister Shirley Bond and WorkSafeBC. “We’re going to…
In the north woods of Maine, Tom Shafer is bumping along on a rutted trail in his four-wheel drive truck. Ahead are mounds of maple, pine, oak and birch trees, all cut a century or more ago and pulled from the bottom of a lake. Clumped together in the muck, the logs wouldn’t look like…
An environmental group is suing to stop a logging project in the Kootenai National Forest near Libby. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says in its federal lawsuit the project violates environmental laws and threatens lynx and grizzly bear habitat. The East River Project calls for 8,845 acres of commercial logging, 5,563 acres of pre-commercial…