While the decline in oil prices have some holding their breath, other industries — like forestry — are exhaling just fine. Thanks to a high demand for forestry exports, a weakened Canadian dollar and the climbing price of lumber, Canada’s forestry industry can count its rings as it’s expected to continue growing this year. Despite…
Low-cost Russian newsprint is biting a big piece out of North American producers’ traditional export markets in Asia and Latin America – especially India. The Russian shipments, offered at prices reflecting the Ukraine sanctions and the ruble’s 50 per cent drop against the U.S.dollar, added to a rough 2015 start for the North American newsprint…
Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. will complete a $22-million refit of its Abercrombie Point pulp mill with subcontractors after the Atlanta-based lead engineer withdrew from the installation phase. “We have the required qualified subcontractors here, and we’ve maintained the key people involved with the project,” Bruce Chapman, plant operations manager, said Tuesday. Clyde Bergemann Power Group pulled…
The sawlog market in Western US has been impacted a constant increase in log exports to Asia. This upward trend was broken in 2014 and domestic log prices fell almost 10% Seattle, USA. There has been a constant upward pressure on domestic sawlog prices in the US Northwest for the past five years as a…
Norway spruce and Scots pine samples have entered the vault inside a mountain on the Arctic archipelago. The frozen depository opened in 2008 and is designed to withstand all natural and human disasters. Researchers hope the tree seed samples will help monitor long-term genetic changes in natural forests. Frozen forests “The possibility to have seed…
The province has committed to fine-tuning the way it manages Crown land in environmentally sensitive areas. On Thursday, the province announced it will postpone harvesting in designated environmentally sensitive areas until special management practices are in place, except on land already approved for harvest during the spring road closure. The Natural Resources Department will also…
Three years after a deadly sawmill explosion at Lakeland Mills, workers and relatives of the victims say they are resigned to not getting the justice they want from an inquest that starts Monday. Coroner’s inquests are fact-finding processes and do not find fault. However, family and workers say they hold out some hope the inquest…
A record fire year in the Northwest Territories in 2014 may not be an isolated occurrence, according to a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton who is an expert on forest fires. Historically, bad fire years are caused by conditions that may last for several years, Mike Flannigan said. “They often come in clumps,” he said. “So if…
Forests Ontario has launched a new video advocating sustainable logging in Algonquin Provincial Park. The three-and-a-half-minute video called Connecting to Our Forests features students visiting a logging operation in the park to learn about the forestry sector and the jobs and products created by the industry. It also provides comments from industry professionals, particularly those…
Canada’s new rail safety legislation would make it possible for governments to recover costs from railways for any fire they cause, not just accidents that involve crude oil, said Transport Canada, a change that could force railways to pay millions in costs associated with forest fires. Canadian National Railway Co, which is in a legal dispute with…