OTTAWA – The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) has opened its annual request for proposals (RFP) for the SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program. The grants program supports SFI’s work to promote sustainable forest management through partnerships with conservation groups that are contributing to the understanding of critical links between forests and communities across the…
Artificial intelligence may soon be used to help predict extreme fire weather to better prepare provinces for devastating wildfires. According to the Edmonton Journal, researchers from the University of Alberta and University of Oklahoma teamed up to study how real-time meteorological data inside a neural network could be used to create early warning systems. Their…
A University of Alberta forestry professor has cracked a key mystery surrounding the mountain pine beetle, the university reports. After studying lodgepole pine trees in the Grande Prairie area that survived a pine beetle attack, U of A professor Nadir Erbilgin and his team discovered certain chemicals in the trees that produce high levels of…
A collaborative study by Mojgan Nejad, of Michigan State University, shows that lignin, a component of wood and byproduct of paper production, can completely replace phenol in phenolic adhesive formulation in products such as plywood. This research directly impacts housing manufacturing by introducing biobased adhesives made of lignin, a renewable resource, instead of petroleum-based phenol….
FREDERICTON – To help mitigate the risk of forest fires, New Brunswick’s Energy and Resource Development Minister Rick Doucet has issued a ministerial order under the Forest Fires Act, ordering restrictions on forestry operations throughout the province. “The fire hazard in our province is at the highest level that we have observed in more than…
The U.S. lumber industry says it won’t accept the latest Canadian government proposal for a deal on softwood lumber, downplaying expectations any agreement is imminent, according to a story on Bloomberg Aug. 3. Media reports had said Canada and the U.S. were close to an agreement on a deal that would cap Canada’s share of…
With more than 4,910 square kilometres of land burned since spring, British Columbia is experiencing its most destructive wildfire season in years. Kevin Skrepnek of the B.C. Wildfire Service says 4,910 square kilometres of forest, brush and grassland have been burned, making this year the second worst in recorded history in terms of land lost,…
MONTREAL – The Québec Superior Court has approved the transaction involving the acquisition by Rayonier Advanced Materials of all of the outstanding shares of Tembec. The deal is structured as a statutory arrangement under Section 192 of the Canada Business Corporations Act. The transaction has already received shareholder approval and clearance from Germany’s Federal Cartel…
TORONTO – George Brown College plans to construct Ontario’s first tall wood institutional building. The planned 12-storey, carbon-neutral facility will be home to a Tall Wood Building Research Institute. Called “The Arbour”, it will serve as a living laboratory both during its construction and once complete, where students and researchers will learn to design, construct,…
OTTAWA – The Government of Canada released on July 27 its proposed federal action plan on the protection and recovery of the boreal caribou. In addition to plans and actions to protect and recover boreal caribou, the federal action plan also presents recovery measures that the Government of Canada is taking for boreal caribou, under…