Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. announced today (May 31) that it will curtail operations at its Quesnel pellet plant effective immediately. There are a number of factors that have gone into the decision. Key among them are that the plant, first opened in 1988, was designed to process a diet of dry residuals from the local…
The moving deadline for B.C.’s latest bold plan to control Earth’s weather with taxes has slid from March into June. Now that Premier Christy Clark has jetted back from her latest liquefied natural gas sales trip to Korea and Japan, brace yourself for the big reveal of Climate Action 2.0, as the second stage of…
Canadian softwood lumber negotiators held a one-day meeting with their U.S. counterparts in Ottawa this week but there was no report of progress on the contentious trade issue. Alex Lawrence, a spokesman for International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, described the meeting, held Thursday, as “an informative exchange.” Officials said they expect talks to resume shortly,…
Bruce Stelmacker has had lots of time for gardening this spring. He’s one of about 125 workers who have been off the job since Christmas because of a dispute between his employer Island Pacific Logging and Western Forest Products. “We don’t know how long this is going on. We have no idea” lamented Stelmacker when…
A vast stretch of boreal forest along the Manitoba-Ontario boundary moved one step closer to international recognition Friday, as two UNESCO advisory bodies recommended Pimachiowin Aki be deemed a world heritage site. The federal, Manitoba and Ontario governments have put up millions of dollars over the past decade in the attempt to secure the designation…
TimberWest is harvesting approximately 70 hectares of second generation forest in the Englishman River area. The harvesting started mid-May and is expected to be completed by mid-June. We understand that there have been some concerns raised and we want to assure you that we are sensitive to our role in protecting riverside ecosystems and habitat….
The first thing the 281 South African firefighters did when they touched down in Edmonton was sing. They sang soldier songs — songs of South Africa — while the large crowd gathered there to welcome them cheered. Khomt Alucie, one of the firefighters who made the journey, said the group has only known each other…
A bug that sucks the sap out of trees and leaves them dead is the latest threat to Norfolk County’s forests, warns a biologist. The Hemlock wooly adelgid is in the Niagara Region and is probably headed this way, said Gregor Beck, director of Ontario programs for Bird Studies Canada. The pest is capable of…
The federal government is conducting an environmental assessment looking at flooding on the property of its Great Lakes Forestry Centre. The property at 1195 Queen Street East experiences localized flooding during moderate to severe rain, according to Daniel Perri, a municipal services engineer with the City of Sault Ste. Marie. A report to City Council…
I have always been intrigued by the small-scale. Don’t misunderstand—industrial-scale sawmills, for example, are absolutely astonishing, and I have had many hours of enjoyment touring and observing the production processes at such facilities. Even so, nothing piques my interest quite like the guy with a portable gas-powered sawmill cutting boards for a friend of a…