Dan Thompson has been tramping through burned out forest throughout the Northwest Territories this summer, looking for clues into the ecological impact of the fires that burned nearly 34,000 square kilometres last summer. “We have good numbers about the area, from last year, and now we’re trying to put together what we call a map of severity,”…
When the government of B.C. agreed in 2006 to protect the Great Bear Rainforest, it won widespread praise and the Gift to the Earth award from the World Wildlife Fund. The deal covered more than six million hectares of rugged coastal terrain that sweeps from near the north end of Vancouver Island to the Alaska…
The Ministry of Forests Land and Natural Resource Operations’ enforcement staff should consider attaching stiffer penalties to administrative actions against companies that violate regulations, the forest-industry watchdog says. It also suggested that the Ministry of Forests publish its determinations to make them more of a deterrent. The B.C. Forest Practices Board highlighted the findings of…
A complaint about logging of old forest on Sonora Island on B.C.’s South Coast has highlighted the importance of following the spirit and intent of ecosystem-based management (EBM). Residents of Sonora Island complained that TimberWest Forest Corp. was logging old-growth forest and rare and endangered plant communities in the Great Bear Rainforest. While TimberWest was…
As California enters its fourth year of drought, the American state has lost over 12 million trees to the ongoing dry conditions. Another million trees are expected to die this summer. It’s not as dire yet in British Columbia, where the province is only in the first year of a drought. But already signs of…
Comments are being accepted until Sept. 23, 2015, on a discussion paper released today as part of a comprehensive timber supply review for the Merritt Timber Supply Area. Public feedback on the discussion paper will be considered by the chief forester before setting the new allowable annual cut. The discussion paper provides the results of…
The unexpected closure of the paper production operations at the Howe Sound Mill owned by Paper Excellence could cost more than 130 jobs, says Unifor Local 1119. “The announcement was a shock to us all,” said Unifor Local 1119 President Don Rheaume. “We’re very disappointed and will work hard to help our members who are…
Third-generation trucker Greg Munden of Kamloops, B.C.-based Munden Ventures, thinks his business and the log market at large are poised for growth over the next few years and he plans to be there to help. Munden Ventures can trace its roots back to post-war US. “My grandparents actually started in business just after the war,…
A 50 per cent reduction in the value of the Resolute Forest Products mill in Thunder Bay will cost the city millions of dollars. Earlier this month, the Assessment Review Board handed down a decision that slashes the property value by almost $40 million, for the 2009 to 2012 tax years. Thunder Bay city councillors voted in a closed session…
As Alberta moves into an era of uncertainly thanks to low oil prices and a new government intent on ensuring “social justice,” the once have-not province immediately to its east faces an entirely different future – and according to one industry expert, the government in power has a lot to do with it. That’s the…