The Board of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) is launching an executive search for a new President and CEO. The current office-holder, David Lindsay, has announced his intention to move on by the end of 2015 to return to the Toronto area to be closer to his family. Lindsay has led FPAC since…
Experts are blaming El Nino for speeding up nature’s clock and forcing firefighters to deploy weeks ahead of normal to battle wildfires across rural Western Canada. They say the natural phenomenon that cycles every two to seven years has been activated early this year and is predicted to accelerate wildfire activity across the northwest. The…
Department says negotiations with RenTech still include Roddickton-based company The provincial government paid about $185,000 last year to help the struggling Holson Forest Products in Roddickton. In 2014-15, it offered up $65,000 for insurance costs on equipment at the company’s processing plant and another $120,000 for an engineering study and new business plan. It comes…
On Thursday morning, acting environment minister Mark Furey issued an order stating Northern Pulp is not allowed to restart operations until its new precipitator is up and running. On Thursday afternoon, Northern Pulp general manager Bruce Chapman said the Pictou County mill was never planning to restart until after the machinery that removes harmful particles…
A few months ago he had a plane ticket purchased and was contemplating leaving his home, family and friends behind. Now he’s just looking for a place to cut. Gilbert Ash, a Portland man who had been trying to work out a problem with a permit to cut crown timber that he says was made…
Having watched the forested slopes of Mount Elphinstone since 1930, having hiked through old growth, second growth and clear-cuts and having observed the operations from high lead and steam donkey to yarder and truck, may I comment on the letter “Clear cutting has no place” from your May 8 edition? The ridge of Mount Elphinstone…
Minister of Communities, Land and Environment Robert Mitchell says he’s pleased two Island firefighters will be helping to battle the wildfires in Alberta. The firefighters will join 20 colleagues from Nova Scotia to provide some relief and extra help as more than 50 fires burn. More than a dozen of the fires are out of…
Ben Parfit’s paper: Managing BC’s Forests For a Cooler Planet: Carbon Storage, Sustainable Jobs and Conservation will provide lots to think about regarding the greenhouse gas debate. This relatively recent (January 2010) article is supported by a research alliance led by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA-BC) and the University of BC, along with some…
Madill Equipment, a Nicholson Manufacturing company, announced the completion of the first Madill 124 swing yarder to be manufactured in Canada since 2007. Madill was founded as a blacksmith shop in Nanaimo B.C. in 1909 and, during the 1950’s, began manufacturing equipment for the forest industry. In 1955, the first spar tree yarder was invented…
B.C.’s biomass energy sector believes it has a unique opportunity in the aftermath of the mountain pine beetle infestation that has ravaged 18 million hectares of provincial forests, but it needs a little help from Victoria. Gordon Murray, the executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, which makes fuel for biomass power, says…