The provincial government will take a close look at the recommendations from the coroner’s inquest into the fatal Lakeland Mills explosion and fire, B.C. Premier Christy Clark said Friday. Twenty-two of the 33 recommendations were addressed to provincial ministries and agencies, many of them aimed at Jobs Minister Shirley Bond and WorkSafeBC. “We’re going to…
In the north woods of Maine, Tom Shafer is bumping along on a rutted trail in his four-wheel drive truck. Ahead are mounds of maple, pine, oak and birch trees, all cut a century or more ago and pulled from the bottom of a lake. Clumped together in the muck, the logs wouldn’t look like…
An environmental group is suing to stop a logging project in the Kootenai National Forest near Libby. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says in its federal lawsuit the project violates environmental laws and threatens lynx and grizzly bear habitat. The East River Project calls for 8,845 acres of commercial logging, 5,563 acres of pre-commercial…
People throughout western Washington are all about spending time outdoors for recreation, but what about taking education outside? Forest schools are doing just that: breaking down the walls of the classroom and teaching kids outdoors. The concept is challenging traditional educations. Kids are taught self-esteem, teamwork and the value of nature while they play in…
Crews started work this week on a prescribed fire in the Dormer River Valley in Banff National Park to restore the grasslands in the area. On Thursday, about 30 firefighters from Parks Canada and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development went into the back country to burn in a 6,800-hectare area. Staple/Parks Canada / For the Calgary Herald They will burn again in…
A large fire raging in British Columbia’s Central Interior has grown dramatically over a 24-hour period, reversing some of the progress achieved by crews struggling to contain the aggressive blaze. The Little Bobtail Lake fire southwest of Prince George has ballooned more than 40 per cent since Saturday, from 170 square kilometres to 240 square…
A massive wildfire in northern B.C. shows that the province’s forests are increasingly primed for such blazes because of climate change and the El Nino weather pattern, an expert says. The 240-square-kilometre fire, first reported late Friday on May 8 near Little Bobtail Lake southwest of Prince George, is only 15-per-cent contained, according to a…
Resource development in B.C. isn’t stalled, as many appear to fear, but rather is proceeding at a historic pace, according to a new report from Resource Works, a business funded, Vancouver-based think-tank that focuses on economic and environmental issues. And, far from impeding development, First Nations are playing increasingly important roles in moving it forward,…
Investors in lumber stocks are feeling dismayed at the sector’s recent price performance. Confounding bullish expectations, prices are well off their recent highs. Investors must feel like the parents of a super-star high school student who inexplicably is at risk of not graduating. Analysts are saying that the much-promised prospect of a “lumber supercycle” now…
A coroner’s inquest has ruled the deaths of two men at the Lakeland Mills explosion in Prince George, B.C, as accidental. Thursday’s ruling includes 33 recommendations aimed at improving workplace safety and improving the investigation of workplace death. In April 2012, Glenn Roche and Allan Little died as a result of injuries suffered when the Lakeland Mills exploded. Another 24 were…