Napa Valley vintner David Duncan has been known to stick his head in an American white oak barrel to get a full hit of the vanilla-laden, fresh-baked cookie smell the emanates from the wood. In fact, his Silver Oak winery — which produces classic cabernet sauvignon from the Napa Valley and Alexander Valley — is…
While it may seem like contrary to its primary function, Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) Forestry Department has announced it’s going paperless. An article in the VIU newsletter said that in September first-year students enrolled in VIU’s Forest Resources Technology program will be required to purchase iPads instead of textbooks for use in both indoor and…
Canadian pulp and paper mills have been reinventing themselves in recent years in response to increased international competition and reduced global demand for forest products such as newsprint. As a result, many mills have started integrating biomass conversion processes and equipment into their operations to produce a wide range of biobased, non-traditional products. Dubbed “forest…
The Canadian Forestry Association (CFA) and the Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF/IFC) presented the community of Constance Lake First Nation, the Town of Hearst and the Municipality of Mattice-Val Côté with the “Forest Capital of Canada” award for 2015 and 2016 in a well-attended designation ceremony on Thursday, May 7th, coinciding with the Hearst Legion…
A hefty replenishment has been harvested for the Forestry Service Providers Compensation Fund. Minister Steve Thomson, Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, stood up for forest contractors and the communities they live in when he announced a $1 million top up to the fund at the Interior Logging Association’s 57th Annual Conference and…
A successful collaboration between FPInnovations, Canfor Pulp and PulpEye has resulted in the world’s first technology for measurement of fibre wall thickness. Canfor is the first pulp producer in the world to instal the fibre wall thickness module, FWT, in four PulpEye units in their pulp mills. FPInnovations has patented a technology for determining fibre…
WorkSafeBC has established a “risk analysis unit” to better predict new trends in workplace hazards since the two fatal northern B.C. sawmill explosions, a coroner’s inquest in Prince George heard Tuesday. Historically, WorkSafeBC has relied on data it has collected from past incidents to decide where its focus should be, Al Johnson, the agency’s vice…
Have you ever noticed how the Canadians have all sorts of local sports that they use to vent steam? For example, there’s a whole national event where all they do is cut wood in every way imaginable. One time, I was so bored that I watch a whole Sunday of burly men with nitrous-fuel chainsaws,…
Woodland caribou in northeast British Columbia are headed for extinction and could become the first subpopulation of a species to vanish in Canada while under government protection. Researchers from the University of Northern B.C. and the province say five herds are collapsing even though the government is pursuing a recovery strategy that includes captive breeding,…
An estimated eight million tree seedlings were damaged this season, affecting both industry and the province’s tree planting plans. That works out to about five per cent of the 264 million seedlings grown in nurseries across the province, said Allan Powelson, who is a reforestation specialist with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource…