The long-awaited wood pellet mill in Enterprise is another step closer to reality. Aurora Wood Pellets has issued a request for proposals to have someone harvest the wood from the future site of the mill. Hay River Mayor Brad Mapes has been working on this plan for six years, and is the principal shareholder in…

Dive Brief: The National Association of Home Builders reported that representatives from the U.S. homebuilding industry have wrapped up talks with public and private interests in Chile around the possibility of importing more softwood and other lumber products from the country. The two sides discussed policy issues and potential barriers to Chile raising its current…

Canada’s international trade minister says anti-trade sentiment in the U.S., whipped up by Donald Trump and others, has made getting a deal on softwood lumber “fiendishly” complicated. “It’s a tough issue and there are some significant differences between the U.S. and the Canadian position, but we are working very, very hard,” Chrystia Freeland said in an…

Getting better access for value-added wood products in Asia and the U.S. is a big part of a new B.C. government wood industry competition strategy. The strategy includes seeking exemptions from trade quotas for specialty lumber and wood products in a new softwood lumber agreement with the U.S., which expired last fall. A pilot project…

With a fall deadline approaching, Canada’s chief negotiator in the softwood-lumber talks with the United States says the two sides remain far apart on several key issues. Martin Moen told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that negotiations for a new softwood deal have continued at an intensive pace with engagement reaching the highest levels between…

As an October deadline approaches, Canada and the U.S. continue to grapple with a trade dispute that sometimes seems like its been going on forever. Despite being the world’s largest partners, an agreement on softwood lumber continues to elude both sides, raising serious questions about trade, sovereignty and the real nature of Canada-U.S. relations, The…

Nelson Hydro will hold an open house in the early fall to update the public on the progress of itsplans to heat selected public buildings in Nelson using heat created by burning lumber mill waste. Fiona Galbraith, a local consultant for Nelson Hydro, says the project at full capacity would use only15 per cent of…

The Alberta government says it is providing nearly $13 million in funding to help create new uses for agricultural and forestry products through the Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions agency. The funding is to go to 61 researchers and companies looking to develop industrial bioproducts or technologies that use plant materials known as biomass. The government…

For years, it was known as the ugly duckling, cheaper alternative to plywood. One design maven described it as “like the turkey loaf of building materials.” But oriented strand board – OSB for short – has come into its own over the past 3 1/2 decades as a major player in North American wood-frame housing…

Nestled in Alberta’s boreal forest, at the confluence of four waterways, is Whitecourt, population 9,600. The town sits at the metaphorical centre of Alberta’s forestry sector, which anchors a network of lumber yards, pulp mills and paper plants that stretch across the nearly two-thirds of this province that is forested. Some of the country’s largest…