A newly announced rebate for greenhouse growers was cheered by members of the industry who had long argued that added charges for natural gas would hamstring the local industry. The Alberta Carbon Levy came into effect on Jan. 1, just hours after the provincial government announced that greenhouse producers would be eligible to receive back…
In the face of the likely rise in costs, Ontario’s new cap and trade system may also present opportunities for northern residents, said Warren Mabee, director of Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy. Mabee thinks there may be a chance for the forest industry to adapt and benefit by selling carbon offsets. “The fact that…
The future of the Nipissing Forest is open for debate. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) has started the process for the development and creation of a new 10-year plan for the Nipissing Forest. “In Ontario, the MNRF is responsible for the long-term health of Crown forests (public land). Before any forestry activities…
A new analysis of trees in major cities around the world puts Vancouver at the top of list for the largest green canopy.Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology used Google Street View to calculate tree canopy from a human point of view, as opposed to the more common way, from a bird’s-eye view.According to the…
New Year’s Day marks the implementation of the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, hailed as a landmark around the world but largely ignored here at home. It’s been “saved,” as our modern urban mythology describes it. This vast rainforest is no longer officially known as the “North Coast Timber Supply Area,” the name our American-financed protest…
Sawlog prices have trended downward throughout the world over the past two years with the GSPI Index being 14.3% lower in the 3Q/16 than in the 3Q/14, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly. The GSPI sawlog price index fell again in the 3Q/16 and was 21% below its all-time high five years ago, as reported in the Wood Resource…
The industry needs to champion wood, lest we lose the culture and the infrastructure that has built up around its use. The world can often seem too complicated for its own good. It’s a big reason some people, such as I, live in a rural place, where things are simpler to some degree. Through this…
If it’s true that business hates uncertainty, then the B.C. forest industry is in for some ill feeling in 2017. Finding opportunity in the face of that uncertainty is the challenge for the coming year. The biggest challenge comes from the United States, which has initiated trade investigations that are expected to result in duties…
Two northwestern Ontario First Nation communities are exploring the idea of restoring ferry service to haul wood to a potential forest products operation. Beginning back in September, Lac Seul and Slate Falls First Nations, with their industry partners in tow, began studying the economics of moving Crown wood from harvesting sites, across the actual lake…
Which B.C. forest products company was first to sell two-by-fours to the picky buyers of Japan? How about high-grade wood pellets for home heating in Italy? It was Nechako Lumber, a privately owned forest products company in the northwestern B.C. community of Vanderhoof, says CEO Alan Fitzpatrick. And he has other examples of where his…