The Supreme Court of Canada recently announced it will not hear an appeal, from a forestry firm’s captive reinsurance company, of a ruling arising from a disputed $25-million liability insurance claim. This means that an order for a new trial in British Columbia, of a claim from Swiss Re for recission, now stands. American International…
David Derbowka has long turned to trees to clean up toxic landfills, using plantations of poplars to draw contaminants from polluted soil. Now he is teaming up with a University of British Columbia chemist in a project aimed at extracting from the trees the chemicals they absorbed through their extensive root systems. It is taking…
More than four years after a Cherryville landslide almost destroyed a home, provincial documents that shed light on the cause of the slide have been made public. The reports backup what locals have feared all along – an upslope logging project helped trigger the slide. Both Weyerhaeuser (WEYCO), which built logging roads in the area,…
Cherryville residents are reigniting calls for restricted logging activities on the hills above them after viewing details into a landslide. Freedom of Information requests have led to the Ministry of Forests releasing investigation and geotechnical reports into a slide that roared down Cherry Ridge and came close to a home in April 2012. “When we…
UBC is partnering with a BC company to turn soil contaminants into household products. As part of the partnership, UBC Okanagan chemist Susan Murch will work with Passive Remediation Systems Ltd. (PRS) to find ways to pull natural and industrial chemicals out of vegetation that is being used to remediate a decommissioned landfill in Salmon…
There were ten new forest fires in the Northeast Region by late afternoon, Aug. 4. Algonquin Park 16 is under control at 0.1 of a hectare Bancroft 21 is not under control at 0.3 of a hectare Chapleau 12 is not under control at 0.1 of a hectare North Bay 3 is under control at 0.1 of…
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Portland, must sometimes feel that old issues never die, they simply fade into the background for a time. Thus, this week he urged negotiators to come up with a trade agreement that will slow the influx of Canadian wood to the U.S. It’s a problem he’s faced periodically since first going…
Oregon jobs are at risk from subsidized Canadian lumber. Unless we can find a solution in the coming months to address Canadian government policies that give Canadian mills a regular supply of logs at below-market rates, thousands of jobs could be lost. Sen. Ron Wyden has been a champion on fair trade for U.S. mills…
Catalyst Paper, which owns the Crofton mill, recorded a net loss of $26.6 million for the second quarter of the fiscal year, which ended on June 30. That’s compared to the company’s net earnings of $16.9 million in the previous quarter. A statement from Catalyst attributed the loss in the second quarter to the fact…
Responsible Rio: Millions of FSC-certified products will be used at 2016 Olympics and Paralympics Attending Rio 2016 this summer? If so, you’ll almost certainly come into contact with more than one FSC-certified product and, by extension, will be supporting the growth of responsible forestry worldwide. In preparation for the Rio Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games,…