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…
Ever since 2000, lumber has been something of a sore subject in the United States. Growth in Chinese furniture manufacturing has undercut many domestic businesses, turning local hardwood production into more of an export-driven endeavor. And the housing crisis has put a clamp on what was, for decades, a healthy demand for kitchens and flooring…
A British company buying up thousands of hectares of cleared farmland in B.C.’s Interior for carbon offset projects will have to get its plans past B.C.’s Agricultural Land Commission first, Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick says. The B.C. government has compiled a list of farm properties totalling 7,000 hectares from Prince George to Quesnel that have…
Forget about a supercycle that’s going to boost lumber prices into the stratosphere. The recovery of British Columbia’s forest sector is now expected to be slow but steady growth. That’s the view coming out of PwC’s May 6 Global Forest and Paper Industry Conference in Vancouver. “The general fundamentals are positive, but you’ve got to…
With Wildwood Ecoforest’s fate up in the air, a grassroots group is concerned the non-profit society holding the site in trust will amend its bylaws to help facilitate a sale. The 31-hectare site, located in Cedar, was sold by the late Merv Wilkinson, a sustainable forester, to The Land Conservancy in 2000, with the understanding…
Adjusted earnings before tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $14.0 million compared to $6.8 million in Q4 2014. Excluding specific items, our net loss was $12.6 million compared to a net loss of $10.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. In the first quarter, we incurred $1.4 million on transaction costs to complete the…
Making a small effort today will make a huge difference in the future. This morning, Environment Minister Scott Moe unveiled the province’s forest renewal project for the year. It involves planting 2.2 million seedlings in areas of the province currently not covered by agreements with forestry companies. The trees will be planted in Saskatchewan’s northern…
British Columbia has experienced a significant increase in wildfire activity in the last decade, and if predictions from government fire scientists come true, we can expect to see further increases in burned area and cost in the coming decade. With each catastrophic fire season since 2003 there has been calls to dramatically increase the use…
For a company that has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Canadian pulp mills to become the second-largest pulp and paper producer in Canada, Paper Excellence (PE) doesn’t talk about itself much. The company’s owner, 35-year-old Jackson Widjaja, who lives in Vancouver, doesn’t give interviews, and up until May 1, the company’s deputy CEO,…