The annual number of forest fires this year is the highest it’s been in a decade, according to the province’s forest fire prevention agency (SOPFEU). In Quebec, 192 fires burned more than two million square metres (two square kilometres) of forest since the start of 2015. In the month of May alone, five forest fires popped up in eastern…
The parking lot at Vernon’s Kal Tire Place is filled with large-scale forestry equipment this week. It’s part of an annual industry trade show and conference put on by the Interior Logging Association (I.L.A.). Organizers estimate attendance is up about 25 per cent compared to last year and many attendees are bullish about the industry’s…
The news has gone from bad to worse for the city’s ash trees. Even many of the trees the city hopes save by injecting them with a pricey insecticide are dying. And it’s having trouble finding specimens that are healthy enough to be injected. The city aims to inject 800 of Hamilton’s most significant ash trees…
The managed forest initiative, established in cooperation with World Wildlife Fund China, is a multi-year plan that brings Apple closer to its goal of achieving net-zero impact on the world’s virgin fiber. As the world’s largest timber importer, China will also see benefits from growing and harvesting its own wood in a sustainable manner. “Forests,…
After seeking a renewal to their energy selling agreement with the provincial government for over a year in order to remain open, the Cochrane Power plant will be shut down if doesn’t get a new contract, or an extension to its current one, by midnight tonight. Northland Power, which owns the plant, has until tonight…
Open-air fires either in or close to forests have been banned in certain areas across southern Quebec because of current weather conditions. The ban was put in place on Wednesday by Quebec’s ministry of forests, fauna and parks. Areas from Quebec City to the Outaouais region and everything south of that fall under the ban, including Montreal, Laval and parts of…
Interfor Corp. (TSX:IFP) is buying a sawmill in Monticello, Ark., for just under US$29.3 million plus the cost of log and lumber inventories and certain pre-closing capital expenditures. The mill, about 145 kilometres southeast of Little Rock, produced about 75 million board feet of lumber in the past year, Interfor said in a statement announcing…
While the prospect of Island Timberlands dropping trees in the PRSC Limited Partnership lands is generating controversy, a huge structure on those lands that milled trees for decades might be allowed to stand, at least in part. For more than 40 years, Kelley Spruce processed mighty conifers, some so enormous that the logs had to…
A record Canadian trade deficit in March caused by plunging oil prices has masked an encouraging trend – strength in non-energy exports that the central bank is counting on to revive economic growth. The report on Tuesday showing gains for sectors like auto parts and forestry, combined with encouraging outlooks from some company executives, suggest…
Wood is a popular material in interior design, but its water absorbency limits its use in bathrooms, where natural wood easily becomes discolored or moldy. Fraunhofer scientists and partners have developed a wood-polymer composite material for furniture that is resistant to humidity and has low flammability. Resource-saving wood-polymer composites (WPCs) are the latest trend in materials for…