News in timber

In today’s briefing, the NIFC is reporting that 1 new wildfire was burning in Colorado. Nationally, nearly 3,400 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to 10 large fires. The Southwest area continues to have the largest fire activity, where five incident management teams are assigned.

Since the closure of Paper Excellence Company’s Northern Pulp Mill in Nova Scotia in January of 2020, local sawmill operators have seen their steady and ample supply of sawlogs continue to erode. Local sawmill and trucking company owners’ operations stories all have a common theme: The loss of the pulp market has made woodlot harvesting less viable.

In his keynote address on Friday to the British Columbia Council of Forest Industries Conference, B.C. Premier John Horgan said that the only way the provincial forest industry will grow is through partnerships with the First Nations and companies. Horgan noted that co-operation was vital to sustain employment and profitability in the industry.

The B.C. government announced on Wednesday (4-27-22) that it has increased the share of revenue that First Nations receive from forestry in their traditional territories. The share of revenue they currently receive is being increased as part of a longer-term revenue sharing model being co-developed by the province and First Nations.

The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that the 2022 wildfire season is actively underway. Year-to-date through April 27, 2022, 21,181 wildfires had been reported and they had burned 1,080,836 acres. The NIFC notes that the past 10-year average, for the same time period, was 14,958 wildfires that burned 727,141 acres.

Weyerhaeuser announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement to purchase 80,800 acres of high-quality timberlands in North and South Carolina from a fund managed by Campbell Global for approximately $265 million. The acquisition is comprised of highly productive timberlands situated in strong coastal markets.

The Canadian federal government is threatening to act on its own to protect the at-risk woodland caribou and the animals’ habitat in Quebec. Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault gave Quebec until Wednesday, April 20 to provide him with information on how the province intends to protect the woodland caribou and its habitat.

Albert Nussbaum, British Columbia’s acting deputy chief forester, has set a new allowable annual cut (AAC) level for Tree Farm License 53. The new AAC is 240,000 cubic meters. This is an increase of approximately 9.6% from the previous AAC of 219,000 cubic meters, which was set in 2010. It goes into effect immediately.

After an extremely dry winter, which left water levels low and vegetation dried out, much of the State of California is already in wildfire season. Fire experts says that with increasing winds and hot temperatures forecasted to start this week, and no rain or snow expected in the near term, wildfire conditions are not likely to get any better.

The BC government announced harvest deferrals on 1.7 million hectares of timberland in the province. In November 2021, the Province announced it would engage with First Nations rights and titleholders to find agreement on deferring harvest of old growth forests. The B.C. Government is reporting that it has received responses from 188 out of the 204 First Nations in the province.