ForestIndustry.com - Keeping you connected to the North American Forestry Industry

The federal government is investing close to $7 million to help create jobs for forestry workers and improve Alberta's forests.

Ever since Richard Garneau began his tenure as chief executive of Catalyst Paper in 2007, he has watched the prices of its products plummet beyond anything he'd experienced over his 30 years in the industry.

The future of forestry lies in wood waste, carbon credits and an expanded Asian market, provincial Forestry Minister Pat Bell told a full house Tuesday.

GBC has entered into an agreement with the City of Terrace to obtain a site for a 500,000 metric tonne per year wood pellet plant in British Columbia. The facility will make wood pellets from local hemlock fibre sources harvested from sustainably managed forests.

Premier Gordon Campbell was given a standing ovation after his luncheon address to the Truck Loggers Association's conference yesterday, but it's likely many in the crowd were biting back disappointment as they did so.

B.C. Forest Minister Pat Bell announced two changes in forest tenure at the 2010 B.C. Natural Resources Forum Wednesday that could significantly change the bioenergy sector in the province.

Alien plants could be costing the province billions of dollars in terms of reduced agriculture and forest production, lower land values, additional costs of land remediation and maintenance, as well as diminished ecosystems, says the chair of the Invasive Plant Council of B.C.

The B.C. First Nations Forestry Council is urging the provincial government to create long term, area based First Nations forest tenures and sharing timber revenue.

A brewing tax revolt by B.C. forestry companies has gained a legal foothold after the B.C. Supreme Court found a Vancouver Island community cannot boost its tax rate for forest lands.

EDMONTON - Crews armed with chainsaws and fire are fanning out across Alberta this winter, facing the almost impossible task of stemming the eastward spread of the voracious mountain pine beetle.

For decades the backbone of B.C.’s economy, its mighty forest industry has been bludgeoned to a shadow of its former self, with mills closing as jobs – and companies – have vanished. This decade has featured:

Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad was in Fort St. James on Friday.
As Parliamentary Secretary for Silviculture, Rustad has been focusing on ways to help mitigate the pine beetle epidemic and ease the burden as the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC)

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Lumber producer Canfor Corp. says it will restart its Chetwynd, B.C. sawmill this spring, more than a year after the operation was shut down indefinitely, idling nearly 200 workers.

Without warning, the province last week capped the amount of retraining money available for out-of-work loggers and mill workers.

The 2010 Olympics, the domestic housing market and an improved global appetite for resources will make British Columbia one of Canada's strongest provincial economies next year, according to a new report from RBC Economics.

VANCOUVER — Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. said Monday that it has completed a plan to sell its non-core assets including the company’s specialty plywood mill in Savona, B.C., and a veneer mill in the Lillooet, B.C. Financial terms of the sales were not released, but the company said the proceeds of the sales are not expected to have a material impact on its financial results.

VICTORIA – Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell today congratulated forest companies operating on B.C.’s central coast as they achieved Forest Stewardship Council certification for their forestry practices.

Canadian forest and paper companies continue to face challenging business conditions, suffering an aggregate loss of more than $600 million in the third quarter, according to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Forestry company Tembec Inc. says it will put its locked out newsprint mill in Pine Falls, Man., up for sale.

The largest union at the imperilled pulp and paper giant AbitibiBowater Inc. has a bold proposal for sparing more than 17,000 Canadian retirees from losing about a quarter of their pensions.

Canfor Corp. is examining a plan that could result in its Chetwynd sawmill in northeastern B.C. re-opening on one shift next May.

Thunder Bay's Chronicle Journal is reporting today that the Terrace Bay Pulp mill may be lacking its most skilled workers if/when it reopens.

VERNON - The Okanagan Shuswap Forest District is soliciting the public for ideas on innovative uses of wood fibre, Forests and Range Minister Pat Bell announced today.

British Columbia has only a small slice of the growing Chinese lumber market because most forest companies are shipping lumber cut to North American -- not Chinese -- specifications.

Nanaimo's Harmac pulp mill has no intention of withholding its municipal taxes for 2009, despite missing two summer deadlines to pay $2.8 million in property taxes and accruing penalties, says president Levi Sampson.

The Ktunaxa nation and the provincial government have entered into a 25-year community forest agreement that replaces a five-year pilot agreement and will support continued success in job creation, local manufacturing and silviculture treatments.

Forests Minister Pat Bell is heading to China with a delegation of the province's leading forestry CEOs in a trade mission aimed at increasing British Columbia's share of the growing Chinese wood products market.