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Wildfire Season
Forecasters predicted earlier this year that, due to an extended period of very dry conditions, parts of the United States are under extreme forest fire danger this season. That warning seemed to be playing out this week when wildfires erupted in California. A thousand-acre wildfire in the foothills east of Los Angeles, CA, didn’t grow…
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Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia
At the beginning of April was held the Council of Forest Industries of British Columbia convention in Kelowna, BC. Founded in 1960 by various logger and lumber manufacturer organizations, COFI is now a “CEO-lead organization”, as Ted Seraphim, CEO of West Fraser Timber, put it during his speech. The convention was attended by over 400…
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US Real Estate
A report April 11 from Zelman & Associates said it the analyst firm now expected a 5 per cent drop in sales of previously owned homes in America for 2014, to a seasonally adjusted annual level of 4.8 million units. At the start of this year, the firm had forecast nearly a 6 per cent…
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Global Lumber Trade
There have been some fascinating changes in the movement of hardwood lumber globally this year, partially due to EUTR restrictions on illegally harvested timber imports having come into effect in Europe a year ago. This week data became available for North American softwood lumber exports. Also that for imports of softwood lumber into consuming regions,…
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Genetically Modified Poplar
What began 20 years ago as an innovation to improve paper industry processes and dairy forage digestibility may now open the door to a much more energy- and cost-efficient way to convert biomass into fuel. A collaboration between researchers at the University of British Columbia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Michigan State University, the breakthrough…
