North America's 1st carbon tax rolls out under fire

"VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Civic leader Scott Nelson says he is as worried as anyone about global warming, but that does not make him happy to be one of the first North Americans to pay a carbon tax to curb climate change. Nelson, mayor of Williams Lake, British...

Anatomy of a Wildfire

The current situation in southern California serves to remind us - yet again - that forest fires are as natural a part of forests as the trees themselves. In recent decades humanity has tried to overcome this vital force of nature by supressing all fires in parks, and...

Pulp Price Continues Steady Rise

In a North American lumber market going from bad to worse with each passing day, the one bright economic light is NBSK (Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft) pulp. Currently the US price for this international commodity stands at US$830 per tonne (European price US$800). SOURCE...

BC Beetle Migrates to Saskatchewan

Just one year ago scientists and conservation officers were on the lookout for signs of the dreaded Mountain Pine Beetle - a tiny insect that has devastated 80 per cent of British Columbia's forests in less than 10 years - in Alberta. "If it crosses the Rockies" they said,...

Water, Water, Everywhere... 4 Alarm Lumber Yard Fire

" April 16, 2007 New Jersey - Most times when you hear the term Companies having water problems, it means there is a lack of water, but on April 15th, Hoboken firefighters, along with many mutual aid companies had the opposite problem as flames tore through an indoor lumber...

Mountain Pine Bettle: the Broader Effects of Global Warming

The Mountain Pine Beetle presents particular problems for lumber towns like 100-Mile House, a little logging community in central B.C. Some friends of mine, Lucy Saunders and Raphael Lopoukhine, took a trip to 100-Mile House a little while ago and filed this very good...

Lumber Consolidation

"the merger of Abitibi and Bowater is only the begining of consolidation in the lumber industry in order to compete globally. Having been hewers of wood for America, the lumber industry in Canada failed to develop secondary and tertiary industries and markets that could meet...

Hewers of Wood

" Rights do evolve.... Natives must be allowed to harvest timber on Crown land for personal use, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday. ""

Job Loss It's The Environmentalists Fault

"Two Quebec Ministers in the Harper Government, the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Industry, state that its the environmental movement that have caused the job losses around softwood. Why because the Quebec provincial government imposed environmental laws on the...

There Is No Free Market

"The softwood lumber industry proves that the so called market economy, is not. We live in a historic period of state capitalism. The political economy in Canada depending on the state to bail out resource industries and the towns they have created. Quebec vows to help...

Behind the Eight Ball

"Canada, US to Implement Softwood Lumber Accord on Oct. 12 To little, too late. Thanks to the bursting of the American housing bubble. Slumping lumber prices could see sawmills close"

US Housing Market Crash

When will the tsunami of foreclosures hit?National foreclosures up 24% What will it mean for Canada. Well for one thing its going to kick the crap out of Softwood lumber exports. Leaving those who take Harpers deal wth cash in hand but no market to export to. All those jobs...

Softwood Republican Slush Fund

"Just how deeply King Stephen's nose is up the arse of King George can be found in the missing $1 billion dollars that remains in the U.S. if the Softwood lumber deal goes through. Half of it goes to the White House as a slush fund for the upcoming election. Even the...