Building confidence

An upbeat vibe prevailed at the 85th AGM of the Maritime Lumber Bureau (MLB), but not because sawmillers are making money hand over fist. FranНois Robichaud, with Forest Economic Advisors (FEA), was the lead speaker at the June 4-6 event in Charlottetown, P.E.I.,

providing a market report that made it clear the pandemic bonanza is long gone.

Getting to net zero

by David Palmer

Conferences and workshops tend to be bundled into the dragged-out months of March and April, providing a welcome break from self-imposed semi-isolation at that time of year. It’s a chance to renew old acquaintances, meet new people with different perspectives, and enjoy a meal out of town.

Anticipating high production

The Canadian Woodlands Forum (CWF) pulled out all the stops for its “From Seedling to Success” conference, held mid-January in Dartmouth, N.S. In her opening remarks, Becky Geneau, the group’s new executive director, acknowledged the sense of anticipation in the room, and in the industry generally, at the prospect of implementing intensive forest management as part of the “triad” model on Crown land in Nova Scotia – with full support from the provincial government, no less.

Tree tour in the U.K. and Germany

by David Palmer
“It takes an English oak 300 years to grow, 300 years to live, and 300 years to die,” says my cousin Emma as we stroll through Bushy Park, a 445-hectare public green space that lies just north of a sharp bend in the Thames River upstream of London.

“A bone picked clean”

by David Palmer
The near halving of New Brunswick’s Crown softwood royalty rates, as recently announced, has left a lot of people shaking their heads. With one stroke of the pen, the government not only reduced revenues from the public forest by about $45 million annually, but also devalued private woodlots in the province, wiping more than $1.5 billion off landowners’ collective balance sheet.

Trial by fire

On the last Sunday in May I’d planned to make some progress re-shingling the roof of the screened gazebo where we often eat supper in the summer. There had been some discussion of using corrugated steel this time, but because the structure is intended to have aesthetic as well as practical attributes, our final decision was to go with wood again – despite the fact that second clear cedar shingles are currently going for an eye-watering $60 per bundle.

Paper in transition

by David Palmer
After Post Media acquired Brunswick News a year ago, it wasn’t long before they cut back from six papers a week to five. Then in February, the company announced that it would reduce printing and delivery to three days a week, effective this spring.

It’s the pits

Most woodlot owners will tell you that they value their land not just on the basis of current standing timber volumes, but also for the land’s productive potential decades from now, even extending to future generations. And yet, a great many of us have made important decisions about harvesting – and some of us have even purchased acreage – with virtually no knowledge of what lies below the duff. This may be changing. Until quite recently, digging a pit in the woods was something you only did when you were building a privy at the camp.

Woodlot workout

by David Palmer
Some people go to the gym for a workout – I go to the woodlot. It doesn’t do much for the cardio side, but it’s excellent for the muscles and the mind. Climbing on and off the ATV, manoeuvring the logging arch over hummocky ground covered with logging slash, and sometimes using brute force to roll a log onto the pile constitutes a calisthenics program that is second to none.

Expanding opportunities

At the harvest operations tour presented by the Medway Community Forest Co-op (MCFC) on Oct. 2, there was a lot of chatter about the ravages of post-tropical storm Fiona – based on social media posts, news coverage, and personal connections in the woodlot community. However, southwestern Nova Scotia was spared the extensive timber damage that occurred in the central and eastern regions of the province, so it was business-as-usual for the MCFC.

Unwelcome changes, necessary adaptations

by David Palmer
Serious troubles have been foisted upon the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners by the provincial Forest Products Commission (FPC). A major overnight change to the federation’s membership, funding, and governance structure was necessitated in October 2021, …

Sweet and sour

The day after a bad ice storm in the first week of February, I went to check out the damage at Chris and Anna Hutchinson’s sugar bush in Lake Paul, N.S. – which is kind of in my backyard, rurally speaking. Along the Aylesford Road, going north from Lunenburg County into King’s County, there were many places where heavily glazed trees were bent down to the pavement on one side or the other –

Four-foot wood and the Quebec experience
by David Palmer

When Vincent Miville, president of the Fédération des producteurs forestiers du Québec (FPFQ), spoke to delegates who had gathered online for the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners AGM back in October, I was reminded of a marketing trip that two YSC directors and I made to the Beauce region of Quebec in the mid-1990s.

Bringing Lahey to the woodlot sector

Bill Lahey’s review of forestry in Nova Scotia, completed more than three years ago, laid out a pretty clear vision for a more ecologically sound and sustainable approach to managing our woodlands. It was endorsed by provincial politicians of all stripes, and it has received broad support from the industry.

Fairness, competition, and timber royalties

by David Palmer
We all want to be treated fairly, and we all want a fair price if we are buying or selling something. But just what is a fair price, and how is that determined? Prices normally fluctuate. They are subject to the law of supply and demand, which says that a good or service that is scarce and in high demand will fetch a higher price, while something that is plentiful and in low demand will be discounted.

Three perspectives on silviculture

It’s always a pleasure to chat with people who have a deep appreciation for the woods, and for wood products – people who take pride in the industry generally, and in their own work specifically. That’s a big part of what Atlantic Forestry Review is all about; we seek out those good-news stories.

The highs and lows of spring

by David Palmer
For spring watchers (and that would surely be all of us), March is typically a tumultuous month that cannot decide whether it wants to be a lamb or a lion. Although some of the coldest temperatures of the winter assailed the land in early March, highs in the upper teens set in by the first day of spring, and beat the snowbanks back. Twenty days of sunshine kept spirits high and SAD (seasonal affective disorder) in check.