Warming up to it
    Things are looking merry and bright for Christmas tree producers in the Maritimes this fall. Demand is strong, and a relatively low Canadian dollar holds the promise of tidy profits on exports. I talked to a grower in Lunenburg County – yep, still the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the World – who said he was going to be tempted to over-harvest his lot, though he welcomed the opportunity to get rid of some lower-grade trees.

Now for something completely different
    Don’t be alarmed! Atlantic Forestry Review has not been transformed into a lifestyle rag aimed at the demographic of dog-walking, bicycle-commuting, park-picnicking city dwellers. But you can’t be blamed for thinking something weird is going on. This summer issue of the magazine looks pretty different, because it has a focus on urban forests. We’ve never done this before. The idea came from Dr. Peter Duinker, a professor at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies.

It’s all relative
    There is a sad irony in the fact that we now look to the European forestry nations – especially Scandinavia – with envy and awe. Government and industry people alike practically salivate when they see pictures of those well-stocked, perfectly-tended stands – living warehouses of timber wealth, promising fantastic levels of harvest efficiency. A few hundred years ago, when Europeans started nosing around in this part of the world, they were similarly awed by the forests here – not only the expanse of woodland, but the size and quality of the timber.

Big numbers, heavy artillery
    It’s hard to square the upbeat message and positive numbers in recent Irving ads, trumpeting the past year’s purchases of private wood, with the glum mood that prevails among woodlot owner organizations, which feel they are being increasingly sidelined by the big forestry company. “To date, JDI is … on target to purchase 870,000 cubic metres of private wood. This will be the most private wood the company has ever purchased,” the ad states.

This is getting old
    My father-in-law took the family out for supper at a nice restaurant during a weekend visit this fall, and noticed Chicken Cordon Bleu on the menu. He asked the waitress, “Is that a full cordon, or just a face cordon.” It’s always a pleasure to spend time with people who share your love for the woods, especially when their perspective varies somewhat from your own. Jay enjoyed checking out our woodlot, whose composition is pretty different from his land in the Ottawa Valley.

The re-greening of the world
    The scientific community warned that 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was the threshold level that would lead to a potentially irreversible 1.5 degree C warming of the Earth’s temperature. That point was recently surpassed, not on the Hawaiian mountain top of Mauna Loa where carbon dioxide has been tracked for decades, but on a little known island in the Indian Ocean, far from local influences.

The big stuff
    We had some fine weather for woods work this spring – pretty dry, reasonably cool, with the blackfly index ranging from low to moderate. (Yes, I consider blackflies a meteorological condition that ought to be included in daily Environment Canada forecasts.) Now that we’re getting hot days, the prospect of wearing chainsaw pants or chaps is less attractive. But summer is short. You’ve got to bask in the sun and enjoy it while you can.

Clinging, falling, sticking
    As sure as water flows downhill, so too do wayward leaves of oak and beech, released from their clinging grip on twisty twigs by winter’s sharp, biting westerlies, come to rest in a fresh ski path. They hang on obstinately through harsh November gales and hard December frosts, only to release and lie in wait to trip up an unwary skier expecting that the track just laid down on the way out will be a clean, debris-free runway on the way home.

Too much wood, not enough information
    When Jason Killam, J.D. Irving’s silviculture manager, proclaimed in an official tone at the fall meeting of the Canadian Woodlands Forum that “round wood pulp wood is dead,” he was merely confirming what woodlot owners have pretty well known for a decade. It was always assumed there would be a home for the saw logs though. However, as the second round of sawmill market closures rolls across New Brunswick,

In it for the long haul
    Once again, in this September issue of AFR, we have devoted some extra space and attention to forestry trucking – although, of course, trucking plays a role in virtually any story about wood products. While reducing transport distances is a laudable goal, there’s no getting around the fact that we have to move stuff around. We may as well try to do it more efficiently, which is the objective of R&D work on truck aerodynamics currently being done by FPInnovations, as described in Marie-Claude Thibault’s story on page 28.

A bird in the hand
    New Brunswick Green Party leader David Coon’s bill, “An Act to Return to the Crown Certain Rights Relating to Wood Supply and Forest Management,” went down in flames at its second reading in early June. The Tory opposition and the governing Liberals closed ranks to defeat this private member’s bill introduced by the lone Green MLA. In debate on the bill, Minister of Natural Resources Denis Landry said the 2014 Forestry Plan.

Amazing facts
    In the last week of April, with snowbanks still lingering along the roadsides, I heard someone from the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation (and don’t forget Infrastructure Renewal) talking on the radio, explaining how they use an instrument called a “falling weight deflectometer” (FWD) to test the structural stability of pavement. It’s a trailer-mounted device containing a heavy steel disk that is dropped onto the road, to simulate the impact of truck traffic, with sensors to measure the resulting deformation of the surface.

Plink, plink . . .
    According to NASA and NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), 2014 was the warmest year on record. Geez, Louise, it sure didn’t feel like it here in Atlantic Canada, as the snow kept piling up long into late March and refused to melt even in April. When one’s personal memory conflicts with official records, it’s time to dig a little deeper. As it turns out, our minds weren’t playing tricks on us.

Perils of the profession
    The past year has been a wild ride for forestry in New Brunswick – not just for the industry, but for the profession. The dramatic policy shift taking place in this province has occasioned some soul searching, and has spurred debate about the role of the forester in society – an important question in any jurisdiction that has more than a few trees. Shortly after the New Brunswick government released its new Strategy for Crown Lands Forest Management, back in March.