Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners
Truro, N.S.

The world of family forest owners has lost a dedicated advocate and steward. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, crashed before Peter deMarsh, of Taymouth, N.B., could arrive for the International Family Forestry Association’s (IFFA) 2019 Conference on Family Forestry and Climate Change. Peter was one of 157 people who lost their lives that day, and one person many will never forget.

Peter had dedicated his life to promoting the benefits of family forest ownership to support sustainable forestry. He was always positive in his quest, and influential in motivating other forest managers, advocates, and political leaders to believe in forests for the future of a healthy planet. Peter had been the chair of the IFFA since 2011, and president of the Canadian Federation of Woodlot Owners for nearly three decades. His absence has already made a huge impact worldwide; he left big shoes to fill.

Private woodlots are not only an important source of economic and environmental benefits for their owners; they also contribute direct and indirect social, environmental, and economic benefits to local communities. Canadian private woodlots represent about 9.3 percent of Canada’s total non-reserved productive forest land base. If private woodlots were Canada’s only forests, Canada would rank 11th in the developed world, between Finland and Spain, in total forest cover.

Active forest management is an integral approach to forest ownership. When well managed, forests provide clean air and water, homes for wildlife, beautiful scenery, places for recreation, and more than 5,000 products we all use every day. When they are not well managed, forests are often unhealthy and unproductive because of overcrowding, disease, insects, and competition for light, water, and nutrients.

To learn more about active forest management and the benefits to the landowner, the land, and everything that exists and lives in between, please join us this year at our annual general meeting and help us celebrate our 20th year of supporting and advocating for small private landowners in Nova Scotia. Learn about our proposed Service Area Model and our federal ambitions to benefit active forest managers. The meeting will be held May 25 at the Holiday Inn at 437 Prince Street in Truro, N.S., from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. This year’s themes will be: Implementing Ecological Forestry, Our Market Climate, and A First Nations Perspective. We will feature award-winning forest owner accounts of their lifelong experiences. Hope to see you there.

Stacie Carroll
Executive Director, FNSWO
Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners
Phone 902-957-2947 or 1-844-966-3568
Email: stacie@fnswo.ca
www.fnswo.ca

Maritime Lumber Bureau
Fort Lawrence, N.S.

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is a non-native species first introduced to the eastern Canadian region (Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces) in the 1920s. It was planted sporadically until the 1960s, when it began to be planted more extensively by industry and government forestry departments. It is now considered to be the major “introduced” softwood species in eastern Canada. As it is a non-native species, it has never been included in the list of approved species with structural grades in Canada or the U.S. by the National Lumber Grades Authority (NLGA), as there were no design values assigned to the species.

The Maritime Lumber Bureau has been working on the Norway spruce file for many years, by means of preliminary evaluations of the species in the early 1990s, to the commissioning of UNB Wood Science and Technology in the late 1990s to conduct a study on bending-strength properties. Since that time, extensive collaborative efforts have taken place among regional and national associations (NLGA, CWC), government, and industry, to conduct surveys, sampling, in-grade testing, and analysis of Canadian-grown Norway spruce.

In 2016, a pilot study was conducted under direction of the NLGA on Canadian-grown Norway spruce to verify if there was any “significant” change in the strength properties of the species when compared to original 1999 and 2004 in-grade testing results. Analysis of the pilot study data concluded that there was “no significant change.” Analysis of the information was completed in 2018, and approvals were then granted from the NLGA Board of Directors to proceed with submission of in-grade testing data to the American Lumber Standards Committee in the U.S. and the CSA 086 Technical Committee in Canada.

In January 2019, the CSA 086 Technical Committee endorsed the inclusion of Canadian-grown Norway spruce as having met the structural design values for “North Species” (as published in the CSA 086 Engineering Design in Wood). In March, the American Lumber Standards Committee approved the submitted in-grade design values for Canadian-grown Norway spruce as a “stand alone” species. This means that for most properties, it falls below the U.S. structural design values for SPF, but has higher values than North Species.

Canadian-grown Norway spruce must be identified on a grade stamp in one of two ways. It can be identified as an individual species “N Spr (N),” or as part of the Northern Species grouping which is identified as “North Species” or “N. Species.” If Norway spruce lumber is being exported to the United States with the “North Species” stamp, it will assume the North Species design values.

The inclusion of Canadian-grown Norway spruce as a structural species marks a historic moment in Canada. It is the country’s first non-native softwood species to have published design values for dimension lumber and timbers. After many years of testing and analysis, design values are now in place, therefore industry producers wishing to obtain or market structural Canadian-grown Norway spruce can now do so.

If you have any questions or wish to obtain further information on utilization of Canadian-grown Norway spruce, please do not hesitate to contact the office of the Maritime Lumber Bureau.

Kevin Merriam
Executive Director, Maritime Lumber Bureau
Phone: 902-667-3889
Cell: 902-664-7432
Email: kmerriam@mlb.ca
www.mlb.ca

Breton Forest Innovation Cooperative
Middle River, N.S.

Being part of a cooperative movement is probably one of the most exciting yet foreign experiences for a forest owner. Holistic forest management is not the mainstream way of thinking in our management climate, but now is the time to give the power back to landowners to better influence their marketplace.

Breton Forest’s main objective is to create a social enterprise that supports the forestry sector in a way that nurtures healthy forest ecosystems while supporting rural community development, innovation, and long-term well-being for generations to come.

This movement comes at an opportune time, with the release of the Lahey report. Ecological Forest Management needs to have a solid market outlet for forest renewal; Breton Forest can act as this vehicle of implementation.

Forestry and ecology have always been interwoven. Planning long-term forest wellness requires “two-eyed seeing,” combining traditional knowledge with technological knowledge, to give us a balanced management system for resource utilization. Through good stewardship, forest owners can have it all. A value system for private land forest management may be based on these seven principles:

1. Forests have intrinsic values;

2. The human need for product extraction;

3. Natural process silviculture;

4. Long-term forest planning;

5. Implementing ideals at the stand scale by mimicking the larger ecosystem trends;

6. Cultural, social, and economic contexts;

7. Science- and place-based experience to guide us.

If forest owners commit to these ethics, and can participate in the value chain all the way through – “from forest floor to your door” – they then create an array of products that can demand a higher economic value while nurturing ecosystems.

These ideals are really a blend of forest thinking that allows us to plan for humans versus natural resources, encouraging renewable resource utilization that minimizes ecological impact and maximizes economic benefit. The last necessary piece that needs to be promoted is the commitment to supporting local. At Breton Forest we are encouraging and creating a brand that does exactly that.

We will be telling the story of family forest land, managing for biodiversity, and creating hand-selected products that are harvested with care in order to showcase the world-class beauty and quality found in Unama’ki/Cape Breton.

Breton Forest continues to identify community assets, support collaboration, and coordinate an expanding, flourishing marketplace. We do this by creating ecological forestry products that are compatible with and support ecosystem health and the full cycle of forest consumption – from raw to processed to forest residual utilization. What lies at the heart of all this? Creating a community of forest producers, artisans, and designers that shares knowledge, expands their value system, participates in mentorship learning, celebrates all aspects of forest life, and continues to transfer all these values and skill sets intergenerationally forevermore. For more information on how to get involved, please contact us.

Stacie Carroll
Business Development Coordinator, BFIC
Email: stacie@bretonforest.org
Phone 902-957-2947
www.bretonforest.org

New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners
Fredericton, N.B.

Another spring is here, and with it flooding in a large part of New Brunswick, and intense rains that have washed out roads even in areas that are not impacted by flooding. Climate change is evident in the changing intensity of storms and in the rapid changes in temperature that we are experiencing.

In recognition of this fact, we at the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners (NBFWO) are working on a project that will look to develop and refine silvicultural prescriptions to make your woodlot more resilient and adaptive to climate change. In addition to the prescriptions, we will also be creating training videos and holding workshops to assist foresters, forest techs, and woodlot owners in applying climate-change science to their woodlots. Follow our Facebook page for notices of events and resources that are available to help you adapt to a changing climate. This project has received major funding from Natural Resources Canada, with additional funding from New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government, the New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund, and the NBFWO.

We are also working on a data management software project that will be used to improve services to woodlot owners and contractors. It will be able to spatially reference all work done on woodlots, and will assist marketing boards and woodlot owners to track when past work has been completed and when future interventions are likely beneficial. The hope is that this software will also allow woodlot owners to post to a job board any work they are wishing to have completed, allowing them to receive bids on that work. It is a joint venture between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia woodlot owner groups, and it is truly impressive that so many private woodlot organizations have come together to create this.

We are deeply saddened by the death of Peter deMarsh. He was instrumental in establishing marketing boards, the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners, and the Canadian Federation of Woodlot Owners. He worked tirelessly to promote private woodlots, and did so in a statesmanlike way. He was respected by all who met him. A true champion of our sector has been lost.

A memorial service for Peter will be held June 1 at 2 p.m. at Wilmot United Church in Fredericton.

Susannah Banks
Executive Director, NBFWO
Phone 506-459-2990
Email nbfwo@aibn.com
nbwoodlotonwers.ca

Nova Lumberjacks Society
Truro, N.S.

(In the voice of Jerry Seinfeld) … “What’s the deal with axe throwing?” *hold for laughter*

So it’s fair to say, as a matter of fact, that the sport of axe throwing is taking off globally. There are already more people throwing axes in 2019 than all wood chopping, Timbersports, logger sports, and lumberjack sports competitors combined worldwide. Hatchets seem to be dominating the discussion and videos online, but traditional double-bit is also growing substantially. The Nova Lumberjacks Society is trying to help grow and promote that side of the sport and help it succeed, as we see it is as the more challenging version of the sport, with greater links to the heritage of lumberjack sports as a whole.

So “how does it work?” one might ask. Well, competitors throw at regulation competition targets. Each target has five two-inch wide scoring rings. Competitors are awarded points for cutting the highest valued ring on each throw: five points for a bullseye, and out to one point for the outermost ring. Typically, competitors throw six counting throws per round, and they throw multiple rounds, up to six rounds of six throws, accumulating a total score out of 180 points (36 throws at a maximum of five points per throw). Of note, the best throwers in the world are averaging four points per throw. Piece of cake, right?

Last year, we hosted the Canadian Axe Throwing Championships in Liverpool, Nova Scotia – a stand-alone, open-format axe throwing tournament – and we structured it like the European national championship and world championship events. This year, there will be national championship axe throwing contests in France, Scotland, Ireland, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada (August 24-25 in Liverpool, N.S.). All will follow the international format explained above. We hope to have a big crowd, so spread the word!

We want to thank Atlantic Forestry Review (DvL Publishing) for their ongoing support of our events, and also the many forestry organizations who have donated to our competitions in the past.

If you’re interested in learning more about our organization, our events, or how you can get involved in any of our initiatives, please visit our website or send us an email.

Stay sharp, folks!

Ryan McIntyre
Vice President, Nova Lumberjacks Society
novalumberjacks@gmail.com
www.novalumberjacks.com