Well fortunately for our industry, a well-designed and well-maintained circle saw can cut through a log as if it were butter. Yes, my fellow sawfilers and colleagues, we may put more design, planning and effort into making a saw perform its job than the proverbial rocket science necessary to send a rocket into space. 

Allow me to touch on a few things that are in play with this phenomenon. 

RPMs: The circle saw must be operating at the proper RPM. This allows the saw body to stand up and not “wobble or snake” through the wood. Mills want a straight cut and that is what you get with the right tension, proper tooth geometry and correct RPM. Make sure your saw manufacturer is provided with the correct RPM when designing your circle saw. If machinery in the changes always update your saw provider. 

Guides: The guides are the saws best friend or worst enemy. The circle saw should never touch the guide but slip through a thin film of saw lubricant. Because the saw is running between the guides in a very tight space (.002-.003 per side), improperly designed or maintained guides can cause the saw to overheat and lose tension, lay-over, cut bad lumber and cause the mill unscheduled saw changes. Like the saws, a saw guide has critical tolerances that must be maintained. Each run time they should be checked for damage or unusual wear. Changes in saw plate thickness will affect guides. Make sure to consider how a plate thickness change will affect your guides and communicate this with both saw and guide manufacturers or your sales rep.

Machinery: The machine centre that the saws and guides are in must be mentioned if we are to be successful in producing grade lumber products. By documenting upkeep and maintenance done on the machine centre, it’s possible to make good decisions on why saws are not running to the best of their design and help determine when and what maintenance needs to be done on the machine itself. Alignment and wear and tear must be addressed when saws and guides aren’t the issue. 

Data: I recently spent some time with a group of mill professionals and was impressed at the data they had at the touch or swipe of a device. These new sawing systems give mill owners, operators and yes, filers DATA. So, I suggest we use it. Understanding and knowing what happened in the past allows your choices in the future to be successful. Choices that seemed difficult or didn’t pan out in the past can be addressed once data is reviewed and variables identified. The best way to ensure success during each saw run or rocket launch is to document and learn from the success and failures of the past. 

Tracking: If part of your job involves reviewing data, you’ve probably used terms like tracking, drilling down, or unique identifiers. This is the main reason we at SSS/BID Group etch each circle saw we manufacture with an identification number. This number allows both our team and the mill to keep up with the saw’s history, including number of times the saw has been benched, retipped and sharpened. Knowing the history and how the saw(s) ran in the past gives us the knowledge and ability to know what to expect in the future. These identifiers can help track when variables such as hook or kerf are changed. SSS and the BID Group can help your mill with the equipment, tools, and software to accomplish successful sawing. If you are working with another professional saw company, I’m certain they can do the same. 

Paul Smith is a saw filing consultant and founder of Smith Sawmill Service, now part of BID Group. You can reach him at Paul.Smith@bidgroup.ca.

As global temperatures rise, trees in colder areas are benefiting from an extended growing season. A longer growing season results in thicker growth rings and, as a result, higher overall wood production.

This article is part of La Conversation Canada’s series The boreal forest: A thousand secrets, a thousand dangers

La Conversation Canada invites you to take a virtual walk in the heart of the boreal forest. In this series, our experts focus on management and sustainable development issues, natural disturbances, the ecology of terrestrial wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, northern agriculture and the cultural and economic importance of the boreal forest for Indigenous peoples. We hope you have a pleasant — and informative — walk through the forest!

However, studies suggest that longer growing seasons contribute to weakening the wood, making trees structurally weaker. The poor quality of wood means that trunks break more easily.

We are forest ecologists who specialize in the anatomy and growth of wood. Let’s examine the most recent scientific studies available to try to map the future of our forests and analyze how the changing growing season is determining the characteristics of the wood produced.

Wood: What is it?

Wood is the product of the progressive accumulation of cells — xylem cells — in trees. The purpose of this accumulation is to renew the sap transport system and to provide mechanical support for the stem (trunk), branches and leaves.

A tree ring is the product of a growing season which, in temperate and boreal environments, runs from spring to autumn. Each year a new growth ring is formed. The thickness of a ring is dependent on a combination of factors inherent to the tree (its species and genetic factors) and environmental factors (such as soil type, sun exposure, climate and competition between neighbouring trees).

In some species, especially in conifers, it can be quite easy to distinguish the rings from each other. This is due to the fact that during the growing season the tree produces two types of wood, characterized by cells with different forms and functions.

In spring, the tree produces many large, light-coloured cells with a thin cell wall. This part of the annual ring is called “earlywood.” In late summer, growth slows down. The cells become smaller, but their walls become thicker. This “latewood” is the darker portion of the annual ring.

The characteristics of the cells of wood are particularly important and are of great interest in ecological and economic terms. First of all, wood cell walls stock most of the carbon assimilated from the atmosphere by trees. Thus, a thicker cell wall means the tree is absorbing a greater amount of carbon. Secondly, the ratio of the number of earlywood cells to latewood cells determines the density of the wood, and, therefore, its potential use and material value.

Trees are growing faster

Over the past century, in the temperate regions of North America and Europe, trees have shown a faster growth rate, up to 77 per cent higher than in the previous century. This increase is related to the production of thicker growth rings.

At first sight, faster growth could be interpreted as higher biomass production, which would lead to a higher carbon storage capacity and, therefore, a greater contribution of our forests to the fight against climate change. In other words, a higher growth rate could mean that more wood would be available for our different needs.

But as William Shakespeare wrote: “Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promises.”

Trees die younger

A study by the Technical University of Munich in Germany analyzed the growth rate of trees and the characteristics of their wood over the last century. They found that as the growth rate increased, the density of the wood dropped by eight to 12 per cent.

Furthermore, as wood density decreased, their carbon content also decreased by about 50 per cent. This suggested that the trees extracted less carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

In addition to a reduced capacity to absorb and store atmospheric carbon, reduced wood density can weaken the structural strength of the stems. Wood fulfils the important function of supporting trees. Reducing its density is therefore accompanied by a lower resistance to mechanical stresses that might come from wind or the effect of gravity on steep slopes.

To complicate matters further, another recent study has shown an association between growth and lifespan in trees: fast-growing trees have a shorter life expectancy.

Too much is not enough

In our latest study, we quantified the relationships between the length of growing season, productivity and wood cell characteristics in balsam fir.

The study confirmed that trees with a longer growing season produce more wood cells and a thicker growth ring. However, higher growth also corresponds to a change in the ratio between the amount of earlywood and latewood. For every day that the growing season length increased, the trees produced one more cell of earlywood.

The increase in the ratio between earlywood and latewood is reflected in the decrease in wood density. This shows that an increase in volume growth does not necessarily correspond to a higher biomass production.

What does the future hold for our forests?

The global average temperature has exceeded the pre-industrial average by about 1.15°C (1850-1900), and is expected to rise further in the coming years. Warmer temperatures could lengthen the growing season of trees and consequently increase their growth rate.

While, on the one hand, this may lead to an expansion of forests globally, the rate of carbon uptake from forests is likely to decrease.

Although our forests will make a substantial contribution to the fight against climate change, the results of these studies are further evidence that environmental problems cannot be solved without taking direct action on the causes that trigger global change.

In the context of climate change, reducing the anthropogenic emissions that cause global warming is not something we can afford to negotiate or postpone.

Roberto Silvestro, PhD Candidate, Biology, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC) and Sergio Rossi, Professor, Département des Sciences Fondamentales, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

There are many other inspiring stories worth celebrating in these 52 pages: Indigenous partnerships in the forestry sector; communities working together towards wildfire resiliency; well-attended industry events that addressed the pressing issues of the sector; an industry leader steering his company into a new era of forestry; tools to improve one’s return on investment in a difficult business climate; and of course improving safety and making the industry more female-friendly, which are always a cause for celebration and are always sources of inspiration.

Speaking of milestones, I am celebrating one myself: on May 30, it will be a year since I assumed the role of editor for Canadian Forest Industries. It’s been a year since I’ve been entrusted with the journalistic legacy of CFI, Canada’s leading forest industries magazine since 1881, and I take that responsibility seriously.

In a year, I’ve been fortunate to have visited several sawmills and woodlands from coast to coast; hosted and attended many industry events, both virtually and in person; and spoke to a lot of you, which allowed me to put together six fabulous editions, if I may say so. I am committed to continue to produce quality issues, and with your help, I can keep reporting about our industry.

I would like to use the occasion of my first CFI birthday to re-introduce myself to anyone who missed it the first time around. I now have some 25 years of industry and journalistic experience. I came to CFI from FPInnovations, where I was an editor and media relations specialist. I have held editorial positions in various media – including prior stints at international forest industry publications such as Pulp & Paper Canada, and Fastmarkets RISI’s Pulp & Paper International (Brussels, Belgium), and Pulp & Paper Asia News (Singapore). In between, I wrote and edited for international outlets such as Financial Times, Forbes, Newsweek, and Montreal Gazette, among others.

I want to reiterate that your engagement with what we put out every day is very important to me because I may be the editor, but this is your CFI.  Please continue to email, tweet and DM us on social media, or simply like, heart or tag us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Tell me what you would like to read more of – who and what you would like to see being featured and profiled. Most of our stories are based on your suggestions – your input is crucial in publishing high quality stories and in-depth articles that you have come to expect in every issue. If you have a story idea, write to us – or even better, write for us! 

The return of in-person events in the past year really helped me in presenting unique and helpful content simply by my conversations with a lot of you. I look forward to meeting more of you – let’s keep inspiring each other and see you soon at future events. 

For now, enjoy the comprehensive features we have for you in this edition of CFI.

Read the May/June issue now!

Once the old bent knives and round back knives were replaced with disposable knives, the market was open to faster speed feeds, increased lumber production and yield. As most remember, the old bent knives and round back knives would push and pull cants causing thick and thin lumber, and other issues and problems. 

Equipment manufacturers quickly jumped in and made these disposable knives a very important mainstay in lumber producing mills. New mills being built changed from modular to straight line mills because of the high recovery and faster feed speeds this new product and process allowed. 

Today, the vast majority of lumber production is made from these new mills. The new conical heads and chip heads allowed the chipper knives and the saws to work side-by-side manufacturing lumber efficiently. This breakthrough with the knives allowed for attack angles and knife angles to be changed as needed. Also, the precision that the heads and knives are manufactured to today create smooth running heads that will operate very well, producing good sawn lumber and quality chips at fast speeds. Because these new disposable knives are smaller and thinner than the old bent knives and roundback knives, they are manufactured much more precisely, and with better heat treat process that allows for better knife quality. Correct hardness for knives increases knife life.

Although it may sound easy to pair the knives and the saws to run together, there is a process. To pair the chipping knives with saws together for best results, it does take some orchestrating and knowledge of RPM, feed speed, log diameter and maximum depth of cut to determine exactly what is required for best performance. The quality of chips produced is critical for both production and profits.

There are many different types of chipping heads with a growing number of manufacturers getting in the business of also manufacturing the knife itself. I have had the privilege to see different heads and knives manufacturers get started and create success for themselves and the wood industry. Most of these manufacturers are successful and can help any mill with chipping issues, including producing the correct chip size needed for optimal profits.

Smith Sawmill Service saw this breakthrough for our sawmill industry in the late 1990s and helped to introduce Key Knife in the South; changing bent knives and chip-n-saw knives over to the disposable Key Knife system. This worked out well for us and the customers for a few years until Key Knife went direct. We then came up with our own system. The knife was as small as disposable knives, but could be sharpened and babbitted. This ensured the knife location would be the same after every change. Now, we are a part of the BID Group and working side-by-side with Comact providing saws to pair up with Comact’s new knife system. It’s our belief that each company suppling these conical, cylindrical and profiling heads with their knife systems will all have their own advantages. 

If any mill is having problems with chipping, knife life, yield and lumber quality, I suggest you reach out to some of these knife manufacturers for help. I personally see pros and cons for the different knives offered today in the wood industry. Depending on the application and your needs, it will be possible for you to select the knife and heads that will best perform in your mill.

Most equipment manufacturers will let you pick the knife of your choice to be in their equipment. Make sure you get all the information you need to help determine the knife you choose to use. Of course, if you decide to mix the equipment manufacturer with a different knife and head manufacturer, I suggest you have them in the same room to determine what will be expected from both. Most knife and equipment manufacturers will work very well together for your best interest. 

Paul Smith is a saw filing consultant and founder of Smith Sawmill Service, now part of BID Group. You can reach him at Paul.Smith@bidgroup.ca.

This article is part of CFI’s 2023 File Week. Find the File Week landing page here.

A statement I have lived by pretty much my entire life.  

Has it served me in many ways? Absolutely.  

Do I feel in 2023 it is the right approach for our world to move forward? I do not.  

When I entered the lumber industry, coming from professional hockey, it was right around the #MeToo movement, which was a massive moment in time for me, and how I viewed myself and other women.  

I decided that just because something doesn’t offend me, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t, for the bigger picture.

I am an optimist at heart, I believe in people, and I believe most people have good intentions.  This does not mean I am naïve. These are choices I have made for how I wish to look at the world. I recognize these choices are possible for me due to my own privilege. 

We are at a time in the world right now where everyone is afraid to say anything, for fear of being cancelled. 

Few days go by when I don’t hear someone say, “Well, I guess I can’t say anything anymore.”  I understand the sentiment and frustration, and I feel we need to work to create a space for people to say what they think without fear or retribution.  

Trying to have some of these conversations in the moment can, and will be heavily charged emotionally, as the reality is, we are all a sum of our own experiences. It is extremely difficult to not respond defensively with, “I didn’t mean it that way!” or “I wasn’t talking about you personally!” Again, due to our own experiences, how something lands is personal, we are all human.

A goal of mine is to work with people and help them in taking steps towards a place of being OK with making mistakes, saying the wrong thing, and learning how to move forward from that.  This will only be possible if both sides of the conversation work towards this goal. 

It needs to be OK for people to change their opinions, minds, and approaches, regardless of what they have said or done in the past. 

An example of this that hit home for me was a fellow female friend who has worked in our industry for decades. 

A situation happened where there were misogynistic and inappropriate comments made about another woman at an event. She shared with me her struggle around knowing if it was OK for her to call it out now. She knew calling it out was the right thing to do, but questioned who is she to do that, as she has allowed this language to happen for years without saying anything, and at times joining in or laughing along.  

With all of my heart, I understood her position. However, as I shared with her, if it’s not ok for her to change what she feels is acceptable and call it out, well, then, we are screwed.  

I learned a great lesson when I was struggling with something at work and said, “I shouldn’t feel this way.” A former manager and friend stopped me and said, “Haleigh, there is no ‘should or shouldn’t feel’. If you feel something, you feel it. We need to work to understand why you feel that way, and what we can do to change that.”

So this is my challenge to everyone regardless of your position, title, age, or gender: when someone comes to you and that they are struggling with something, try to not get defensive. Instead, be curious to understand why that person is feeling the way they are. 

It is time for us to get real comfortable with being uncomfortable. Then, we can take sincere steps forward.

Haleigh Callison is an Indigenous woman from B.C. working as a lumber trader and cedar specialist for Olympic Industries.  She has recently completed her dual Executive MBA through Cornell & Queens and is passionate about helping to build others up, be seen and amplify voices that are not always heard.

The time of the year when we have more daylight, snow is finally melting, and temperatures are gradually climbing. 

There are many signs of life after the harshness of winter, and here’s to hoping these signs of life flow over to towns where local mills shut operations. 

Spring is also when the March madness of industry events restarts. 

CFI, together with our sister publications Canadian Biomass and Pulp and Paper Canada, kicked off March with our successful Women in Forestry Virtual Summit, drawing more than 800 participants from more than 20 countries. 

I am currently writing this from Quebec City, where we just held a successful one-day education forum, OptiSaw. It’s our annual closed-door event exclusive to those driving the future of sawmilling: owners, management, process engineers, optimization staff, researchers and design consultants. 

Listening to presentations about cutting-edge technologies in sawmilling was mind-blowing. It was easy to forget we were in a room full of sawmillers, and not medical staff, as I listened to the latest innovations in X-rays and CT scans. There were times when it felt like it was a meeting among Hollywood bigwigs as BID Group and Finnos talked about AI-powered automation and robots talking to each other via fingerprint technologies. 

During his presentation, MiCROTEC’s CTO described it as a “room full of nerds, and I am the chief nerd,” to the laughter of the room full of some 50 people. In fact, one nerd, I mean presenter, Tim Melburn of Arrow Speed Controls, described himself as a Jedi-level engineer as he presented about Big Data and IoT technologies. 

One thing that was very noticeable, though, was the lack of more female nerds in the industry. There were only three women in the room – two were staff, myself included – and the other was Heather Boyd, executive director of the Forestry Sector Council in Nova Scotia, who uncannily enough spoke about recruitment strategies in the forest sector during our Women in Forestry virtual event.

“Inclusion is not just about checking boxes,” Heather said. “It’s about ensuring all people in your workforce feel like they belong.” A diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy is a good place to start, but that needs to be a working document, consistently reviewed and not shelved, she said. I am certainly hoping that future OptiSaw and other events will see more female nerds. 

I received a lot of uplifting and positive comments about the event, and the industry, at OptiSaw, but one that really stuck was from a presenter, UBSafe’s Ian Rood, who said, “conference talks are great, but in-person networking is even better.” 

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous cancellations of in-person networking and learning events, but now full in-person conferences and trade shows seem to be coming back with a bang after last year’s slow return with pandemic-enforced virtual or hybrid events.

In fact, this issue we nicknamed the “conference issue”, because you will probably be picking this up at the BC Council of Forest Industries’ convention in Prince George, B.C., the Montreal Wood Convention, both happening in April, or at the BC Saw Filers’ Association conference in Kamloops, B.C., in May.

CFI is thrilled to be at these events. Check out our event previews to help you plan for these conventions and exhibitions. 

And as always, there is lots to digest in this issue. For our feature story, I visited ATCO Wood Products in the beautiful small village of Fruitvale in the Kootenay region of B.C., where I met the inspiring Weatherford family who keeps on keeping on despite many challenges. And talk about inspiring – our managing editor Maria Church sat with the ever-inspiring and charismatic Lenny Joe, the new CEO of the B.C. First Nations Forestry Council.

So let’s keep on inspiring each other, and see you soon at one of the industry’s in-person events.

Read the March/April issue now!

There is evidence that the groups did consult the two government departments with skin in the game: Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) but then decided instead to plough ahead, make their own assumptions, and calculate their own numbers.

There’s also some gratuitous stuff in their report and elsewhere: the broad accusation of “obfuscation” and “hidden data.” They claim that government numbers “(bury) the industry’s impact,” and refer to “the sneaky side of Canada’s high-emission logging sector.” And they throw in the obligatory images of nasty-looking clearcuts (despite the fact that their favoured forest certifier, the Forest Stewardship Council, allows clearcutting), and push the false claim that Canada’s boreal forest is “rapidly disappearing.” In fact, a mere 0.15 per cent of the boreal forest is harvested in any one year. Or a mere two per cent over the last 15 years.

How did they come up with their emission numbers? Well, that’s where it gets interesting. They found it incredibly difficult. “While the numbers to determine the sector’s impact are contained in government materials, piecing them together to calculate logging’s net annual emissions is exceedingly and unnecessarily complex. The data are scattered across an expansive array of materials, with some only available upon request.” All great conspiracy stuff then.

In fact, there are no GHG emission numbers specific to logging. That’s because Canada does what all other countries in the United Nations do: calculate GHG emissions according to the guidelines agreed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Each country reports emissions and removals from anthropogenic (human) activities. And each country reports emissions and removals from forest management, not from logging specifically. So, the real beef that U.S.-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Nature Canada have is with the IPCC guidelines, not with Canada.

“What they’re doing is trying to argue that, contrary to international reporting guidelines, we must identify logging emissions, not those of forest management, and we must only report what has regrown since harvest, and not the sink of the total managed forest,” said Werner Kurz, senior scientist with the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, in an interview with Business in Vancouver. “(But) the number that we report on the emissions has to be balanced by the regrowth of the managed forests, not just the land that has been previously logged,” added the eight-time contributor to the IPCC.

“What Canada is doing, and what other countries are doing, is we’re looking at the managed forest, and for that managed forest, we estimate all emissions and removals, whether these are from forest regrowth, from slash burning, from the net impacts of fire suppression or insect suppression. It’s the sum of the emissions and regrowth.”

Forest management is more than just hacking down a tree. It’s the measuring and mapping, the planning, the thinning, the harvesting, the treatment of post-harvest residue, the planting, the stand tending, the fire suppression, the protecting of areas for biodiversity, riparian management, and other human activities.

And sometimes, because of IPCC guidelines, emissions are allocated to other categories of the country’s greenhouse gas inventory. For example, emissions from equipment used in timber harvesting and other forestry operations are not included in the managed forest estimates because they are already included in the GHG inventory for transportation emissions. And methane emissions from wood on waste sites are reported in the waste sector, according to internationally agreed standards.

NRDC and Nature Canada should fess up themselves: there is no Canadian conspiracy.

John Mullinder is the author of Little Green Lies and Other BS: From “Ancient” Forests to “Zero” Waste, and Deforestation in Canada and Other Fake News. A former TV reporter in his native New Zealand and foreign correspondent for Maclean’s magazine and the Financial Post, Mullinder ran Canada’s Paper & Paperboard Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC) for 30 years, achieving a number of North American firsts in waste reduction and recycling. www.johnmullinder.ca

It’s very hard to keep track of the closures, but in this issue, we created a table to show the list of Canadian mills that shuttered operations temporarily or permanently as of mid-January.

Among those on the list, it was Vaagen Fibre Canada’s indefinite closure that hit me the most because I visited the facility in Midway, B.C., last summer and interacted with employees who were very proud of the work they did and what they had accomplished. I wrote about that visit for this issue, and how the local community of 650 residents can possibly help get the mill out of the woods.

Vaagen Fibre manager Dan MacMaster showing CFI around the Midway, B.C., facility in August 2022. Photo: Annex Business Media.

Sure, government relief is on the way. In fact, both the federal and the B.C. governments have announced new funding: a combined $18.8 million to retool Paper Excellence’s shuttered Crofton mill to manufacture new pulp products. Another $90 million from the province will be invested over three years to help transition struggling forestry communities. B.C. Premier David Eby said the new funds will “diversify local economies, promote value-added innovation in the forestry sector and create thousands of good-paying jobs.”

But with the lack of economic fibre, how far can these value-added innovations go? Where is the economically available raw material coming from to add value to? In my conversations with industry players: sawmillers, loggers, suppliers, they all point to the fact that the B.C. government must first address the biggest challenge facing the B.C. segment: the lack of a reliable supply of fibre. Companies will not invest in B.C. unless there is a clear plan to address this problem. Take Canfor for example – the company has shuttered some of its B.C. facilities both temporarily and permanently, but last year, it announced a $210 million investment in Alabama to build a sawmill with an annual production capacity of 250 million board feet. In fact, Canadian forestry giants – some of which are B.C.-based – have been investing in the U.S. South for years. Of course there’s a lot of reasons for this, but the key factors are the availability of economic fibre in that region, as well as the tariffs levied on Canadian softwood lumber.

Around the same time last year, the headlines were about the deferral of old-growth logging in B.C. and policy changes to the forest tenure system. Not surprisingly, the lack of access to fibre dominates the headlines these days due to the dramatic drop in the supply of logs from various factors such as wildfires, mountain pine and spruce beetle infestations, as well as the policy changes.

Yes, help is on the way: Premier Eby announced a $50 million funding to be used for projects and programs that increase the use of low-value or residual fibre, including trees damaged by recent wildfires and waste left over from logging that would otherwise be burned in slash piles. That’s a start. But more is needed to be done.

Now I am not one to believe in astrology, but on the Lunar New Year, Jan. 22, the Year of the Rabbit began, and I would like to believe in the lucky rabbit. Indeed, the rabbit is said to be one of the luckiest animals on the Chinese zodiac, as it symbolizes abundance, and it lives in harmony with nature. How appropriate for the forest industry! In this year of the hare, can the forest sector pull a rabbit out of the hat and bounce from the current challenges? Forest Economic Advisors’ Paul Jannke has some answers in his 2023 lumber markets outlook. Short-lived growing pains are in the forecast, he says, but there’s optimism on the horizon.

We said goodbye to the Year of the Tiger in 2022, which was a fierce one indeed for the forest sector. Traditionally, the Year of Rabbit is said to be a gentler year. Now that’s something worth believing. So let’s all hope that the industry will find its rabbit footing this year and be able to leap forward.

Read the January/February issue now!

In the case of the Canadian forest industry, social license can be divided into four segments: government; the broad Canadian population; communities where the industry is active; customers and investors.

Most of Canada’s managed forest land is in public ownership. Governments control all regulation, policy and permits. Respect for all regulations and good on-the-ground performance is expected.

The media and internet are flooded with criticism of forest management practices, but very little good info on management of our forests, industry performance and contribution of our products to society.

Communities that host mills producing building products and pulp and paper are special cases. These communities depend on the industry for their long-term socio-economic well-being. The forests that surround them provide many additional benefits. First Nations communities and municipalities should be formally and actively involved in the management of the forests upon which they depend. They have long-term vested interests in the health and good management of the forest. 

Any program to establish and maintain social license must be supported by a steady flow of excellent, clear, well-illustrated, factual information on forest management and field performance. We see lots of photos of clearcuts and stumps as far as the eye can see. Have you ever seen photos of harvested areas with regeneration that is 10, 20, 30 years old?

Biodiversity became an important aspect of forest management about 30 years ago with the approval of the International Convention on the Conservation of Biodiversity at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. It is indeed important. We read lots about the decline of the woodland caribou across Canada. New policy is gradually being developed to ease pressures on the caribou. But do you read anything about population levels of other wildlife such as bears, wolves, etc.? 

It is likely that any area of public forest land under active management has about 30 per cent of the area protected from harvest by policy and regulation. The proportion will vary with the topography, landscape and geology of the region. Of the approximately 150-160 million ha of managed public forest in Canada, perhaps 40-50 million ha are in conservation status.

Another aspect of forest management that is a matter of public interest is forest carbon. There are misconceptions about the effects of active management and harvesting on the carbon content of the forest. This is not easy to explain, but due to the importance of carbon and climate change, we must try. Does it take 60 years to replace the carbon removed when one per cent of the forest is harvested, while the rest continues to grow and sequester carbon from the atmosphere? Look at www.ForestryForTheFuture.ca. A good start, but more is needed. 

Here are the areas of action required to strengthen and maintain our social license:

• Ensure consistent respect for all policy and regulations governing long-term forest management and woodlands operations. Reports and third-party audits by the three sustainable forest management certification programs will help support this.
• Develop an information program in print, TV and internet to provide clear, factual, well-illustrated information on all key aspects of forest management, woodlands operations and the state of forest and wildlife populations. Partnerships with governments will add information and credibility.
• Broaden responsibility for forest management via active inclusion of First Nations communities and municipalities in forest management organizations that hold, manage and operate tenures.
• Ensure people understand the importance of lumber, wood panels, pulp and paper, and forest biomass products. How much lumber does it take to build a 1,400 sq. ft. of single family home? How much carbon is there in 1,000 fbm of lumber? 

Social license to operate is earned through good forest management and the provision of clear, well-illustrated information on the long-term management of our forests and performance on woodlands operations. 

Tony Rotherham (RPF B.C. and Ont. (ret’d)) has worked on woodlands operations in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec, as well as in Kenya and Iran. He worked for the CPPA (now FPAC) in the woodlands section for 21 years until 2001 and since then as a consultant, largely on private forest land policy.

Is the saw going to be cutting green lumber? Dry lumber? Are you cutting below the arbor or above the arbor? All of these must be factored into the design, along with determining the proper trimmer for getting the best results.

In the past, a traditional green end trimmer would normally drop a saw with a negative hook angle. This negative configuration would allow the saw to drop further down, and the force would actually help hold the lumber down as it went under the saws. 

The downside of the negative hook angle is that it can increase the occurrence of splintering the ends. This is more likely at the dry end trimmer where splintering certainly needs to be avoided. Most mills now use a saw with a positive hook angle on both the green and dry end trimmers. This is primarily to cut down on splintered ends.

One should also consider the hook angle of the expansion slots in their trim saws. The hook angle on the expansion slots will decrease cracking if they are cut on a positive hook instead of a negative. 

We also suggest using copper plugged expansion holes at the end of the slots. This accomplishes two things: further reducing cracking due to the chamfered holes and copper inserts and cutting down on noise that air would make whistling through the holes.

Remember, when trouble happens it may not be a saw issue. Check the hold-down shoes and lugs, ensuring that they are not worn or at least worn uniformly to ensure the proper flow of the boards through the cut. Make sure when repairing or replacing the transfer chains that they are all replaced at the same time to avoid pulling the boards while in the cut.

Today, because of the faster lug requirements on the dry end trimmers, a power cut normally is the best and it is achieved with a positive hook angle. Remember, this is also best to keep splintering down to a minimum. 

Sharp saws are always important to make a good clean cut. Mills should change their trim saws at least weekly or whenever they first show signs that they are dull, such as increased heat, horsepower and noise.

Typically, trim saw teeth were carbide and had an alternate top bevel. Carbide is still the prevalent material in trim saws, but many mills have gone to a V-top configuration allowing both sides of the cutting tip to work simultaneously. This creates less work for the saw, a smoother cut in the wood, and best of all for the mill’s bottom line, a 120-tooth trim saw can be replaced with a 60-tooth saw. 

We have been suggesting to the mills in our area to change to V-top tip when the saw needs re-tipping. This will give a smoother cut, stay sharper longer and just run better overall. A sharp trim saw will certainly help with a smooth end cut.

Paul Smith is the owner and CEO of Smith Sawmill Service (BID) with locations in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Reach him at paul@smithsawmillservice.com.

A dominant theme was the plethora of orphaned and fragmented conifer plantations in southern and central Ontario, with estimates ranging into several hundred thousand hectares. These forest stands held one thing in common – an almost desperate need of a first thinning. Many were in bad shape, collapsing and needed to be brought in under managed forest plans, and from a pragmatic perspective, become part of Ontario’s Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program (MFTIP). But following through on required management is often too costly for a typical landowner, and it can be difficult to find forest service providers, especially harvesting contractors willing to commit to individual small areas; so generally nothing was happening.

In summer 2020, we established two community forest owners co-operative pilots in the Kawartha and Huronia regions of southern Ontario to try to address these issues. The premise was to bring together landowners within a reasonable distance of each other to create economies of scale where underutilized wood in their orphaned and fragmented conifer plantations could be harvested for commercial use. OWA employed two RPF field managers for the pilot projects to ensure best management practices (BMPs) were applied including a comprehensive initial inventory and assessment, prescription writing, tree marking, invasives control, and supervised harvest. As a result, the landowners would start to see an improvement in the long-term productivity and health of their forests, with revenues realized from what was initially harvested, and more over time through the continued application of BMPs.

For many, the purpose of proactive management was to allow for the transition to a more biologically diverse woodlot, including indigenous tolerant hardwoods. For most, the economic benefit seemed secondary or unimportant. The wood fibre harvested from co-op properties in both pilot projects was made available for commercial enterprise as determined by its quality and best potential use, with several local mills benefiting.

An objective evaluation of our co-op pilots was carried out in summer 2021 by an academically supervised master of forest conservation student from University of Toronto, working as an OWA intern. Our co-op model was evaluated using multiple criteria. A literature review to compare the structure and operation of co-ops that have been successful nationally and internationally was also carried out. Additional work examined unsuccessful co-ops to determine what factors led to their failures. Based on the review and on-the-ground analysis, recommendations were made for if and when the OWA transitions beyond the pilot phase. Overall, the OWA model scored above average compared with the eight others evaluated. The resulting academic paper from this evaluation will be printed in an upcoming issue of The Forestry Chronicle.

While I am still trying to be objective about the results of our pilot projects to date, it is becoming apparent to me and others in the OWA ranks that the model works well, and the co-ops appear viable within both an economic and logistical context. We still have some bugs to fix. We still want to do more harvests this year to confirm our initial observations including the economic analysis. But I believe we can effectively apply our approach to other regions of the province, where needed. Part of our final evaluation of the pilot projects will include an introspective look at our capacity to grow the two pilots and to create other co-ops that are self-sustaining and viable over time. To be successful we will also need increased harvesting capacity, a better understanding of the carbon implications and benefits, improved utilization of wood fibre, and an increase in landowner management knowledge.

Meanwhile, far too many conifer plantations in southern and central Ontario remain in urgent need of that first thinning under the auspices of a managed forest plan. But word is getting out about what we are doing, and the queue to join our co-ops, or start new ones, is growing.

John Pineau is the executive director of the Ontario Woodlot Association.
Reach him at john.pineau@ontariowoodlot.com.

Recently, I’ve been to some trade shows and conferences both as an attendee and presenter, and what I noticed was that the events were often smaller affairs compared to pre-pandemic levels. But that is to be expected. With the uncertainties, a lot of companies did not budget for live events this year. More importantly, we can’t quite ignore health and safety concerns yet – some are still uncomfortable attending face-to-face or large-crowd gatherings. 

As for pandemic-era travel? Well, it’s a hassle, no two ways about it. Airfares are high, airports are packed, airlines are short-staffed, flights are almost always delayed and bags go missing. I have experienced “airmageddon” during my summer travels, both personal and professional, as I have had two cancelled flights, many many late departures and arrivals, and two delayed luggage. I guess I am still lucky, because if you were following the news, some have called it the summer of lost luggage as suitcases seem to have fallen off the conveyor-belt vortex, never to be found. I was fortunate that my bags arrived at my vacation destination after five days, just in time for my flight back home. And here I am still waiting on my stranded luggage insurance claims two months after.

And speaking of staff shortage, this issue has become a persistent topic at the conferences and trade shows I’ve attended. In my conversations with fellow delegates, the subject of the lack of manpower has been a hot topic – one that we will discuss in the next few issues as this challenge shows little indication of relenting. One can’t help but notice the abundance of help wanted signs everywhere. Staff shortage has gone from being seasonal to impacting industries all year. It has not only impacted the service and tourism segments, but all levels of employment from healthcare, government, and of course, our own industry, as well as many other sectors.  We at Canadian Forest Industries are busy exploring this issue, interviewing companies and individuals, asking where have all the workers gone and what the companies are doing to resolve this problem?  So stay tuned.

For now, enjoy this jam-packed issue covering informative topics such as steep slope logging. We went to Nelson, B.C., to get a better look at cable yarding the steep, difficult terrain of the province’s West Kootenay region. A steep slope harvesting expert also wrote an article to answer the question: is logging on steep slopes a challenge or a solution? 

Our contributing editor caught up with Groupe Savoie to discuss the company’s latest investment on a new sorting plant at its facility in New Brunswick. We also have a feature on artificial intelligence and how it can help us obtain better data on forests. Our contributor wrote about how partnerships with Indigenous communities can enhance the success and sustainability of the forest sector. Another prevalent topic in our industry is social license, and our columnist wrote a thought-provoking piece on that subject.

One of our popular features is the Forestry Leaders Q&A, and in this issue, we talk to COFI’s new president and CEO Linda Coady, and I hope you will be inspired by her optimism.

Also in this issue is a year-end update on the North American softwood lumber market, our coverage of the Timber Processing and Energy Expo held in Portland, Ore., in September, and comprehensive features on introducing new technology in the woods, as well as new equipment in the market. 

As always, I encourage you to keep in touch between issues, either via email or social media. I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and reactions. 

The good news is that with the return of in-person events, for sure we will meet again soon. 

Read the November/December issue now!

In this edition of CFI, we explore values, leadership, work ethic and success.

First, we introduce you to our industry’s rising stars featured in our cover story. They are the young foresters, loggers, engineers, founders of a successful start-up, game-changers and innovators who are being feted at this year’s momentous Top 10 Under 40 awards.

It is worth noting the crucial role that their families played in the success of some of our awardees, whether being inspired by a parent who worked in the industry, or getting a head start from a family member in starting or continuing the family business.

In this 10th edition of the awards, we were again impressed not only by the quantity, but very high quality of nominations. 

In fact, we hit many milestones this year: we received a record number of submissions, and a record number of women nominees. 

For the first time in 10 years, we have an equal number of men and women awardees from all over the country. It is indeed inspiring to read about the future leaders of our industry who are at the top of their game.

Also at the top of their game are the two multi-generational family-run enterprises we are featuring: Kalesnikoff Lumber and Herrington Logging. In addition to running profitable businesses, these ventures affirm their family values and commitments to quality, service and giving back to the community. 

Four generations of the Herrington family. Photo courtesy of Herrington Logging.

Kalesnikoff is a company run by young ones. In fact, its CFO and COO were past CFI Top 10 Under 40 awardees. I met with the inspiring COO, Chris Kalesnikoff, in August, when I visited the company’s woodlands, mass timber and sawmill facilities in B.C.’s Kootenay region. 

Chris told me the inspiring beginnings of Kalesnikoff Lumber, when a young immigrant family started a small logging business in 1939 and never stopped innovating and evolving to become the groundbreaking family-oriented firm it is now. Currently, the average age of employees at Kalesnikoff is between 30 to 40.

The family can trace the mill’s roots back to 1939. Photo courtesy of the Kalesnikoff family.

Our managing editor, Maria Church, sat with one of the inaugural Top 10 Under 40 awardees, Lacey Rose, for a 10-year update on her journey in the forest industry.

Of course we have our regular feature on sawfiling; a rundown of the newest kilns in the market, as well as tips on operating chainsaws in the winter. 

Contributors also wrote about improving the reliability of Canadian resource roads to provide forest management access, and about a forest owners co-operative pilot program in Ontario involving orphaned and fragmented conifer plantations in the province.

Also for this edition, we went to Nova Scotia and sat down with members of a committee that keeps tabs on forestry’s social license, to learn how they are offering a platform to concerned citizens to better understand what it will take to re-establish a pulp mill in their community.

Our team also went to White River, Ont., to find out how the re-opened sawmill is addressing labour shortage through immigration. 

We get to hear the heartwarming story of Gabriel Ortega, a new immigrant from Honduras who moved his family to White River, Ont., last year so he could work at White River Forest Products.

“It’s easier to succeed in this country, which is more fair for everybody,” he proudly said.

If you have or know of a similar story, we would love the honour to be the storyteller. If you have an idea for an article, do let us know. You can reach us via our social media channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, plus my email. I am happy to let you know that we read your suggestions and we are pursuing them. In fact, one such idea is found in this issue – a reader suggested an article about operating chainsaws during the winter months, and voila, we have some tips on proper operation and maintenance during the cold months. 

The rest of your suggestions will be in the upcoming issues, so stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, I hope the stories in the next pages will inspire you the way they did our team. 

Read the September/October issue now!

The protest organizations have waged sophisticated misinformation campaigns to raise funds and legitimize their tactics. As part of those campaigns, they have sought to anthropomorphize the entire area with the name Fairy Creek. In fact, Fairy Creek is one small watershed within the larger TFL – about 1,200 hectares out of 60,000. And, that watershed has largely been protected from forestry activities for years, long before the protestors showed up.

While the protestors have portrayed themselves as peaceful, non-violent activists taking a stand against old-growth logging their spin does not line up with the facts.

We’ve had to put measures in place to detect nails and spikes in trees from the region since protestors first encamped there in 2020. Just last week a spiked tree made it through to a saw, destroying equipment. Fortunately, the mill worker was not injured, but spiked logs that reach the saws can send out shrapnel with the potential to maim or kill mill workers.

Spiking trees is meant to kill forestry workers. We’ve detected dozens of spiked trees harvested from the areas around where protestors were camped.

That is just one outrageous tactic our employees have been subject to – not to mention the environmental damage they’ve caused. Last summer, activists sprang out of the bush naked and ran at fallers actively working with chainsaws in an effort to startle them. The activists dug trenches across public roads, both to undermine bridges and cement themselves in. They vandalized equipment. They sabotaged helicopter landing pads, which could injure or kill pilots and workers attempting to land there. The activists clogged culverts to divert waterways and wash out roads. They dug roads and paths through the old growth forest, damaging protected areas we were respecting, and then cried foul in social media when we removed their illegal routes. They disabled the locking mechanism of a gate with construction foam, blocking access to a local First Nation. They posted a sign stating they have spiked trees with hundreds of nails. They scattered nails on roads. In one troubling instance they forced a vehicle of tree planters on their way to work to stop, held the workers, and insisted they be allowed to search the tree planters’ vehicle. The activists have smeared their own feces on barriers and traps rigged to make removal difficult. They assaulted police officers.

While this past summer has not seen the same level of activity, we continue to find evidence of sabotage and violence – bundles of spikes stashed in the bush, clogged culverts, undermined bridges.

Of course, not all protestors engaged in such violence, but too many did. Peaceful protest and fact-based debate are core to Canadian values, but when protest crosses the line into violence, supported by sophisticated fundraising and misinformation campaigns, we must all take a stand. Teal Jones has done just that. We will continue to stand for our workers, for facts in the face of misinformation, and for responsible forestry.

The facts? Our activities in Tree Farm Licence 46 are responsible and important, consistent with all provincial regulations, voluntary third-party certifications, and engagement with local First Nations. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pacheedaht First Nation, building on our existing strong relationship founded on respect and listening. More than half the old growth in the TFL is protected and was long before the blockaders arrived – identified as being important for values such as waterways, big trees, and wildlife habitat, and those areas were already set aside. Broad areas of the TFL were removed and made into parks in the 1990s – the largest and best-known is the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park. On the remaining land base, our work with both second and old growth timber supports hundreds of good jobs while providing the materials needed for numerous products we all rely on every day. We turn high-value old growth into value-added products such as guitar tops and special cuts for furniture-makers. More standard logs become the raw materials for building much-needed housing. All the sawdust and chips produced from milling is sold on to be turned into products such as paper and medical gowns. A value-added manufacturer, Teal Jones mills all logs here in B.C., using 100 per cent of every log in our mills.

Therefore, filing rooms need experienced and seasoned sawfilers more than ever. The sawfiler’s role may have changed, but the need for the sawfiler’s knowledge has not. An experienced sawfiler will take this change and make it work for both filer and mill. When a filer embraces this change and allows the robotics in his filing room to do the recurring task, it not only relieves the filer to do other tasks, but also helps prevent health risks associated with labour-intensive and repetitive jobs. Just as the head filer would train and oversee an apprentice, he still will need to program, set and keep watch over the robot. This is a never-ending process. 

Robotics can not determine for themselves how a tooth should be configured, nor can a robot know when parts need to be replaced or aligned. Because robotics must be programmed, it may help with retaining some of the filer’s knowledge of saw measurements and requirements to perform its best run. Almost everyone can relate to walking in the filing room and seeing writings on the walls that a filer would reference to –  how much back a band needs, or what tension worked better for what saw – but information had to be kept to allow recurring success in the filing room. I can remember hearing often a filer saying, “do not erase that chalk on the wall.” Today this information is retained in programs that are written for robotic filing equipment by sawfilers. 

Mill owners and managers would not take a non-experienced sawfiler off the mill floor and have them operate robotics in a filing room. No more than a race car owner or manager would pull a licensed driver out of the stands to drive their race car. 

However, we do have our filing rooms filled with new high tech CNC machines with robotic capabilities that have made the sawfiler’s job not only easier but also possible to acquire an accurate cutting performance that has never been achieved with repeatable performance.  In the last five years we have seen big advancement with machines and technology in our filing rooms. This is a good thing because right outside our filing room doors, on the mill floors, we are seeing machines that require the saws we build and repair to turn faster, run straighter, while taking feed speeds we never thought possible. We now find, not only do we have to keep the saws standing up fast while in the cut, but also keeping them standing up without waving to side, shifting on the fly, pretty much at the blink of an eye. 

We are faced today with not enough seasoned sawfilers for our mills. The filers we do have are experiencing a movement with new and advanced machines to help get the saws repaired and sharpened. These machines need well-trained and knowledgeable filers to operate them. We do have these machines but we do not have AI; we do have intelligent saw filers that will have a job in the filing room for as long as we have a wood industry.

A good sawfiler will ask for this advanced, high-tech equipment along with the best saws available that will allow them to provide the saws needed to run in today’s sawmills. Good sawfilers have always stepped up to provide for the latest thin kerf, fast running moneymaking machines that are outside our filing room doors. Good mill managers will support their filers while finding ways and funding to support them with the right equipment and personnel needs. Good vendors will continue to provide information on products to the filing room, help with return-on-investment needs and ideas, while providing knowledge of both the pros and cons of new machines being considered for the filing room. 

Paul Smith is the owner and CEO of Smith Sawmill Service LLC with locations in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Reach him at paul@smithsawmillservice.com.

But I chose “changing of the guards” because it is poetic: it means handing over the responsibility of the previous sentry to the next guardian. And what a strange time to take over the reins of CFI as its editor – its custodian – with pressing issues within the sector like climate change and wildfires, as well as global challenges like the ongoing pandemic and inflation.

In this environment and against this backdrop, a trusted voice to present unique and helpful content has never been more important. 

I come to CFI from FPInnovations, where I was an editor and media relations specialist. Prior to that, I have held editorial positions in various media — including prior stints at international forest industry publications such as Pulp & Paper Canada, and Fastmarkets RISI’s Pulp & Paper International (Brussels, Belgium), and Pulp & Paper Asia News (Singapore). In between, I wrote and edited for international outlets such as Financial Times, Forbes, Newsweek, and Montreal Gazette, among others, but the forest industries kept pulling me back. 

In my more than 20 years covering the industry, I have been fortunate to visit several mills and plantations in North America, Europe and Asia, collecting materials for in-depth articles and profiles on forest product companies around the world, but also humbled to have covered forest fires in Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, reporting about the consequences not only to the companies, but also to the communities and the environment. I am convinced that these experiences will help me in my current role. 

Indeed, it’s a huge honour to be entrusted with the journalistic legacy of CFI, Canada’s leading forest industries magazine since 1881, and to be counted on to lead the publication into the future. I hope to maintain this legacy and I am committed to improve the quality even further, increase its impact and keep it relevant to benefit the readers and the forest sector.  Luckily, I have been bequeathed a magazine with an extraordinarily strong, creative and talented editorial and support team, and with an involved and very active readership. 

Your engagement with what we put out every day is very important to me because I may be the editor, but this is your CFI. I welcome your suggestions, discussions and thoughts. Tell me what you would like to read more of; who and what you would like to see featured. Write to us, but even better, write for us! Let’s keep in contact between issues. Please continue to email, tweet and message us – let us follow each other on social media — comment on our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn posts, and if pressed for time, a simple like, heart, tag or retweet would do.

With your input, CFI will continue to publish high quality stories and in-depth articles that our readers have come to expect in every issue. 

Some such features are in the latest issue: our team went to B.C. to find out how Tor-Kel Contracting keeps its operation small and agile with winch assist; then we went to Quebec to meet the family behind Groupe de Scierie GDS, who invested $66 million to expand their sawmills, planing mill and pellet plant. 

Now I will let you go ahead and discover our other comprehensive features on wildfire and community resilience, social license, sustainable forestry and the latest technology and equipment available for mills and loggers in 2022. 

Keep in touch! 

The capacity of the gullet will impact cutting efficiency. The gullet must hold enough sawdust to avoid overfilling or packing. If the gullet is too small and too much sawdust and chips fill the gullet then they will pack, causing resistance and overheating. This loads down the machine, requiring more energy and causing damage to the saw. 

Gullets with too much capacity can be just as bad as gullets with not enough capacity. Gullets that are too large may cause a weak tooth. This can lead to bent teeth, tooth loss and vibration. It may even contribute to what is known in the industry as wash boarding. Therefore, we need the gullet to be properly designed and balanced to match the needs of the saw.

Feed speed, rpms, depth of cut, chip or sawdust expansion along with tooth bite and tooth space all determine the ideal size of the gullet. You will need a gullet that will hold the sawdust long enough to extract it as the tooth comes back around to the other side and exits the cut. This gullet needs to be large enough to loosely hold the sawdust cut from each tooth. Green, moist sawdust packed in a gullet to full capacity could get stuck and have a hard time getting thrown out of the gullet. This will increase friction and unwanted heat. Left unchecked, the blade will overheat and become damaged.

The gullet’s edges must be kept square to contain the sawdust until it is discharged. Smooth, rounded edges in the gullets will cause sawdust spillage: sawdust spilling down between the saw plate and the wood being cut. This also creates heat on the saw leading to saw damage and poorly cut lumber. Too much spillage will even cause the saw to be pushed over due to the lack of clearance for the saw to pass through the wood.

Grinding the gullets can be performed with a post grinder or more automated profile grinder. For circle saws, our shop finds that the best and most efficient way is to mill it with a cutting tool using a CNC milling machine using a fourth axis. After programming the profile configuration and saving the program, it proves to be an easy, less time consuming and perfect job without adding heat to change the gullet’s hardness. Gullets will also harden with the constant pounding from the sawdust. If the gullets are not kept ground or milled they can crack. 

For bandsaws, grinding of the gullets is pretty much needed after every run. Most filers continue to lightly grind a round or two on their profile grinders that will take just enough off to get past that hardened steel, taking the saw back to the correct hardness. Some filers use a dremel or round file to achieve the same results. For roundsaws, we have a directive in place to grind the gullets every time the saw is retipped. It is very important to keep the gullets square. This will keep the sawdust in the gullet and not allow it to spill out the low side.

In other columns, I have stated that sharpness and design of the tooth is the most important thing about a guided circular saw. I will add that a sharp, well-designed tooth cannot function without the right gullet. Size, shape and condition of the gullet are all important, especially for bandsaws. The deeper and less radius a gullet has, the more likely the stress at the bottom of the gullet which will cause gullet cracks. Other concerns are poor grinding, leaving burrs and overheating the sawplate during grinding. All of these factors can result in deficiencies in the gullet.

At the end of the shift, the number of teeth and the size and shape of the gullet should be engineered or designed to work in unison to not overload the gullet and break teeth or create sawdust so fine that it washes out of the gullet, overheating the saw. If designed properly, the gullet should hold and carry the sawdust created by the tooth until the tooth leaves the bottom of the cut.

A saw manufacturer will help you determine the gullet requirements that will match up to your sawing needs. You will have to supply a few key components about your operation, such as: bore/spine diameter, outside diameter, plate thickness and kerf along with your operating rpms, maximum and minimum depth of cut and feed speed.

Paul Smith is the owner and CEO of Smith Sawmill Service LLC with locations in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Reach him at paul@smithsawmillservice.com.

While governments play a different role than the companies, they seem equally keen to help stem the tide of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Generally speaking, their job is to support organizations’ carbon-cutting efforts through economic incentives, consistent standards, and regulatory oversight. 

There are two basic forms of offsets, one form is compliance markets, where governments purchase or generate offsets to meet international climate change commitments. As an example, B.C. purchased 7.5 million tonnes (carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e) between 2010 and 2020. The second is the voluntary market where people and businesses can buy carbon offsets as part of their pursuit of a smaller carbon footprint; you might see this as an option when you purchase your airline tickets. 

With strong ambitions and large sums of money dedicated to combatting climate change, many will want to get a piece of the voluntary market. But it’s still an emerging market, and as such it’s subject to people looking to make quick money. On the compliance market side, government regulations, frameworks and protocols are still being developed and, as they exist now, are not always clear. 

The carbon offset market is still young and developing, with a lot of options and some significant risks. Understanding both is crucial. 

Common features

All carbon offsets need to meet some basic criteria:

1. The impact needs to be real, verifiable, and quantifiable. In most cases this will require third-party verification and monitoring;
2. The impacts must be “additional”, which means that the proposed project cannot be required by regulation, or business as usual, or generate an economic return without the benefit of the offsets;
3. The party generating the offsets needs to be able to demonstrate clear enforceable ownership to the offsets;
4. The offsets must have an impact that is permanent, or in the case of sequestration-based projects, have a verifiable lifespan over the term of the offset.

In Canada, the issue of ownership can be particularly tricky, as discussed in more detail below, where offsets are generated on Crown land that may be subject to underlying Indigenous title, or on treaty, reserve or tenured land that may still be subject to takings by the Crown.

Know your options

There are multiple types of carbon offsets one can design and sell, and not all are created equal.

Forestry companies and other businesses

Conventional wisdom among businesses is that the only way you can generate carbon offsets in forestry is through land use changes: planting trees to create new forests (afforestation) or avoided conversion of existing forests into other use, such as residential or commercial development or agricultural. But other options exist which can reduce risk (more on risk in the next section), provide good returns, and benefit the environment.

People are beginning to think outside the box about carbon offset opportunities including offsets generated from: 

Active land management practices:

• Increasing the growth rate of trees through fertilization and planting improved stock
• Delaying harvest of trees to optimize carbon sequestration
• Developing landscape-scale offsets for conducting activities that reduce fire risk

Offsets generated by different industrial practices:

• Using electric drives rather than hydraulics in a mill
• Replacing natural-gas kilns with biomass-fired kilns 
• Minimizing the amount of rail and truck shipping required

Forest opportunities in other sectors:

• Long-lived wood products used to replace more carbon-intensive materials in construction;
• Biochar as an additive to agricultural soils;
• Hedge and windrow planting to reduce soil erosion.

These are just some examples among many. 

Biochar as an additive to agricultural soils is an example of a carbon offset opportunity for forestry companies in other sectors.

First Nations

In Canada, First Nations and Indigenous communities are interested in the promise of carbon offsets and are being regularly courted by offset developers. With the right government agreements treaty and Aboriginal title lands hold a lot of potential for carbon offset development. At the same time, Crown land may, in many places, be subject to underlying claims of Aboriginal title, which leaves the question of who owns the Carbon credits in doubt.

Most treaties between governments and Indigenous people have not been modernized to the point where there’s a clear understanding of carbon ownership – i.e., who actually owns the carbon rights associated with the resources. But there are some examples of First Nations with modern treaties (like the Nisqa’a) and First Nations with Aboriginal title (like the Tsilhqot’in) where ownership of the carbon rights is not in doubt. This creates opportunities to design offset protocols in a way that enhances other Indigenous values, and also generate income.

How to make the most of opportunities

Establishing a baseline of the carbon emissions before implementation of a project is also critical. Once decisions are made that begin to reduce the carbon footprint outside of a carbon offset project, those GHG reductions are no longer “additional” and are not eligible to generate credits. In other words, it is important to generate a picture of the status quo before you begin to change it.

Know the risks

It goes without saying that being an early participant in an emerging market can be risky, especially one where regulatory standards and frameworks are still being developed. Anyone looking to buy carbon offsets needs to do their homework about where and who they buy from. And those looking to design and sell carbon credits need to pay attention to ever-present physical and investment risks.

Physical risks

In the previously mentioned scenario of developing carbon credits simply putting fence around a certain section of forested lands, the physical risks are obvious. They include any natural disaster or forest health event such as:

• Fire
• Insects
• Drought
• Landslides
• And more

These risks can be mitigated by developing baskets of offsets across a larger area, which means there is less likelihood of an offset project being wiped out by a single event. Other mitigation strategies may include insurance or offset projects that have a built-in reserve of offset generating capacity that only kicks in if another part of the project is impaired or damaged.

Investment and business risks

Getting into the carbon offset market requires you to make upfront investments and expenses. It’s important to do your homework so you can minimize the risk of losing your investment or making bad deals that will be costly later on.

The first thing you need to understand is who actually owns the carbon rights associated with the resources in question. While this may seem like a basic question on the surface, ownership rights under the current frameworks are complex and sometimes blurry, especially with land-based credits.

Understanding the underlying land rights when working with Indigenous stakeholders is essential. Most treaties were made without any consideration for the ownership and monetization of carbon rights, and there is potential for disputes.

Also look into the specifics of your land tenure. Your tenure may include the right to harvest trees, and you may even have an agreement on the carbon for the tenure. But tenures aren’t absolute. British Columbia passed new legislation in the fall of 2021 that allows them to take back tenures and compensate tenure holders at their discretion.

Once the questions of ownership and tenure are resolved, you need to prove that your carbon capture efforts are additional to what you were already doing. And you will need to be able to verify the levels of carbon you’re capturing, taking measurements years after your project starts. If these standards cannot be met, you risk not being able to monetize your carbon credits the way you hoped to.

If you’re going to do it, do it right

The key to minimizing risks and making the most of opportunities in the carbon offset market is developing consistent frameworks and regulations. There are credible carbon offset frameworks out there; to get the most out of their investment, Canadian businesses need to hold themselves to a high standard of quality. Only then will these carbon credit initiatives benefit organizations, investors, and most importantly, the planet.

Jason Fisher is a member of MNP’s consulting services team in Prince George, B.C. His focus is on advising clients in the forestry and natural resources sectors on sustainable resource management, policy development and impact assessment, and community and government relations. jason.fisher@mnp.ca. 

Big things are happening. Indigenous management of forest resources has increased 135 per cent since 2003. Canada’s forest sector supports jobs in more than 400 Indigenous communities, employing 11,600 Indigenous peoples, and supporting 1,400 Indigenous-owned businesses.

I know from my own community of Flying Dust First Nation how important forestry is to our people. In partnership with the other nations in the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, we own the largest Indigenous-owned sawmill in Canada, producing 140 million board feet of stud lumber a year: Norsask Forest Products. With lumber prices nice and high, our communities have been able to benefit not only from good, local jobs, but also significant dividends that we can then use for housing, cultural activities, and other essential needs.

Even though forestry is a renewable resource that when harvested responsibly is very sustainable, it still has its opponents, and they can be loud. 

As the executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network, a non-partisan network of workers, business owners and leaders that advocates for policies that advance Indigenous participation, ownership and benefits from resource development, I wanted to ensure people understand what grassroots First Nations and Métis people thought about forestry, instead of allowing activists to presume to speak on our behalf. That’s why we commissioned a poll by Environics Research to gauge Indigenous support for forestry and other resource development activities. A total of 510 self-identified First Nations, Métis and Inuit persons living in rural areas or on reserve across Canada (excluding P.E.I. and the territories, which have no commercial forestry) were interviewed by phone this past January and February.

The poll confirmed what we always suspected: strong Indigenous support for forestry activities, with about twice as many Indigenous peoples indicating they support (62 per cent) rather than oppose (33 per cent) forestry. 

Other interesting findings were that 70 per cent agreed their community had adequate knowledge, skills, policies and planning in place to take advantage of forestry activities. The forest is our home, and we know it better than anyone else. We want to take the lead on the development of forestry activities in our territories.

And when we take the lead, we know it can be done well. Over half (54 per cent) of respondents thought forestry could definitely be done while respecting the land and the environment, compared to only 18 per cent who thought it was definitely not possible to achieve both. The most important aspects to Indigenous people in doing forestry well was care for the environment (67 per cent), the economic benefits (65 per cent), worker safety (62 per cent) and protecting cultural sites (62 per cent). 

Although forestry has always taken place in our territories, in the past two decades more and more Indigenous communities have exercised their treaty and inherent rights to become better involved and respected in the management of forest resources. We see this as the future of forestry, providing certainty and partnerships for industry and economic and environmental benefits for our communities, workers and businesses. 

When Indigenous communities and the forestry sector work together, we can all win. 

Bob Merasty is the executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network. Merasty has dedicated his professional life to advancing the economic and social well-being of Indigenous people. 

What is inclusive language? Most basically, inclusive language respects all people as valued members of society. It does not exclude, or stereotype based on individual characteristics such as race, sexual orientation, age, ability, or gender identity. 

We all have biases, both conscious and unconscious. Many of us are not aware when these biases leak into the language we use. For example, using the term “guys” to address a room full of men might seem fine. But if the group is diverse, other people in the room may not feel acknowledged or seen.

For some people – especially those who have never faced marginalization for their identities – the importance of inclusive language may seem minor compared to other workplace issues. But it is a big deal. Understanding and using inclusive language plays an important role in promoting higher employee engagement, better customer service, and increased productivity. Most importantly, we live and work in diverse communities, so it is important to make everyone feel seen and included. 

Before we get into examples of inclusive language, we need to understand a few basics.

Sex, gender, and sexual orientation

It is common for people to confuse sex, gender expression, and gender identity. But they’re all different things. Understanding the difference is critical when learning about the importance of inclusive language. 

Sex is a label – male or female – that you’re assigned at birth by a doctor, based on external sex organs, sex chromosomes, and internal reproductive structures. While the sex you were assigned at birth is a fixed category, your gender identity and gender expression could be a much more fluid combination. 

Gender expression is what’s visible about your gender to other people. Instead of being about body parts, gender expression is about how you act, dress, walk, talk or act. Gender norms vary between cultures, and over time. Be careful not to assume someone’s gender identity based on their gender expression. 

Gender identity is how you feel inside. It’s your deeply held sense of being male, female or another gender. This is separate from birth-assigned sex.

People whose gender identity and birth-assigned sex align are called cisgender, and transgender refers to a person who does not identify either fully or in part with the gender associated with their birth-assigned sex. Using the term cisgender is important because it acknowledges that other gender identities exist. 

Gender binary is the mistaken notion that there are only two sexes (male/female) that align with two gender identities (man/woman) and gender expressions (masculine/feminine.) The gender binary creates cultural expectations and pressures that marginalize those that don’t fit into gender binary.

Sexual orientation is your physical, emotional and/or romantic attractions to others. It is not a preference or a lifestyle. Inclusive language does not assume that sex, gender, and sexual orientation fit neatly into the binary model of male/female, man/woman, and straight/gay.

Pronouns and gender inclusion

One simple way to be more inclusive is to use the gender-neutral pronoun they, when speaking about a hypothetical person, or when you don’t know a person’s gender identity. You should also avoid terms like sir, ma’am and miss when addressing people. 

When addressing mixed gender groups, use terms such as folks, friends, or everyone, instead of guys and ladies and gentlemen.

The first principle when dealing with someone directly is, when in doubt, ask. Do not make assumptions about a person’s identity based on their appearance or our cultural biases. You can create a safe conversation by starting with self-identifying, for example, “Hi my name is Chris and my pronouns are he/him.”

It’s also important to be aware of your internal biases. The terms we use to describe various professions is often gendered – like policeman, mailman, or stewardess. Pause and think before you speak about a particular profession – it’s just as easy to use the term police officer, flight attendant, or mail carrier.

When someone’s gender is unknown, many people will make assumptions. For example, referring to an unknown CEO as he/him, or an unknown nurse as she/her. If a person’s gender is not known, it’s best to ask – or use the term they.

It’s also important to not make assumptions about marital or family relationships (for example, use spouse or partner instead of husband and wife.) Even seemingly harmless phrases like mom and dad can pose difficulties, as they fail to acknowledge that many households do not have two opposite-sex parents. Refer to someone’s parent or parents instead.

Put the person first

Inclusive language is about acknowledging that people are complicated human beings – they are not defined by their gender, race, religion, or physical or cognitive condition or circumstance. 

When speaking about a person’s medical situation, illness, or injury, only do so if it’s relevant to the topic – and always put the person first. For example, saying “a person who uses a wheelchair” is inclusive. Saying someone is “confined to a wheelchair” or “wheelchair bound” is not. Similarly, for cognitive conditions, say “a person with autism” rather than referring to someone as autistic.

When referring to a person’s race or ethnicity, use adjectives, not nouns (for example, say an Asian person, not an Asian.) 

Similarly, use descriptors of gender identity or sexual orientation as modifiers, not as nouns. For example, say a lesbian woman rather than a lesbian. When speaking about professions, refrain from saying a female judge or a male nurse, as this implies certain professions have a default gender.

The effort is worth it

At first it may take a bit more energy to be mindful of the language you use – but it’s worth it. In doing so, you’re retraining your brain, setting an example for others, and contributing to a supportive work environment.

There are other ways to promote inclusivity in your workplace – but being mindful and deliberate about the words you use is a simple and easy way to start. 

Caity Klaudt, RFT, Carole Savage, RPF, and Cindy Fife, RPF, are occupational safety officers with WorkSafeBC.

Even the word brings a dozen preconceptions to mind. From scenes of an auto assembly plant to the latest Hollywood take on an AI apocalypse, there’s a lot to digest there.

Robots in sawmills? Not that long ago it was unusual at best. Now, as I’ve been learning of late, there were a few pretty good reasons for that. 

But today, I’m excited to share with you our latest cover story is a close look at the Maritime forestry heavyweight J.D. Irving’s (JDI) robot journey that has led them to recently install two articulating robots on their hardwood mill’s tie line.

Jody Gallant, business improvement manager with JDI’s hardwood and pine division, was the man with a plan for the company’s implementation of robots over the past few years. He shared with me a few reasons, as he sees it, why mills have been slow to adopt robots.

One: robots are expensive, right? Yes and no. The past few years have seen robot prices drop considerably as more companies enter the sphere. However, the lumber handling configuration needed to make a robot function can be costly, as JDI has learned. 

Two: language. Robots have historically been programmed with a language that requires specialized training and therefore a specialist to operate. JDI’s robot provider was able to supply bots programmed using the same language used in the sawmill’s PLCs. This was a game-changer for them. 

A third reason is, ironically, about people. Most forestry companies, both large and small, pride themselves on their relationship with the communities in which they operate. These are forestry communities, and most people there have relatives in the industry. So, when a sawmill installs automation that replaces jobs, it likely raises eyebrows.

Explaining to staff the reason behind incorporating robots into the mills was a top priority for Gallant from the outset of the projects. “…last thing we want to do is demotivate people,” he told me. When a worker made a joke about a robot replacing her job, Gallant was quick to point out exactly what job it was. Her response was something to the effect of: Oh good, the robot can have that job! 

“We know the labour market is changing and we know we have less people applying. So let’s make the hard jobs go away and focus on the value-added jobs and jobs that people enjoy doing, that they get up and are excited to come to work for,” Gallant said.

The industry has long discussed the aging workforce, shrinking pool of skilled trades people and the difficulties retaining general labourers. Robots offer a real solution, but it doesn’t come easily. For JDI, the projects were managed entirely in-house, involving a large team. And each project came with its own lessons learned about the capabilities of the robots, the sawmills and the team. 

But what better way to motivate staff and encourage new hires than to take on such an innovative and exciting project?

And, of course, now’s the time to spend wisely in preparation for the eventual downswing of sky-high lumber prices that we all know is coming. 

I’ve been hearing whispers of other large forestry companies undergoing similar robot projects. The wood processing industry, it seems, is in for a robotic revolution, and I am excited to see what comes of it. 

Speaking of innovation, our OptiSaw event is back this year after a two-year pandemic hiatus and I’m excited to see the great lineup of speakers ready to share their sawmill automation and optimization solutions. Check out the agenda for the June 9 event in Kelowna, B.C., at www.optisaw.com. 

And, new this year, we’re bringing this winning event formula to the logging world with OptiLog Forum. Taking place the day before OptiSaw in the same location, OptiLog will bring out a terrific lineup of industry disruptors in the harvesting world. Check it out at www.optilogforum.com. 

The single-headrig mill with a 54-foot bandsaw was owned and operated by a well-respected family of multiple generations. The filer was somewhere around 70 years of age and had worked at the same mill for three generations of mill owners. The filer was very dedicated to his job and the owners appreciated his work and considered him part of the family.

The filer’s wife and family have been after the old filer to retire, yet the old filer did not care to give up his trade. Finally, he made the trip to the owner’s office one day and as he stood at the door, the owner very politely got up out of his seat and met the filer halfway across the room in front of the desk.

The owner said, “Is everything OK? You hardly ever come to the office.”

The old filer said, “Yes sir, I just needed to let you know something.”

The owner beckoned him to sit down. As they both took a seat and the owner asked what he could do for him, the filer dropped his head and said that, because of his age and his family pushing him to retire, he was giving a year’s notice.

The owner immediately replied, “Of course. You have been very faithful to me and all our family for many years. We only wish you the best as you have given your best to us. And with a year’s notice you still take care of us by giving us plenty of time to replace you. We so much appreciate your work here and your kindness and dedication to our family.”

The owner then reached for his pencil and paper and started calculating. “Well sir, you repair two bands a day for about 260 workdays a year. Our band that we run is 54 feet in length with 2-inch tooth spacing. That comes to 324 teeth per band. Swaging twice a day for 260 days will have you pull on that swage 168,480 times before your retirement.”

The owner walked the old filer to the door with his hand on his shoulder, praising him for his work at the mill. As the old filer walked out, the owner said, “You come back to the office anytime you want to visit.”

The next day, as the owner approached his office, he saw the old filer sitting outside his door, apparently waiting to talk. The owner somewhat awkwardly asked, “What can I do for you? You were just here yesterday.”

With hesitation, the old filer looked the owner in the eye and dropped his shoulder, finally blurting out that thinking about pulling on that swage another 168,480 times brought him to the conclusion that he could not pull on it even one more time. Apologizing as he went, the old filer started walking out the door, stating that he had decided his retirement started today and he was going home to rest.

When I think about that story today, I come to the conclusion that it can be both overwhelming and frustrating to think about performing a physical task over and over again. That’s not to mention the health issues it may cause.

Does the younger generation realize the importance of technology when they use automatic swage and shapers or even semi-auto swages? Or, should we go one step further and ask, do mill owners and managers realize the good of these machines? Does the new management today understand the hard work that filers put in to keep the mill running efficiently and profitably?

Today, we are a very fortunate generation to have such technology and proven advancements in our wood industry. This opinion is more for owners and managers than it is for the old filers:

The mills have great filers that maintain the filing room to a degree that enhances productivity and profits for the mills. Please consider giving the old filers the tools and equipment that may entice them to put in a few more good years in the filing room.

After all, it’s in the owners’ and management’s best interest to retain trained, experienced staff who can keep saws sharp while passing on knowledge to the next generation of workers.

This column is dedicated to the Olgtree family. Their sawmill was in operation from 1920 to the 1960s. 

The capacity of the gullet will impact cutting efficiency. The gullet must hold enough sawdust to avoid overfilling or packing. If the gullet is too small and too much sawdust and chips fill the gullet then they will pack, causing resistance and overheating. This loads down the machine, requiring more energy and causing damage to the saw.

Gullets with too much capacity can be just as bad as gullets with not enough capacity. Gullets that are too large may cause a weak tooth. This can lead to bent teeth, tooth loss and vibration. It may even contribute to what is known in the industry as wash boarding. Therefore, we need the gullet to be properly designed and balanced to match the needs of the saw.

Feed speed, rpms, depth of cut, chip or sawdust expansion along with tooth bite and tooth space all determine the ideal size of the gullet. You will need a gullet that will hold the sawdust long enough to extract it as the tooth comes back around to the other side and exits the cut. This gullet needs to be large enough to loosely hold the sawdust cut from each tooth. Green, moist sawdust packed in a gullet to full capacity could get stuck and have a hard time getting thrown out of the gullet. This will increase friction and unwanted heat. Left unchecked, the blade will overheat and become damaged.

The gullet’s edges must be kept square to contain the sawdust until it is discharged. Smooth, rounded edges in the gullets will cause sawdust spillage: sawdust spilling down between the saw plate and the wood being cut. This also creates heat on the saw leading to saw damage and poorly cut lumber. Too much spillage will even cause the saw to be pushed over due to the lack of clearance for the saw to pass through the wood.

Grinding the gullets can be performed with a post grinder or more automated profile grinder. For circle saws, our shop finds that the best and most efficient way is to mill it with a cutting tool using a CNC milling machine using a fourth axis. After programming the profile configuration and saving the program, it proves to be an easy, less time consuming and perfect job without adding heat to change the gullet’s hardness. Gullets will also harden with the constant pounding from the sawdust. If the gullets are not kept ground or milled they can crack.

For bandsaws, grinding of the gullets is pretty much needed after every run. Most filers continue to lightly grind a round or two on their profile grinders that will take just enough off to get past that hardened steel, taking the saw back to the correct hardness. Some filers use a dremel or round file to achieve the same results. For roundsaws, we have a directive in place to grind the gullets every time the saw is retipped. It is very important to keep the gullets square. This will keep the sawdust in the gullet and not allow it to spill out the low side.

In other columns, I have stated that sharpness and design of the tooth is the most important thing about a guided circular saw. I will add that a sharp, well-designed tooth cannot function without the right gullet. Size, shape and condition of the gullet are all important, especially for bandsaws. The deeper and less radius a gullet has, the more likely the stress at the bottom of the gullet which will cause gullet cracks. Other concerns are poor grinding, leaving burrs and overheating the sawplate during grinding. All of these factors can result in deficiencies in the gullet.

At the end of the shift, the number of teeth and the size and shape of the gullet should be engineered or designed to work in unison to not overload the gullet and break teeth or create sawdust so fine that it washes out of the gullet, overheating the saw. If designed properly, the gullet should hold and carry the sawdust created by the tooth until the tooth leaves the bottom of the cut.

A saw manufacturer will help you determine the gullet requirements that will match up to your sawing needs. You will have to supply a few key components about your operation, such as: bore/spine diameter, outside diameter, plate thickness and kerf along with your operating rpms, maximum and minimum depth of cut and feed speed.

When we purchase saws, filing room equipment, and replacement parts or supplies, we like to think that our purchases are backed up by the vendors. With most large purchases there is a great deal of thought, research and paperwork involved in the process. Let’s be mindful though, many mills are set up for online purchasing or min/max programming set by a purchasing agent.

What controls do you have in place to ensure there is customer service and help with the product after the sale? I realize that the mill’s purchasing agent has to do the job of getting quotes and ordering items. However, the success of filing room purchases usually falls on the shoulders of the filer. Most filers have their go-to vendors. A filer will most likely choose a vendor that they know will help them before, during and after delivery is made. 

A mill’s cutting tools such as bandsaws, circular saws and knives are routine purchases. Filers know what to expect from the vendors. Most filers depend on these vendors to help with product knowledge, consistent quality and availability. Many filers will call on a vendor’s expertise for design changes such as RPM or feed speeds or when problems occur such as cracking or failures in run time. If problems are experienced with any of the saws, knives or cutting tools, most vendors want to know and quickly. Some vendors can even send a representative out to the mill to go over the issues with the filer, helping to determine if it’s a mill issue or a cutting tool issue. In my opinion, all vendors strive to supply a good product and correct problems when they happen.

Filers tend to depend on vendors even more when it comes to purchasing new filing room equipment. With all of the new technology, every filer could use the experience of a well-trained vendor service technician. Although some filing room equipment can be purchased from multiple vendors, even for the same price, the service during the installation and after the sale should be considered. 

I have noticed that some filing rooms will have the latest, most advanced filing equipment, but may not be utilizing all the available technology and programs. Ask new vendors to include a service agreement along with start-up and training in the quote.

Most manufacturers or their authorized dealers have service technicians available. These individuals or teams know how to make your new start-up and day-to-day use of the equipment successful. 

Some mill filers have been running the same filing room equipment for years. They have learned this equipment and know its capabilities. They’ll often choose what is familiar because they have the knowledge when it comes to operation and maintenance. With new, advanced filing room equipment there is a learning curve that needs to be addressed. Almost all new filing room equipment today has some sort of computer system. Even though experienced filers know the configuration the saws and cutting tools are designed with for their operations, they may have to marry their knowledge with an experienced service technician to help get that information programmed into the grinder to get that perfect finished saw, knife or cutting tool. 

A follow-up visit from the service technician after the original start-up is often the most educational for filers. Unless the filers are already familiar with the new machine, there will likely be plenty of questions after they have operated the machine for a week or so. 

By working with the vendor of your choice, any new start-up can be an enjoyable and successful experience. Most filers agree that a good vendor will always own responsibility for their products and equipment to make sure the filer is fully satisfied with the sale. After all, this is what determines their next sale.

Paul Smith is the owner and CEO of Smith Sawmill Service LLC with locations in Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina. Reach him at paul@smithsawmillservice.com.

There have been steady increases in insurance premiums for the wood product industry since 2012. According to data collected by Dust Safety Science, the wood and wood products industry was responsible for 20.3 per cent of all industrial fires and known causes were dust collection systems 12.7 per cent of the time.

Industrial Fires – Industries and Equipment Involved. Source: 2021 Combustible Dust Incident Report by Dust Safety Science.

With over $1 million of claims each month in the wood product industry, premiums are continuing to rise and the situation is worsened by the “hard market.”

It is not uncommon to see insurance ratings at $2 per $100 of property value. If you are looking to insure your wood manufacturing property and your buildings are worth $4.5 million, a premium of $90,000 could be expected.

So what can be done to bring your premiums down?

In the case of the Babine Forest Products and Lakeland Mills explosions, the underlying factors that caused the deaths and significant property damage include:

1. Ineffective wood dust control measures
2. Ineffective inspection and maintenance
3. Inadequate supervision of clean-up and maintenance staff

Today, these are some of the biggest concerns for insurance carriers when assessing the operations of wood product manufacturers. It is the responsibility of your insurance broker to advise you on proactive risk management strategies that can help secure better rates and terms from insurance markets. At CapriCMW, our risk advisors provide professional guidance and support on risk management best practices for wood product manufacturing operations, including dust control and mitigation, maintenance and clean-up controls and protocols, and hot work controls.

Aside from keeping your facility clean and organized, well-managed, and reducing hazards, it is important to have documentation of all the measures that you have implemented.

There are three major elements in your presentation to insurance carriers that can help reduce premiums:

1. Third party risk inspection
2. Documentation and monitoring
3. Annual maintenance reports

Having a documented risk management plan, maintenance schedule and clean-up protocol in writing for all to see is critical. Additionally, it is highly recommended that you hire a certified third party to visit the facility and conduction an inspection every three years. While these steps do require additional resources and expenses, the time dedicated to risk control will be worth the investment.

To illustrate the impact, using the $4.5 million building in our example above:

• Without a three-year risk report, documentation on risk management or housekeeping, the premium will likely fall in the $90,000 range.
  With a three-year risk report, documentation, and excellent housekeeping, your premium will likely be around $67,500.

To put that into context, a third party risk report and other recommended risk management items may cost annually $10,000-$15,000. However, you could see savings of $22,500 per year or $112,500 every five years in insurance premiums.

Will Downing is a risk advisor specializing in wood product manufacturing at CapriCMW. wdowning@capricmw.ca.

We asked Haleigh to moderate a panel during the Women in Forestry Virtual Summit on March 8 this year, which gave the mic to a sawfiler, mill manager, chief forester, and log truck driver. Something Haleigh said during the panel stood out to me. During a recent work meeting, she noticed a fellow trader who was addressing the group catch himself saying “guys,” and instead note her in the audience and say “team.” 

To paraphrase Haleigh’s takeaway: Does she feel offended by the term “guys,” which is often used to refer to both men and women? No. Does she feel seen and heard when work colleagues say things like “guys and gals” or just “traders”? Absolutely. 

I think there is a big takeaway there for everyone in the industry. Inclusivity is not about being offended, making waves, or the squeaky wheel. It’s about creating a welcoming and respectful environment to encourage everyone to feel at home in our industry. Everyone. 

And, make no mistake, we need everyone. The labour shortage affects us all. Simply and bluntly put: there are not enough white men anymore. Demographics are changing and the forest industry – like all industries – needs to cast the widest possible net to keep machines running. 

In my conversation with Canfor’s senior vice-president of people, Katy Player, as part of our Women in Forestry Q&A project this year, she said the question, “Where are all the people going to come from?” keeps leaders like herself up at night. 

Out of Canfor’s 8,000 or so employees, about 13 per cent are women. But the needle is moving in the right direction, Player said. Canfor’s diversity council guides the company with practical suggestions to improve inclusivity, and strong mentorship programs as well as a deliberate selection process that considers the entire population, are making a difference. 

“… the inclusive attitudes, I do think we’ve made great strides there and I am excited to see what’s going to come from the focus on that,” Player said. 

If a simple inclusive step like catching yourself using the word “guys” can make a few people in the room feel seen, that seems like low-hanging fruit to me.

We all forget at times – I say “guys” regularly – but, like Haleigh said, it’s not about offending or taking offense. It’s about acknowledging and feeling acknowledged. 

I know I’m going to try to catch myself next time and keep on learning.

The summit was chock full of advice like Haleigh’s. More than 800 people registered and 550 joined us live. All the sessions are now available to watch as video links on the summit’s website.

It’s clear from the summit speakers and participation that the forest industry is changing rapidly. Forest companies large and small are keenly aware of the business case behind diversity and inclusion and are proud to showcase the steps they’ve taken to encourage more women, Indigenous peoples, and people of colour to sign up for forestry.   

Kelly Cooper with the Centre for Social Intelligence and one of the leads behind Free to Grow in Forestry, perhaps put it best during the summit: “Not only is it possible to have a diverse and inclusive workplace, but it is a smart business decision.” 

Kelly shared a growing list of forest products companies and organizations with executives participating in Free to Grow in Forestry’s leadership team. Kelly called the team a social ecosystem of leaders across the forest sector who are committed to improving their immediate organizational needs as well as the overall region and sector’s. 

“Whatever paths you are forging in your organization, I want you to know that you have the wind behind your back now. Four years ago, this issue was seen as an uphill battle. I believe we can confidently say today that we have turned a corner. Change is afoot,” she said.

The month began with a bombshell announcement from the B.C. government, halting logging in 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forests. Shortly after, the province announced a swath of policy changes to the forest tenure system aimed at reducing timber harvesting rights for the major players and redistributing them to First Nations and smaller companies. 

The so-called atmospheric river hit B.C.’s lower mainland and wreaked havoc in mid-November. Transportation disruptions from damaged infrastructure idled many lumber and value-added manufacturers.  

And, in late November, the U.S. dealt a final crushing blow, doubling the tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber shipments. The Independent Wood Processors Association of British Columbia described the news as hammering more nails into B.C.’s value-added coffin. 

The writing may have been on the wall for some of these nails, evidenced by the long-term trend of B.C.’s larger lumber producers diversifying their assets with U.S. and even European acquisitions. 

Not surprisingly, the acquisitions seem to be coming at a rapid pace these days.

Interfor’s diversification plans most recently zeroed in on Eastern Canada. The company announced plans in mid-November to purchase 100 per cent of the equity interests in EACOM. The acquisition includes seven sawmills, an I-Joist plant, and a reman plant in Ontario and Quebec. With EACOM in the mix, just 18 per cent of Interfor’s total lumber capacity is in B.C. 

West Fraser, currently the world’s largest lumber producer, recently added a turn-key sawmill in Lufkin, Texas, to their portfolio. The new mill bumped their U.S. lumber capacity up to 50 per cent of the company’s total. West Fraser’s executives say the acquisition is just another step in their U.S. expansion plans. (Read about West Fraser’s acquisition of Angelina Forest Products, and see inside the mill here.)

And Canfor made news in December with its $420-million deal to buy Millar Western Forest Products’ solid wood operations and tenure in Alberta, adding 630 million board feet of lumber capacity and a nearly half a million-hectare forest management agreement area. 

We’re applauding Interfor, West Fraser and Canfor, all Canadian corporate success stories, but we are also wincing as we watch investments dwindle in Beautiful British Columbia. 

Many industry experts blame the unfriendly business environment in B.C. At the Truck Loggers Association’s virtual convention in mid-January, experts expressed frustration and concern for the future of forestry in the province. (Read our takeaways from the convention.) Despite a positive outlook for the North American lumber market, B.C. is not in a position to take advantage of strong U.S. lumber demand. 

Don Wright, former deputy minister to B.C. Premier John Horgan and now a senior fellow at the Public Policy Forum, suggested the forest policy changes in B.C. are because the industry lost its social license. “It has not effectively made the case that it is essential to B.C. prosperity,” he said.

It’s an interesting point. For years now, my conversations with operators and forestry executives alike include concerns that forestry has a PR issue. I’ve reflected on it on editorials past, and no doubt will again.

At this point, with the ink dry on Bills 23 and 28, we can only hope that B.C.’s politicians are making these sweeping policy decisions with a clear, actionable, long-term plan in place to revitalize the forest sector and bring back investment.

Their stated goals are commendable and, in some cases, overdue: protecting caribou habitat and old-growth stands, addressing declining timber supply, and increasing First Nations’ participation in forestry. But whether their decisions will lead to these outcomes remains to be seen.

What we do know is that there will be casualties, likely many.

Is forestry business over in B.C.? That’s certainly too strong a statement and it’s overlooking the many smaller lumber producers and value-added manufacturers who still call B.C. home and will continue to fight for their right to operate under this new forestry regime.

But is business leaving B.C.? Absolutely. And will it come back to the forest-flush province? Time will tell.

CFI November/December 2021 issue.

In B.C., for example, the forest industry delivered more than $4 billion in revenues to the provincial government, according to Susan Yurkovich, president and CEO of the BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI). 

Despite this, the B.C. government on Nov. 2 announced its intention to defer the harvest of 2.6 million hectares of old-growth forests, a move which Yurkovich said could result in the loss of 18,000 jobs and the closure of 14-20 sawmills, two pulp mills and many value-added manufacturing plants. The provincial government gave First Nations rights and title holders 30 days to respond to this deferral, and BC Timber Sales in the affected areas ceased for the time being. 

The decision seems to be a unilateral one made by the provincial government, with little to no consultation with industry or First Nations. According to the BC First Nations Forestry Council, many Nations only became aware of impending deferrals through an email sent recently from the B.C. government.

Of course, old-growth harvesting in B.C. is a complex issue, and one that has drawn a lot of attention in the past year, as many of you know. The old-growth protests in Fairy Creek have been particularly damaging to the forest industry’s reputation, with many environmentalists arguing that there is not much time left to “save” B.C.’s old-growth forests. 

Yet, a recent study commissioned by COFI found that productive old-growth in B.C. is 30 per cent, rather than three per cent as a different report, B.C.’s Old Growth Forests: A Last Stand for Biodiversity, claims. And according to Bob Brash, executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, each year only one-third of one per cent of B.C.’s forests are logged, and only 0.1 per cent of that is old-growth. Brash goes into more detail about why the industry has continued to log old-growth here.

Obviously, these deferrals aren’t long-term, but it does create a large amount of uncertainty about the future of the industry in B.C., and will mean fewer investments in the province. For years now, western forestry companies have been investing in the U.S. South as a result of B.C.’s changing government policies and unfriendly business environment. West Fraser announced two acquisitions in the U.S. South in October alone. 

Ultimately, the deferral will have far-reaching consequences and is potentially devastating to our forestry communities who depend on the working forest for their livelihoods. 

And the impact will also be felt on the environment. The B.C. government claims this deferral will help “prevent irreversible biodiversity loss.” Of course, forests do need to be managed for biodiversity and ecological values, in accordance with Indigenous values and in partnership with Indigenous communities. But, leaving more swaths of forests unmanaged and “natural,” as many environmentalists would like, has the potential to result in more wildfires, as Liam Parfitt, co-owner of Prince George, B.C.-based Freya Logging, explained to me in a recent interview. 

Parfitt argues that there needs to be a more substantive switch to commercial thinning and partial harvesting in B.C., something that has been done in many European countries and is proven to work. 

This type of logging has many biodiversity benefits, Parfitt explained. Freya Logging commissioned a study from a university recently, which found that partially harvested forest stands in the area saw a 300-600 per cent increase in moose population compared to a clear-cut, plantation or old-growth stand. This is critical given that moose are a keystone species that help improve the overall biodiversity in a forest. Read more about Freya Logging’s experience with commercial thinning here. 

As we look ahead to 2022, the current situation in B.C. paints a bleak picture. But, I am hopeful that the industry’s voice will be heard and we will reach a solution that benefits everyone.  

Luckily, as it turns out, typing is like riding a bike. After more than a year-and-a-half on maternity leave, I’m back to work, and it seems my fingers are still keeping up with my stream of consciousness. (Perhaps a few more backspaces than before.)

What a strange time it was to unplug from the forest industry. I went off work in April 2020, just as the initial pandemic lockdowns were underway. Confusion reigned.

While the forest industry was declared essential and allowed to continue operations, nothing could prevent the global market upheaval that followed. Mills closed, some permanently. Equipment sat idle. People stayed home.

As a first-time parent, home was the only place I wanted to be. But parenting in a pandemic, as any parent will tell you, wasn’t ideal.

If the pandemic has made anything clear, it’s that our health and the health of our family and friends is important. Maybe everything. Good health can mean very different things to different people. Physical health, mental health, financial heath – these all take priority at different times. But the pandemic seemed to test them all, sometimes all at once.

I was originally scheduled to return to work after a year, in April, but some physical health concerns and a lack of daycare seats prevented that from happening. So, after a year-and-a-half, I’m finally back at the helm, and with a new title to boot. As managing editor of Annex Business Media’s Forestry Group, I’ll be looking for synergies among our four forestry publications: Canadian Forest Industries, Canadian Biomass, Opérations Forestières, and Pulp & Paper Canada.

I’ve been working on the former three titles for four years now (prior to my leave), but my knowledge of the pulp and paper industry is limited. I’ll be leaning on industry experts, thought leaders, associations, and P&PC’s new editor, Sukanya Ray Ghosh, to bring me up to speed. I’m eager to dive in.

Editor Ellen Cools, and more recently Mike Jiggens, had the mammoth task of reinventing how we share stories in a pandemic world. I’ll certainly be drawing on their expertise going forward. While Mike will be handing Canadian Biomass back over to Ellen, she will continue as editor with CFI as well.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us in more ways than anyone could have expected, both at work and at home. We’re all a bit shaken up and looking for the fastest way to bounce back.

I’m certain most of us have interesting stories to share about how we have survived and, at times, thrived. As a storyteller with a platform, allow me and the team at Annex’s Forestry Group to tell your story. Together, let’s share best practices to navigate our industry out of these unusual times.

Have a story to share? Reach me at 226-931-1396 or mchurch@annexbusinessmedia.com

While B.C.’s forestry woes have been top of mind over the past year, Nova Scotia quickly took the front page in January with the looming closure of Northern Pulp – a central player in the province’s forestry economy.

The pulp mill, owned by Paper Excellence, is scheduled to close at the end of the month to uphold a government-mandated deadline to stop diverting effluent into Pictou County’s Boat Harbour. Without a government-approved alternative in place, the company said in December it will shut down operations.

The ripple effect of the closure on the province’s forestry community will be massive.

The Nova Scotia government’s efforts to patch the wound have so far been limited to a $50-million forestry transition fund, and an eight-person transition team of government and industry members to determine how to support the forestry sector.

Shortly after the team members were announced in early January, one of its members, Elmsdale Lumber Company president Robin Wilber, told media he supported the option of hot idling the pulp mill in the hopes of reopening with a new treatment facility in the future.

“There’s of course thousands of jobs in the province at stake, and I know jobs are important, but the bigger story that hasn’t come out and it will over the next while is that the 30,000-plus woodlot owners in the province have just lost 30-50 per cent of the value of their land and their timber resources,” Wilber told SaltWire Networks.

In a surprising move, the Nova Scotia government axed Wilber from the transition team following his statements.

Kelliann Dean, Nova Scotia’s deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs and trade and transition team leader, said in a statement, “This is not a table to discuss the future of Northern Pulp. That is the company’s issue. Robin Wilber is focused on options for Northern Pulp. That is not part of the transition team’s mandate therefore he is no longer part of the transition team.”

Wilber’s canning didn’t stop two other transition team members from underlining the gravity of the situation to media. Both Greg Watson, manager of North Nova Forest Owners Co-op, and Jeff Bishop, executive director of Forest Nova Scotia, told CBC News that time is running out for the province’s logging contractors and sawmill operators to find new markets for their fibre to keep equipment running and employees working.

“We know folks are struggling to figure out where the next payments for those machines will come from for their business and [asking] is it easier to park it, is it easier to put it up for sale or auction and walk away,” Bishop told CBC.

B.C.’s industry leaders have been saying the same thing for nearly a year, with contractors watching anxiously as mill after mill took weeks of downtime and others shut down indefinitely. At last count, nine operations closed across the province. For some contractors, walking away became the only option.

In the 2020 global lumber outlook report, contributor Russ Taylor with FEA Canada paints a grim picture for B.C. in the coming years.

“Canada’s production will continue to be impacted by U.S. import duties, as well as timber supply reductions and mill closures in B.C., so output is anticipated to rise modestly by less than 1 per cent in each of 2020 and 2021,” Taylor writes.

I generally try to include some positivity in my editorials, but it’s difficult to be optimistic about what B.C. and Nova Scotia’s forest industries will look like on the other side of these shakeups. It’s clear many livelihoods will be sacrificed as a result of growing – or in this case shrinking – pains.

We can only hope for speedy and effective decisions from those in charge of shaping the future of the forest industries in these two coastal provinces. We need our people working and our forests sustainably managed.

And here’s to hoping bad things don’t, indeed, come in threes.

One is the increasingly worrisome state of the B.C. forest industry and the cascade of company and community impacts from mill closures. By our last count, six sawmills and two OSB mills have shuttered in B.C. since the spring, and experts predict more to come.

Many stakeholders weighed in over the past few months about how successive provincial policies have failed the industry, and what needs to happen to stem the bleed of jobs. The BC Truck Loggers Association (TLA) has been in the thick of the conversation, advocating on behalf of its members, many of whom are already experiencing financial burdens from the downturn. TLA executive director David Elstone offers another critique in CFI’s November/December issue’s Final Cut column, calling on Ottawa to stand up for B.C. forestry.

“The province’s primary industry is melting down and, aside from some funds for re-training and transition, there is little empathy for the pain and suffering of those who are so dramatically affected,” Elstone writes.

The other recurring industry headline is a much more positive one: mass timber.

Around the world, researchers, architects, builders and the media are seemingly waking up to the idea that wood is not only a safe and cost-effective material with which to build, but also provides a mitigation measure to climate change. The idea of building more, taller wood structures has graced the pages of architecture magazines, the BBC, and even The New York Times.

In an opinion column in The New York Times on Oct. 3, 2019, titled, “Let’s fill our cities with taller, wooden buildings,” the authors – Frank Lowenstein, chief conservation officer of the New England Forestry Foundation, Brian Donahue, associate professor at Brandeis University, and David Foster, director of the Harvard Forest and president of the Highstead Foundation – reference various studies by universities that confirm the environmental impact from wood buildings is notably lower than that of steel and concrete designs. “Across North America, trees stand ready to help us solve the climate crisis,” the authors wrote.

A BBC Future article on July 24, 2019 by author Tim Smedley follows the first U.K.-based architect to construct a multi-storey building with cross-laminated timber (CLT). The article explains how managing forests for the production of lumber can help countries like Canada absorb more carbon than they emit by removing mature trees susceptible to pests and wildfire. That lumber, when turned into mass timber products like CLT, can store carbon in buildings that would otherwise be constructed of high carbon-emitting concrete and steel.

Most readers will be familiar with the carbon storage capability of wood. Where we often draw a blank is what this means for Canada’s forest industry beyond our three – soon to be four with B.C.’s Kalesnikoff Lumber coming online shortly – CLT producers. We posed that question to those producers in a first-ever panel webinar on mass timber, moderated by the Canadian Wood Council’s Peter Moonen, in early October. Moonen and representatives from Structurlam, Element5 and Nordic Structures took an hour to discuss the rapid growth of the mass timber market in North America, and what that could look like in five or 10 years.

Speakers agreed mass timber is expected to have a sizable market share in the near future due to its practicality as a building material. Momentum in Canada and the U.S. is outpacing Europe, where CLT originated, and manufacturers have been challenged to keep up with demand.

According to Moonen, the question people should be asking today isn’t, “Why wood?” but, “If not wood, what?”

What, indeed, can rival the carbon-storing, renewable natural resource that is wood? The answer, at least for now and the foreseeable future, is nothing.

If you missed the webinar, you can watch at any time for free by registering at www.tinyurl.com/y3sknar6.

It’s a funny thought, particularly for someone like me whose entire job is tied to a computer or phone. Who’s really calling the shots? Well, me, of course, but computers and the Internet have certainly changed the media game. Ask any 50+ reporter about the “good ol’ days” and they’ll regal you with tales of filing stories word-for-word to their editors over the phone and literally “spiking” written articles that didn’t make it to print. (That last reference might go back further than 50 years.)

Yes, technology has changed my profession, but at its core it’s still a business of people. The slogan of CFI’s parent company and my employer, Annex Business Media, is “Great content. Better people.” Without those people, there is no business.

The same can be said for nearly all industries. By all accounts, we’re a long way off from artificial intelligence actually exhibiting “intelligence” that would rival a creative mind. Instead, our jobs are changing, more often requiring problem solving and leadership skills rather than physical strength. But, as always, talented, hardworking people are the core of any successful company. And any boss worth his or her salt knows that treating your people right pays for itself.

The forestry companies featured in our September/October issue are prime examples of the benefits of treating your people right.

I got a first hand look at one when I spent the day with Barriere, B.C., cedar mill Gilbert Smith Forest Products. After the usual interview and mill tour, I took part in a retirement party that gave me a snapshot of what employees mean to the company. There was a lunch, cake, and lots of remember-whens among co-workers of all seniorities.

Third-generation mill president Greg Smith says mill employees are like family. Not surprisingly, he asked that the focus of the article be on the Gilbert Smith team. It was a natural decision given how many employee-centred measures have been put in place over the last few years, including new administrative upgrades, maintenance and safety procedures. Read about those upgrades as part of the mill’s profile here.

CFI’s newest contributor, Adam Kveton, got to know another company that clearly understands the value of its employees – likely because all three of its owners were former operators.

“We pride ourselves on introducing the young generation to the industry and making them proud to be west coast loggers,” Wahkash Contracting co-owner Dorian Uzzell told Adam. The Vancouver Island logging company goes out of its way to encourage young operators to rise through the ranks and take on leadership roles – just like its owners did. It’s a solid strategy for an industry that’s borderline desperate for young blood. Read about the company here.

Top 10 Under 40

At the risk of sounding like a broken record year after year, I’ll say again that our annual Top 10 Under 40 contest in this issue is a wonderful way for companies to express value in their people – particularly when these young leaders are on track to contribute long-term to our industry.

Our 10 winners this year are an inspirational bunch, from SFI’s Zachary Wagman, who spent the summer riding a wooden bike across Canada to encourage youth to consider a career in the forest industry, to Kalesnikoff Lumber Company CFO Krystle Seed, who led the charge to secure financing for the company’s $35-million cross-laminated mass timber plant.

Read all their profiles here, and join us in celebrating their successes on social media: @CFImag on Twitter, @CFImag on Instagram, and Canadian Forest Industries on Facebook. Cheers!