The financial crisis in the forest industry has been chronicled in this newsletter many times. The industry has now faced two long years of depressed markets and is probably facing another two. The causes of this misfortune are well known.

Recently, however, the debate has shifted to “what can government do?” Critics of the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) say that the anticircumvention clause prohibits government action. They go further and say that that Agreement should be cancelled or renegotiated. To that I say, anyone who thinks that the SLA is the root cause of our problems in forestry does not understand the issue and does not understand the dynamics or the economics of the North American lumber market.

Without the SLA we would probably be in some form of litigation. Duty rates would be in excess of 15%. The approximately $2.5 billion returned to BC exporters would not have been available to support balance sheets. Mill closures and layoffs would have been even more pronounced.

The SLA does prohibit government from providing assistance to companies where that assistance would offset the export tax. However, in reality, no government is going to write a forest company a blank cheque.

But what government can do is provide, over and above company obligations, assistance to workers and communities to deal with issues of transition, training, education, adjustment and relocation. Governments have already done this and continue to do so. This is what is required along with competitive tax, regulatory and policy regimes.

We also need the armchair quarterbacks to become familiar with the real facts.

COFI South Forest Education recently commissioned a 6 Billionth Seedling poster for distribution to Northern and Southern Interior elementary schools. Designed to promote knowledge about reforestation in BC, the poster can be viewed or downloaded from www.learnforestry.com. Through the fall, COFI South Forest Education has also been involved in supporting Southern Interior zone forest education programs and developing forestry study packages for the spring 2009 Environmental Mind Grind competitions, when Elementary, Middle and Secondary school teams compete to test their knowledge about the environment.

Okanagan-Columbia forest educators, Jennifer Stewart and Kalon Nahachewsky, organized a fall "Intro to Forestry" camp at Silver Lake's Forestry Center, attended by secondary students from throughout the Okanagan Valley. BCIT instructor, Kelly Hatfull, again took the lead instructor role with assistance from local forestry professionals, introducing students to an overview of the industry, including forest management, fire protection, forest health, search and rescue, forest ecology, tree measurements and harvesting. Okanagan-Columbia forest educators also hosted a forest education display at the Provincial Intermediate Teachers' Conference in Kelowna and manned a career information booth at the Okanagan College Career Fair. Resource support for all of these events was provided by COFI South Forest Education. The two forest educators toured a BCIT forestry recruiter to a number of secondary schools and have Gr. 3 "History of Logging" kit workshops scheduled in their zone to introduce valley teachers to the updated and reprinted elementary forestry resource.

During National Forest Week in September, Thompson forest educator, Susan Bondar, organized a Natural Resources and Environmental Studies tour for secondary students. Participants travelled to Lodge Pole Lake to learn about forest assessments, harvesting and forest health and also visited Tolko's Heffley facility for a tour of the log sort yard and plywood plant. The Interior Logging Association's forest education van was hosted by the Thompson zone, with presentations made at schools in Kamloops and Westwold as well as at the Raft River Salmon Run. McQueen Lake Environmental Education Center was the site for the annual Forest and Environmental Sciences Camp, which saw students from three school districts investigate topics such as ecology, silviculture, watershed management, active logging and forest measurements, with instruction from TRU and Selkirk College Natural Resource staff and local forest professionals.

The West Kootenay forest education zone has hired Toni Appleby to replace forest educator Darcee O'Hearn for the current school year. The ILA's forest education van visited the West Kootenay in September, attending the Pass Creek Fall Fair and several local schools. Toni has hosted several student field tours, focusing on fire ecology and forest management and will be involved with the distribution of forest education resources to teachers throughout the fall. Developing new trails for pine beetle tours in the Anderson Creek area near Nelson is a future focus for the West Kootenay forest education zone.

In September, Cariboo forest educator, Al Menduk, hosted a biodiversity station in Williams Lake as part of a National Forest Week "Forestry Appreciation Day" event. The forest education booth was visited by 250 Grade four students, who learned about ecosystems, flora and fauna and sustainability. The Cariboo forest educator also hosted Grade ten's from 100 Mile House at the PSO woodlot for an ecosystem field trip and conducted elementary student tours on the Minton Creek Trail and will be teaching Grades 3 and 5 forestry units to classes in a number of local schools.

The new secondary teaching resource "BC Forest Products for the World" is currently being distributed throughout the province with Southern Interior high schools receiving their copies from zone forest educators. Produced by the Forestry Innovation Investment and Chris Lear, (Council of Forest Industries Northern Operations), and endorsed by the Ministries of Education and Forests and Range, this study unit was developed to educate secondary school students about the international marketing of BC's wood products and the challenges of maintaining and growing those markets in a competitive world.

For further information on Southern Interior Forest Education, please contact Debbie Bazett by phone at (250) 860-9663 or by email: bazett@cofi.org.

Leading-edge technology is being developed in Prince George which could save the oriented strand board (OSB) industry millions of dollars per year.

UNBC researcher Matt Reid is working with Del-Tech Manufacturing to test the feasibility of using terahertz radiation to improve quality control and reduce raw material input in OSB production. The Northern Development Initiative Trust provided UNBC $200,000 to purchase critical equipment to test the groundbreaking concept.

“This is the fastest terahertz imaging system in Canada right now. With the upgrade, it’ll be one of the fastest terahertz imaging systems in the world,” Reid said. “It’s really only the last few years we’ve looked at terahertz applications. NASA uses it to examine foam on the space shuttle… that’s really the only place that it’s been used so far.”

Currently, OSB manufacturers have no way to tell how well aligned the fibers are when the boards are made, Del-Tech strategic planner Dennis Callaghan said. They have to produce the boards, and then test them for strength to see if they can be sold. “The mills have to put more flake into the OSB to ensure they meet the standard,” Callaghan said. “With this technology, they could make a 2.5 per cent reduction in raw materials – that’s $2 million a year for an average-size OSB mill.”

In addition, OSB manufacturers would be able to more accurately gauge how strong the boards will be before it’s made, he said. Callaghan toured several OSB plants and found manufacturers were wasting between one and five per cent of their production because it failed to meet specifications. OSB manufacturers represent a major market for the technology, Callaghan added. “OSB has just about replaced plywood in building construction. Eighty per cent of structural panels used today are OSB.”

With the current downturn in the forestry sector caused by the slumping U.S. housing markets, OSB manufacturers have been looking for ways to cut costs. “There is commercial interest in this technology.”

For the last five years, Reid has been working on developing terahertz technology for a commercial application in the forestry sector.

Ross Colwell retired this past July after 25 years of service as a Quality Control Supervisor. Ross logged thousands of miles driving to COFI and ILMA Member Mills throughout the BC Interior. He also put in many, many hours inside a classroom teaching members the fine art of lumber grading.

We wish Ross and Janet best wishes in retirement. We foresee lots of fishing, hunting and good times at the Colwell farm.