The Working Roundtable on Forestry will be chaired by Coleman and includes the Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell, rural MLAs, and forest sector representatives. The roundtable and regulatory review were announced by Premier Gordon Campbell in January at the 65th Annual Truck Loggers Association Convention.

The Roundtable will meet in communities across British Columbia and undertake an exhaustive review of all facets of the forest industry, reporting quarterly to cabinet on ways to expedite workable improvements to ensure a strong, vibrant, and sustainable forest industry.

The full regulatory review will streamline and reduce unnecessary red tape, cut processing time, and eliminate unnecessary cost burdens resulting from regulation. The Province is allocating $1 million for this review.

	Fort Nelson Community Dinner guests included: Hugh Morey; Doug Routledge, VP Forestry & Northern Operations, COFI; Christine Morey, Mayor, Town of Fort Nelson; Jack Stevenson, Regional Manager, Canfor & his wife Sherry-Anne; Peter Moonen, WoodWORKS B.C.; Danita Drouin, Fort Nelson CoC; and Chris Lear, Forest Education Manager, COFI Northern Operations.

The dinner was well attended by approximately 40 community and industry leaders who were well informed by guest speaker, Peter Moonen. Peter is the Coordinator of Sustainability and Special Projects for WoodWORKS B.C., a program developed by the Canadian Wood Council to stimulate and enhance a wood culture in B.C. through education, training and awareness-building programs.

Peter’s presentation ‘Wood Solutions to Sustainability Questions’ focussed on the environmental issues relative to using wood and engineered wood products. His presentation incorporated information about the role various building materials play in our fight against climate change as well as the importance of ensuring sustainable supplies of materials we all use everyday. Peter discussed the economic and productivity rationale for ‘green’ or ‘high performance’ buildings and data that reinforces the social and economic gains from employing environmentally sound building practices.

For more information contact
Doug Routledge, VP Forestry & Northern Operations by phone: (250) 564-5136 or by e-mail: routledge@cofi.org.

	WoodWORKS! B.C. Peter Moonen was well received at the Prince George Chamber of Commerce luncheon and questions were numerous following his presentation.

Peter gave a highly informative presentation on the environmental issues relative to using wood and engineered wood products, including an overview of life cycle assessments conducted on various home designs and new tools that can be used to determine the relative impact of using various building systems and materials. His presentation incorporated information about the role various building materials play in our fight against climate change as well as the importance of ensuring sustainable supplies of materials we all use everyday.

Included in the presentation was an overview of the economic and productivity rationale for ‘green’ or ‘high performance’ buildings. Peter highlighed information about the performance gains for office buildings, schools, hospitals and other structures and data that reinforces the social and economic gains from employing environmentally savvy building practices and integrated design processes.

For more information contact
Doug Routledge, VP Forestry & Northern Operations by phone: (250) 564-5136 or by e-mail: routledge@cofi.org

Chris’ new presentation ‘Climate Change and our Forests’ outlines some of the theories as to why our climate is changing and highlights the role our forest play sequestering carbon, how wood products store carbon and how both forests and wood products lead the way to help fight climate change. Incorporated into the presentation is information comparing various building materials and how in choosing to use wood products we can help improve our own environmental and carbon footprint.

“This is a great presentation,” noted Mrs. Wiebe, Grade 7 teacher at Alwin Holland School in Fort St John. Over 120 intermediate students attended Mr. Lear’s presentation. They were captivated by his PowerPoint slides and enjoyed handling the wood samples he passed to students. Students learned how our forests sequester carbon and how we can all help fight climate change by building with wood!

Chris is offering the ‘Climate Change and our Forests’ presentation to schools across north-central BC. For more information on this presentation, or other COFI Forest Education presentations, programs and teaching resources, contact Chris Lear, COFI Northern Operations by phone at (250) 614-4352 or by e-mail at: lear@cofi.org or visit our new forest education website:
www.forest-education.info.

Collisions or near-collisions between snowmobiles and vehicles happen on forest roads each winter. Accidents occur when snowmobiles are driven on forestry roads and when personal vehicles and trailers carrying snowmobiles obstruct or block roads during loading and unloading.

Snowmobilers are also advised that it is illegal to operate a snowmobile on any Forest Service Road that has been plowed or that is passable to motor vehicles. This applies to all Forest Service Roads, except the Gold Rush Snowmobile Trail, which is subject to additional conditions.

For more information, please refer to the Forest Service Road Use Regulation at:
www.for.gov.bc.ca/tasb/legsregs/frpa/frparegs/forservroaduse/fsrur.htm.

A guide for the public, entitled “Forest Roads: Guide for Safe Travel,” is available on the ministry’s website at:
www.for.gov.bc.ca/hth/engineering/documents/brochures/guide-for-safe-travel.pdf.

The BC Bioenergy Strategy lays the framework for us to convert more waste into clean energy, helping to ensure we meet future energy demands,” said Campbell. “There is an abundance of bioenergy opportunities, such as using biomass created out of the mountain pine beetle outbreak that can stimulate investment and economic diversification while producing clean energy.”

B.C. has half of Canada’s entire biomass electricity-generating capacity,” said Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman. “This strategy helps forest-dependent communities and brings opportunity to the agriculture sector as it looks at recovering maximum value from beetle-killed timber, wood wastes, and agricultural residues to generate renewable energy.”

• $25 million in funding to establish a Bioenergy Network.
• Up to $10 million over three years for biodiesel production.
• A goal of meeting 50 per cent or more of B.C.’s renewable fuel requirements by 2020 with biofuels produced in B.C.
• A goal of establishing at least 10 community energy projects that convert local biomass into energy by 2020.
• The establishment of one of Canada’s most comprehensive provincial biomass inventories that creates waste-to-energy opportunities.
• Issuing a two-part Bioenergy Call for Power – the first part will be issued shortly, the second part by July 1, 2008 – focusing on existing biomass inventory in the forest industry and offering opportunities for smaller energy producers with projects that are immediately viable.
• Additionally, the bioenergy strategy will help facilitate the closure of beehive burners and divert the waste stream for energy production, increase production and utilization of biofuels including biodiesel and facilitate production of anaerobic digestion bioenergy to address waste management challenges posed by the agricultural industry. The Province will also work with industry to develop new fine particulate standards for industrial boilers to improve air quality.
• B.C. leads the country in energy production from biomass. Over 800 megawatts of biomass electricity capacity is installed in the province, enough to power 640,000 households. Pulp and paper mills meet over a third of their electricity needs through cogeneration of electricity and steam on site. In 2007, the B.C. wood pellet industry produced over 900,000 tonnes of wood pellets, of which 90 per cent was exported for thermal power production overseas.
• Encouraging the emerging bioenergy industry and developing new and innovative uses for beetle-wood is part of the provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan. For more information on the action plan, or to download a copy, visit www.gov.bc.ca/pinebeetle.

For more information on the new BC Bioenergy Strategy, go to www.energyplan.gov.bc.ca/bioenergy.

This award-winning program is a fusion of science, engineering and business that prepares students for careers in the wood products sector and beyond. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of wood science, advanced manufacturing and business operations. They can also choose to complement their science degree with a Minor in Commerce and take Co-op to ‘earn and learn’.

To learn more about the program and the associated opportunities, please visit www.wood.ubc.ca/info.