Tag Archives: Tolko

Effective immediately, the new allowable annual cut for Tree Farm Licence 49 in British Columbia will be decreased from 580,000 cubic metres to 330,000 cubic metres.

In December 2005, the allowable annual cut was increased from 380,000 cubic metres to 580,000 cubic metres to recover economic value from damaged timber. The decrease reflects that logging of mountain pine beetle-attacked timber is almost complete.

The lower cut reflects the transition to a lower mid-term timber supply expected to occur before beetle-attacked stands recover and second-growth stands reach merchantable size. The lower cut also provides for other values, like wildlife habitat, riparian areas and old growth.

The new cut includes a partition to ensure that the areas outside of the Brown’s Creek watershed are not overharvested. Tolko Industries Ltd., which owns the logging rights for Tree Farm Licence 49, has no immediate plans to harvest in Brown’s Creek.

Tree Farm Licence 49 covers 141,975 hectares of Crown land west of Okanagan Lake near Kelowna, Vernon and Armstrong. About 116,165 hectares are considered suitable for timber harvesting.

The chief forester’s allowable annual cut determination is available from the Okanagan Shuswap Resource District office in Vernon or online at: http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hts/

There was a fire this morning in the power plant of Tolko‘s sawmill in Kelowna, British Columbia.

The Kelowna Fire Department responded to the fire around 11am. Workers on the site took steps to limit damage until the fire crews arrived.

No one is known to be hurt. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

Read more:
Fire inside Tolko mill (Castanet)

The Vancouver Sun has been investigating salvage logging of pine forests in British Columbia.

Through freedom of information requests, The Vancouver Sun has uncovered documents relating to compliance-and-enforcement action taken against logging companies in the Quesnel and Prince George forest districts.

Information uncovered:

• Tolko Industries Ltd. was fined $4,500 for obtaining a cutting permit through falsified records
• Tolko was fined $1000 in 2010 for environmental damage and excessive soil disturbance at several logging sites. Tolko then spent $95,000 to rehabilitate the sites and now gives annual refresher courses on soil disturbance to its contractors
• West Fraser Mills Ltd. was fined $2,500 in 2010 for failing to ensure its logging near Bow-ron Lake Provincial Park met visual quality objectives
• Canadian Forest Products Ltd. was fined $25,000 in 2009 for environmental damage in a roadside work area and failing to ensure the intended results of its forest plan were met
• The 5C Cattle Company Ltd. was fined $28,315.46 in 2009 related to unauthorized fence construction and logging of 4.5 hectares of Crown land and given a remediation order
• Botland Feeds Ltd. was fined $1,320 in 2008 for harvesting Crown timber from a woodlot without authority, and $5,500 in 2007 for failing to ensure that 12.7 hectares of a woodlot licence supported a free-growing stand of trees as required
• Logging licensee Robert Duncan Sturgeon was fined $11,908.30 in 2010 for timber-marking violations under the Forest Act, while veteran logger Timothy Cecil Fillion was fined $1,000 in the same case

View all the documents released under the freedom of information act to The Vancouver Sun: http://www.vancouversun.com/pdf/response-records.pdf

Source: Forensic investigation of Tolko nets fine for falsified records -Probe could not determine employee responsible (The Vancouver Sun)

Logging truck drivers working for Tolko took job action in British Columbia yesterday morning.

Up to 60 drivers that deliver to a number of Tolko’s operations, including White Valley, Lavington, and Armstrong, refused to make their deliveries.

Tolko agreed to meet with the drivers about their concerns – namely safety issues and wages. The workers are concerned with the weight restrictions on the trucks, and the heavy traffic on the Kettle Valley logging road east of Lumby, British Columbia.

The truck drivers also want wage parity with logging truck drivers in the north. Tolko already feels their wages are competitive with their geographical region.

Interior Logging Association spokesperson Wayne Lintott said all the drivers will be back to work today.

Read more:
Truckers Take Job Action Against Tolko – Tolko to clarify safety issues but no promise on rate hike (AM 1150)

The Government of Canada has made $41.9 million in funding announcements through their Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program.

• West Fraser Mills Ltd. of Quesnel, British Columbia is receiving $2 million for its Quesnel River Pulp mill Waste Water Heat Exchanger Upgrade Project to improve the mill’s energy efficiency through the installation of four heat exchangers.
• Cariboo Pulp & Paper Company of Quesnel, British Columbia is receiving $5.5 million to make the facility’s processes more green and lower its environmental footprint by reducing the amount of chemicals that are delivered to the mill.
• West Fraser Mills Ltd. of Slave Lake, Alberta is receiving $5.1 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the mill’s energy efficiency.
• Tolko Industries Ltd. of The Pas, Manitoba will be receiving $2.5 million
• Domtar Inc. in Windsor, Quebec is receiving $5.5 million for two projects that together are expected to reduce the mill’s water use and energy consumption while improving energy efficiency and increasing production of renewable electricity.
• Fibrek S.E.N.C. in Saint-Félicien, Quebec is receiving $5.1 million to increase the mill’s energy efficiency and environmental performance.
• Kruger Wayagamack Inc. in Trois-Rivières, Quebec is receiving $6.3 million for five projects to improve environmental performance through upgrades to mill processes.
• Fortress Specialty Cellulose Inc. in Thurso, Quebec is receiving $9.9 million to generate more renewable thermal energy and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Collectively, these 15 projects are expected to generate enough renewable energy to power nearly 5,600 homes. They are also expected to save enough energy to heat an additional 18,000 homes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 49,000 tonnes per year. This quantity of greenhouse gas is equivalent to the emissions produced annually by 13,500 cars.

The Government of Canada announced the creation of this Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program in June 2009. Canadian pulp and paper companies that produced black liquor — a byproduct of the pulping process — were eligible to access $1 billion in funding to improve their energy efficiency, their capacity to generate renewable energy, and the overall environmental performance of their pulp and paper facilities.

Source: Government of Canada

Tolko Industries shut down its Lakeview division in Williams Lake, British Columbia on July 25th because the wet weather conditions were making it impossible to move logs from the wood into the log yard.

Tolko now expects to restart the Lakeview sawmill on Monday.

The planer has remained operational during the downtime, and maintenance and log yard crews remained at work.

Source:
Lakeview mill back up Monday (Williams Lake Tribune)

Laid off Tolko workers in Lumby, Armstrong, and Heffley Creek will be returning to work on Monday.

These workers were the 260 employees who were laid off two weeks ago when the company’s White Valley Division’s veneer operation in Lumby and its plywood operation in Armstrong shut down. The Heffley Creek, operation, near Kamloops, British Columbia was curtailed.

The downtime was blamed on poor market conditions.

Source:
Laid Off Tolko Workers To Return To Work Monday (AM 1150)

Tolko‘s Soda Creek division in British Columbia reopened on Monday after a six day curtailment due to weather-related harvesting curtailments.

“With the wet weather we’ve had we just haven’t been able to sustain the level of wood that we needed to keep the mill running,” says Mark Stevens, Tolko’s general manager of Cariboo operations.

Tolko’s Lakeview division has been down since June 15, and will be reopening tomorrow (Wednesday).

Lakeview’s planer will wait until an inventory of rough lumber has built up, and should restart on Monday.

Read more:
Tolko reopens Soda Creek mill; Lakeview soon (Williams Lake Tribune)

Tolko Industries Ltd. has announced that due to continuing poor market conditions, it will temporarily curtail panel production.

White Valley Division’s veneer operation at Lumby, BC, and Armstrong Division’s plywood operation will shut the weeks of July 4 and July 11 with restart scheduled for July 18.

Heffley Creek Division, near Kamloops, BC, will curtail one shift of plywood production during the same period.

The markets will be reviewed at the end of the scheduled downtimes to determine if extensions are required. The curtailment will affect approximately 260 employees and reduce Tolko’s plywood production by at least 10.4 million square feet.

“With Canada being the main market for our plywood products, this sector has been particularly impacted by the unusually cold, wet spring, and the related low construction activity,” said Larry Broadfoot, General Manager, Lumber & Plywood Sales.

Source: Tolko

Tolko‘s Lakeview mill, in British Columbia, is undergoing a “short-term closure” starting today, due to weather-related harvesting curtailments.

185 employees are temporarily laid off.

It has been a long wet spring in the Williams Lake area, leaving logging areas too wet for operations. Nearly the entire usable log yard inventory at the mill has been depleted.

The planers at both Creekside and Lakeview are expected to operate for the remainder of the week.

“We’ve put a lot of thought into this,” said Mark Everard, Tolko site manger, of the company’s decision to shutdown, adding the weather forecast simply hasn’t deviated from rain.

Everard said the weather has created two challenges for harvesting timber: the load restrictions placed on roads during inclement weather and the fact that equipment simply can’t get in and out of the woods.

Lakeview has run out of fibre despite the fact the company stockpiled an additional 20 to 25 per cent in its log yards this year compared to last. Due to record productivity, Everard noted, the mill was consuming “more than we normally do.”

Read more:
Tolko Lakeview mill curtailed temporarily (Williams Lake Tribune)