The proposed research will create value added models that will be used to predict wood quality attributes (wood density and fibre dimensions) on the landscape within Ontario’s boreal forest. This will be achieved by modeling stem and stand attributes from airborne laser scanner data (LiDAR). The derived stems and stand attributes (such as tree height, diameter, crown length, and stocking) will be used as predictors of inherent wood quality attributes (Fibre dimensions and wood density).

Canadian northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) market pulps set standards worldwide for fibre strength, length, fineness and uniformity. These characteristics add unmatched strength and durability to finished goods, and this drives a high international demand for NBSK pulp. However, competition has increased the price-performance pressure on Canadian suppliers.

DK SPEC is a major producer of blades, cutters, and saws, made of tool steel, for the Canadian wood industry. In order to keep up with the stiff competition, the company has acquired some state-of-the-art heat treatment furnaces for cryogenic treatment. They have a complete cycle for machining, hardening, cryogenic and tempering cycles. They will shortly acquire a rolling machine in order to do deformation either cold or warm on the as-annealed materials before machining and final advanced heat treatment cycle.

Forest management in Canada will be more and more constrained by species habitat requirements as well as the risks and results of natural disturbances. The recent, sever Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak in the interior of British Columbia resulted in a harvest shortage of lodgepole pine in this region. Forest managers now rely heavily on non-pine harvests, mainly within the Interior Douglas-fire forest type. This forest type requires partial cutting and is further constrained by several ecological and social forest management objectives.

Global climate change is altering the conditions in which our ecosystems exist. As those conditions gradually shift, ecosystems may cross critical points and experience irreversible collapse. Managers need tools to identify those points before they are crossed. This project will test one potential tool in the bogs of British Columbia. At the verge of collapse, ecosystems are thought to slow down in how they respond to disturbance or damage. We are trampling bog ecosystems and measuring how plant communities respond based on whether they are experiencing long term drought or not.

For many reasons, forest management in Canada will be constrained by ecological and social forest management objectives. Along with meeting the diverse needs of society, forest managers will need to consider increased demands for renewable resources, such as wood. Wood, as opposed to concrete and steel, has a positive impact on the global carbon cycle but is also strong enough to build large buildings. Therefore, there will be an increased demand for stronger wood in the future.

This project aims to provide real-world, verifiable estimates of impacts to watersheds from usage of back-country logging and resource roads. fRI in partnership with the University of Alberta, MiTACS and Canfor is testing computer-based tools developed in the United States to apply them to watersheds in Alberta. Given the different geography, soil types, and relief in Alberta, these tools may need to be refined to reflect the unique conditions present in our foothills natural region.

Informed decisions on resource management and development require an understanding of how projects will impact the resource, other resources, and the ecosystem. Because the ocean and land are intricately connected along coastal areas, development projects in either will invariably affect the other. However, Ecological Risk Assessments do not consider the two in tandem because the connections between the land and ocean are not well defined and an analytical tool does not currently exist to predict those connections for areas where they have not yet been measured.

The proposed research project is to a) research and determine what are the best water monitoring components and scientific instruments that can be used in remote settings b) research the existing software which allows for simple interface with water monitoring data and the data user/contributor c) research and establish overarching system to pair water monitoring technologies and software in a manner that reflects the values and goals of the SWGIL project, including OCAP protocols for indigenous users d) submit said research to the SWGIL grant operators with suggestions on which technologie

In order to satisfy the housing demand in major Canadian cities, there is a renaissance in the use of tall wood-based buildings. Timber is the most sustainable and environmental friendly construction material with higher seismic resistance. In April 2009, the British Columbia Building Code was amended to increase the height limit of wood-frame buildings from 4 to 6 story. In the current 2015 NBCC, the height limit was increased for entire Canada. With the use of mass timber, timber-based high-rise buildings are constructed around the world.