23 March 2018
Volume 18 Issue 4
Warning: Some of the factuality of some of the facts published in this edition may depend on your willingness to believe them.
Fair Competition Threatened If Unit Prices Revealed
On Tenders Says WFCA
Over the years it has sometimes been discussed among forestry contractors and consultants whether our government should reveal unit or component prices on tenders for forestry service contracts. The Western Forestry Contractors’ Association has taken a position opposed to revealing this kind of bidding information. In a recent letter to BCTS on behalf of its members, the WFCA argued that releasing unit or component prices bid on forestry service tenders would do harm to bidders by revealing proprietary business information to their competitors. The current practice is to release only the extended or total price of a bid allowing competitors to know where they stand in the market without knowing how other bidders arrived at their price. The WFCA has recommended maintaining the status quo practice of only releasing the extended price tendered when bids are opened.
Forestry Workers on Bigfoot Alert
A while back we asked workers to report on what they had found on cutblocks and plantations. We got miles of wildfire hose, various logging bits including blocks, straps, cables and cable guillotines, marlin spikes, chokers, axes and two Stihl 090 chainsaws—both in running order. Along with those somewhat predictable findings came an antique silver teapot (quite valuable), two old settler hay pitchforks, a wedding ring, a leather football, the remains of a weather balloon and a plane crash. (The injured pilot managed to show up in a nearby planting camp missing his plane and some memory.) One thing that has yet to show up (to us) is a Bigfoot sighting or footprints. There now may be a reason for that. According to Albertan crypto-zoologist and Bigfoot hunter Todd Standing British Columbia has been negligent in preserving the putative hominoid’s habitat endangering the species. He intends to take the Province to court here as well as in some of the United States claiming he can prove the animal exists. We are not sure what the standards for acceptable Bigfoot evidence are. But if any workers find some, you know where to find us. We will pass it on to Mr. Standing.
(In connection with this we would like to acknowledge the passing earlier this year of respected Comox B.C. wildlife biologist John Bindernagle who was convinced the Sasquatch was native to the province and other parts. He authored a number of books on the topic including North America’s Great Ape: The Sasquatch. He was 77.)
North America’s 2017 Wildfire Smoke Made it
to the Stratosphere Then Did Some Laps.
Last year’s considerable smoke and ash wasn’t just an irritant for those of us on the ground on this continent. It climbed all the way to the stratosphere, something that only massive volcanic eruptions have had the pyro convective energy to do in the past. A recent studyfound the smoke not only climbed higher than before—at 10kms to 30kms—it also lapped the hemisphere in two weeks lingering in the stratosphere for months afterwards. Just what the impacts of light-absorbing smoke particles from massive wildfires entering and cycling in the upper atmosphere might have on our climate are unclear. But we do know volcanic eruptions initially cool the atmosphere, while over the log term they contribute to the greenhouse effect. It appears that increasingly intense and widespread wildfires driven in part by global warming may be the beginning of another vicious cycle contributing to climate change. Meanwhile with flood warnings pending in some places, the official start to our 2018 wildfire season is only weeks away. Last year the two hazards overlapped.