View Creating a Cape Breton brand of top-quality hardwood by Aaron Berwick, Chronicle Herald, Feb 25, 2018 (online; in print on Feb 26)
Subtitle: Breton Forest Innovation Co-op aims to raise industry from the ashes
Two hardwood flooring manufacturers and a handful of sawmills have all closed, citing among the primary reasons their inability to gain access to Crown land to access hardwood species.
The recently founded Breton Forest Innovation Co-op aims to raise Cape Breton’s hardwood industry from the ashes while focusing on private woodlot owners rather than Crown land.
… The Breton Forest Innovation Co-operative would see hardwood selectively harvested from private lands around Cape Breton, using low impact methods and brought to a facility where it is sorted by quality. Straight logs clear of rot and ugly knots would be milled and planed onsite for lumber while lower quality lengths could be processed for firewood or sent for biomass.
How not to applaud this initiative?
Also view Startup group interested in funding and managing a Community Forestry Hub in Cape Breton (Post, Jan 17, 2018)