MFPC Newsletter April 2020

MFPC has created a page on our website to list forest products industry resources and guidance documents that we hope will prove useful to members and others. We will be updating it daily. If you see something online that would be helpful to others, please send it to Roberta Scruggs to post on the MFPC website.

• Gov. Mills unveils actions to protect housing during COVID-19 pandemic
• Jobs For Maine’s Graduates distributing supermarket gift cards
• Gov. Janet Mills extended a state of civil emergency for the state of Maine for another 30 days on Tuesday, April 14, a move that enables Mills to retain her emergency powers to enact or relax prohibitions on social activities and commerce until May 15 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Read more. 
• Pierce Atwood – COVID-19: Main Street Loan Facilities – If your business did not meet the size limitations of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) there are facilities being developed for larger businesses (although they are also available for firms with PPP loans). One of those programs is the Main Street Loan Facility. This program provides for unsecured terms loans in which the bank lender holds 5% and sells 95% of the loan to the Federal Reserve. Read more.
• Gov. Mills Issues Executive Order Moving Primary Election to July 14th: The order, which is effective immediately, also allows applications for absentee ballots to be made in writing or in person, without specifying a reason, up to and including the day of the election. It also extends the deadline for qualifying contributions under the Maine Clean Election Act to May 19, 2020. 
• Maine small businesses to receive $1.5 billion in paycheck protection funds
• U.S. Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Guidance Letter 15-20 (UIPL) providing guidance to states for Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). For department resources on COVID-19, please visit: https://www.dol.gov/coronavirus. Read more.

 

SFI invites participation in Standard Revision process

SFI’s mission is to advance sustainability through forest-focused collaborations. As part of the collaborative process, SFI invites all interested parties to participate in the SFI Standard Revision process. 

 

The first draft of the new SFI Standards will be available for public comment on May 1, 2020. This will launch a 60-day public comment period that will be open through June 30th. This draft will include recommendations by the Standards Revision Task Groups, the SFI Resources Committee and the SFI Board of Directors based on comments SFI received during the first public comment period last year.

 

SFI originally planned to conduct regional workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada, but due to COVID-19, the in-person workshops were cancelled. In order to present the major enhancements, as well as provide opportunity to comment on the proposed revisions and enhancements, SFI will conduct nine webinars .focused on specific themes and requirements in the Standards. See complete schedule and scope for the webinars. You will be able to click on the title of a webinar to link to the Zoom meeting.

 

Anyone who is unable to attend a webinar, can still submit comments online and SFI will record all workshop webinars and make them available after the meetings. Read more.

According to the Maine Forest Service’s 2019 Spruce Budworm Report, large in-flights of migrating moths from outbreak areas in Canada into northern Maine were well-documented in 2019. The impacts of these migration events on Maine’s forests remain to be seen. Other information:

• Light traps: In 2019, 17 light traps were operated statewide and we witnessed a dramatic increase in light trap catches, with 502 adult SBW moths caught at twelve sites, although not the same sites as in 2018 
• Overwintering larvae: Just under six percent of sites were positive in 2018, with a combined total of 25 larvae recovered from 17 of 290 sites. Just over 10 percent of sites were positive in 2019, with a combined total of 70 larvae recovered from 30 of 271 sites.
• Defoliation Surveys and Assessments: Although no defoliation was detected during aerial survey (feeding needs to be approaching a moderate level of damage before it is visible from the air.) Defoliation assessment indicated there was in fact a shift towards higher levels of defoliation severity, with fewer sites being categorized as trace and more sites now falling into the low and moderate categories.

Institutional Challenges to Workforce Development in Maine

By Thomas Remington, Harvard University, Maine Policy Review

The problem of workforce development in Maine has become acute. An important factor for understanding the issue of workforce development, in Maine and nationally, is rising economic inequality. High inequality impedes the working of labor markets, and over time, reduces opportunity and mobility. In Maine, as elsewhere, income gaps have widened between rich and poor while the middle class has been shrinking. Moreover, the gap between high-income and low-income counties has been growing. Meantime, many good-paying jobs are going unfilled. Comprehensive institutional solutions can help overcome these problems by matching supply and demand in the labor market, but they are not simple or cheap. Read more.

Cerahelix founder leaves to manage UMaine’s 3D printer program

Susan MacKay, the co-founder and CEO of Cerahelix Inc., has resigned from the company to take the position of senior research and development program manager with the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center in Orono.

Alex Crowell, a Cerahelix board member and investor, has taken over as interim CEO at the Orono-based company, Maine Startups Insider reported on Monday.

At UMaine, MacKay will turn her attention to managing the Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s large-scale biobased additive manufacturing program, working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She will help research, develop and commercialize products that use the developing technology,  3D printing. Read more.