Are mass timber buildings effectively tinderboxes on steroids? The Architect’s Newspaper questions a campaign by the concrete industry to “ostensibly highlight wood’s shortcomings“. Maybe they just read today’s “spider-topping super wood” story; or watched our video on “fashion and forest fibres” or perhaps they’re just scared of losing market share.

In Forestry news: BC uses pheromone pods to take on the Douglas fir beetle; Pennsylvania consumers are paying to address the emerald ash borer; and New Jersey is using controlled burns to reduce wildfire risk.

Finally, Marketwatch says the current duty-driven lumber prices “aren’t built to last“; while a North Carolina journalist says the main beneficiaries of theses trade spats are “the owners of the land“.

–Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor