Despite a rate reduction, Canada vows to challenge US softwood duties at the World Trade Organization. In related news: US homebuilders and US producers are at odds over lumber duties; Ontario says the duty rate should be zero; and construction prices ease but lumber prices rise. Elsewhere: Binderholz buys a North Carolina sawmill; more pain from China’s Australian log ban; and the EU says Ukraine’s log export ban is illegal.

In Forestry/Climate news: Canada’s carbon plan to include carbon tax hikes; a Nova Scotia judge ends logging road blockade; Ontario’s logging contractors are seeing better days; the implications of a growing US wood pellet industry; and next up for California’s sequoias—bark beetles.

Finally, Christmas tree growing pains in western Montana and Sydney, Australia.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor