It’s not behind a paywall. It doesn’t chase clicks. And it doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, it’s quietly become a daily habit for thousands across the forest sector—industry, government, First Nations, researchers, students, and retirees alike—all looking for a simple way to stay informed. What started as a small idea has grown into something much bigger than we imagined. Today, Tree Frog directly reaches more than 100,000 readers across BC, Canada, the US and beyond, with thousands more picking it up through company circulations, association newsletters, and even university classrooms. In many ways, it has become shared infrastructure for the sector—a common starting point for understanding what’s happening and why it matters.
But like many things that are widely used, it can be easy to assume it will always just be there. Tree Frog has remained free and open-access by design. We’ve always believed the sector is better off when information flows easily—when a student can access the same news as a CEO, and when smaller operators have the same visibility as larger ones. That only works, however, because a portion of the organizations and individuals who rely on it choose to support it. And in a year when the forest sector is facing real challenges, that support matters more than ever. To those organizations already supporting Tree Frog—thank you.
If Tree Frog is something you or your organization rely on, we’d encourage you to consider being part of that support—whether as a sponsor, a Friend of the Frog, or simply by spreading the word. Even small steps help ensure we can continue delivering this service in its current form. Either way, we’re grateful you’re here and part of the community.
OTTAWA — The Canada Border Services Agency has launched a probe to determine if plywood is being subsidized or sold at unfair prices in Canada. A news release from the agency says the investigation began on April 10 and focuses on imports from producers operating in or exporting from China. It says the practices can harm Canadian industries by undercutting Canadian prices and undermining fair competition. The investigation comes after a complaint was filed by Columbia Forest Products and the Canadian Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, which say they’ve faced lost sales, poor financial results and reduced employment. The CBSA and the Canadian International Trade Tribunal are both involved in investigations of Chinese plywood. The tribunal will issue its decision by June 9, while the CBSA’s probe into unfair prices will reach a preliminary decision by July 9.
SALMON ARM, British Columbia — Forsite Consultants Ltd. today announced the launch of 
Mercer International’s bonds slumped after it sought to ditch rules requiring equal treatment for all creditors — a move that would give the struggling pulp producer the power to pick and choose which lenders to favor in a restructuring. The company asked owners of its bonds due in 2028 and 2029 to remove a provision that forces it to pay all lenders equally when it seeks to strike a debt deal, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Separately, a group of Mercer’s creditors has organized in anticipation of debt talks with the company and plans to sign a cooperation pact binding them to act together. …Mercer is grappling with weak earnings and dwindling cash flow that’s left it struggling under the weight of its debt, which stood at about $1.6 billion at the end of last year. S&P Global Ratings downgraded the firm to CCC+ in February.
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s trade surplus with the rest of the world shrank by 60 per cent in February as exports to the United States dropped by more than a quarter, with U.S. import tariffs of 15 per cent largely in place on EU goods. EU exports as a whole were 9.3 per cent lower in February than a year earlier, while imports were down 3.5 per cent, EU statistics office Eurostat said on Friday. The largest export decline was towards the U.S., with a drop of 26.4 per cent, while imports from the United States were 3.2 per cent lower. EU exports to China were also down. A year ago, EU exporters had begun front-loading shipments to the U.S. in anticipation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, inflating the export figures for early 2025 and potentially explaining February’s sharp decline. Exports to the United States in February 2025 rose by 22.4 per cent year-on-year.
Rising tensions between the United States and Iran are creating mounting challenges for recycled paper mills across the Gulf region, known as the GCC. The sector is heavily dependent on imported recovered paper, particularly OCC (old corrugated containers) and mixed waste paper from Europe, the United States and Asia. Geopolitical instability has led to higher freight costs, increased insurance premiums and growing uncertainty in supply chains. Although local waste paper collection remains relatively stable, the unpredictability of imports has made procurement strategies more complex. Delays and disruptions in shipments risk directly affecting production. At the same time, the cost of key inputs is rising. Prices for chemicals, starch and spare parts are increasing due to logistical bottlenecks and delayed deliveries. …Despite these pressures, the market outlook in the Middle East remains relatively stable in the short term. …However, prolonged geopolitical uncertainty could gradually dampen industrial activity and consumption.
Global trade is being reshaped by escalating tariffs and geopolitical tensions, with the Nordic and European forestry industries directly affected. During 2025 and 2026, the United States introduced a series of trade measures that are altering the conditions for exports of timber, paper and pulp. …At the same time, the US has imposed steep tariffs on several major trading partners. Canada faces tariffs of 35%, although some products covered by the USMCA agreement are exempt. Brazil is subject to tariffs of up to 50% on paper and paperboard, while China continues to face high tariff levels. …Even where products are exempt from tariffs, trade is affected by higher supply chain costs, currency fluctuations and weaker demand. There is also a risk of trade diversion. If Canadian or Brazilian exporters face higher tariffs, they may redirect volumes to other markets, increasing competition in Europe. The broader trend points to a more fragmented global trading system.
Russia’s forest industry warns that up to 50% of companies could shut by the end of 2026 as lower export prices, higher transport costs and a strong ruble push producers deeper into losses. Regional lawmakers and industry participants ask First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov to approve a three-year moratorium on creditor-initiated bankruptcy cases in the sector, along with tax deferrals and a pause on debt collection for liabilities accumulated by January 1, 2026, Russian Kommersant newspaper reports, citing a committee of the Arkhangelsk regional assembly. The draft says even large companies in the region have exhausted their financial reserves, are operating at a loss and are starting to miss tax and other mandatory payments. It puts total sector losses over the past three years at more than 15 billion rubles. State support for exporters also drops sharply, with compensation for forest export costs falling from 7.6 billion rubles in 2023 to 550 million in 2026.
If the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran holds, it could offer the clearest hope of an end to the energy crisis since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards assumed control of the strait of Hormuz. …Even if the temporary detente manages to hold and hundreds of tankers stranded in the Gulf start to transit once more, analysts fear that will not be enough to return the flow of oil, gas, chemicals and other vital items to pre-crisis levels. An estimated 2,000 vessels have been trapped in the Gulf. …Shipping analysts predict operators will gain confidence once a ship owned by a large European company has safely made the crossing. However, they caution that it is a different matter for empty ships to decide to enter the strait to load up at the region’s ports, and it is unclear when this may start to happen. …Experts have said it could take months or years to fully restore the Gulf’s energy production.
Highly exposed to energy costs, today’s unpredictable global trade politics and the crisis in the Middle East are impacting the pulp and paper industry in many ways. These developments will certainly be reflected at Pulp & Beyond 2026, the leading forest-based bioeconomy event in Northern Europe, taking place on 15–16 April 2026 at the Helsinki Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki, Finland. However, the main theme of this year’s event—focusing on the role of artificial intelligence in process industries, innovation within the forest sector, and the future of the bioeconomy—was defined before the Middle East war broke out, along with the subsequent oil and gas crisis, turbulence in global stock markets, and the growing risk of an unprecedented global recession. 
Rising bunker prices are now hitting Swedish sawmill exporters on every trade lane, with the Strait of Hormuz closure driving up costs across routes and cutting off Middle East volumes, with no end in sight. That is according to Setra Group’s Olle Berg, Executive Vice President of market and business development at one of Sweden’s largest processors, who exports sawn timber, glulam, CLT, and structural components to Europe, North America, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. And according to Berg, the damage was coming through on two fronts – one from high oil prices now feeding into bunker costs regardless of destination, and the other from direct shipments to the Middle East, with container prices, surcharges and risk premiums climbing exponentially. “For Swedish sawmills, the volumes to the area are relatively small — but not insignificant,” Berg told a Timber Exchange webinar focused on the impact of the conflict on global sawmilling. 
Higher inflation and weaker growth ahead are inevitable for the global economy as a consequence of the Iran war, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday as the institution prepares to cut its forecasts. “All roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said Monday night. Before the war, the IMF anticipated issuing a small upgrade on its outlook for global growth of 3.3% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027, according to Georgieva. But those expectations have since been upended as the Iran conflict has sent shockwaves through the global economy that are unlikely to unravel anytime soon, even if the war is brought to a rapid resolution. …“Directionally, it is stagflation,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “It’s higher inflation and weaker economic growth that is the result of policy — tariff policy and immigration policy.”
The landscape of the United States wood products industry in 2026 is being shaped by evolution from commodity lumber toward high-performance engineered wood systems. …While traditional sawmills have faced a turbulent consolidation period, the emergence of mass timber, specifically glulam and cross laminated timber, have created a high-growth sector that is increasingly more independent from the traditional volatility of the single-family residential market. …On the supply side, the wood industry is navigating a period of restructured supply and capacity following a series of significant mill closures in recent years. …Looking ahead to 2027 and beyond, as new mills come online, the industry is poised to move engineered wood products and mass timber from a niche specialty to a standard building practice. The core business challenge for the next 24 months will be the development of a more robust domestic supply chain that can support American builders amid logistics disruptions. 
Log cost inflation, tightening felling regulations, muted end-product demand and the disruption of Middle East & North Africa (MENA) export channels by the conflict in the Persian Gulf are combining to test the resilience of sawmills in Finland and Sweden, with the pressure being felt all the way to Central European timber yards. In September 2025, Finland and Sweden jointly wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, warning that both countries were on track to miss their binding EU forest carbon-sink targets. …Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said, that reducing felling volumes was “not a viable option” and that it would have “dire consequences” for Nordic economies.” This high-level lobbying by Norway and Sweden highlights the central tension now confronting the Nordic sawn timber industry: that a sector already struggling with elevated sawlog costs and sluggish end-user demand has found itself additionally squeezed from above by environmental regulation.
Japan’s 
NEW ZEALAND — The logging industry is warning that some companies could be on the brink as the conflict in Iran pushes up the cost of diesel. Logging operators say it’s increasingly difficult to get logs to port and if the situation drags on, export-reliant regions like South Canterbury and the west coast of the North Island could face shutdowns. The costs of shipping have risen dramatically, with rates going from roughly US$33 ($56) per cubic metre into China for March, through to about US$45 in April. Forest Management group director Glenn Moir said that would put some companies on the brink. “I can see that if it does continue, we’re going to face some real pressure in the higher-cost forests – so the ones that are further away from the market and have steeper country – just to make it economic.” There had been some huge cost pressures going through the chain.
As the world gets hotter and wildfires more intense, architects are turning back to trees for more than inspiration. Engineered materials like cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber, in which layers of wood are glued together, create beams that are tough and somewhat flexible, yet lightweight. They’re so strong, in fact, that designers are crafting wood structures that are 15, 20, even 25 stories high: In 2022, the 284-foot Ascent MKE Building opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, becoming the world’s tallest timber building. It’s exactly because the world is getting hotter that architects are pushing the limits of how tall they can build with “mass timber,” as it’s known in the field: As trees grow, they capture planet-warming carbon, which is then permanently incorporated into the edifice. To that end, last month crews completed a 10-story building in Vancouver, called the Hive, which is now North America’s tallest brace-framed, seismic-force-resisting (meaning it shrugs off earthquakes) timber structure. 
The UK construction sector is being encouraged to increase its use of homegrown timber, as industry experts highlight the benefits of locally sourced materials over imports. Despite the availability of sustainable domestic options, nearly 80% of timber used in the United Kingdom continues to be imported. This reliance is now being questioned across the supply chain. …A key issue raised within the sector relates to timber grading. Architects and engineers frequently specify higher grades such as GL28 or C24 without fully assessing project requirements. This trend has developed due to historical dependence on imported Scandinavian timber, where C24 is the standard grade. In contrast, the most common grade produced in the UK is closer to C16. This mismatch has led to inefficiencies. British timber is often overlooked. Specifications are sometimes made without full evaluation. The ‘Trust UK C16’ campaign is aiming to address this imbalance. 
DENMARK — The timber industry is intensifying efforts to expand the use of wood in construction, with a new action plan aiming to raise its market share to 20% by 2030. Launched under the “TiB 2.0” initiative by industry body Træ i Byggeriet, the strategy seeks to accelerate adoption by addressing key barriers, including restrictive building regulations, entrenched industry practices and limited knowledge of wood’s capabilities. Lauritz Rasmussen, head of the organisation’s secretariat, said the initiative builds on growing interest in timber as a sustainable building material but acknowledges progress has been too slow. He stated that “all reason dictates that we should use more wood for the climate, the environment and for the qualities for which wood is recognized”. The plan focuses on increasing visibility, improving documentation and promoting knowledge-sharing to influence decision-makers. Leadership changes also form part of the strategy, with Per Thomas Dahl of CLT Denmark appointed as the new chairman.
The construction industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to conventional materials production. Because of this, there is an urgent need for sustainable alternatives. Bio-based materials offer a promising alternative but remain underutilized. This study examines wood to derive insights that could support the broader adoption of bio-based alternatives. This research explores the systemic drivers and barriers to the diffusion of wood through interviews with key actors. A system dynamics model is developed to capture the main factors affecting wood diffusion and their interdependencies. …It shows that successful diffusion requires systemic innovation, necessitating collaboration across the ecosystem. This systemic analysis offers important insights for other bio-based materials, which differ in resource availability, applications, and production cycles, but face similar barriers such as workforce shortages, scalability, and societal acceptance. Overcoming these barriers requires targeted trainings and supportive policies. 
Awareness of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label for responsible forest management continues to rise in Germany, reaching 77% in 2025, a recent survey has indicated. According to the 2025 Global Consumer Awareness Survey, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the FSC, recognition of the label has reached 77% among German consumers – up six percentage points since 2022. The study, based on more than 32,000 consumers globally, shows that 59% of German respondents trust brands more if they offer FSC-certified products. Across the DACH region, awareness remains high, particularly in Switzerland (81%) and Austria (68%). …The data reflects a broader behavioural shift: while environmental issues receive less public attention, consumers increasingly act on sustainability through everyday purchases. …For retailers and brands, the growing demand for credible sustainability claims is becoming increasingly significant.
The wood industry produces enormous quantities of lignocellulosic by-products, such as sawdust, and their incineration for energy recovery results in substantial carbon emissions and the loss of valuable raw materials. Here, we introduce struvite as a fully recyclable inorganic binder for the consolidation of sawdust into high-performance hybrid materials. The mineral binder is produced in situ by an enzymatically induced solution-mediated phase transformation driven by ureolytic protein bodies extracted from watermelon seeds. The resulting material exhibits excellent fire resistance with a long time to ignition (51 ± 1 s), low peak heat release (118 ± 2 kW m−2), and fast flame self-extinction due to efficient char-layer formation. Moreover, it displays high compressive strength (4.71 ± 0.37 MPa). Crucially for sustainability, the struvite binder can be recovered under mild aqueous conditions without loss of performance, offering a valid path toward a circular materials economy.
TOKYO — Leaders from the global forestry sector met last week in Tokyo to advance the 
It’s a well-established fact that forests and water are deeply connected. For decades, paired-watershed experiments have shown that when we lose forests, the total amount of water flowing through our rivers tends to rise. But a critical question has remained unanswered: does this extra water come from previous reserves, or is it simply “new” rain that the land is failing to hold? Is forest loss causing our watersheds to lose their internal integrity and leak like a sifter? Our recent study at the University of BC analyzed 657 watersheds across the globe. By using a tool called the Young Water Fraction, we found that forest loss significantly accelerates how fast precipitation travels through a landscape. We estimate that for every 1% of forest lost, the “young water” in our streams increases by about 0.17%. Crucially, our research reveals that… the way we arrange forest patches can either aggravate or mitigate this leakage.
Tropical forests span 1.6 billion hectares of Earth. …But over the past two decades, an average of 10 million hectares of these forests have been lost each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, affecting the ecosystems and communities that depend on them. NASA scientists recently developed a new method for tracking tropical forest loss that delivers deforestation alerts more than three months faster than current methods. Although the technique was designed for the Amazon rainforest, data from a recently launched satellite are expected to expand its application globally. …To address Landsat’s cloud challenge, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center tuned into a different wavelength. Led by Africa Flores-Anderson, associate program manager for NASA’s Ecosystem Conservation Program, the team piloted a system for the Amazon that combines existing satellite-based approaches with cutting-edge radar data. …Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) doesn’t require daylight or clear skies. 
Finland’s sawmill industry is warning of serious economic fallout if proposed restrictions on logging are implemented. According to industry representatives, between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs could be lost, while export revenues and overall economic activity may decline significantly. The debate follows calls from Finland’s climate and nature panels to reduce logging levels in order to meet climate and biodiversity targets. The proposal would cut annual harvest volumes by around 15 per cent by 2035. The industry group Sahateollisuus ry says the impact could be substantial. CEO Tino Aalto argues that limiting logging poses a direct threat to the sector. …He estimates that the total economic impact could reach around 3 billion euros, as both export revenues and income from timber sales decline. …At the same time, the sector is already under pressure. Rising raw material costs and weak demand have weighed on profitability. …The conflict between climate policy and industrial competitiveness is therefore set to continue.
The Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated. The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember. The power plant was able to claim £2.7m a day from energy bills in part by increasing its power generation by about 2% from the year before – but mostly due to the rising payouts from a legacy renewables support scheme. …The Guardian revealed last November that forestry experts believed the company was burning 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests as recently as last summer. …The government has already halved the subsidies available to Drax. …Drax will have to switch to using woody biomass from 100% sustainable sources, up from the current level of 70%. 
For more than a decade scientists have documented how Antarctic sea ice has been retreating because of human-caused climate change. Now a team of Canadian and Chilean scientists is returning to Punta Arenas, Chile from a 14-day expedition on an icebreaker with data that will contribute to understanding how the continent’s ice, oceans and ecosystems are changing and how much glacier melt is accelerating. …Understanding climate change in Antarctica is important because it holds about 90 per cent of the world’s glacier ice, so what happens here will have major effects on the rest of the world, said B.C. scientist Thomas James. He’s the chief scientist of the expedition with the Geological Survey of Canada. …With this data, scientists can begin to understand how much human-caused global warming is changing the environment over time.
UK — Burning wood for power generation can be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored, 
EUROPE — The war in the Middle East has – among many other unintended but avoidable consequences – put renewed pressure on the European Union to water down its carbon pricing policy. The focus right now is on the existing Emissions Trading System (ETS), but it’s not too soon to be concerned about the fate of its upcoming sequel, known as ETS2. ETS2 is the most consequential climate policy most Europeans (much less the rest of the world) have never heard of. Whereas the existing ETS puts a price on the carbon pollution caused by major industries such as power generation, steel, shipping, aviation and cement, ETS2 does the same for fossil fuels used for land transport and to heat buildings. As such it will impact as much as 40% of the EU’s total emissions – and the living costs of 450 million Europeans. The clock is ticking. ETS2 is scheduled to come into effect in 2028.
The EU’s General Court has rejected a legal challenge aimed at reversing the European Commission’s decision to categorize forest biomass energy as a sustainable investment within the bloc’s green finance framework. The court’s decision, issued on 18 March 2026 dismissed an attempt to annul a Commission ruling from July 2022, which had turned down a request for an internal review of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139. This regulation set the technical criteria for determining which forestry management and bioenergy practices can be regarded as environmentally sustainable. The plaintiffs, including Robin Wood and six other environmental NGOs, contended that the Commission’s designation of forestry and forest bioenergy as sustainable was illegal and violated EU legislation, particularly the Taxonomy Regulation. These rulings affirm that the Commission possesses significant discretion in establishing and implementing the taxonomy’s technical criteria, allowing politically sensitive sectors like bioenergy.
FRANCE — Wood pellets, commonly used in stoves and boilers in homes across France, can release carbon monoxide (CO) during storage even without being burned, reports the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). Natural chemical reactions inside the pellets, particularly the oxidation of fatty acids in the wood, can cause them to heat up slightly and release gases without any combustion. In addition to carbon monoxide, stored pellets can emit other gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These processes can also reduce the amount of oxygen in the surrounding air. ANSES says these emissions are usually low and gradual – but tend to increase at higher temperatures. They decrease over time. The type of wood is a factor with, for example, pine pellets likely to emit more gases than spruce. Although the overall risk is limited.
New research has found that burning “smokeless” or low-smoke fuels may be causing new air pollution hazards on streets and in homes. Sold as alternatives to burning coal, wood and peat at home, tests reveal their smoke contains large quantities of tiny ultrafine particles, that can deposit themselves deep in our lungs. The findings were an accidental discovery while researchers were testing fuels in traditional and modern eco design stoves. As expected, burning alternative fuels, both smokeless coal ovoids and briquettes made from olive stones, produced less particle pollution compared with wood or coal. …For each kilogram burned, the low-smoke fuels produced between two and three times more ultrafine particles than wood or coal. …The size of the ultrafine particles means that they are deposited deep in the lungs, multiplying the health impact. In Dublin, the low smoke fuels accounted for more than half of ultrafine particles that can deposit in people’s lungs. 