Following Tree Frog News’ November 7 op-ed, “Rigged by Design? How Method and Policy Keep U.S. Lumber Duties High”, the US Lumber Coalition responded (Understanding Why Duties Persist — Not Because of Arbitrary Math, But Because of Past and Ongoing Harm) noting that the Department of Commerce did not use “zeroing” in its latest anti-dumping calculation. The note below clarifies what Commerce actually applied and what remains unresolved.
Following publication, the US Lumber Coalition pointed out that the Department of Commerce did not use “zeroing” in its latest anti-dumping calculation. In reviewing the record, Tree Frog News found that Commerce applied a differential-pricing framework, which uses statistical tests to determine comparison methods.¹ However, a 2020 WTO panel found that this framework could produce mathematically similar distortions to zeroing — in effect, “replicating the problem without using the name.”² but because the most recent review record is largely redacted and the WTO Appellate Body remains inactive, there has been no external review of how this method performed in the most recent review.
The more important question, then, is whether the procedural change has addressed the sources of bias identified in past WTO rulings — specifically in how Commerce calculates anti-dumping margins, measures subsidies, and selects its review periods — which continue to produce duty levels that appear inconsistent with actual market conditions. Tree Frog News will continue to report as new information emerges.
The softwood timber tariffs levied by the U.S. have begun to hit the lumber industry hard. Citing a drooping softwood lumber demand, compounded by higher duties and additional tariffs that have reached 45 per cent for U.S. markets, West Fraser Timber announced Thursday its plans to permanently shutter both its Augusta, Ga., and 100 Mile House lumber mills by the end of 2025. Approximately 165 employees at the 100 Mile House mill will be laid off, as the company says it can’t secure an adequate volume of economically viable timber. The closing of the mill drops West Fraser’s capacity by 160 million board feet. …The closure of the Augusta lumber mill is a result of challenging lumber demand, and the loss of economically viable residual outlets, which combined has compromised the mill’s long-term viability. Around 130 employees will be laid off there, and further reduce West Fraser’s capacity by 140 million board feet.
BEIJING — China will restore soybean import licences for three US firms and lift its suspension on US log imports starting November 10, its customs authority said on Friday in another sign of easing trade tensions between the two nations. …The halt on US log imports was a retaliatory measure after US President Trump’s March 1 order to investigate lumber imports. Investor sentiment improved after Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, reducing fears that the world’s two largest economies might abandon efforts to resolve their trade disputes. Following the meeting, Beijing lifted tariffs on some US farm goods. …However, traders remain cautious, as a 10% tariff on all US imports remains in effect, limiting expectations for a broader recovery in trade flows.
An Augusta lumber mill is closing permanently. The West Fraser Timber mill is expected to shutter by the end of 2025, putting 130 employees out of jobs, the company announced. “The closure of the Augusta lumber mill is a result of challenging lumber demand, and the loss of economically viable residual outlets, which combined has compromised the mill’s long-term viability,” the company said. …West Fraser said it “expects to mitigate the impact on affected employees by providing work opportunities at other company operations, where available.” The Canadian company’s lumber mill operations closest to Augusta are in the Georgia cities of Blackshear, Dudley, and Fitzgerald, all at least 100 miles away. West Fraser also runs facilities in Cordele and in Allendale, South Carolina, that produce oriented strand board. …“The announcement is difficult news for employees, their families, suppliers, and the community,” Georgia Forestry Association’s Tim Lowrimore said.
KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Multiple volunteer fire departments and emergency medical services responded Wednesday night to a fire at Appalachian Wood Pellets that affected multiple buildings. Officials reported the blaze has been contained, and no injuries were reported. Preston County Office of Emergency Management Director Justin Wolfe said initial reports of the blaze at 383 Mill Road were received at 11:33 p.m. Wednesday. …Initial reports noted that crews mounted an attack against the blaze, with additional fire departments being requested for assistance. Based on reports, the fire affected structures outside the main plant, including an open trailer with material, an open roofed storage structure and a belt-to-silo apparatus, and encroached on a maintenance building.
BURNABY, BC — Interfor reported its Q3, 2025 results. The company recorded a net loss of $215.8 million compared to net earnings of $11.1 million in Q2’25 and a net loss of $105.7 million in Q3’24. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $183.8 million on sales of $689.3 million in Q3’25 versus Adjusted EBITDA of $17.2 million on sales of $780.5 million in Q2’25 and an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $22.0 million on sales of $692.7 million in Q3’24. Lumber production of 912 million board feet was down 23 million board feet versus the preceding quarter. This decline largely reflects the Company’s announcement on September 4, 2025, to temporarily curtail production. …Weak lumber market conditions were reflected in Interfor’s average selling price of $618 per mfbm, down $66 per mfbm versus Q2’25. …Interfor’s strategy of maintaining a diversified portfolio of operations in multiple regions allows the Company to both reduce risk and maximize returns on capital over the business cycle.
VANCOUVER, BC — Canfor Corporation reported its third quarter of 2025 results. The Company reported an operating loss of $208 million and a net loss of $172 million. …Canfor’s CEO, Susan Yurkovich, stated: “The ongoing global economic and trade uncertainty, in conjunction with punitive US softwood lumber duties, led to persistently weak market conditions and subdued demand across all of our operating regions during the third quarter of 2025. …For the lumber segment, the operating loss was $182.2 million for the third quarter of 2025, compared to the previous quarter’s operating loss of $229.2 million. …For the 
REDDING, Calif. – A groundbreaking effort is underway in Redding where 
Michigan is the latest state to launch an initiative aimed at accelerating mass timber construction. The new Michigan Mass Timber Catalyst Program will provide cash awards ranging from $25,000 to $75,000, along with technical assistance and peer-learning opportunities, to encourage the use of engineered wood in new buildings. Although mass timber products are not yet manufactured in Michigan, interest in the material is growing rapidly. …The Catalyst program, produced collaboratively by the Michigan DNR, MassTimber@MSU, the Michigan Green Building Collaborative, and WoodWorks, will support early-stage projects that use mass timber as a primary structural or architectural material. …Awarded teams will join a cohort led by MassTimber@MSU and Woodworks to work through design, procurement, cost estimation, and code approval challenges. …In New York City, the NYCEDC’s Mass Timber Studio offers $25,000 Grants and technical support for early-stage projects…. In the Southeast, the Georgia Mass Timber Accelerator… provides funding and technical assistance to teams exploring timber-based design solutions.
Rising wildfire risk in the Pacific Northwest combined with volatile timber pricing may lower forestland values by as much as 50% and persuade property owners to harvest Douglas fir trees much earlier than planned, according to a new analysis. The optimal age to harvest Douglas fir trees — absent fire risk — would be 65 years. The study, from Oregon State University researchers, suggests that harvesting trees at 24 years would make the most economic sense under the worst-case scenarios. “Basically, under high wildfire risk that rises with stand age, every year you wait to harvest you’re rolling the dice,” said Mindy Crandall, an associate professor in the OSU College of Forestry. Co-author Andres Susaeta, an OSU forestry assistant professor, said the study was a simulation, but researchers are confident in the direction of results. Susaeta said earlier harvesting reduces both long-term timber revenue and impacts wood quality.
Policies by the Trump administration are putting communities at increased risk for wildfire because federal funding for fuels treatment work is becoming more difficult to obtain. That is the opinion of a group of policymakers and politicians who convened in Bend last week to discuss how best to manage local forests. Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang and State Senator Anthony Broadman — all Democrats — were among those in attendance… Members of the group said there is a lack of clarity over future treatments in the Deschutes National Forest following years of mitigation work that cleared the forest floor of fuels and thinned areas to prevent a fast-moving crown fire. …Chang said he is especially concerned with the Trump administration’s Fix our Forest Act … The bill relies mostly on logging and cattle grazing to clear fuels that cause catastrophic wildfire, but funding for prescribed burning isn’t part of the legislation. 
The Washington Forest Practices Board may vote Nov. 12 to widen and lengthen riparian buffers, taking millions of dollars worth of timber out of production. Forest landowners and the wood-products are mounting a last-ditch effort to persuade the board to not adopt what they say would be a massive taking of private property. The state Department of Ecology says wider and longer buffers would keep timber harvests from raising temperatures in non-fish bearing streams in most cases. Timber groups haven’t been in a battle this divisive since the industry, state agencies and tribes settled on seminal logging rules in 1999, Washington Forest Protection Association’s Darin Cramer said. …Studies confirmed logging raises water temperatures. The timber industry argues that even if temperatures rise, they soon go down and generally do not exceed acceptable levels. Massachusetts-based consultant Industrial Economics estimates the rule will take somewhere between 67,000 acres and 170,000 acres out of production.
Every year, there are thousands of landslides in Oregon. Geologists say the number is increasing due to climate change. …Swaths of the Pacific Northwest are particularly prone, thanks to a combination of mountainous landscape and heavy rainfall. “Over the last couple decades, the landslides and the surface processes and surface hazards that I’ve been working on have become much more prominent, primarily due to climate change and humans inhabiting more areas in hazardous terrain,” said Josh Roering, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Oregon. …Roering is one of the geologists involved in the newly formed Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH). A $15 million NSF grant jumpstarted the center that will study landslides and other surface hazards. While CLaSH is housed in the University of Michigan, it is a collaboration with more than a dozen academic, governmental and community partners across the country. 
Miles Ryan checked his harness one last time, gave an assured look to his ground crew, and started to climb. …There, balanced at the top of the forest, Ryan leaned out toward the tips of the limbs to get what he’d come for: cones. It was one of Cal Fire’s last cone samplings of the season, which usually runs from August to October across state forests and conifer species. Each cone contains anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of precious seeds. These have become more important in recent years, as an uptick in severe wildfires and the spread of insects and diseases have led to mass deaths of pines across California forests. But there are just a few dozen professional tree climbers like Ryan trained for high-elevation seed collection in California. …Cal Fire needs to collect 55,978 bushels of cones across species and locales to fully stock its seed bank.
Cal Poly Humboldt study in partnership with Save the Redwoods League reveals how second-growth forests respond to modern wildfires and what managers can do to protect them. California’s coast redwoods have stood for centuries, weathering a changing climate, logging, and time itself. But in an era of hotter, more frequent wildfires, their future resilience depends on how we care for them, according to new research published in Forest Ecology and Management. The study sought to understand the effects of wildfire on coast redwoods—the tallest trees in the world. Results revealed that redwoods in second-growth forests largely survived extreme wildfires in 2020 and quickly resprouted from their trunks and bases. Researchers also discovered that forest structure—how dense the trees are and which species are present—strongly influences fire severity, highlighting the importance of management efforts such as thinning, reducing fuel loads, and encouraging fire-resistant species.
A bipartisan piece of legislation that could have big impacts on the nation’s forest land continues to move quickly through Congress, pushing through a Senate committee last month. The Fix Our Forests Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate in April and co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Sheehy, along with Senators from California, Utah and Colorado. The legislation seeks to promote prescribed burns, expand the state-federal Good Neighbor Authority program, increase collaboration among fire agencies and improve reforestation efforts after fires. It also makes some rule changes that could impact how areas designated as high fire danger are managed and how projects in those areas proceed. …The legislation has received some support from environmental and outdoor advocacy groups… But there has also been some concern with it, namely around how it could change the process of forest projects, especially those in a declared “emergency fireshed management” area.
Albuquerque, NM — A new report by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters reveals a troubling decline in wildfire prevention work across the nation. According to the report, hazardous fuel reduction efforts on U.S. Forest Service land are down 38% since January 2025 compared to recent years, following significant federal budget cuts to staffing and resources. Hazardous fuel treatments are critical in preventing catastrophic wildfires. These projects include thinning overgrown forests, clearing brush, and conducting prescribed burns to reduce the vegetation that feeds wildfires. The group’s findings directly contradict recent public assurances from administration officials that land management agencies remain adequately funded and staffed. …The analysis shows mitigation work has fallen especially low in Idaho and Montana, where fewer than 30% of acres have been treated this year compared to previous averages. …Grassroots Wildland Firefighters warn that unless funding is restored, the nation’s wildfire season will grow increasingly severe and dangerous in the years ahead.
CORVALLIS, Oregon – Rising wildfire risk in the Pacific Northwest combined with notoriously volatile timber pricing may lower forestland values by as much as 50% and persuade plantation owners to harvest trees much earlier than planned, a 
BOISI, Idaho — The Trump Administration’s decision earlier this year to do away with the 2001 Roadless Area Conseravtion Rule on national forest lands sent shockwaves through environmental and outdoor recreation communities. According to environmentalists and an Idaho public official who has been involved in roadless rule politics since the issue’s inception, the move could transport stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest back to the rancor and political divisions of the timber war years. …“The national rule itself put the whole timber wars to bed. It really did,” said James Caswell, former director of the Bureau of Land Management. …The rule led to conditions in which environmentalists became less combative about forest management, according to Caswell. Instead, enviros became more willing to work with timber industry and Forest Service officials. …The decision puts the forest objectives of fishermen, hunters, ATVers, bird watchers and others on the back burner.
Smoke from wildfires causes a cascade of changes in the proteins in the blood of firefighters, according to a groundbreaking study by researchers from the University of Arizona School of Public Health. The researchers found 60 different changes in blood proteins in samples taken from 42 firefighters who battled the Los Angeles wildfires that charred 23,000 acres and forced 10,000 people to flee their homes. Those changes in serum proteome are associated with a potential increased risk of cancer, abnormal cell growth, immune system dysfunction and inflammatory response. …The findings are the latest to highlight the health risks facing wildland firefighters, who for decades have actually been barred from wearing protective masks on the fire lines for fear it would limit their work and lead to overheating. The Forest Service recently shifted its policy to allow firefighters to wear masks if they choose.