Region Archives: United States

Business & Politics

Alabama Republicans are asking Commerce to set tariff rates on lumber to 60%

By Ari Hawkins
PoliticoPro
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States, International

Alabama Republicans are asking the Trump administration to set the duty rate on timber and lumber products to at least 60 percent, as it pursues a Section 232 investigation, according to a letter first obtained by Morning Trade. “In recent years, our $12 billion domestic cabinet industry has been devastated by unfairly traded imports of kitchen cabinets and cabinet components,” wrote Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, as well as Reps. Barry Moore, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers, Dale Strong and Robert Aderholt in a note sent Thursday to Lutnick and Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler. The Alabama Republicans note that the U.S. kitchen cabinet industry supports 250,000 jobs around the country and 5,000 in Alabama, and warn some U.S. manufacturers are operating at as low as 30 percent capacity. [to access the full story a PoliticoPro subscription is required]

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Trump’s tariffs on Canada may stay, but stronger ties possible: US envoy

By Sean Boynton
Global News
May 11, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

President Trump’s tariffs on Canada may not be “totally removed” under a future trade agreement, the US ambassador says, but the two countries are on the path toward a stronger relationship. Pete Hoekstra, who serves as Trump’s envoy to Canada, says there are opportunities to secure new economic and security partnerships on the foundation set by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to the White House last week. …“We had a few rough months and those types of things. But we have strong economic ties, we have strong national security ties, we have personal ties. … There is so much to this foundation. …However, Hoekstra said Canada should expect some level of tariffs on its exports under a new trade deal, even a rate lower than the ones it currently faces. He pointed to the new framework with the United Kingdom announced last week.

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Strengthening Wood Products Manufacturing: US Endowment Partners with US Forest Service

The US Endowment for Forestry and Communities
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The US Endowment for Forestry and Communities is proud to partner with the US Forest Service to support the backbone of sustainable forest management—wood products manufacturers. …Endowment staff joined colleagues from the US Forest Service to visit several facilities benefitting from the Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance funding, a component of the Wood Innovations Program. One notable stop was Shasta Green, a family-owned logging and sawmill operation in Burney, California. With support from the program, Shasta Green has been able to upgrade sawmill equipment and modernize kiln controls. …The Endowment and the Forest Service are also offering technical assistance through the Wood Manufacturing Facility Assistance Program. This initiative is designed to help existing manufacturers improve operations, remain competitive, and continue contributing to forest stewardship and community well-being.

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Why the US and China pulled back from the edge

By Victoria Guida, Daniel Desrochers, Megan Messerly & Phelim Kine
Politico
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

President Trump’s deal to dramatically slash tariffs on China thrilled markets and offered a sliver of relief for businesses across the country. It also revealed an important lesson: Even Teflon Don can’t outrun economic reality. The deal in which both sides agreed to lower tariff rates by triple-digit percentages, came as anxiety mounted about a potential downturn in the US. …The agreement is an acknowledgment that a full-on economic divorce of the US and China would be too painful for both sides. …For U.S. corporations operating across borders, the de-escalation might offer some solace. But the remaining 30 percent tariff added to Chinese goods will cut heavily into profits — and be cost-prohibitive in some sectors. …One former Trump administration official said the meeting between the U.S. and China resulted from pressure on the White House from a variety of industries. …Beijing, too, was watching its economy falter.

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America has given China a strangely good tariff deal

The Economist
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

America has agreed to cut the “reciprocal” tariffs it imposed on China last month from 125% to a more digestible 10% for at least 90 days. China has agreed to do the same. It has also agreed to roll back other retaliatory measures, such as restrictions on sales of rare-earth minerals. …The result is a combination of tariffs that are far higher than Mr Trump inherited but much lower than seemed likely a few weeks ago. …On May 12th Mr Bessent all but conceded that tariffs on China had gotten out of hand. The result was the “equivalent of an embargo”. Financial chaos following Liberation Day, which included a bond-market revolt and a plunging dollar, helped Mr Bessent persuade Mr Trump to offer a 90-day reprieve to all of America’s trading partners on April 9th. After the Geneva talks, China has now been added to the list. [to access the full story an Economist subscription is required]

Related by the WSJ Editorial Board: The Great Trump Tariff Rollback – The President started a trade war with Adam Smith. He lost.

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Dow set to soar after US dramatically lowers tariffs with China

By David Goldman
CNN Business
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

US stock futures surged after President Donald Trump’s top trade officials brokered a surprisingly dramatic de-escalation in trade tensions with China over the weekend, dropping tariffs to much lower levels, which some economists say could stave off a US recession. …Both sides agreed to axe tariffs by 115 percentage points, still leaving the levies considerably higher than where they were before Trump took office in January – but much, much lower than the historic level over the past month that deeply concerned American businesses, consumers, economists and investors. Bessent said the US and China had put in place a mechanism to avoid raising tariffs on each other again, suggesting that the worst of the trade war may be behind us. …Bessent said “The April 2 tariff level for China was 34%, so we have moved that down from 34% to 10%.”

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What the US-China Trade Agreement Means for Markets

By James Mackintosh
The Wall Street Journal
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

The temporary lifting of triple-digit trade levies between China and the US while trade talks get under way removes the threat of an immediate stagflationary hit to the economy. This is very good news. It goes much further than investors thought possible—the current deal reduces the extra tariffs on China to 30%, made up of the base of 10% that will be matched by China, plus a 20% duty meant to make China do more to combat fentanyl. But an even better reason for such a big bounce is that it looks like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now in control of trade policy. Put simply, the grown-ups are in the room. …Don’t get your hopes too high. Tariffs are unlikely to go back to pre-Trump levels. …Bessent is after deep reform of China’s economy. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

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Feeding America’s insatiable appetite for lumber (NPR Podcast)

By Will Walkey and Meghna Chakrabarti
National Public Radio – Boston
May 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The Trump administration wants to expand the American lumber industry by logging more trees in national forests and raising tariffs on lumber imports. The impact that could have on the domestic timber industry. NPR Boston hosted Ryan Dezember (Wall Street Journal), Scott Dane, (American Loggers Council), Jim Manke, (Manke Lumber Company), Troy Jackson, (logger and previous president of the Maine Senate), and Randi Spivak, (Center for Biological Diversity).

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U.S. Lumber Coalition Applauds President Trump’s America First Focus on Trade Law Enforcement

By The US Lumber Coalition
PR Newswire
May 9, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — As President Trump seeks to …enforce U.S. trade laws against harmful foreign unfair trade practices, BC Premier Eby suggests using U.S. border tax collections to bail out Canadian lumber producers. Premier Eby’s suggestions fly in the face of repeated findings by the U.S. Department of Commerce that Canadian exporters continue to engage in egregious unfair trade practices that harm U.S. softwood lumber producers and workers. …”…Canada once again suggests using import duties paid by Canadian companies as a consequence of their own behavior to bail out the very same Canadian lumber producers who harm U.S. companies…,” stated Andrew Miller of Stimson Lumber and Chairman of the U.S. Lumber Coalition. …”Premier Eby’s response is that the United States should stop enforcing U.S. trade laws and instead give billions of dollars to Canadian industry. This amounts to a U.S.-funded bailout of the Canadian industry,” stated Zoltan van Heyningen, Executive Director of the U.S. Lumber Coalition.

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West Fraser General Manager retires after 51 years

By Amber Lollar
The Henderson News
May 11, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

HENDERSON, Texas — Henderson’s West Fraser recently celebrated the long-deserved retirement of their General Manager, Raymond Mitchell, after 51 hard-working years with the still-growing company. The company threw a blow-out bash for Mitchell. Local officials, current and former employees, and West Fraser upper management gathered on the expanded facility to celebrate Mitchell and his many accomplishments throughout his time with the company. Mitchell started his decades long tenure in the lumber industry at the ripe age of 19. He has held the title of Mill Manager since 1999.

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St. Paul must take action to avoid harming forest-products industry

By Robert D. Walls, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
The Duluth News Tribune
May 12, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Robert Walls

Last year, Minnesota passed an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework with the intent to improve recycling in the North Star state. Yet, in their haste, lawmakers inadvertently put good-paying manufacturing jobs tied to the production and recycling of paper products at risk. Thankfully, lawmakers have an opportunity to change course and make alterations to the state’s EPR law that will both improve recycling infrastructure and support a U.S. forest-products industry that is a significant driver of Minnesota’s economy. Forest products are the fifth-largest industry in the state and the industry generates over $205 million in state and local taxes … Minnesota’s EPR program risks targeting the raw materials used to make paper products, not the actual paper and paper packaging that we put in our recycling bins. …By focusing the EPR law on the actual residential recycling stream and protecting high-performing commercial systems, we can build a policy that works with workers, not against them.

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Georgia Governor signs major hurricane relief package

The Tifton Gazette
May 9, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

FORSYTH, Georgia — Gov. Brian Kemp signed landmark legislation Thursday at the Georgia Forestry Association (GFA) headquarters delivering urgently needed relief to forest landowners and rural communities impacted by Hurricane Helene — a storm that caused more than $1.28 billion in timber losses across Georgia’s most productive forestlands. The legislation, passed with strong bipartisan support, delivers both immediate recovery tools and long-term support to ensure Georgia’s forestry sector can recover, replant, and remain a pillar of the state’s economy, the GFA said. …The package includes: — A refundable reforestation tax credit for planting and restoration efforts. — A state income tax exemption for federal disaster aid. — A sales tax exemption for certain farm rebuilding materials. — Ad valorem harvest tax relief for landowners in affected counties — paired with state reimbursements to protect local government budgets. These measures mirror the real-world needs voiced by landowners, loggers, and mills.

Related news by Associated Press: Federal officials set timeline for Helene aid to farmers

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Trump-supporting timber business owner struggles as tariffs disrupt trade

The Bastille Post
May 11, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

An American timber business owner who supports Donald Trump is grappling with unsold inventory and shrinking cash flow due to the ongoing trade war, as Washington’s punitive tariffs weigh heavily on his operations and push him to seek alternatives to the Chinese market. Brandon Arbogast, the owner of Valley Log Sales in Timberville, Virginia, has spent decades in the lumber industry, exporting premium Virginia timber, primarily to China. …Sitting on 120,000 to 130,000 U.S. dollars’ worth of unsold wood, Arbogast is contemplating selling some of his land to maintain cash flow. …As a self-identified Trump supporter, Arbogast is willing to endure the hardship, hoping that a resolution to the trade dispute will eventually bring relief. For now, his premium walnut logs, which are typically transformed into furniture, flooring, and kitchen cabinets, remain idle.

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International Paper to close two Texas facilities

By International Paper
PR Newswire
May 9, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — International Paper announced the consolidation of its operations in the Rio Grande Valley. …The company will make strategic investments to convert the current Edinburg, Texas sheet plant into a warehouse, invest in its current facility in McAllen, Tex. to increase capabilities and shift its current Reynosa, Mexico operations to a new, more modern and capable facility that is currently under construction in Reynosa. The company will close its box plant and sheet plant in Edinburg, Texas. “The decision to cease operations at our two Edinburg facilities while investing in McAllen and Reynosa allows us to focus our efforts,” said Tom Hamic, Executive VP and President of Packaging Solutions North America.

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Beltrami County approves $137M upgrade plan for West Fraser lumber mill

Beltrami County, Minnesota
Citizen Portal
May 7, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

MINNESOTA — The Beltrami County Work Session held on May 6, 2025… featured discussions on a proposed $137 million investment to upgrade the West Fraser facility, which is crucial for both the mill’s future and the local economy.Jeremy Buck from West Fraser presented plans to modernize the mill, which has been operational since 1981 and still uses much of its original equipment. The proposed renovations aim to enhance energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact, with the potential to preserve approximately 32 direct jobs and support an estimated 500 indirect jobs in the community. The company has applied for assistance from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) through the Job Creation Fund, which requires a resolution of support from the county. …The next steps will involve further discussions on the budget and the resolution to support West Fraser’s investment.

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Finance & Economics

How major global and economic sectors are reacting to US tariff policy

Window + Door – National Glass Association
May 12, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States, International

The effects have been felt by building industries in terms of increased costs, disrupted supply chains and economic uncertainty. Last week’s webinar, “Trump’s Tariffs: Transition or Turmoil?… focused on the near-term effects of tariffs, how trade environments have shifted in response, and what the next steps of the Trump Administration might be. …Ari Hawkins, a Politico trade reporter, agreed that the administration is likely looking to the USMCA renegotiations to “really get into the weeds of a lot of these tariff disputes” with Canada. …Hawkins says that further Section 232 investigations could lead to new tariffs in the coming months on a range of products, including semiconductors, lumber and critical minerals. While the administration might make exemptions on materials like lumber before those investigations are completed, Hawkins says, they are still likely to face the Section 232 tariffs as part of the administration’s focus on incentivizing manufacturing and development within the US.

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Lumber prices continue to drop with wood market cautious amid tariff uncertainty

By Joe Pruski
RISI Fastmarkets
May 12, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

The downward price slide of recent weeks was unabated across most framing lumber species. Uncertainty surrounding the economy and potential new developments in US trade policy contributed to a cautious market tone. Many traders lamented that they anticipated at least a modest decline in mortgage interest rates by now that has not materialized. With discounts cutting deeper across most species, the Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite Price tumbled $14. That’s the composite’s first double-digit drop since April 2024. Downward price pressure intensified across the South. …Competitively priced Western S-P-F crept deeper into traditional Southern Pine markets, especially lower grades, which contributed to the downward price pressure on SYP. …Lumber futures settled sharply higher on Thursday after a prolonged downward trend.

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Sawmill Execs: Wild Wood Prices Ahead

By Ryan Dezember
The Wall Street Journal
May 10, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Executives at two of North America’s lumber producers said they are bracing for volatile wood prices this building season before sharply higher US duties on Canadian lumber kick in. Despite President Trump’s threats, his April 2 tariff barrage didn’t hit Canadian lumber. Nonetheless, duties related to a long-running trade dispute are set to more than double later this year. Canfor and Interfor are not sure there won’t also be additional levies tied to Trump’s March 1 order for an investigation into the national security threat of imported wood. …Canfor’s Susan Yurkovich said “Either people won’t be able to access their products and there’ll be a slowdown… or there will be a price response, which also, of course, will have an impact on affordability.” …Interfor’s Bart Bender said he expects volatile pricing this spring and summer while sawmills figure out what sort of increases buyers will bear. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

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Interfor Corporation reports Q1, 2025 net loss of $35 million

Interfor Corporation
May 8, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Interfor recorded a Net loss in Q1’25 of $35.1 million compared to a Net loss of $49.9 million and a Net loss of $72.9 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $48.6 million on sales of $735.5 million in Q1’25. …Notable items include: Lumber prices increased during Q1’25 as reflected in Interfor’s average selling price of $712 per mfbm, up $53 per mfbm versus Q4’24; lumber shipments totalled 863 million board feet, representing a 77 million board foot decrease over the prior quarter. The decrease primarily relates to the sale of the Quebec operations, weather-related curtailments and shipment delays resulting from tariff uncertainty. …The Company is well positioned with a diversified product mix…only about 24% of the Company’s total lumber production is exported from Canada to the US and exposed to a potential tariff. …Interfor expects that over the mid-term, lumber markets will continue to benefit from favourable underlying supply and demand fundamentals.

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Annual inflation rate hit 2.3% in April, less than expected and lowest since 2021

By Jeff Cox
CNBC News
May 13, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Inflation was slightly lower than expected in April as President Trump’s tariffs just began hitting the slowing US economy, according to a Labor Department report Tuesday. The consumer price index, which measures the costs for a broad range of goods and services, rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.3%, its lowest since February 2021. The monthly reading was in line with the Dow Jones consensus estimate while the 12-month was a bit below the forecast for 2.4%. Markets reacted little to the news, with stock futures pointing flat to slightly lower and Treasury yields mixed. ″“Good news on inflation, and we need it given inflation shocks from tariffs are on their way,” said Robert Frick, at Navy Federal Credit Union. …Shelter prices again were the main culprit in pushing up the inflation gauge. 

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Sterling Solutions Announces Mass Timber Shaft Wall System

By Sterling Structural
GlobeNewswire
May 13, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

PHOENIX, Ill. — Sterling Structural, a leading manufacturer of cost-effective, pre-fabricated mass timber and hybrid structural systems in North America, announced a modular Shaft Wall System for new construction. The system supports all major elevator manufacturers or egress stair designs and enables builders to save time and cost from elevator wall shafts without sacrificing fire safety or structural integrity, all while reducing embodied carbon compared to concrete or masonry shaft walls. The new system features pre-fabricated Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) panels for shaft walls—and, in some cases, roofs—along with coordinated connection details and all necessary hardware. Sterling’s project management team coordinates deliveries, sequencing panels for easy installation, whether the project uses platform or balloon framing.

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Vermont woodworking school opens 8-week program

HatchSpace
April 16, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Vermont HatchSpace is pleased to launch From Forest to Woodshop, an 8-week, full-time, 300-hour intensive program in wood furniture and products innovation, beginning in September of 2025. Rooted in an integrated approach of study from forest to woodshop, the immersive program offers participants the opportunity to study wood as a material, as well as methods of manipulation that support furniture and product design through sourcing, designing, drawing, cutting, sawing, joining, bending, and glueing. The perfect gap year experience or career-changing accelerator… The program will be delivered from HatchSpace’s expansive woodworking facility in downtown Brattleboro, a region surrounded by some of the world’s finest hardwood forests. Students benefit from a geography well positioned to gain an understanding of the interconnected field of sustainable forestry and its impacts on wood furniture and products innovation. Students will benefit from a wide-ranging team of more than nine experienced and award-winning woodworker educators.

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New York City announces 500-unit waterfront housing development for Staten Island’s North Shore

By Paul Liotta
Staten Island Live
May 13, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US East

Momo Sun

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York City officials marked their latest ceremonial groundbreaking for a $400 million public investment along the North Shore waterfront. …When underway, officials say the project will be the largest mass-timber construction in the five boroughs with the Stapleton project using wood-based building materials for much of its interior. Mass timber developments, which proponents say bring lower carbon footprints and reduced construction times, have caught on in recent years, including at the Portland International Airport in Oregon. Momo Sun — regional director for Woodworks, a non-profit that advocates for mass timber developments and works with the city Economic Development Corporation — said the wood materials meet the same construction and fire requirements as any other material.

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Georgia Forestry Foundation Mass Timber Accelerator Opens New Application Round

By Georgia Forestry Foundation
Cision Newswire
May 8, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

FORSYTH, Georgia — The Georgia Forestry Foundation (GFF), in partnership with the USDA Forest Service and the Softwood Lumber Board, has reopened applications for the Georgia Mass Timber Accelerator. Architecture, engineering and development teams with pending mass timber construction projects are invited to apply by June 20, 2025. The Accelerator continues to support the growth of sustainable development in Georgia by increasing utilization and awareness of mass timber—an innovative locally grown and manufactured building material that reduces emissions, increases construction efficiency and supports rural communities. “The Accelerator is designed to help make mass timber construction more accessible through an injection of funding with expert technical assistance,” said GFF Senior Vice President, Matt Hestad. “Georgia is the number one forestry state in the nation. With abundant, sustainably managed forests, we are uniquely positioned to lead the South in sustainable building innovation.”

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Forestry

Canada’s fire forecast looks bad. The impacts could spill across the border into the US

By Mary Gilbert, Meteorologist
CNN
May 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

It could be another dangerously smoky summer for some in the United States as Canada prepares for a busy wildfire season with forecasts also signaling extreme heat is in store for both countries in the coming months. But when it comes to wildfire threats this season, the call is also coming from inside the house for the US: Violent wildfires have already raged in multiple states this year, millions were under red flag warnings this week and an active summer is on the horizon. In Canada, wildfires have scorched tens of millions of acres, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and killed multiple firefighters since the country’s record-breaking 2023 fire season. Some fires from the past two years also poured smoke into large population centers in Canada and the US, cratering air quality and ushering in orange-tinted, apocalyptic-looking skies. …Large wildfires produce dangerous smoke that can reach communities hundreds of miles away.

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Rep. LaMalfa Introduces Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act

By Congressman Doug Lamelfa
US House of Representatives
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Washington, D.C.—Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), along with Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Jeff Hurd (R-CO), introduced H.R. 3300, the Forest Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2025, to ensure aerial fire retardant remains available for wildfire suppression efforts without being tied up in Clean Water Act permitting delays. The bill clarifies that federal, state, local, and tribal firefighting agencies do not need a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to use fire retardant from aircraft when responding to wildfires. … In 2022, an environmental group sued the Forest Service over its use of aerial fire retardant, arguing regulation under the Clean Water Act. A federal court ruled in 2023 that the Forest Service must obtain a NPDES permit from the EPA… …if future litigation results in a successful injunction, firefighters could be forced to ground aircraft or fly them with only water…

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Bipartisan Effort to Expand Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration

By Senator Mike Crapo
Government of Idaho
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) teamed up to introduce the bipartisan Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) Program Reauthorization Act of 2025.  This legislation would reauthorize and expand the CFLR program, which helps fund collaborative and community-based forest management.  The CFLR program has a proven track record of improving forest health, reducing wildfire risk and supporting rural communities. “Shared, active forest management plays a vital role in reducing the risk of wildfires and fire suppression,” said Crapo.  “Ensuring long-term reauthorization of the CFLRP will promote Idaho’s forest health, encourage the responsible stewardship of our public lands and foster resilient, rural economies.  Reauthorizing the CFLRP results in stronger relationships on the ground, more effective projects and a decreased risk of conflict and litigation.”

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How the EU deforestation law aggravates the trade dispute with the United States

The Financial Times in Bytes Europe
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

The EU has made little headway and an attempt to appease the US by delaying controversial import controls has fallen flat. The US forestry industry has accused the EU of erecting trade barriers by favouring its own industry under amended deforestation rules. The EU’s deforestation law, which will ban the import of products from sectors including rubber, cocoa, wood and paper if they come from deforested land, should have come into force last year. Under pressure from the bloc’s trading partners it was delayed until the end of the year. Despite this respite, the nine biggest US forest product organisations accused the EU of setting “severe” compliance challenges, opening a new front in the growing transatlantic trade conflict. The EU has categorised the US — and all its own members — as “low risk”. Heidi Brock, head of AF&PA, said the law amounted to a “non-trade tariff barrier” for US paper and wood products.

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Timber harvest benefitting University of Washington sparks concern among residents of small, pro-logging town

By McKenna Sweet
The Daily (University of Washington Student News)
May 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

NASELLE, Wash. — One self-service library, high school, and grocery store serve the 519 people of Naselle, Washington. The piles of felled logs along the roadsides dwarf the passing cars, signaling to drivers that this town was built on logging. Many Naselle residents have family roots in the forestry sector, allowing them to be intimately familiar with its demands. They also do not often push back on timber harvests that pose no threat to endangered species or their habitats. But an upcoming harvest will fell trees surrounding one of two creeks that supply the town’s water: this is where most residents draw the line. …The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will auction off 105 acres of state-owned forest in Naselle on May 29 after they determined the area was suitable for harvest. The revenue from the highest bid will go to UW. …UW received approximately $20 million from the DNR from 2020 to 2024, $8.6 million of which was from timber sales. 

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Jefferson County Open Space working to gain control of spike in pine beetles at park

By Danielle Kreutter
Denver 7
May 12, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

EVERGREEN, Colo. — Crews with Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) are working to reduce a spike in pine beetles in ponderosa pine trees at an Evergreen park. When the bark of infected trees is pulled back at Elk Meadow Park, the problem is clear. Pine beetles burrow into the trees and lay their larva under the bark. The larva live right on top of the living tissue of the tree, suck up the nutrients and end up killing the tree. They then pupate, turn into adults and fly off to the next tree. …”We are totally OK with a few trees being killed from the pine beetle that creates variable habitat for our wildlife species, and so at a small scale, mountain pine beetle is a good thing,” Steve Murdock, the interim manager of JCOS’ Natural Resource Stewardship. said. However, the numbers that Colorado communities, including Jefferson County, are seeing are well above what would be beneficial for a forest.

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Pacific Northwest leaders urge action as wildfire season nears without federal support

Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Trump administration funding cuts and a loss of federal workers who help support wildland firefighting continues to make planning for the upcoming wildfire season a challenge, according to forest and fire officials in Washington state and Oregon. The biggest issue they’re facing is a lack of communication from the federal government as the West faces “a pretty significant wildland fire season,” Washington State Forester George Geissler said Thursday during a press conference hosted by Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. …A spokesperson with the Department of Interior, which oversees National Parks and other public lands, said “funding is not in jeopardy.” They’re supporting firefighting efforts by increasing pay for federal and tribal wildland firefighters across the U.S. The administration has refused to release the exact number of fired and rehired workers, but numbers are coming in from individual forests, she said.

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Oregon State University purchases land outside Portland for research, recreation

By April Ehrlich
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

By the end of this month, about 3,110 acres of private forestland outside Northwest Portland will become part of Oregon State University’s new research forest. OSU announced Friday that it’s finalizing its purchase of land northwest of Portland’s Forest Park for $27 million, all of it covered by federal and regional grants. This area, which OSU calls the Tualatin Mountain Forest, had been managed as a timber plantation by forest products giant Weyerhaeuser Company. As such, most of the trees are no older than 35 years. OSU leaders say this landscape will become more ecologically diverse under the university’s ownership. The plan is to research what effects different types of logging practices have on tree diseases, pests and fire resilience. …This land acquisition comes a year and a half after OSU suddenly backed away from yearslong plans to manage the Elliott State Forest near the Oregon Coast as a research forest.

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Court halts watershed logging

By Emma Maple
Peninsula Daily News
May 9, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORT ANGELES — A Clallam County Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order to halt all logging activity in two Elwha River watershed forest parcels for 14 days. As double assurance the forests are not logged, activists have placed debris in the middle of a road, blocking logging access to Units 3, 4 and 6 of a timber sale called Parched. …Together, these actions have temporarily halted logging-related activity for about 300 acres in the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) parcels named Parched and Tree Well. The parcels are currently being litigated on two fronts. …Judge Elizabeth Stanley’s order, issued Wednesday, stated that the LFDC demonstrated that “immediate and irreparable harm, including construction of roads, environmental damage and loss of forest resources within the boundaries of the Parched and Tree Well sales, will occur absent immediate injunctive relief.”

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New tool helping Coloradans understand forest management across the state

By Maggy Wolanske
Denver 7
May 11, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

DENVER — The Colorado State Forest Service and the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, housed at Colorado State University, have recently launched an online database designed to help Coloradans understand forest management activities across the state. The Colorado Forest Tracker uses federal, state, and local data to create a user-friendly online database. The tool informs people of activities like where trees and bushes have been cut down, prescribed burns, along with where trees are being planted. “It’s been a really big effort to collect data from all these various sources and try and standardize it so we can understand it, more apples to apples. That’s how you really learn what’s happening and improve what’s happening and communicate a common message across Colorado, so we can work better together,” said Brett Wolk, associate director with the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute at CSU.

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Warner & Kaine Introduce Bills to Protect Wilderness in Virginia

US Senator Mark R. Warner
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) introduced two bills to protect wilderness in Rockingham, Augusta, Highland, and Bath counties. “We are lucky to have such beautiful natural resources in Virginia, and we need to do more to ensure that these lands are protected for future generations,” said the senators. “We’re proud to introduce this legislation to preserve wilderness in Rockingham, Augusta, Highland, and Bath counties, protect wildlife, and support local economies that depend on tourism and outdoor recreation.” These additions were recommended by the U.S. Forest Service in 2014 and endorsed by members of the George Washington National Forest Stakeholder Collaborative, a group of forest users who work together on acceptable locations in the George Washington National Forest for wilderness, timber harvest, trails, and other uses. In 2023, the tourism economy directly employed 7,562 people and generated $842.5 million in expenditures in [these areas].

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Cultural burning by Indigenous peoples increased oak in forests near settlements

By Jeff Mulhollem
Penn State News
May 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A debate continues among scientists over whether tree composition in forests in eastern North American historically have been influenced more by climate or by cultural burning, which is the intentional and controlled use of fire by Indigenous people to manage their environment. A new study of southern New England forests … lends credence to the cultural burning hypothesis, suggesting that fire-tolerant vegetation — oak, hickory and pine — were significantly more abundant near Indigenous settlements over the last 5,000 years. “The results of this study strongly suggest that Native Americans extensively use fire and other disturbances such as land clearing for villages, agriculture and trails, and both directly and indirectly promoted fire-adapted trees,” said study co-author Marc Abrams, Penn State professor emeritus. “These trees were very important to the Native American diet because of the mast — nuts and acorns — they produced.”

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

US stops tracking costs of extreme weather disasters fueled by climate change

By Mary Katherine Wildeman
Public Broadcasting Service
May 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will no longer track the cost of climate change-fueled weather disasters, including floods, heat waves, wildfires and more. It is the latest example of changes to the agency and the Trump administration limiting federal government resources on climate change. NOAA falls under the US Department of Commerce and is tasked with daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings and climate monitoring. It is also parent to the National Weather Service. The agency said its National Centers for Environmental Information would no longer update its Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database beyond 2024. For decades, it has tracked hundreds of major events across the country, including destructive hurricanes, hail storms, droughts and freezes that have totaled trillions of dollars in damage. The database uniquely pulls information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s assistance data, insurance organizations, state agencies and more to estimate overall losses from individual disasters. 

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Gov. Whitmer highlights clean energy at Woodchuck Biomass grand opening in Grand Rapids

By Donny Ede and Mackenize Dekker
News Channel 3
May 9, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: US East

Governor Gretchen Whitmer visited Grand Rapids on Thursday to appear at a grand opening for a biomass processing facility. Governor Whitmer, who has made it a priority to make Michigan a climate and innovation leader, delivered remarks at the grand opening of Woodchuck Biomass Processing Facility and AI Innovation Center, saying sustainability and strong economic growth go hand in hand. “Woodchuck is going to take something that we used to treat as trash and put in landfills, wood waste from construction, collection or storm cleanup, and be turning it into a clean source of renewable energy,” Whitmer said. “It is just another example of the exciting, innovative stuff that’s happening across Michigan to create jobs and cut emissions and improve our quality of life.”

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Health & Safety

Exoskeleton technology shows promise in protecting workers in one of the most dangerous jobs

By Texas A&M University
EurekAlert!
May 8, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States

The same exoskeleton principles that protect grasshoppers, crabs and similar creatures could also help protect the 25,000 or so workers in the job with the highest injury and fatality rates in America: forestry. “Forestry is vitally important to our economy and our standard of living, but its workers pay a high price, with an injury rate that is 40 percent higher than the average of all other industries and fatality rates that are 20 to 30 times higher,” said Jeong Ho “Jay” Kim, PhD, a systems engineering expert with the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. In a recent study, Kim and co-author Woodam Chung, PhD, a forest engineer at Oregon State University, were the first to objectively measure biomechanical stress experienced by professional timber fellers during actual timber felling operations. They also evaluated forest workers’ perceptions of wearable exoskeletons—emerging technology already being used in other physically demanding industries.

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Climate-fueled wildfires contributed to thousands of US deaths over 15 years, study says, with highest in Oregon and California

By Dorany Pineda
The Associated Press in Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 7, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States

Wildfires driven by climate change contribute to as many as thousands of annual deaths and billions of dollars in economic costs from wildfire smoke in the United States, according to a new study. The annual range of deaths was 130 to 5,100, the study showed, with the highest in states such as Oregon and California. The paper, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, found that from 2006 to 2020, climate change contributed to about 15,000 deaths from exposure to small particulate matter from wildfires and cost about $160 billion. …Nicholas Nassikas, a study author and a physician and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School… and a multidisciplinary team of researchers wanted to know: “What does it really mean in a changing environment for things like mortality, which is kind of the worst possible health outcome?” The paper’s researchers focused on deaths linked to exposure to fine particulate matter, or PM2.5 — the main concern from wildfire smoke.

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