WINDSOR, Ontario — For months, trade negotiations between Canada and the United States have been stalled. This week that all changed when US President Trump announced negotiations were back on. During his social media tirade about Windsor, Ontario’s Gordie Howe Bridge, and a list of other perceived transgressions, Trump wrote… we will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY.” While Trump’s political speed bump threatens to derail the planned opening of the commercial corridor, some industry leaders see an opening to accelerate negotiations. “Trade conversations have now restarted, a few weeks ago conversations weren’t happening. I see this as a positive,” says Canadian Association of Moldmakers Nicole Vlanich. …With Trump restarting trade negotiations that he once brought to a screeching halt, business leaders in Windsor hope this will be an important first step towards paving a clearer picture for economic growth for both the Canadian and US economies.
In related coverage:
- By David Nevins in the Fulcrum: The Facts on US–Canada Tariffs
- By Lawrence Herman in the Globe & Mail: Trump’s bridge threat heralds pain and turmoil in USMCA talks
WASHINGTON, DC — In a vote that GOP leaders fought hard to avoid, a half dozen Republicans sent a blunt message to President Trump that they do not support the tariff regime that he has made the centerpiece of his second term. Six Republicans joined with Democrats in the vote to effectively repeal the president’s tariffs on Canada, the culmination of months of consternation in the GOP over the president’s trade war that has quietly rattled even some of his staunchest loyalists in Congress. …The Senate has already passed a similar measure to cancel Trump’s tariffs on Canada, which — unlike most measures — can be passed with a simple majority rather than 60 votes. But even if the Senate does agree to this same House measure, Trump would still have the power to veto it. The House did not secure enough votes to protect a veto override.
Some of Canada’s major labour organizations are urging Ottawa to put workers at the centre of any renegotiation of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement as preparations begin for the pact’s mandatory 2026 review. Leaders met with Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada–US trade, for what they described as a high-level roundtable on the future of CUSMA amid rising trade tensions and renewed threats of U.S. tariffs. Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske said unions delivered a “clear and urgent message” that Canada should not accept a revised trade deal that weakens domestic industry or costs Canadian jobs. …Bruske was joined by leaders from several large manufacturing and building trades unions representing sectors heavily exposed to trade policy decisions, including auto manufacturing, construction and resource-based industries. Bruske said the upcoming CUSMA review should strengthen Canadian industries and working-class communities, not “hollow them out” in the rush to renew the agreement.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Layoffs are expected at the beginning of April for Roseburg Forest Products Co.’s Riddle Plywood facility, according to a WARN notice filed this week. The notice, filed Feb. 4, says the company expects to permanently lay off 146 team members at the Riddle By-Pass Road location, though the facility will remain open. These layoffs are expected to take place after a 60-day WARN period. The company said April 5 “will be the last day of work for a majority of the affected team members before the layoff and that the remaining affected team members, if any, will be within 14 days of that date.” Impacted positions span a number of job titles, though the majority consist of Layup WAT Operators, Finish End WAT Operators, and Common Laborers.
Duties on Canadian imports are driving up domestic sales at some Maine lumber companies. …Protection from historically lower Canadian lumber prices has given Pleasant River Lumber the confidence to add an additional manufacturing shift in Enfield, according to co-owner Jason Brochu. Photo by Katherine Emery. …Historically Canadian companies have both outbid them for timber harvested in Maine and undercut American lumber prices when they export the finished lumber product back across the border. …An industry analyst and two other mill leaders said that inflation and a sputtering housing market make it unclear whether the tariffs will have a positive or negative effect on business in the long run. The effects of the tariffs will also vary based on the different products sawmills make. …Sawmills rely on certainty, said Alden Robbins, of Robbins Lumber, and neither the markets nor foreign trade relationships have been stable recently.
VANCOUVER, BC
The Bank of Canada’s latest survey of financial-market participants pointed to a modestly brighter growth outlook than the central bank’s own projections, even as trade tensions with the US remain the dominant threat hanging over Canada’s economy and housing market. In the fourth‑quarter Market Participants Survey, 93% of respondents cited an “increase in trade tensions” as the top downside risk to Canadian growth, well ahead of tighter global financial conditions and weaker consumer spending. Participants still assign a 20% probability to a recession over the next six months, but their median forecast calls for real GDP growth of 1.6% by the end of 2026 and 1.9% by late 2027, slightly stronger than the Bank’s own projections of 1.1% and 1.5%. While the survey suggests some stabilization in expectations, it underscores that tariff policy remains the key macroeconomic swing factor. …PwC Canada’s latest survey among 133 CEOs showed that only 27% expect the domestic economy to improve over the next 12 months.
As mass timber continues to grow in popularity in the US, manufacturers are evolving the scale and sourcing of wood production to meet rising demand. 
Walk through any design-forward neighbourhood… and you’ll notice something the catalogues haven’t caught up with yet. The windows are changing. After decades dominated by vinyl, aluminium, and composite frames, timber is making a decisive return to high-end residential architecture. And the architects driving this shift aren’t motivated by nostalgia. They’re choosing wood because, for the homes they’re designing, nothing else performs quite the same way. The broader design world has been moving in this direction for several years. Mass timber construction, reclaimed wood interiors, rammed earth walls, natural stone — the 2025–2026 architectural conversation is dominated by what designers call “material honesty.” The idea is straightforward: use materials that are what they appear to be. No laminate pretending to be oak. …The knock against timber windows has always been practical: they need maintenance, they warp, they cost more. Two decades ago, much of that was fair. Modern engineered timber has changed the equation. 
The Berkeley Wood Lab’s research on mass timber production has the potential to improve California’s sustainability by sourcing from local forests. The lab is collaborating with Northern Californian lumber company Mad River Mass Timber, or MRMT. The company will use Californian trees that otherwise would have either been turned into woodchips or burned in a forest fire to build panels that can be used in new housing and commercial buildings. This is the first time these types of panels will be produced locally in California instead of being shipped in from other countries. The technology to create dowel-laminated timber, or DLT, has existed for decades, but the Berkeley Wood Lab adapted it for use in Californian forests. Through the process of making DLT, glue is not required, which enables the timber to be recycled in the future and turned into new material.
LANSING, Michigan – A state program to aid mass timber projects in Michigan has been extended for the Upper Peninsula after the region submitted no applications for funding in 2026. …A supplemental call for proposals makes available $50,000 through March 2. Those awards will be announced March 16. The awardees are:
For the first time, researchers have been able to confirm that our planet’s boreal forests are on the move. Using nearly a quarter million Landsat satellite images spanning 36 years, scientists have confirmed for the first time that Earth’s boreal forest—the planet’s largest forested biome—is shifting northward, revealing unprecedented changes in this critical ecosystem that stores more than a third of the world’s forests and helps regulate our global climate. [5 min. video]
Biological legacies (i.e., materials that persist following disturbance; “legacies”) shape ecosystem functioning and feedbacks to future disturbances, yet how legacies are driven by pre-disturbance ecosystem state and disturbance severity is poorly understood—especially in ecosystems influenced by infrequent and severe disturbances. Focusing on wet temperate forests as an archetype of these ecosystems, we characterized live and dead aboveground biomass 2–5 years post-fire in western Washington and northwestern Oregon, USA, to ask: How do pre-fire stand age and burn severity drive variability in initial post-fire legacies, specifically aboveground biomass carbon and fuel profiles? …Our findings demonstrate the importance of pre-disturbance ecosystem state in dictating many aspects of initial post-disturbance structure and function, with important implications for managing post-fire recovery trajectories in some of Earth’s most productive and high-biomass forests.
COLORADO — The U.S. Forest Service is proposing logging southwest of Glenwood Springs, involving about 2,600 acres in what’s known as the Fourmile area along the borders of Pitkin, Mesa and Garfield counties. The White River National Forest’s proposal includes acreage in all three counties. It involves selective thinning and vegetation clearing in two treatment areas and along several roads to improve forest health, reduce wildfire risk and provide timber, the Forest Service said in a news release. “The timber treatments would improve the forest’s ability to withstand and recover from drought and insect outbreaks by creating more diversity in the size and ages of trees. Additionally, work along roads will strengthen predetermined areas where firefighters could more effectively engage wildfires,” the Forest Service said in its release. …“Active forest management is an important tool for maintaining healthy forests,” Acting Aspen-Sopris District Ranger Jennifer Schuller said in the release. 
MISSOULA, Montana — Forester Sean Steinebach felt stunned when US District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula vacated a federal magistrate judge’s favorable recommendations about the proposed South Plateau timber project. “Judge Molloy is a thorn in my side,” said Steinebach, outreach forester for Sun Mountain Lumber, based in Deer Lodge. …Molloy’s ruling was filed Dec. 11, vacating March 31 recommendations by Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto that had allowed the project to proceed. Sun Mountain Lumber operates a sawmill in Deer Lodge and one in Livingston. …Steinebach said incessant lawsuits by environmental groups like the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Council on Wildlife and Fish sabotage timber projects, threaten sawmill communities, loggers and others. …One key issue for Judge Molloy was secure habitat for grizzly bears, but Canada lynx habitat was also a concern. Both are considered threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
University of Oregon Assistant Research Professor James Johnston said he was taught that when a large fire burned a moist, Western Cascade forest to the ground, and the area didn’t burn for hundreds of years afterward, that’s what created a complex, old-growth landscape. Instead, his study found that ancient tree stumps in the Mount Hood and Willamette National Forests had burn scars from multiple fires over their long lives. It’s the first time tree-ring scars have been used to document fire records in the region. Johnston said forests are complex because of—not in spite of—lower-severity wildfires which don’t kill many of the trees. …Johnston said to figure out the best ways to foster healthy forests, relatively recent upheavals also need to be considered. Those include clearcuts, human infrastructure at the margins of forests, and hotter and drier weather patterns.
OLYMPIA, WA – Two Washington tribal leaders could soon sit on the state’s Board of Natural Resources, which guides logging sales and other management decisions on public land. Sen. Claudia Kauffman, a Democrat and first Native American woman to serve in the state Senate, proposed Senate Bill 5838. On Monday, it was voted out of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. The bill originally called for only one tribal representative, but it was changed to two members as it moved through the committee process. The proposal is backed by Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, who chairs the board and leads the Department of Natural Resources. The department requested the legislation. If enacted, the governor would appoint a tribal representative from each side of the Cascades… Eligible tribal members must hold an elected position in a federally recognized tribe whose reservation or treaty-ceded lands are in Washington.
Anytime someone talks about shifting management of federal lands to Idaho, know that they have a bigger goal in mind. In a recent interview on The Ranch Podcast, Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, was frank about his goals for public lands in Idaho. He said his father, former Rep. Eric Redman, dreamed of Idaho taking ownership of federal lands, and his goal is the same. The first step is for Idaho to manage public lands for a bit, then the state takes ownership of them. “How do we get that federal land back in ownership for the state?” Rep. Jordan Redman said. Back? It should be said that Idaho has never owned federal land. Redman should try reading the Constitution he swore to uphold: “… the people of the state of Idaho do agree and declare that we forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof … .” You can’t get back what you never owned; you can only take it. In service of the goal of taking federal land, Redman made a familiar argument.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists say multiple Earth system components appear closer to destabilization than previously believed, putting the planet at increased risk of a “hothouse” trajectory driven by feedback loops that can amplify the consequences of global warming. “The risk of a hothouse Earth 
FREMONT, Nebraska — Fremont wood processor Horizon Biofuels will be fined up to $147,500 by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for “willful and serious safety violations after a deadly explosion at the company’s Fremont facility in July 2025,” the US Department of Labor announced. Horizon has until Feb. 19 to decide whether it wants to appeal the citation, according to a spokesperson with the Kansas City OSHA office. …The explosion killed 32-year-old employee Dylan Danielson and his two daughters, both under the age of 12. The violations include “combustible dust buildup, failure to ensure equipment within the facility was protected from creating an ignition source and lack of fall protection for employees working at heights greater than four feet,” the Department of Labor said. …The Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s office also has a pending investigation. 