Zoltan van Heyningen
The Global Wood Summit will feature the US Lumber Coalition’s Executive Director—Zoltan van Heyningen. The two-day conference on the state of the forest sector and global markets and trade takes place October 29 and 30 in Vancouver. The long running US-Canada softwood lumber dispute and the current import duties impact huge volumes of Canadian lumber exports to the US. Countervailing and anti-dumping duties are currently in place that are tied to annual Administrative Reviews where duty rates change. Zoltan will follow the panel of experts on North American lumber markets, discussing some of the background to US trade law and duties and how it impacts Canadian lumber exports to the US. Delegates to the Global Wood Summit will see over 30 speakers from around the world to discuss what is going on in the world of forest products and what the outlooks will be for 2025. Click here for the conference agenda and speakers.
VANCOUVER —
Persistent upward movement in framing lumber prices left many items approaching their highs for the year in the fourth quarter. The current supply-driven run has pushed the Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite Price to its fourth consecutive weekly increase. The front month in lumber futures continued to trade at a slight premium to the physical market, but the January contract opened a sizable spread with cash. …Mills in the South continued to push for double-digit price hikes with moderate success. Most Southern Pine prices continued to climb. However, buyer resistance to the highest mill quotes grew more intense as the week progressed. …Coast dimension sales continued to outpace production, keeping upward pressure on some prices. Board markets remained on a divergent trend. Producers continued to adjust prices predominantly downward.
This months SLB update includes these headlines and more:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced it is making up to $34 million in funding available to support innovation and jobs in the forestry sector while supporting healthy forest landscapes. The agency is seeking proposals that will spark innovation, create new markets for sustainable wood products and renewable wood energy, and expand processing capacity. The funding, made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, is available through the Forest Service’s three key grant programs to support the forest products economy: Wood Innovations Grant, Community Wood Grant, and Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance Grant Programs. …The agency is seeking proposals that support innovative uses of sustainably sourced wood in construction, as a renewable energy source, and in manufactured and processed products. 
Texas forests were still relatively pristine and ancient as late as 1870, with centuries-old trees towering as high as 150 feet. But then came the “bonanza era” of widespread deforestation. By 1907, Texas became the third largest lumber producer in the United States, making lumber barons such as John Henry Kirby incredibly wealthy. In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt established Texas’ four national forests — Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Angelina and Sabine — in East Texas. By then, little remained of Texas’ once-mighty forests. The relentless exploitation devastated ecosystems and diminished biodiversity, leaving behind fragmented landscapes that can’t sustain the wildlife species who make their habitat in Texas forests. …And decades later, though the Forest Service says there are no old-growth forests in the national forests of Texas, we now have 400,000 acres of mature forests. …But logging of older trees continues in our national forests. [to access the full story a Houston Chronicle subscription is required]
Months before the Texas Panhandle erupted with destructive wildfires, fire crews in Borger were igniting fire intentionally on a seven-mile, roughly 250-foot wide ribbon of land on the edge of town. The prescribed burn in November removed dense grass and brush next to homes on the southwest side of the town. When the Windy Deuce fire ravaged the region in February, the prescribed burn area acted as a fireproof wall that stopped the blaze in its tracks. …Before modern firefighting and fire suppression techniques, fires across forests and grasslands were a part of the Earth’s natural cycles. Prescribed burning is an ancient technique still practiced by some Native Americans. In the range ecosystem that dominates the United States from the Texas panhandle through the Great Plains, land managers and firefighters are recommending prescribed burns to protect communities and restore natural fire cycles. But in Texas, prescribed burning has yet to be widely accepted.
Hurricanes are among the most destructive forces found in nature, capable of causing extensive environmental damage — a factor that can raise the risk of wildfires, according to Robert Scheller, a NC State professor of forestry and environmental resources. “When a hurricane makes landfall, the strong winds and heavy rain can topple trees, leaving behind needles, leaves and branches that can act as fuels for wildfires,” said Scheller. Scheller said pine trees pose a higher wildfire risk than other species, because the needles contain higher concentrations of flammable resins that easily ignite when exposed to a heat source, allowing the pine needles to quickly catch fire and burn rapidly, especially in dry conditions. They also decompose slowly due to a waxy coating that makes it difficult for bacteria and fungi to break them down. As a result, the needles typically remain on the ground longer compared to other foliage.
The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the United States Forest Service (USFS) to support the creation of a publicly accessible platform to provide transparent, high-integrity forest and wood product carbon data. The platform will include six measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification tools that align with a USFS objective to serve as the primary source of information on carbon and carbon flows across U.S. forest lands, harvested wood products, and end-use life cycle assessment. Currently, forest and wood product data exist in disparate sources. Connections and improvements are necessary to produce standardized data and approaches for quantifying forest-sector greenhouse gas flux for entities across the value chain… USDA has committed $4 million in funding, with $1 million provided by the U.S. Endowment.
