Tommy Tuberville
ALABAMA — US Senator Tommy Tuberville tore into foreign import trade practices undercutting Alabama’s timber and shrimp industries during a Senate hearing with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, demanding aggressive tariffs to protect producers across the state. Alabama’s forestry sector carries a $36 billion annual economic impact, supports more than 40,000 jobs, and ranks fourth nationally in lumber production. Tuberville told Rollins the industry is under siege. “My foresters are getting killed. Our sawmills are closing down,” Tuberville said. “We’re getting beat up by Canada. I think we have a 25% tariff on Canada. It needs to be about 60, 70 percent. They are flooding our country with lumber.” Tuberville saved his sharpest fire for China, where he said companies buy Alabama timber, ship it overseas for milling, and send finished products back at prices domestic manufacturers cannot match. …“We need to tariff the hell out of China.” …Rollins said the USDA plans to prioritize timber.
US President Trump has said he is “not looking to renew” the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). “I made the deal and the primary reason I made the deal is that NAFTA was the worst trade deal I’ve ever seen. Yeah. And I made it better. But I had the right to terminate.” …“We don’t need anything to Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have, and they have to treat us better.” …“With Mexico and Canada, we have trade deficits. We should have surpluses with them. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy.” …CUSMA’s text allows each country the opportunity to extend the agreement for another 16 years or launch a series of annual reviews.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities today launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) to assess the feasibility of repurposing closed wood products manufacturing facilities, including pulp and paper mills, for bioenergy. The initiative will make available up to $500,000 in pre-development funding to support one or two facilities across the United States. Across the country, idled wood products facilities have left behind industrial infrastructure, utility connections and skilled workforce capacity at a time when forest-dependent regions are urgently seeking new economic anchors. Since 2015, more than 40 U.S. pulp and paper mills have closed, removing roughly 60 million green tons of annual wood demand from rural communities. The Endowment’s market initiative seeks to determine whether these sites can be reactivated as biopower generation or biofuel production facilities, creating new markets for low-value wood fiber and supplying renewable energy to a growing economy.
Federal law allows utilities operating on national forest land to remove hazardous trees only within 10 feet of a power line. In Western forests, where trees routinely reach 100 feet tall and a single ignition can drive hundreds of thousands of acres of destruction, 10 feet is not a safety standard — it is a disaster waiting to happen. The Fix Our Forests Act would extend that authority to 150 feet, alongside streamlined federal permitting for wildfire mitigation work and tighter judicial review timelines on fuel-reduction projects… The bill has cleared the House by a 279-141 vote and passed the Senate Agriculture Committee by a vote of 18 to 5 … Utility operators across the West are calling for it. But it does not have the support of Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). …The community-owned utilities I represent … don’t have a stake in what gets logged. But they do have a stake in whether the lines stay up when fire moves through…
COUSHATTA, Louisiana – C&C Forest Products announced it is investing over $21 million to rebuild its Coushatta sawmill following a 2025 fire, repositioning the facility as a more efficient, cost-competitive specialty lumber and timber operation. The company is expected to create 77 direct new jobs… while retaining 27 current positions. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 256 indirect new jobs, for a total of 333 potential new job opportunities in the Northwest Region. …The project will reconfigure the existing facility at 306 Wilkinson St. with updated equipment and improved site layout to support more efficient production. Once complete, the rebuilt sawmill will focus on specialty lumber and timbers and will be capable of producing up to 90 million board feet annually. …C&C Forest Products operates sawmills in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Lumber climbed to $617 per thousand board feet, the highest level since October, as constrained supply outweighed subdued conditions in the housing market. The US lumber market remains tight, with domestic production failing to fully offset reduced imports from Canada following tariffs. Canada still supplies roughly 30% of US consumption, underscoring its continued importance despite trade barriers. The US Commerce Department has proposed lowering combined duties on Canadian lumber to 24.8% from 35.2%, but an additional 10% Section 232 tariff keeps the effective rate close to 35%. Supply pressures have been further intensified by wildfire damage and other production disruptions in Canada, prompting British Columbia to introduce emergency measures aimed at boosting timber availability after storms and fires threatened output. [END]
Global oil prices fell on Monday following news of a tentative deal between Iran and the U.S. to extend their ceasefire agreement and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but a veteran oil watcher doesn’t see crude prices returning to pre-war levels anytime soon. Eric Nuttall, partner at Ninepoint Partners, said that traders are trying to determine where the price of oil will settle out in the coming days and weeks, as many key details about the deal still need to be ironed out. …Nuttall noted that even if the strategically important Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened as a result of the Iran-U.S. deal, it will take time for oil markets to recover from the volatility of the last three and a half months. …In addition to the logistical backlog and supply chain disruption, the war in Iran has caused extensive damage to petroleum facilities across the Middle East, Nuttall explained.
This month, consumer sentiment ticked up about four index points, or 9%, with consumers experiencing some relief due to the early-month easing in gasoline prices. This measured improvement in sentiment was widespread, seen across age, education, and political party. Lower-income consumers exhibited a particularly strong sentiment increase, consistent with the fact that gasoline comprises a larger share of their budgets. Overall, assessments and expectations of personal finances and business conditions all rose this month. Even with June’s early gains, however, views of the economy are still relatively dour. Sentiment is currently 13% below January 2026 and 19% below a year ago, as consumers remain focused on kitchen table issues. They feel burdened by the recent escalation in inflation and worry that higher inflation could remain stubborn going forward, particularly in the short run. Interviews for this release were completed between May 19 and June 8.
More than 4.2 million miles of public roads crisscross the lower 48 states… This vast network of roads leaves only about 5% as an inventoried roadless area or wilderness. Now, some of those last remaining lands free of roads are under threat from the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the 2001 Roadless Rule. That includes southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, where eagles, bears, salmon and many other species thrive in old-growth coastal forest along the Inside Passage. …The Trump administration’s proposed rollback, expected to be formalized in 2026, would open these last wild places to development, fragmenting habitats that can never be restored. …The American public spoke loudly in 2001 when they supported the Roadless Rule. Two decades later, the public comments submitted on the recission notice overwhelming opposed rolling back the rules, a Center for Western Priorities review found, reaffirming that U.S. roadless forests remain as vital and valued as ever.
A photosynthesizing tree is not necessarily growing — a new study of oak trees, published in the journal 
The Agriculture Department is making an ultimatum to thousands of its employees as part of its sweeping relocation plans — move to keep their jobs or quit. USDA is embarking on a multi-part reorganization plan that involves relocating more than half of its D.C.-area workforce to hubs across the country by the end of this summer. Employees impacted by these relocation plans work at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Forest Service, Economic Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Food and Nutrition Service. …The memo also states that NASS and all components under USDA’s research, education and economic mission area will offer buyouts and early retirement to employees who received relocation notices. The Forest Service told employees earlier this month that it will offer Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) to staff impacted by its relocation plans.
SEATTLE — Few public universities get more federal research funding than the University of Washington. So as President Trump has already cancelled or suspended about a quarter of all funding for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes for Health, the atmosphere on this leafy Seattle campus is tense. The anxiety is even trickling down to lower profile places once considered safe from White House politics, like UW’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Here, newly proposed U.S. Forest Service funding cuts and a larger reorganization of the agency would have immediate consequences as the West looks poised for an epic summer of wildfires and smoke. “We have a wildfire crisis in the West [and] in the United States,” says Ernesto Alvarado, a fire ecologist and associate professor at the school. …But the Seattle smoke lab is now on a list of 56 out of 90 research stations identified for closure.
The U.S. Forest Service has faced budget and staffing cuts under the Trump administration, and a new analysis shows those cuts are impacting how much land the agency is able to treat to prevent wildfires. The Forest Service treated 35 percent fewer acres for wildfire mitigation in 2025, compared with the previous year. Mitigation efforts include tree thinning, brush clearing, and prescribed burning. That’s according to Forest Service data assessed by the public lands advocacy group, Center for Western Priorities. That means nearly one and a half million fewer acres were treated overall. These treatments lower wildfire risks, and make fires easier to fight, which better protects communities and keeps firefighters safe. In a state-by-state breakdown, the Center’s analysis found 63% less acres of Forest Service land in Montana were treated for wildfire risk. The Trump administration has proposed further cuts to the U.S. Forest Service’s budget, staff, and local support – including closing regional offices nationwide.
…After decades of biologists going out into the woods and physically counting animals, the agency is now turning to sound recorders and AI because they’re cheaper and can gather a lot more information. “Autonomous recording units with rechargeable batteries, memory cards, and the software costs are coming in the $600-$700 range per device,” said Oregon Department of Forestry biologist Corey Grinnell. The agency is currently spending millions to send biologists into the forests to conduct callback surveys, where they mimic a bird call and count responses. …The agency now has 23 devices and plans to deploy more as it moves away from callback surveys. …There is some concern that using recorders might put biologists out of work. But lead ODF biologist Vanessa Petro isn’t so sure. She said that once the AI counts birds in a recording, the tally will need to be checked by an actual biologist.
…Decades of fire suppression have left many dry pine forests overcrowded with small trees and dense brush. …Foresters largely agree on the solution: restore forests through thinning and prescribed fire. The problem is that restoration work is expensive, especially when it involves removing small-diameter trees that have little commercial value. …Taxpayers shoulder most of the burden while hazardous fuels continue accumulating across millions of acres. …Oregon is well positioned to tackle this problem. New wood products such as mass timber can create markets for the very material that restoration projects remove. Instead of treating small trees as waste, we can turn them into building materials… The goal is to keep large fire-resistant trees while removing smaller fuels that make forests more vulnerable to extreme fires. …Oregon already has the tools and workforce to address this problem. The question is whether we are willing to act before the next historic fire season arrives.
Deming, Washington — Leroy Sande was pioneering a road with his excavator in Southeast Alaska when stumps, rocks, everything else — including his rig — started to pitch down the hillside. As if reaching out with his own arm, the logger instinctively grabbed at the slick sandstone beneath 10 feet of soil with the excavator’s bucket. “Well, you ain’t grabbing sandstone,” Sande, now 83, recalled. “…There was nothing to grab onto that wasn’t going down the hill.” About 400 yards down slope, the excavator tipped over and came to a stop. It was the only time in his 50-plus-year career in the woods that Sande put an excavator on its side, and even then, he emerged from the machine unscathed. Logging is the most deadly occupation in the nation… Injuries that aren’t fatal can put someone out of work for weeks, months, years or the rest of their life. The annual 
Wildfires are reversing decades of air quality improvements across much of the US. Expanded use of prescribed fire is a primary proposed solution, but air quality trade-offs—more initial smoke for less smoke later—remain poorly quantified. Using two decades of satellite-derived measurements of fire severity and smoke particulate matter across California, we assessed the causal effect of low-severity wildfire, a proxy for prescribed burning, on subsequent wildfire activity and air quality. We found that low-severity fire reduced the probability of very-high-severity wildfire by 92%, with reductions lasting a decade and extending 5 kilometers from treated locations. Reduced future smoke far outweighed the smoke produced during treatment, with benefit-cost ratios exceeding five after a decade. Sustained treatment of 500,000 acres annually would reduce cumulative smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by about 10% after a decade.
OREGON — A proposed new management strategy for the three national forests in Northeastern Oregon could more than triple the amount of commercial logging over the next two decades. The Forest Service hasn’t officially released a draft environmental impact statement for the revised management plans for the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur national forests, which will start a 90-day public comment period. …Shaun McKinney, Wallowa-Whitman supervisor, said on Wednesday that he expects the Forest Service will publish the draft in the Federal Register “any time.” …Typically, national forests update their plans every 15 years or so. But the current plans for the three forests in the Blue Mountains date to 1990. The three forests encompass about 5.5 million acres, including about 311,000 acres in Washington that are part of the Umatilla National Forest. 
GEORGIA — Amid drought conditions and larger fires, Georgia Forestry Commission Director Johnny Sabo told lawmakers the cost to put out the blazes in south Georgia cost more than half of his annual department budget. “We’re looking about $35 million between these two fires,” Sabo said about the cost of putting out the Pineland Road and Highway 82 fires in south Georgia. “To put that in perspective, my annual budget is $52 million.” Those figures don’t include the costs of helping communities recover from the damage and losses afterward. …Sabo said Georgia has experienced a more active fire season than in previous years, with the number of fires up 88%. It was made more dangerous by drier conditions. …The data from Sabo showed the yearly average acreage of fires was 5.6 acres in previous years. The size of the fires made it so smoke was even visible to residents in the metro Atlanta area.
