In a world of colourful economic pie charts and slick bar graphs, the image of a three-sided circle is both awkward and uncomfortable. Yet this image may depict the emerging fate of the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement. For Canada, the wild ride through Trumpian trade policy has now entered a decisive phase. …Some rules of the road ahead are beginning to take shape. First there is a recognition and begrudging acceptance that there will be some tariffs where CUSMA had none. …Secondly, despite warm commitments to the trilateral CUSMA relationship, Canada and Mexico are engaged in separate bilateral discussions with the US. …Enter the three-sided circle. Here the current comprehensive trilateral agreement would evolve into three bilateral trade agreements bound by a core centre that holds common rules and undertakings. …In triaging the trade-wounded, no sector deserves a bigger fix than Canada’s softwood lumber industry. Its market access to the US has been battered by 40 years of aggressive protectionism.
Trade watchers say they are shocked at the latest tactic being used by the US to shore up its tariff wall against Canada after a legal setback last month. US Trade Representative (USTR) launched investigations into 60 economies under Section 301(b) of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 to determine whether they have failed to impose or enforce bans on imports produced with forced labour. But critics in the Washington beltway say the 301 probes are basically a “show trial” and that the verdict is sure to go against trading partners such as Canada. Canada is being grouped together with China and dozens of other countries for these investigations. The probes will examine whether Ottawa’s forced-labour rules and framework… are sufficient for screening goods produced by child or forced labour. …“This has nothing to do with forced labour,” said Inu Manak, at the Council on Foreign Relations. …He thinks the administration is constructing a pretext to defend the tariffs it’s already planning.
While Canada’s economy is far more reliant on exports to the US than vice versa, Canadian negotiators have crucial ammunition in their efforts to land a trade deal that reduces or eliminates tariffs imposed by US President Trump. …Canada’s attempts to negotiate relief from Trump’s tariffs on such exports as steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber are now wrapped into fresh talks on renewing the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). …Barry Appleton, says Canada needs to shift its strategy by exerting its leverage as a crucial U.S. customer. …Inu Manak, says the US needs Canadian natural resources to achieve the industrial policy goals set out by the US administration. …Canada is among the top sources of foreign direct investment in the U.S., largely as a result of decisions by pension funds. …The US has repeatedly emphasized the importance of steady access to a reliable supply of critical minerals.
Mercer posted Q4 earnings per share (EPS) of -$4.61 against a consensus estimate of -$0.83, a miss that signals the commodity cycle has gone from painful to existential. The headline driver was a $238.7 million non-cash impairment charge, including a $203.5 million write-down on its Peace River hardwood pulp mill. …International Paper’s Q3 2025 losses look alarming on the surface, with a $1.01 billion impairment on its Global Cellulose Fibers business and $675 million in accelerated depreciation from mill closures. But adjusted EBITDA came in at $859 million, up 28% sequentially. IP is taking pain by choice. Mercer is absorbing pain it cannot control. …IP’s pivot to pure-play global packaging via DS Smith gives it pricing leverage and diversified end markets. Mercer’s mass timber order book, at roughly $163 million in contracts including data center projects, is a genuine bright spot, but it cannot offset a pulp business bleeding cash.
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve officials, convening in a wartime setting that began less than three weeks ago, are expected to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday even as a fresh jump in oil prices and data showing a rise in some aspects of inflation even before the start of the war with Iran may prompt them to recast the outlook for the U.S. economy, inflation and monetary policy. New projections to be released by the U.S. central bank at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) will show how policymakers assess the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to launch an open-ended conflict in the Middle East, but the environment remained volatile even as they began the second day of their latest two-day policy meeting. …US producer prices rose in February by 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Rising producer prices can feed into retail costs and signal higher future inflation.
A cross-sector group of packaging producers, farmers, restaurants and grocers has filed a class action lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of SB 343, California’s controversial recycling labeling law. The coalition argues the legislation imposes unconstitutional restrictions on free speech, ultimately working against recycling participation programs by making it harder for consumers to understand what can and cannot go in the bin. At the heart of the complaint is SB 343’s prohibition on the use of widely recognized recycling symbols and claims, even when those claims are factually accurate, according to the suit. Under the law, producers cannot label packaging as recyclable unless it meets state-defined, “rigid” criteria that allegedly fails to reflect how recycling actually works. …“SB 343 establishes labeling standards that could discourage innovation and limit the ability to provide accurate recycling information to consumers,” the American Forest and Paper Association stated.
COLORADO — The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) unanimously voted to table its decision on adopting eight new building-related codes. Those are the 2024 editions of international codes, including the residential code, building code, energy and conservation code, mechanical code, fuel and gas code, existing building code, property maintenance code, and the swimming pool and spa code. During the meeting, the BoCC also considered, and unanimously approved, Resolution 2026-27, adopting the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (CWRC), along with amendments to snow load requirements for manufactured structures. …Commissioner John Ranson described them as an “unfunded mandate,” adding, “there’s no two-ways about it.” He mentioned that in conversations with local builders, many are preparing for these codes to make construction costs go up.
In Oregon… fights over how much to cut defined the 1980s and ’90s. Steep declines in timber harvest, meant to save Oregon’s last ancient forests, ripped an urban-rural divide that still festers. Today, Oregon still produces the most softwood lumber in the US. But the state’s timber harvest has hovered near historic lows, at least seven mills have closed since 2024 and logging on federal lands has been limited. President Trump’s administration wants to change that. …The moves have been met with cautious optimism in Oregon’s timber industry. …Environmental and outdoors groups, meanwhile, are gearing up to fight. …Battles between timber and environmental groups are quieter now than during the pitched height of the Forest Wars, but they never went away. A lot else has changed, however. Wildfires have become the state’s biggest issue, there have been historic agreements between the two sides and there’s a new industry, mass timber.
Vermonters are weighing the impacts of a federal bill — the 
You have until Monday to provide input on the Trump administration’s plan to dramatically increase logging in western Oregon forests. Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management 
Three organizations and an individual are suing the Gardiner District of the Custer Gallatin National Forest — for a plan they say hurts the already-endangered whitebark pine tree while ignoring lynx and grizzly habitat, and relying on unproven studies. The groups say the federal government is ignoring its rules and seems to be disregarding its own maps of protected lynx area in an effort to preserve the rare whitebark pine trees, despite admitting in its own documents that the efforts to preserve the trees could actually harm them. The lawsuit … centers on logging north of Yellowstone National Park. A technique, called “daylight thinning,” which involves removing trees near a whitebark pine, is not backed by scientific research according to the court documents, and the organizations point out that the Forest Service admits that in the process of thinning, it could actually wind up killing some of the whitebark pine trees. 
This week, we have yet another reminder that Idaho can’t possibly afford to take over or manage federal lands. A forthcoming study, which will be published Friday, provides the most recent reliable estimates of exactly how much Idaho would lose if it were to take over federal lands. The study, which was commissioned by Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Idaho Business for the Outdoors, the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association, and the Idaho Wildlife Federation, was performed by Peterson and Associates, which has long been a go-to source for economic analysis of this type in Idaho. While the full results won’t be released until Friday, the top-line figures are stark. Idaho would lose $837.7 million directly, in the form of spending by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies, as well as Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools payments. That’s nearly 16% of Idaho’s general fund budget.
A federal judge in Alaska 
At a commercial tree nursery near Evans, western Louisiana, pine seedlings are sprayed with a liquid extract teeming with hundreds of species of wild soil fungi. Brad Ouseman, the nursery manager, is confident he will see results from this fungal inoculation, which is intended to improve yields and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers. Colin Averill, the founder of Funga, the startup company that supplied the spray, likens the treatment to a faecal microbiome transplant for young pine trees. Funga treats young pine trees with wild microbes derived from the soils of thriving pine forests. “We’re taking the whole soil community,” Averill says. “As a result, we get all the complexity and all the interactions that come with it.” The goal: trees that grow fast, drawing down more carbon dioxide, with less reliance on artificial fertilisers. …“Our next big target is Douglas fir in the Pacific north-west,” says Averill.
Years after logging at his Mariaville woodlot, Bob Seymour expected to see new hardwood trees growing in the understory. In fact, he took it as a given after decades in the Maine woods that natural regrowth would crop up. Instead, almost all of the young trees in some sections are eastern white pines he had planted. He believes that’s largely because deer populations are growing and eating more hardwood saplings, which means fewer trees and less diversity in the future. …It’s one of the most concerning changes that Seymour, a retired UMaine silviculture professor, has seen in almost five decades of experience researching forest management. …Such challenges to understanding and managing the Maine woods have grown in recent years amid climate change, which has brought destructive new pests, fast-moving diseases, invasive plants that take over, and warmer winters that change growing, harvesting and wildlife conditions.
For more than 30 years, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization has told us how terrible things are getting with global climate change. Their annual “State of the Climate” report is a compendium of climate change facts and figures collected throughout the previous 365 days. It’s an authoritative look at the state of our global climate and its increasingly precarious condition. …This year’s edition, covering 2025, is out today. The findings are stark, even frightening. But, like every year, it also feels like a bit of a rehash. …The fact that the past 11 years were the hottest on record? Yawn. The announcement that greenhouse gases in the air are at unprecedented levels for all of human history? Wake me when you’ve got something new to report. …The findings should be jarring reminders of planetary vital signs flashing red. But similar observations were made last year … and the year before that.
LOUISIANA — Legislation to expand wood pellet manufacturing in Louisiana is gaining traction despite concerns over the industry’s connection to underground carbon storage, which has attracted a growing number of critics among state lawmakers. Louisiana is a burgeoning producer of wood pellets, which have been branded as a sustainable alternative to coal for generating electricity in overseas markets. As of 2023, mills in the South produced about 85% of the America’s wood pellet exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reps. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, and Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Hornbeck, are carrying the proposed Louisiana Wood Pellet Manufacturing Strengthening Act. It directs the Louisiana Economic Development agency to promote the expansion of the industry throughout the state. …Legislators who have become hostile to carbon dioxide sequestration projects in their local districts openly disagree with economic development officials on whether the wood pellet industry even needs to store the CO2 they generate.
HOLMES COUNTY, Ohio — Six people were injured following a dust explosion and fire at a moulding facility in Holmes County on Tuesday, according to local emergency officials. According to a Facebook post reporting the incident, East Holmes Fire & EMS responded at 12:43 p.m. at Holmes Custom Moulding, where crews reported a structure fire accompanied by an explosion. First units arrived within one minute and requested additional ambulances after identifying multiple burn victims. …Six patients were treated at the scene and transported to area hospitals… Preliminary information indicates the explosion was caused by sparks from a malfunctioning belt sander entering a sawdust collection system. The ignition of wood dust led to an explosion that caused extensive damage to the building, including the dust collection system and sawdust silos.
