Zoltan van Heyningen
TreeFrogNews recently published an opinion by its Editor Kelly McCloskey. As is often the case for those trying to defend Canada’s softwood lumber trade practices, they must rely on arguments that are irrelevant to the current round of antidumping and countervailing duty cases against unfairly traded Canadian lumber imports. In this instance, Mr. McCloskey’s criticism of the zeroing methodology is beside the point, because the US Department of Commerce did not use zeroing when calculating the antidumping duty rates that are currently in place.
Canada’s unfair trade practices are real. The harm to US companies, workers, and communities is real. Government aid to Canada’s lumber industry, whether provincial or federal, is a subsidy, because providing government money to an industry is the very definition of a subsidy no matter how it is presented. Canada is entitled to its own system and to decide what role the Canadian government plays with respect to its lumber industry. Canada is not entitled to unrestrained access to the US market for its massive excess lumber capacity and production while that industry benefits from subsidies and engages in well-documented dumping practices. Canada is also not entitled to maintain a USMCA Chapter 10 dispute settlement system that is different from any other bilateral or multilateral dispute settlement system.
The softwood timber tariffs levied by the U.S. have begun to hit the lumber industry hard. Citing a drooping softwood lumber demand, compounded by higher duties and additional tariffs that have reached 45 per cent for U.S. markets, West Fraser Timber announced Thursday its plans to permanently shutter both its Augusta, Ga., and 100 Mile House lumber mills by the end of 2025. Approximately 165 employees at the 100 Mile House mill will be laid off, as the company says it can’t secure an adequate volume of economically viable timber. The closing of the mill drops West Fraser’s capacity by 160 million board feet. …The closure of the Augusta lumber mill is a result of challenging lumber demand, and the loss of economically viable residual outlets, which combined has compromised the mill’s long-term viability. Around 130 employees will be laid off there, and further reduce West Fraser’s capacity by 140 million board feet.
BEIJING — China will restore soybean import licences for three US firms and lift its suspension on US log imports starting November 10, its customs authority said on Friday in another sign of easing trade tensions between the two nations. …The halt on US log imports was a retaliatory measure after US President Trump’s March 1 order to investigate lumber imports. Investor sentiment improved after Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, reducing fears that the world’s two largest economies might abandon efforts to resolve their trade disputes. Following the meeting, Beijing lifted tariffs on some US farm goods. …However, traders remain cautious, as a 10% tariff on all US imports remains in effect, limiting expectations for a broader recovery in trade flows.
KINGWOOD, W.Va. — Multiple volunteer fire departments and emergency medical services responded Wednesday night to a fire at Appalachian Wood Pellets that affected multiple buildings. Officials reported the blaze has been contained, and no injuries were reported. Preston County Office of Emergency Management Director Justin Wolfe said initial reports of the blaze at 383 Mill Road were received at 11:33 p.m. Wednesday. …Initial reports noted that crews mounted an attack against the blaze, with additional fire departments being requested for assistance. Based on reports, the fire affected structures outside the main plant, including an open trailer with material, an open roofed storage structure and a belt-to-silo apparatus, and encroached on a maintenance building.
Weyerhaeuser will use $102 million of proceeds from a municipal bond sale to help finance the construction of solid waste disposal facilities at its engineered wood plant in Arkansas. The Resource Recovery Revenue Bonds Series 2025 will be sold by the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, which will then lend the money to the timber and forest products company. …The bonds are special and limited revenue obligations of the issuer. Weyerhaeuser will use the money to help finance a portion of the costs of the acquisition, construction, equipping and installation of solid waste disposal facilities at its TimberStrand plant under construction near the city of Monticello in Drew County. Proceeds will also be used to pay the costs of bond issuance. TimberStrand is a brand name for a type of engineered wood product called laminated strand lumber and is manufactured by Weyerhaeuser. 
BURNABY, BC — Interfor reported its Q3, 2025 results. The company recorded a net loss of $215.8 million compared to net earnings of $11.1 million in Q2’25 and a net loss of $105.7 million in Q3’24. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $183.8 million on sales of $689.3 million in Q3’25 versus Adjusted EBITDA of $17.2 million on sales of $780.5 million in Q2’25 and an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $22.0 million on sales of $692.7 million in Q3’24. Lumber production of 912 million board feet was down 23 million board feet versus the preceding quarter. This decline largely reflects the Company’s announcement on September 4, 2025, to temporarily curtail production. …Weak lumber market conditions were reflected in Interfor’s average selling price of $618 per mfbm, down $66 per mfbm versus Q2’25. …Interfor’s strategy of maintaining a diversified portfolio of operations in multiple regions allows the Company to both reduce risk and maximize returns on capital over the business cycle.
VANCOUVER, BC — Canfor Corporation reported its third quarter of 2025 results. The Company reported an operating loss of $208 million and a net loss of $172 million. …Canfor’s CEO, Susan Yurkovich, stated: “The ongoing global economic and trade uncertainty, in conjunction with punitive US softwood lumber duties, led to persistently weak market conditions and subdued demand across all of our operating regions during the third quarter of 2025. …For the lumber segment, the operating loss was $182.2 million for the third quarter of 2025, compared to the previous quarter’s operating loss of $229.2 million. …For the 
Lumber futures steadied around $540 per thousand board feet, hovering near seven-week lows, after a sharp selloff driven mainly by softer US construction demand and lingering post-rally inventories. US housing starts and builder activity failed to accelerate, leaving order flow thin and dealer and distributor stocks higher than the summer buying binge implied. Supply has only partially adjusted, with North American mills signaling temporary curtailments, but looming US softwood measures and announced support for Canada’s industry have kept export channels and production incentives intact, preventing a rapid physical tightening. Traders are now pricing a likely mix of modest Q4 production cuts, seasonal pre-winter restocking and the risk of trade-related disruptions.
REDDING, Calif. – A groundbreaking effort is underway in Redding where 
Michigan is the latest state to launch an initiative aimed at accelerating mass timber construction. The new Michigan Mass Timber Catalyst Program will provide cash awards ranging from $25,000 to $75,000, along with technical assistance and peer-learning opportunities, to encourage the use of engineered wood in new buildings. Although mass timber products are not yet manufactured in Michigan, interest in the material is growing rapidly. …The Catalyst program, produced collaboratively by the Michigan DNR, MassTimber@MSU, the Michigan Green Building Collaborative, and WoodWorks, will support early-stage projects that use mass timber as a primary structural or architectural material. …Awarded teams will join a cohort led by MassTimber@MSU and Woodworks to work through design, procurement, cost estimation, and code approval challenges. …In New York City, the NYCEDC’s Mass Timber Studio offers $25,000 Grants and technical support for early-stage projects…. In the Southeast, the Georgia Mass Timber Accelerator… provides funding and technical assistance to teams exploring timber-based design solutions.
The Washington Forest Practices Board may vote Nov. 12 to widen and lengthen riparian buffers, taking millions of dollars worth of timber out of production. Forest landowners and the wood-products are mounting a last-ditch effort to persuade the board to not adopt what they say would be a massive taking of private property. The state Department of Ecology says wider and longer buffers would keep timber harvests from raising temperatures in non-fish bearing streams in most cases. Timber groups haven’t been in a battle this divisive since the industry, state agencies and tribes settled on seminal logging rules in 1999, Washington Forest Protection Association’s Darin Cramer said. …Studies confirmed logging raises water temperatures. The timber industry argues that even if temperatures rise, they soon go down and generally do not exceed acceptable levels. Massachusetts-based consultant Industrial Economics estimates the rule will take somewhere between 67,000 acres and 170,000 acres out of production.
Every year, there are thousands of landslides in Oregon. Geologists say the number is increasing due to climate change. …Swaths of the Pacific Northwest are particularly prone, thanks to a combination of mountainous landscape and heavy rainfall. “Over the last couple decades, the landslides and the surface processes and surface hazards that I’ve been working on have become much more prominent, primarily due to climate change and humans inhabiting more areas in hazardous terrain,” said Josh Roering, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Oregon. …Roering is one of the geologists involved in the newly formed Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH). A $15 million NSF grant jumpstarted the center that will study landslides and other surface hazards. While CLaSH is housed in the University of Michigan, it is a collaboration with more than a dozen academic, governmental and community partners across the country. 
Miles Ryan checked his harness one last time, gave an assured look to his ground crew, and started to climb. …There, balanced at the top of the forest, Ryan leaned out toward the tips of the limbs to get what he’d come for: cones. It was one of Cal Fire’s last cone samplings of the season, which usually runs from August to October across state forests and conifer species. Each cone contains anywhere from a few dozen to hundreds of precious seeds. These have become more important in recent years, as an uptick in severe wildfires and the spread of insects and diseases have led to mass deaths of pines across California forests. But there are just a few dozen professional tree climbers like Ryan trained for high-elevation seed collection in California. …Cal Fire needs to collect 55,978 bushels of cones across species and locales to fully stock its seed bank.
Cal Poly Humboldt study in partnership with Save the Redwoods League reveals how second-growth forests respond to modern wildfires and what managers can do to protect them. California’s coast redwoods have stood for centuries, weathering a changing climate, logging, and time itself. But in an era of hotter, more frequent wildfires, their future resilience depends on how we care for them, according to new research published in Forest Ecology and Management. The study sought to understand the effects of wildfire on coast redwoods—the tallest trees in the world. Results revealed that redwoods in second-growth forests largely survived extreme wildfires in 2020 and quickly resprouted from their trunks and bases. Researchers also discovered that forest structure—how dense the trees are and which species are present—strongly influences fire severity, highlighting the importance of management efforts such as thinning, reducing fuel loads, and encouraging fire-resistant species.
A bipartisan piece of legislation that could have big impacts on the nation’s forest land continues to move quickly through Congress, pushing through a Senate committee last month. The Fix Our Forests Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate in April and co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Sheehy, along with Senators from California, Utah and Colorado. The legislation seeks to promote prescribed burns, expand the state-federal Good Neighbor Authority program, increase collaboration among fire agencies and improve reforestation efforts after fires. It also makes some rule changes that could impact how areas designated as high fire danger are managed and how projects in those areas proceed. …The legislation has received some support from environmental and outdoor advocacy groups… But there has also been some concern with it, namely around how it could change the process of forest projects, especially those in a declared “emergency fireshed management” area.
Albuquerque, NM — A new report by Grassroots Wildland Firefighters reveals a troubling decline in wildfire prevention work across the nation. According to the report, hazardous fuel reduction efforts on U.S. Forest Service land are down 38% since January 2025 compared to recent years, following significant federal budget cuts to staffing and resources. Hazardous fuel treatments are critical in preventing catastrophic wildfires. These projects include thinning overgrown forests, clearing brush, and conducting prescribed burns to reduce the vegetation that feeds wildfires. The group’s findings directly contradict recent public assurances from administration officials that land management agencies remain adequately funded and staffed. …The analysis shows mitigation work has fallen especially low in Idaho and Montana, where fewer than 30% of acres have been treated this year compared to previous averages. …Grassroots Wildland Firefighters warn that unless funding is restored, the nation’s wildfire season will grow increasingly severe and dangerous in the years ahead.
CORVALLIS, Oregon – Rising wildfire risk in the Pacific Northwest combined with notoriously volatile timber pricing may lower forestland values by as much as 50% and persuade plantation owners to harvest trees much earlier than planned, a 
BOISI, Idaho — The Trump Administration’s decision earlier this year to do away with the 2001 Roadless Area Conseravtion Rule on national forest lands sent shockwaves through environmental and outdoor recreation communities. According to environmentalists and an Idaho public official who has been involved in roadless rule politics since the issue’s inception, the move could transport stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest back to the rancor and political divisions of the timber war years. …“The national rule itself put the whole timber wars to bed. It really did,” said James Caswell, former director of the Bureau of Land Management. …The rule led to conditions in which environmentalists became less combative about forest management, according to Caswell. Instead, enviros became more willing to work with timber industry and Forest Service officials. …The decision puts the forest objectives of fishermen, hunters, ATVers, bird watchers and others on the back burner.
PORTLAND, Oregon — The question of whether two logging companies conspired to monopolize markets in an eastern Oregon forest came before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday as a coalition urged the court to revive its antitrust challenge. US Circuit Judge Milan Smith noted the case was unlike other antitrust suits. …In 2013, the U.S. Forest Service granted the logging company Iron Triangle a 10-year stewardship contract for the Malheur National Forest, as well as associated logging rights. A group of landowners, loggers and an eastern Oregon lumber sawmill — known collectively as the Malheur Forest Coalition — sued Iron Triangle in 2022, arguing that the company exploited control of the contract and should be blocked from competing for harvest rights in U.S. Forest Service public auctions. The lower court denied the request, prompting a new complaint adding the Malheur Lumber Company as a defendant.
