Region Archives: United States

Business & Politics

Canada tells U.S., Mexico it wants CUSMA renewed

CBC News
June 2, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canada has given the US and Mexico official notice that it wants the free trade deal between the three countries to be renewed. In a letter to his American and Mexican counterparts, Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the country is seeking renewal of CUSMA when it comes up for review on July 1. LeBlanc is in Washington Tuesday for a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. All the signals from the White House over the past year and a half indicate that the Trump administration does not want a straightforward renewal of CUSMA and instead wants significant changes to its terms. …LeBlanc calls CUSMA “highly beneficial to each of our countries and to the integrated North American economy,” but goes on to acknowledge that the other countries may want to propose “improvements.” …Whatever happens on July 1, CUSMA is slated to remain in effect until 2036. 

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‘Worth repeating’: U.S. ambassador welcomes PM Carney’s offer to ‘help make America great again’

By Rachel Aiello
CTV News
May 28, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Employing U.S. President Donald Trump’s marquee slogan, Prime Minister Mark Carney told a New York City business crowd on Thursday that “Canada strong will help make America great again,” a remark the U.S. envoy to this country said was “worth repeating.” Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the prime minister detailed his economic diversification strategy, and his plans to recalibrate Canada’s relationships and reputation. “We’re focused on what we can control, and that means weaving a dense web of international partnerships abroad. That’s making us a much stronger, more resilient, more independent country,” Carney told the business crowd. Touting some key areas where the federal Liberals have made progress, Carney sought to make the case for why Canada and the U.S. should continue to co-operate in key sectors. … Business Council of Canada CEO Goldy Hyder said he thought Carney was “pitch perfect” in acknowledging the areas where Canada needs to do better.

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US, Mexico set three rounds of trade deal talks without Canada

By David Lawder
Reuters in Yahoo! Finance
May 27, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States, International

MEXICO CITY – The Trump administration’s trade agency said on Wednesday it will kick off the first of three negotiating rounds with Mexico this week to revamp the North American trade agreement, but made no mention of any talks with Canada. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office ‌said in a statement that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Goettman will lead bilateral talks in Mexico City on Thursday and Friday focused on “economic security and ‌rules of origin for key industrial goods.” USTR Jamieson Greer stayed in Washington to attend a White House cabinet meeting on Thursday. USTR said the U.S. and Mexico will hold a second round of negotiations in Washington June ​16 to 17, focused on agriculture and “a level playing field,” with a third set of talks in Mexico City scheduled for the week of July 20. …But USTR’s statement made no mention of bilateral talks with Canada.

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US plans tariffs on USMCA countries, has issues with Canada

By ‌David Shepardson and David ​Lawder
Reuters in Newsmax
May 26, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The Trump administration intends to maintain tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said as the US launches negotiations to revamp the North American free trade pact. The US has “significant” trade issues with Canada. …”The US is going to have tariffs,” Greer said. “I mean, even with somebody like Mexico, or other countries that are in our own hemisphere, ⁠we’re going to have tariffs as long as we have a giant trade deficit.” His comments that the 6-year-old US-Mexico-Canada ​Agreement will not continue as a tariff-free trade pact echo comments he made privately last month to industry executives in ⁠Mexico — that auto and steel tariffs will remain in place under the revamped USMCA. …Greer said the Trump administration’s issues with Canada go well beyond trade “irritants” and it was difficult to see how the two can work out their differences.

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Trump plans to appeal ruling letting importers seek refunds of paid struck-down tariffs

By Anne D’Innocenzio and Lisa Leff
PBS News
May 30, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Businesses big and small have started receiving tariff refunds after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the constitutional authority to impose higher import taxes on goods from nearly every other country. The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge’s order to allow all companies that paid the invalidated duties to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits. Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been working fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12. …Applications for refunds totaling $85 billion — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimated the government owes to companies that paid the tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22

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Softwood Lumber Board Welcomes Tim Lukoshus as Director of Finance

Softwood Lumber Board
May 26, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Tim Lukoshus

The Softwood Lumber Board is pleased to announce that accounting veteran Tim Lukoshus is joining the SLB as Director of Finance. Lukoshus will lead the SLB’s financial management and core accounting functions. In this role, he will oversee timely financial reporting, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and alignment with the organization’s strategic priorities. His leadership is expected to further professionalize operations, support informed decision-making at the executive and board levels, and bolster the SLB’s integration of automation and AI to improve efficiency and accuracy. Lukoshus joins the SLB through his role as accounting manager at association management firm Smithbucklin, where he has managed accounting operations for professional societies and associations across healthcare, business trade, and technology sectors over the past five years. 

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Robbins Lumber resumes operations after deadly explosion

News Center Maine
June 1, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

SEARSMONT, Maine — Robbins Lumber has resumed full mill operations less than two weeks after an explosion at its Searsmont facility killed one person and injured 12 others, company officials announced. The company said it resumed full operations and began processing orders again on May 26 after employees and industry partners worked to restore the facility. …”We have worked quickly to restore operations safely and efficiently,” the company said. Robbins Lumber said its coatings facility was not affected by the explosion and has continued normal operations. The company is also using its Sanford location for warehousing, while its East Baldwin mill has increased production. …Robbins Lumber also provided an update on three family members injured in the explosion. James Robbins and Alden Robbins, along with Alden’s daughter, Lily Robbins, remain hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital. The company remains encouraged by their progress and looks forward to welcoming them back.

In related news in LBM Journal: NELMA raises $100K for Maine Strong Foundation following fire at Robbins Lumber

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In Memoriam

Dr. Michael Kocurek, Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University, Has Passed Away at 83

PaperAge
June 1, 2026
Category: In Memoriam
Region: United States, US East

Michael Kocurek

Dr. Michael J. Kocurek passed away on May 26, 2026, surrounded by his family and under the care of hospice. Founder of the Paper Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1970 and Professor Emeritus of Paper Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University, Michael was one of the world’s most recognized educators in the pulp and paper industry. …Michael received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering with a specialization in Paper Science and Engineering at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and at Syracuse University. During his illustrious career, Michael taught over 6,500 industry operators and professionals across more than 200 paper mills and 50 organizations. …His honors include TAPPI Fellow, TAPPI Distinguished Service Award, TAPPI Paper and Board Division Technical Achievement Award, and induction into the prestigious and exclusive Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. …Michael’s full obituary can be found at Legacy

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Finance & Economics

Lumber market overview prices shift amid shipping delays

RISI Fastmarkets
May 29, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Framing lumber sales were slow to get started after the long holiday weekend in the US in most markets. Many buyers paused early to assess market conditions – especially prospects for shipping any new orders – before resuming moderate replenishment as the week progressed. Prices shifted modestly. Recent trends in sales of western S-P-F were little changed. Discounts grew increasingly tougher for buyers to procure as order files lengthened and mills cleared existing accumulations. …Lumber futures were little changed week to date, with the front month trading near par with the cash market in most deliverable species. …Southern pine mill sales outpaced producers’ ability to ship the loads, and backlogs of sold lumber continued to accumulate throughout the distribution pipeline. Prices shifted mildly with sales frequently reported on both sides of last week’s reported levels. …In the Inland market, prices were predominantly flat, or mildly higher in a few cases.

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U.S. softwood lumber imports fall by nearly 2 million m3 in the first quarter

The Lesprom Network
May 28, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States, International

Global softwood lumber imports in the 10 largest import markets by volume contract from a year earlier in January to March 2026, led by a 1.94 million m3 decline in the US, a 1.19 million m3 decline in Germany, and a 775 thousand m3 decline in China. Total imports across the 10 largest softwood lumber import markets by volume fall by 3.9 million m3 to 12.6 million m3 over the quarter. In the US, the decline comes as high import duties on Canadian softwood lumber restrain shipments and homebuilding stays weak as home sales remain soft and home prices stay elevated. Canada records the largest supplier volume decline in the quarter at 1.52 million m3. …Across suppliers in the period, volumes fall most for Canada at 1,516 thousand m3, Russia at 743 thousand m3, and Austria at 680 thousand m3, while Belarus records the largest increase at 15.7 thousand m3.

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Construction costs pile onto housing crunch as copper, lumber spike

The Real Deal – Real Estate News
May 27, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Rising mortgage rates aren’t the only thing freezing the housing market. Builders are contending with a fresh wave of sticker shock on the job site, as soaring prices for copper, lumber, diesel and aluminum drive up the cost of putting homes in the ground. A mix of geopolitical turmoil, tariffs and supply-chain disruptions is rippling through construction materials markets at a moment when affordability is already stretched thin, the Wall Street Journal reported. The result is higher costs for developers, more uncertainty for homebuilders and even fewer paths to affordable homeownership. Copper has become one of the industry’s biggest headaches. …Lumber prices are climbing again, too. Canadian sawmill closures and tariffs tied to the long-running U.S.-Canada softwood dispute have tightened supply heading into peak building season. …The broader concern for developers is that construction inflation could become self-reinforcing. Higher material costs feed broader inflation fears, which in turn keep borrowing costs elevated. 

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US New Home Sales Down in April on Affordability Concerns

By Robert Dietz, Chief Economist
NAHB Eye on Housing
May 28, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Elevated mortgage rates, higher inflation and economic uncertainty kept more buyers on the sidelines in April as ongoing affordability challenges continue. Sales of newly built single-family homes fell 6.2% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 622,000, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The pace of new home sales is down 11.3% from a year earlier. Mortgage interest rates increased from a monthly average of 6.18% in March to 6.33% in April per Freddie Mac, dampening homebuyer demand. Rates moved higher again in May to just above 6.4% as oil prices and short-term inflation expectations increased. New home sales are on track to decline in 2026 as mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated in the months ahead.

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US GDP increased at an annual rate of 1.6% in Q1, 2026

US Bureau of Economic Analysis
May 28, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026, according to the second estimate released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2025, real GDP increased 0.5 percent. The contributors to the increase in real GDP in the first quarter were exports, investment, consumer spending, and government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. Real GDP was revised down 0.4 percentage point from the advance estimate, primarily reflecting downward revisions to investment and consumer spending.  Real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, increased 2.4 percent in the first quarter, revised down 0.1 percentage point from the previous estimate.

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National Association of Home Builders Debuts New Resource That Estimates Quarterly Remodeling Spending by State

The National Association of Home Builders
May 5, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is debuting a new resource called the State Projections of Remodeling (SPR) that will provide a quarterly analysis of remodeling activity for each state in the nation based on total dollar volume, market share and change in remodeling spending. “We are pleased to unveil this new economic resource that will serve not only the remodeling sector, but the entire housing industry,” said NAHB Chairman Bill Owens, a home builder and remodeler from Worthington, Ohio. Based on a proprietary model developed by NAHB, the SPR on a quarterly basis provides a state-level estimation of the market share and total dollar value of remodeling spending. The SPR is a statistical model designed to use national quarterly improvement spending data and estimate remodeling market share by state using multiple indicators and NAHB’s annual state remodeling forecast.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Mass timber legislation reintroduced to Congress

By Larry Adams
The Woodworking Network
June 1, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Andrea Salinas (D-OR) introduced the Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act. This marks the third consecutive year that legislation promoting mass timber for federal contracts has been introduced. This bipartisan legislation provides incentives for the use of mass timber building materials in federal contracting, giving timber and other forest products companies the ability to compete for construction, renovation, or acquisition of public buildings, and for military construction. The bill creates a two-tier contracting preference for mass timber and other innovative wood projects. The first-tier preference applies to mass timber that is made within the U.S. and responsibly sourced from state, federal, private, and Tribal forestlands. The optional second tier applies to mass timber products that are sourced from restoration practices, fire mitigation projects, and forest owners. Additionally, this bill contains a reporting requirement for a whole building lifecycle assessment. 

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AF&PA survey reveals decline in recovered paper consumption

By Deanne Toto
Recycling Today
June 1, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, has released its 66th Annual Paper Industry Capacity and Fiber Consumption Survey. …The report shows that fiber consumption declined by 3.5% in 2025, with recovered fiber consumption decreasing by 4% and wood pulp consumption falling by 3.2%. The printing-writing paper operating rate improved, reaching 82.8% in 2025, while containerboard operating rates remained steady at 91.9%. Packaging paper production also increased by 1.7%, while boxboard production essentially was flat at 12.4 million tons and tissue production remained near 7.8 million tons. Despite the resilience shown by these sectors, US paper and paperboard production declined 3.7% last year, to 66.3 million tons, AF&PA says. …Containerboard production fell 4.4% to 36.1 million tons, and containerboard capacity declined 5.1% in 2025. …Printing-writing capacity fell 13.9% last year to 7.7 million tons. …Tissue production declined 0.8% in 2025 to 7.8 million tons, though, over time, it has represented a growing share of total US paper and paperboard capacity.

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Softwood Lumber Board: The Next Phase of Lumber Demand Growth Starts Here

The Softwood Lumber Board
May 29, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

In this month’s Softwood Lumber Update:

The SLB’s “From Niche to Mainstream” strategy offers a clear roadmap to 2.9 BBF of incremental annual lumber demand by 2035. With market dynamics evolving, the SLB’s approach is changing too. The SLB and its funded programs are concentrating investments in high-growth segments, prioritizing geographies with the strongest potential, and leveraging new AI and digital tools to increase precision and efficiency without increasing overall spend.

Leadership Lessons from the Mass Timber Movement: Changing the narrative around mass timber from being a risky, experimental material to a vehicle for a new type of building has helped drive adoption, he writes, as has the work of leaders who embrace change.

Program Updates:

  • WoodWorks K–12 Project Support Shifts Schools to Wood
  • The SLB Immerses Future Architects in Mass Timber at Conference
  • The AWC Safeguards Lumber’s Competitiveness Through Engagement in Wood Standards
  • Office Project Case Studies Inspire Architects and Developers
  • WoodWorks Helps Secure Approval for Light-Frame Active Adult Project

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Forestry

Lawmakers delve into Forest Service shake-up

By Marc Heller
E&E News by Politico
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Tom Schultz

Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz returns to Capitol Hill to field questions from House and Senate lawmakers on his agency’s policies and direction. …Schultz can expect questions on the Forest Service’s plans to consolidate research facilities and on the Trump administration’s proposal to move wildfire management out of the forest agency and into the Interior Department’s U.S. Wildland Fire Service. That’s not all that’s confronting Schultz, a former timber industry executive. Schultz is tasked with the administration’s top forestry goal of increased logging on public land to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported wood. He is managing those objectives while aiming to reduce the 193-million-acre national forest system’s wildfire risks, which officials say goes hand in hand with forest thinning and commercial logging. [to access the full story an E&E News subscription is required]

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Why Wildfire Experts Are So Worried About This Year’s Fire Season

By Peter Aldhous
Inside Climate News
May 31, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

As bad as things got in Los Angeles in January 2025, when 31 people died and more than 16,000 buildings were destroyed by wildfires roaring into residential neighborhoods, many wildland firefighters look back on the rest of last year as a dodged bullet. Across the nation, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), which coordinates the federal wildfire response, the total area burned in 2025 was about two-thirds of the average over the past 10 years. This year is shaping up to be a very different prospect, wildfire experts warn. Key environmental indicators show that the nation is a tinderbox, gripped by widespread drought and with a light snowpack in the mountains that will offer little relief as its remnants melt away. At the same time, upheaval in the federal wildland firefighting effort and the loss of many staff qualified to join wildfire incident teams since Donald Trump took power for the second time have left firefighters deeply concerned about their ability to mount an effective response.

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Trump repeals rules governing off-roading on public lands

Center for Western Priorities
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

President Donald Trump rescinded two executive orders on Friday evening that aimed to balance off-road vehicle (OHV) use on public lands. The 1972 and 1977 orders, signed by Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, required federal agencies to minimize ecological damage, harassment of wildlife, and recreational conflicts due to OHV use on public lands. Repealing the orders prioritizes motorized recreation and resource extraction over conservation, increasing the risk of widespread environmental degradation. The White House called the rescinded orders “outdated and burdensome” hurdles to energy and timber production. Without this guidance, fragile ecosystems—including national parks—are at risk of unmitigated OHV use, which can degrade streams, displace wildlife, and significantly damage soil and vegetation. …“Rescinding guidance meant to reduce conflicts in the backcountry and protect wildlife habitat isn’t popular; that’s why Trump tried to bury it by putting this order out on a Friday evening,” Center for Western Priorities Communications Director Kate Groetzinger said.

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Savannah Bound: EXPO 2027 is Open for Business

2027 Forest Products Expo
May 29, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

There is something fitting about bringing the forest products industry together in Savannah, Georgia. The city sits at the intersection of timber country and global commerce, flanked by working forests to the north and west, and by one of the nation’s busiest container ports to the east. For an industry that turns trees into the materials that build homes, frame walls, and move goods across the world, Savannah is not just a backdrop. It is a statement. This month, SFPA officially launched exhibit space sales for EXPO 2027, and it is worth taking a moment to appreciate how far this event has come. …This year’s theme, Industry in Motion, captures where the forest products trade finds itself today. Mills are modernizing. Supply chains are adapting. Wood products are showing up in new applications, new markets, and new conversations about sustainable building. …75 years is a remarkable run for any industry event. EXPO 2027 in Savannah is the next chapter, and it is one worth being part of. Exhibit space is available now, and the best locations will go quickly.

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Let’s Work Together For Oregon’s Forest

By Greg Ellison
NR Today
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

OREGON — When I arrived in Roseburg, Oregon in 1975, Douglas County was Timber Capital of the world. Four out of ten employable adults were employed directly in the timber industry. …Fast forward fifty years. Four in one hundred people in Douglas County are directly employed by the timber industry. Fifty percent of the Umpqua National Forest has now burned. Sixty five percent loss of the spotted owl. The County literally did not have enough money to keep the Cartels from moving in and trashing our watersheds. Instead of ever coming close to any level of the mandated timber harvest allowed, all logging plans are automatically challenged legally. Since 1991 environmental groups have filed over 2,000 lawsuits. …There is good news! Eleven timber companies, thirteen conservation groups, and the State of Oregon Fish and Wildlife, have joined into an agreement known as the Private Forest Accord. Everybody is working together to improve watersheds.

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Logging Project Near Yellowstone Could Threaten Wildlife Habitat and Tourist-Dependent Businesses

By Mosabber Hossain
Inside Climate News
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

©NationalParkService

A proposed federal logging project in the forests bordering Yellowstone National Park is drawing growing concern from local residents, business owners and conservation advocates who fear it could have lasting impacts on wildlife habitat, recreation and tourism in one of Montana’s most iconic landscapes. The U.S. Forest Service is using emergency authority to speed the approval of the project, for which public comment closed Monday. Opponents say the agency hasn’t explained what the emergency is. Yellowstone National Park is more than a world-famous tourist destination. Established in 1872 as the first national park in the United States, it serves as the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest nearly intact temperate ecosystems on Earth. The park and the surrounding public lands provide critical habitat for grizzly bears, wolves, lynx, elk, bison and many other species, as well as reducing the impact of climate-damaging emissions by storing carbon. 

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New report shows pine beetle devastation surging in Colorado’s forests

By Lucas Boland
Rocky Mountain PBS
May 31, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

DENVER — A longstanding specter of the Colorado mountains is gaining ground in a new conquest of ponderosa pine forests. An outbreak of the mountain pine beetle is spreading quickly and expected to continue this summer under “prime conditions,” according to a 2025 forest health report and pine beetle article by the Colorado State Forest Service. Survey flights over parts of nine Colorado counties showed a 148% increase in beetle-impacted acreage from 2024 to 2025. Observers recorded 5,544 acres of dead or dying trees during flights last year, up from 2,236 acres the year prior. …Victimized trees were observed at nearly every Colorado latitude, from the northern border to Pueblo in the Front Range, and Grand Junction to the southern border on the Western Slope. …As of May 29, the state’s snowpack stood at 15% of median, depriving forests of moisture needed to prevent both wildfires and the spread of the pine beetle.

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The US Forest Service is too important to be a political pawn

By Dan Glickman and Ann Veneman
The Los Angeles Times
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

While most folks think that the US Department of Agriculture focuses on farm policy, the largest agency within USDA is the Forest Service. As secretaries of Agriculture during the Clinton and Bush administrations, we spent years getting to know what this agency does: not only timber management but also stewardship of the 193-million-acre National Forest System. But now, the Trump administration has taken significant steps to dramatically change the agency, to consolidate the firefighting work of USDA and Interior. …While some changes to the service appear warranted and well-intentioned, others have been criticized as seemingly intended to dismantle this storied institution. …During our tenures leading USDA, we both worked to streamline various programs and to right-size the workforce. …When leaders undertake significant changes, they need to be driven by data, based on compelling evidence and carefully reviewed facts — not based on ideology or simply meant to “shake things up.”

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The world’s largest fungus is hiding in Oregon’s Blue Mountains — and its really big

By Rebecca Shavit
The Brighter Side of News
May 29, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

©NRCan

In Oregon’s Blue Mountains, patches of dying trees once looked like separate outbreaks, scattered across ridges and drainages as if disease had struck at random. Instead, scientists found something far stranger beneath the soil: many of those distant pockets belonged to the same fungus. That fungus, Armillaria ostoyae, covered about 9.65 square kilometers, making it the largest known individual fungus on Earth at the time of the study. It had likely been growing there for at least 1,900 years, and possibly as long as 8,650. For researchers, the discovery did more than set a record. It challenged a basic biological idea: what counts as an individual. “It’s one organism that began as a microscopic spore and then grew vegetatively, like a plant,” said Dr. Catherine Parks, a research plant pathologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and coordinator of the team.

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Forest Service and state of South Dakota sign agreement to work together on forest management

By Joshua Haiar
South Dakota Searchlight
May 29, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

©USForestService

The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday that it has signed a five-year agreement to work with the state of South Dakota to carry out projects on national forest and adjacent land, possibly including timber harvesting, prescribed burning, forest thinning, grazing, and habitat and watershed restoration. …The shared stewardship agreement is between the state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Forest Service. It follows similar agreements in other states and comes after President Donald Trump’s executive order last year calling for an “immediate expansion” of American timber production. Following the initial five-year term, the agreement may be extended in increments of three years. …Specific projects involving money, services, property or other resources would require separate agreements and approvals. …“I’m suspicious that the primary reason for it is to help the Forest Service get more trees cut,” Dave Mertz, a retired Black Hills National Forest natural resource officer, said.

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University of Montana ecologist: Western forests need high-severity fire

By Laura Lundquist
Missoula Current
May 28, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Richard Hutto

UM ecologist Richard Hutto frowns every time he hears U.S. Forest Service managers and others make the black-and-white comparison of wildland fire as “good” if it’s low intensity and “bad” if it’s high intensity. The Trump administration is also using those reasons to justify the elimination of the 2001 Roadless Rule. …(They say) there’s ‘good’ fire and ‘bad’ fire,” Hutto told a crowd supporting the Roadless Rule a few weeks ago. “But I’m here to tell you, they’re wrong. The story is misleading. Most western conifer forests have always harbored mixed- to high-severity fire. And by most, I mean 85%, according to Land Fire database. Only 15% – mostly in Arizona and New Mexico – is low severity.” …The wide variety of species that can be found in forests prove that wildfires of all severities have burned across the landscape for centuries, creating the ecosystems that exist today.

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Conservation groups challenge Red Lodge area logging project again

By Mike Garrity
Billings Gazette
May 27, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Council on Wildlife and Fish, and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the Custer Gallatin National Forest to stop them from sacrificing habitat for lynx, grizzly bear, elk and whitebark pine trees near the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and just north of Yellowstone National Park to subsidize the timber industry. …The groups first sued to stop the Greater Red Lodge logging project west of Red Lodge, Montana in July 2015 and again 2021. In both cases, the court ruled that the Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act because the logging would have harmed lynx critical habitat. …They are effectively a single, landscape-scale logging project that the Forest Service illegally split into two. …To get around the requirements to protect lynx habitat and actually analyze the effects of logging on wildlife, the Forest Service authorized the logging projects under the Healthy Forest Restoration Act.

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Why Procter & Gamble, maker of Bounty and Charmin, hired a forester

By Heather Clancy
Trellis (formerly GreenBiz)
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Chris Reeves

When Procter & Gamble adopted an ambitious new pulp and paper pledge in early 2021, it hired a forester to convince suppliers to get on board. Officially, Chris Reeves is director of scientific communications for P&G’s family care business, which makes Charmin toilet paper, Bounty paper towels and Puffs facial tissues. That title downplays his master’s degree in forestry and 12 years of experience managing Kentucky forests, but Reeves spends at least one-third of his time among the trees with land owners or in meetings with the Society of American Foresters and nonprofits with big forestry practices. …In particular, Reeves is responsible for helping suppliers see value in becoming certified by the Forest Stewardship Council …Reeves’ first corporate job was for IKEA, where he was responsible for wood purchasing processes. …“This is a new thing in that world,” said Sarah Billig, president of FSC’s U.S. operation. 

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More than $4 million is going toward protecting Maine’s oldest trees

By Katie Delaney
News Center Maine
June 1, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

NAPLES, Maine — The New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is giving out grants to landowners to help preserve some of Maine’s oldest trees. The organization got $4.3 million from the U.S. Forest Service in 2024 to pay loggers to put off cutting late-successional and old-growth forests, which are typically over 100 years old. The first grant was awarded to Chaplin Logging Inc. in Naples to conserve 23 acres of late-successional forest and improve other parts of their land. This type of forest is rare for southern Maine. The one on the Chaplins’ property has been mostly untouched for likely more than a hundred years. According to Brian Milakovsky, senior forester of NEFF, these trees provide a unique habitat for many important species and they’re good for the atmosphere. …Since these trees are being taken out of production, part of the grant is going toward timber stand improvement, removing undesirable trees in landowners’ other, younger forests.

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Health & Safety

Officials monitor Longview water supply, wildlife after industrial disaster that killed 11

KOMO News
May 31, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

LONGVIEW, Washington — Recovery crews on Friday located the ninth and final person missing at the site of the Nippon Dynawave industrial incident, bringing the death toll from the tragedy to 11. …The ruptured tank spilled up to 570,000 gallons of white liquor, a strong alkaline liquid made mostly of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide used in the papermaking process to dissolve wood chips. Officials said the liquid made it into the nearby Columbia River and several nearby ditches, sloughs, and dikes. …Longview city officials reassured residents on Thursday that the city’s water was safe, and the Washington State Department of Ecology stated that the water treatment plant would shut down automatically before contaminated water could enter the public water system. …Response crews have documented some impacts to fish and wildlife in drainage systems adjacent to the incident area. Officials said approximately 200 dead fish have been collected.

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Longview mill tragedy highlights dangerous nature of wood product manufacturing

By Kyra Buckley
Oregon Public
May 29, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

This week’s chemical blast that killed at least eight workers at Longview’s Nippon Dynawave Packaging highlights the potential dangers in the timber and paper manufacturing industries. …“We work in a highly hazardous atmosphere, in a highly hazardous industry,” Brian Wood, director of support services for Nippon Dynawave, said. …The industries involved in the range of economic activities from cutting timber to manufacturing paper have shed jobs in recent decades, yet this sector continues to have some of the deadliest occupations. The disaster in Longview highlights the dangerous chemicals used in paper making. In 2024, 13 people were killed while working at their paper manufacturing job, according to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Across the country jobs in the sector have plummeted. In the last quarter century, BLS figures show paper manufacturing employment fell by 230,000 jobs to sit around 355,000 across the country. Industry researchers estimate as many as 45 mills closed last year.

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Confirmed death toll climbs to 8 in Longview paper mill disaster

By Courtenay Sherwood
Oregon Public Broadcasting
May 28, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

Recovery efforts are continuing at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging, where a tank holding hundreds of thousands of gallons of a caustic chemical ruptured. Crews recovered six bodies from a Longview paper mill Thursday as they continued the response to a massive chemical tank rupture earlier this week. That brings the confirmed death toll from the Tuesday disaster to eight. Three more people remain unaccounted, and are presumed dead. The fatal release of a highly caustic liquid is Washington state’s deadliest workplace tragedy in 96 years. Here’s some of what we know about the disaster and ongoing recovery efforts. The death toll is likely to climb. …Recovery crews are navigating a challenging scene. …The danger appears contained — mostly, but tens of thousands of gallons of the caustic chemical known as white liquor escaped. Some reached a storm drain system that flows to the Columbia River. …The paper mill is shut down for now.

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How a tank rupture disrupted life in a tight-knit Washington town that has lived with pulp mills for generations

By Ray Sanchez
CNN
May 28, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US West

©Wiki

It was not the typical morning banter at the bustling Pancake House in the mill town of Longview, Washington. “We’ve actually just been sick to our stomach,” said Julie Oliver, 60, taking a moment from serving breakfast to speak on the phone. “We realize how many of the ones that are still missing are our customers, and very close family, and people that we’ve known for many years.” The talk in Longview – an industrial and shipping hub along the Columbia River in southwestern Washington, roughly 50 miles north of Portland, Oregon – on Wednesday centered on the search for those missing and presumed dead a day after a chemical tank rupture at a popular paper plant. Eleven people are believed to have died in the tragedy. …The rupture took place during a shift change, and the bodies of the workers were found in an area where they would gather in the morning before getting their assignments for the day, officials said.

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Presumed death toll rises to 11 after Washington state paper mill tank rupture

By Claire Rush
Associated Press in WBAL TV
May 27, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: US West

LONGVIEW, Wash. —Crews resumed the grim search Wednesday for nine people presumed killed at a Washington state paper mill where a chemical tank ruptured a day earlier in one of the deadliest U.S. workplace accidents in years. The likely death toll rose to 11, including the missing, after another person who was injured died, authorities said Wednesday. Authorities said there was no hope of finding more survivors following Tuesday’s tank failure at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview, which also injured another eight people, including a firefighter who was treated and released by a hospital. If the 11 deaths are confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the U.S. in recent decades — alongside a series of blasts that killed 16 people at an explosives plant in Tennessee last fall… Officials said Wednesday that the paper mill tank spilled more than 500,000 gallons of “white liquor,” a highly destructive chemical mixture used in paper manufacturing.

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Chemicals from Longview mill blast reached Columbia River, officials say

By Kristine de Leon
The Oregonian
May 28, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: US West

©Wiki

Contamination from the catastrophic chemical tank failure at a southwest Washington pulp and paper mill has flowed into the Columbia River, officials confirmed Wednesday, opening a troubling new chapter in what could become the region’s deadliest industrial accident in modern history. …The spill happened after a massive storage tank failed during a morning shift change, sending an estimated 550,000 to 570,000 gallons of chemical slurry pouring through the mill complex and into nearby drainage systems, said Scott Goldstein, chief of the Cowlitz 2 Fire & Rescue district. “Testing of water samples has confirmed contamination entered the Columbia River during the day yesterday,” Goldstein said. He added that environmental crews are now “working to classify or quantify that” and determine the extent of the damage. The confirmation marks a significant development in the investigation and raises questions about the spill’s impact on fish, wetlands and the Northwest’s largest river system.

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Chemical tank implosion in Washington state kills 1 and leaves 9 missing

By Claire Rush and Rebecca Boone
Associated Press in KCRA
May 27, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: US West

LONGVIEW, Wash. — A massive chemical tank holding nearly a million gallons of a highly corrosive liquid imploded and collapsed Tuesday at a Washington paper mill, killing at least one worker and leaving nine others unaccounted for with no hope for rescue, authorities said. Another nine people were injured, some severely, in the spill at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview. The cause remained unclear. “At the moment we are not aware of any rescues that are yet to be made,” Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein said during a Tuesday evening news conference in which officials repeatedly referred to the situation as a recovery effort. That effort would not resume until Wednesday morning, when emergency responders planned to work on stabilizing the collapsed tank, which still had about 90,000 gallons (more than 340,000 liters) of a chemical brew known as “white liquor” inside, and then search for the missing, Goldstein said.

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First responders continue recovery two weeks after deadly Robbins Lumber explosion

By Drew Peters
News Center Maine
May 29, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

LIBERTY, Maine — Two weeks after the deadly fire and explosion at Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, many of the first responders who rushed to the scene are still carrying the physical and emotional effects of the disaster. While no members of the Liberty Volunteer Fire Department suffered serious injuries, department leaders said the experience left lasting scars that will take time to heal. Veteran firefighter Bill Gillespie, who has served for more than 30 years, said the response was unlike anything he had experienced before. …Meanwhile, firefighters with the Liberty Fire Department are collecting donations, which will be distributed equally among victims of the explosion and their families by the Waldo County Firefighters’ Association. According to a statement from the Robbins family, mill owners Alden Robbins and Jim Robbins continue to receive treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

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Investigators say fatal Maine lumber mill fire was accidental and started in silo

By Patrick Whittle
The Associated Press
May 26, 2026
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

MAINE — The fire and subsequent explosion at a Maine lumber mill that killed a firefighter and injured a dozen other people was accidental and originated at the base of a silo, authorities said Tuesday. …Rapid ignition of particulate material resulted in an explosion in the silo that caused it to lift from its concrete base and release large amounts of sawdust and other materials, the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office said. The silo then toppled and the surrounding area became engulfed in fire, the office said. Investigators will return to the facility in the coming months to conduct a more detailed examination, the fire marshal’s office said. “Investigators also determined the facility’s fire suppression system, which was located near the top of the silo, did not activate because temperatures at that elevation did not reach the activation threshold after the fire originated at the base of the silo,” the office’s statement said.

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