Heidi Brock & José Carlos
ROME – The International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA) has announced Ms. Heidi Brock, President and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), as its new President. Joining her in leadership is Mr. José Carlos da Fonseca Junior, Director of International Relations of The Brazilian Tree (Ibá), who has been appointed as ICFPA Vice President. Ms. Brock and Mr. Fonseca will serve for a two-year mandate. …ICFPA’s Annual Meeting also coincided with the 27th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO 27) and 9th World Forestry Week. Ms. Heidi Brock previously served as ICFPA Vice President from 2022 to 2024. She succeeds Mr. Jori Ringman, Director General of the Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi), who previously held the ICFPA Presidency.
VANCOUVER, BC — Western Forest Products reported a net loss of $5.7 million in the second quarter of 2024, as compared to a net loss of $20.7 million in the second quarter of 2023, and a net loss of $8.0 million in the first quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was $9.4 million in the second quarter of 2024, as compared to negative $12.0 million in the second quarter of 2023, and negative $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2024. Other highlights include: Lumber shipments of 173 million board feet (versus 153 million board feet in Q2 2023); Japan lumber shipments of 27 million board feet (versus 21 million board feet in Q2 2023); Average lumber selling price of $1,363 per mfbm (versus $1,392 per mfbm in Q2 2023), primarily due to a slightly weaker sales mix of specialty lumber products. …At the same time, the Vancouver-based firm announced the appointment of Glen Nontell as CFO, effective today. Nontell joined the company in 2018 and was most recently VP of corporate development.
Home prices experienced a third year-over-year deceleration in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. On a year-over-year basis, the non-seasonally adjusted index posted a 5.94% annual gain in May, down from a 6.39% increase in April. Since June of 2023, the index had seen steady increases in the year-over-year growth rate. However, this growth rate began slowing in March of 2024, and has continued to decelerate through May. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index (HPI) increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.09% for May. This was following a revised rate of 3.91% in April. May marks the 16th consecutive monthly increase; home prices have not seen an outright decrease since January of 2023. …At an annual rate, three out of 20 metro areas reported home price declines: Phoenix at -6.56%, Portland at -4.99%, and Dallas at -0.73%. 
RALEIGH, N.C. — It looked like something a kindergartner might use in an art project. So ordinary looking that, when Jack Wang was presenting it once, someone nearly set a drink down on it by accident. “Almost gave me a heart attack,” recalled Wang, a geneticist here at North Carolina State University. The thin, white, coaster-size circle of paper Wang was holding in his lab was anything but ordinary. He and his colleagues made this piece of paper from genetically edited wood — a material his team hopes will transform the way paper and other wood products are produced. …If there is a molecule that makes wood wood, it’s lignin. …The paper industry uses lots of chemicals and energy to remove lignin from pulp. …So Wang and Barrangou set out to grow trees containing less lignin. …Their goal is to produce low-lignin trees for commercial use by 2040. [Full access to this story requires a Washington Post subscription]
In May 2022, a group of men climbed to the top of Hyperion, a 380-foot tree that is currently the tallest in the world. When their leader, Simeon Balsam, reached the crown, he and another climber drank a cup of tea. “What absolute legends,” Balsam said from behind a camera trained on the beaming group of climbers. Balsam documented the adventure in an hourlong film posted to YouTube. It’s a braggadocious watch, full of self-satisfied narration, and inspirational house music — and proof of illegal activity. According to the film, the 11 men spent months planning the trip within Redwood National and State Parks and accumulating gear before flying from the United Kingdom to California to climb Hyperion and other old-growth redwoods. They did not obtain required permits. Furthermore, they climbed into an ecologically sensitive habitat during the breeding season of threatened marbled murrelets, according to park officials and court documents obtained by SFGATE.
They are the ancient giants of America – that started to sprout in some cases before the age of the Roman empire, with the few survivors of a frenzy of settler logging now appreciated as crucial allies in an era of climate and biodiversity crises. Joe Biden has vowed to protect these “cherished” remnants of old growth forest, as well as the next generation of mature forests, directing his government to draw up new plans to conserve the ecological powerhouses that enable US forests to soak up about 10% of the country’s carbon emissions. Yet, the US Forest Service has not included mature trees in this new plan, which also includes loopholes conservationists say allow ongoing felling of trees that are hundreds of years old. The Forest Service has also largely declined to conduct required reviews of multiple logging projects amid a stampede of tree cutting. …The Forest Service has rejected the suggestion, pointing to reduced cutting rates compared with previous decades.
Over the weekend, the Park Fire grew to more than 360,000 acres, prompting evacuation orders and warnings around Chico, California. …months from now when the rains come and the fires are extinguished, a hidden threat could put communities at risk once again. …Around 60 to 65 percent of the United States’ drinking water comes from forested areas. As fires burn in these areas, they increase the risk of cancer-causing and toxic substances entering water supplies. An estimated 53.3 million U.S. residents who live in areas with significant wildfire risk may face damaged drinking water infrastructure from those flames. …Megafires burn land at higher temperatures across wider areas than standard wildfires, putting watersheds across the United States at greater risk. …As wildfires burn hotter and consume more trees and structures, water quality will continue to worsen, research suggests. …To meet these risks, it will take a coalition of informed community members, scientists and city officials to work toward solutions to protect clean water supplies. [Access to the full story requires a Washington Post subscription]
A person has been killed in one of several wildfires threatening heavily populated areas of the Colorado foothills, authorities said on Wednesday. A body was discovered in a home about 1 mile north of Lyons, Colorado, according to the Boulder county sheriff. He said that detectives were assisting the investigation into the death, but declined to provide further details. There are nearly 100 active wildfires burning in the west, including a massive wildfire in California that has grown swiftly in recent days to become the fifth-largest in state history. In Colorado, a wildfire near the city of Loveland in the Rockies grew to more than 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) on Tuesday evening as more homes were placed under mandatory evacuation orders and a looming column of smoke could be seen for miles around.The fatality is one of several reported in recent weeks as the US wildfire season kicked into high gear.
BAKER COUNTY, Ore. — On Saturday, wildfires continued to burn across the United States, with the majority concentrated in Oregon, and the largest still the Durkee Fire. Officials say it’s near 290,000 acres in size, with a perimeter of 169 miles. However, crews have made progress, and by Sunday it was 50% contained. At the northwest corner of the megafires footprint, local landowners and ranchers are still dealing with the worst of it. Fire officials say this area remains a concern due to heavy winds and drier conditions at high elevation and a shift to a timber fuel type, as compared to the Durkee Fire’s predominant fuels to date: grass, shrubs and juniper. …On day 10 of the megafire, nearly 600 firefighters were working on suppression, confident they’ll soon contain the fire along Interstate 84. …Oregon has reached a total of 1,017,474 acres burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.