Region Archives: United States

Business & Politics

Canadian lumber producers brace for surge in US anti-dumping duty rates

By Brent Jang
The Globe and Mail
February 19, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canadian producers of softwood lumber are bracing for a decision this week from the U.S. Department of Commerce that could mean a surge in anti-dumping duty rates, compounding the industry’s worries over President Donald Trump’s threats for sweeping tariffs on all imports from Canada. Most Canadian producers are currently paying 7.66% in anti-dumping duties, but that could jump to 20 per cent, trade experts say. The Commerce Department’s decision, slated for Thursday, will be preliminary, with an effective date in August. …Analysts are [also] predicting that there will be higher countervailing duty rates, with the Commerce Department scheduled to issue a preliminary ruling in May. Forestry analyst Russ Taylor forecast that countervailing duties could rise to about 10%. Most Canadian softwood producers are paying countervailing and anti-dumping duties that currently total 14.4 per cent. …The Commerce Department’s administrative review is based on softwood markets in 2023, when prices were low. [to access the full story, a Globe and Mail subscription is required]

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Trump eyeing spring start for lumber tariffs; could new levy stack on current one?

The Canadian Press in CTV News
February 20, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

The list of potential American tariffs that could affect Canada grew Wednesday night when U.S. President Donald Trump dropped the idea of a 25% levy on lumber and forest products. …Speaking to the media onboard Air Force One, Trump said his administration was eyeing some time around April for the latest announced duty. Earlier this month, Trump paused until March 4th his initially planned 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods. …If the threatened 25% tariff is added on top of current duties already in place, the combined total on softwood exports to the United States will be closer to the 50% or 55% estimate. The U.S. last raised duties on softwood lumber from Canada in August 2024 from 8.05% to 14.54%.

In related coverage: Canadians perception of U.S. changing, as new lumber tariffs loom

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Trump threatens to drop his tariff axe on Canadian lumber

By Peter Evans
BNN Bloomberg
February 20, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Another day, another tariff threat for markets to digest. This time it’s lumber getting whipsawed, as U.S. President Donald Trump says he is going to bring in tariffs on Canadian lumber imports to the U.S. soon. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday evening, Trump added lumber to the list of items he plans to slap tariffs on in the near future. …Canada would feel any such policy directly, but perhaps not as painfully as you might think. As is the case with oil, lumber is one front in the trade war where Canada can do a lot of collateral damage of its own. …While the U.S. theoretically has enough trees to meet its own needs, ramping things up both in terms of the logs and the capacity to process them would be next to impossible in the short term. Recall during the pandemic when Canadian lumber prices spiked by more than 300%, yet U.S. buyers kept buying. 

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US paper industry asks Trump to seek lighter EU deforestation rules

By Richa Naidu and Kate Abnett
Reuters
February 18, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

LONDON/BRUSSELS — The US paper and pulp industry is lobbying the Trump administration to ask the EU to declare the US deforestation-free, a step that could make it easier for exporters to meet the bloc’s new environmental rules. From December, the European Union’s anti-deforestation policy will ban imports of commodities linked to forest destruction. Brussels already delayed the policy’s launch by a year. …”A delay does not solve our concerns with the regulation’s complex requirements and significant technical barriers,” said Heidi Brock, CEO of the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA). …The law does not contain a category of countries deemed to be deforestation-free – despite EU lawmakers attempting unsuccessfully to add a new “no risk” category of countries which would face even lighter rules. Any changes to the EU law would require a legal proposal from the Commission, and approval from EU lawmakers and member states.

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B.C. forest minister projects U.S. tariffs, duties on softwood lumber could reach 55%

By Marcy Nicholson
The Canadian Press in CTV News
February 14, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Ravi Parmar

Canadian softwood lumber exported to the United States could soon face additional tariffs and duties of up to 55%, BC’s forests minister said. The “Trump tariff and increased duties” are estimated to reach 50% to 55% compared with the current 14% duty on Canadian softwood lumber, Ravi Parmar said. …Parmar travelled to the US this week on a trade mission aimed at showing how the tariffs will hurt consumers. He met with the California Building Industry Association as well as politicians and said that any tariff will increase building costs, particularly after more than 16,000 homes destroyed by recent wildfires. Association CEO Dan Dunmoyer said in a joint statement with Parmar that they’re working together to ensure beneficial trade policies are understood by policy-makers, and further levies will only increase building costs in the US. “I’m going to be engaging with the insurance industry as well,” Parmar told reporters.

In related coverage: BC Government Press Release: Minister’s, California Building Industry Association’s statement on softwood duties, tariffs

Island Social Trends: BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar building softwood lumber trade ties with California

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US Lumber Coalition Letter to President Trump Highlights Success of Trade Law Enforcement

By US Lumber Coalition
PR Newswire
February 19, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Lumber Coalition in a letter to President Trump highlights the success of the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws that has added eight billion board feet of production capacity and produced an additional 30 billion board feet of softwood lumber since 2016. …”Unfortunately, even with the enforcement of the U.S. trade laws, Canada continues to engage in massive dumping of their excess lumber production into the U.S. market in an attempt to desperately hold on to their market share at the expense of American workers and their families,” stated Zoltan van Heyningen. “We anticipate that the U.S. Department of Commerce will soon confirm this egregious dumping behavior.” The letter concludes that continued strong enforcement of the U.S. trade laws… is exactly what must happen to keep expanding U.S. lumber manufacturing and availability to build more American homes with American lumber.

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In Wake of California Fires, Insurance Faces Complex Future, Says Professor

By Josette Corazza
University of Virginia School of Law
February 19, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Kenneth Abraham

Before wildfires raged across Southern California in January, several major insurers had already paused or canceled coverage in the state, citing the high risk of fire, state caps on premiums and increased construction costs there. With losses expected to exceed $250 billion from this year’s fires, the question isn’t if someone will pay, but who, says Professor Kenneth S. Abraham of the University of Virginia School of Law. Whether it is through rising insurance premiums, taxpayer-funded bailouts or homeowners absorbing significant losses, the financial burden of these catastrophes must ultimately be shouldered by someone, he explains in a new essay published by the Harvard Law Review Blog. “About the California Fires” considers the challenges and principles of insurance in the state, particularly in the context of increasing wildfire risks and their implications for homeowners and insurers. Abraham answers questions regarding the past, present and future of fire insurance in high-risk areas.

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Explosion at Weyerhaeuser plant rocks Columbia Falls

By Chris Peterson
The Daily Inter Lake
February 19, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

COLUMBIA FALLS, Montana — The Columbia Falls Weyerhaeuser MDF plant was rocked by an explosion and fire Wednesday. The explosion may have been caused by an electrical arc in the power distribution center, which runs both lines of the plant, Columbia Falls Fire Chief Karl Weeks said. No one was injured in the blast, which blew walls out of the building and garage doors off their hinges. The electrical surge at the time was so great that Flathead Electric Co-op noticed the power draw on the grid, Weeks said. …The production lines were not damaged. The plant has two lines and is capable of producing 265 million square feet of 3/4-inch MDF annually. The plant has about 200 employees. …Weyerhaeuser spokesman Matt Peterson said, “We will resume normal operations when it is safe to do so.”

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Finance & Economics

Tariff impact on forest products will vary and be wide ranging

By Kevin Mason, Managing Director
ERA Forest Products Research
February 20, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

If Canada is hit with 25% tariffs… the trade impacts for the forest products sector will be wide ranging. …Lumber is the most talked about commodity with respect to tariffs, largely due to the size of the market but also the fact that tariffs would be in addition to duties which are already being paid and are set to rise come August. The US can’t supply its own lumber demand and will have to continue to import Canadian lumber. Prices will rise. …The US is even more reliant on OSB from Canada. …In softwood, ~70% of demand is met by imports and in hardwood the proportion is even higher, at 89%. Canada is the largest softwood pulp supplier to the US, representing 74% of imports; a 25% tariff on Canadian goods would inevitably result in higher costs for US customers that produce paper, packaging and tissue. There are no easy near-term substitution options.

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Lumber Futures Surge Amid Supply and Tariff Woes

Markets.com
February 19, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Lumber futures have recently surged past $610 per thousand board feet, reaching a near three-month high as market conditions tighten. A combination of mill closures, reduced North American production capacity, and tariff concerns has led to increasing volatility in the lumber market. Investors and traders are closely watching these developments, as the outlook for lumber futures remains uncertain amid ongoing supply and trade disruptions. …One of the primary drivers behind the latest rally in lumber futures is the ongoing reduction in North American production capacity. …Adding to the supply concerns is the looming increase in U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. For traders, this means increased volatility in lumber futures as market participants react to policy changes. Higher tariffs could discourage Canadian exports, forcing buyers to seek alternative sources or absorb the additional costs, further driving up lumber futures prices.

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California Building Industry Association says looming tariffs on BC lumber “ill-timed”

By Brendan Pawliw
By Prince George Now
February 18, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada West, United States

California home builders say they have very little choice but to continue buying Canadian softwood lumber from places like British Columbia, even if US President Donald Trump issues a 25% penalty on imports next month. The state is in the midst of its rebuilding efforts from the Pacific Palisades wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area. …Dan Dunmoyer, who is the president of the California Building Industry Association said the rebuild will become a lot more costly. …“The price of lumber is already starting to go up some even without the tariffs in place out of uncertainty, which again is a reason not to move quickly on tariffs. …“We are very desirous to rebuild as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost possible. The timing of tariffs or additional costs to softwood lumber coming from Canada is very ill-timed.”

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Builder Confidence Falls on Tariff and Housing Cost Concerns

By Robert Dietz, Chief Economist
NAHB Eye on Housing
February 18, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Builder sentiment fell sharply in February over concerns on tariffs, elevated mortgage rates and high housing costs. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes was 42 in February, down five points from January and the lowest level in five months. …While builders hold out hope for pro-development policies, particularly for regulatory reform, policy uncertainty and cost factors created a reset for 2025 expectations. Uncertainty on the tariff front helped push builders’ expectations for future sales volume down to the lowest level since December 2023. With 32% of appliances and 30% of softwood lumber coming from international trade, uncertainty over the scale and scope of tariffs has builders further concerned about costs. …The HMI index gauging current sales conditions fell four points to 46, the component measuring sales expectations in the next six months plunged 13 points to 46, and the gauge charting traffic of prospective buyers posted a three-point decline to 29.

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US single-family housing starts decrease 8.4% in January

By Robert Dietz, Chief Economist
NAHB Eye on Housing
February 19, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Constrained housing affordability conditions due to ongoing, elevated interest rates led to a reduction in single-family production to start the new year. Overall housing starts decreased 9.8% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.37 million units. …Within this overall number, single-family starts decreased 8.4% to a 993,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate; the January pace was 1.8% lower than a year ago. The multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, decreased 13.5% to an annualized 373,000 pace. …High construction costs, elevated mortgage rates and challenging housing affordability conditions are causing builders to approach the market with caution. There are competing upside and downside risks, including discussed tariffs and regulatory reform. …Overall permits increased 0.1% to a 1.48 million unit annualized rate in January. Single-family permits were at a 996,000 annual unit rate, remaining unchanged compared to the previous month. Multifamily permits increased 0.2% to an annualized 487,000 pace.

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2025 Lumber Markets Outlook

By Paul Jannke, principal
Forest Economic Advisors in CFI
February 18, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

We expect housing starts to be 1.347 million units in 2024, a 5.3 per cent decline from 2023, their lowest level since 2020. With mortgage rates remaining elevated in 2025, we do not expect much relief for the year. Our forecast calls for housing starts to edge only slightly higher to 1.38 million units for the year. We do expect mortgage rates will continue to trend lower through 2025 and into 2026. This, combined with the strong fundamentals underlying softwood lumber’s main end-use markets, as well as the historically low inventories of homes for sale, will help push starts up to 1.501 million in 2026. The declines in residential-improvement expenditures next year will mostly offset growth in housing starts, with North American consumption forecast to increase just 0.7 per cent for the year. We expect North American consumption growth to increase to 4.8 per cent in 2026 as the recovery in the U.S. economy and end-use markets builds momentum. 

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BlueLinx reports Q4, 2024 net income of $5.3 million

By Bluelinx Holdings Inc.
Business Wire
February 18, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

ATLANTA — BlueLinx, a U.S. wholesale distributor of building products, reported financial results for the three months and twelve months ended December 28, 2024. …In the fourth quarter of 2024, net sales were $711 million, a decrease of $1.9 million when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023. Gross profit was $113 million, a decrease of $5.1 million, or 4.3%, year-over-year, and gross margin was 15.9%. …Net income for the current quarter was $5.3 million versus a net loss of $18.1 million in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $21.5 million, or 3.0% of net sales, compared to $36.5 million, or 5.1% of net sales in the prior period. …For the fiscal year ended December 28, 2024, net sales were $3.0 billion, a decrease of $183.8 million, or 5.9% year-over-year. …Net income was $53.1 million versus $48.5 million in the prior year.

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LP Building Solutions reports Q4, 2024 net income of $63 million

LP Building Solutions
February 19, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Louisiana-Pacific, a manufacturer of building products, reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024. Net sales for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased year-over-year by $22 million (or 3%) to $681 million. Siding revenue increased by $29 million(or 9%) to $362 million, due to 3% higher volumes and 6% higher prices. OSB net sales decreased by $5 million (or 2%) to $267 million, driven by 7% lower prices partially offset by 6% higher volumes. Net income increased year-over-year by $4 million to $63 million. …Net sales for 2024 increased year-over-year by $360 million (or 14%) to $2.9 billion. …Net income increased year-over-year by $243 million (or 137%) to $420 million. The increase primarily reflects a $210 million increase in Adjusted EBITDA.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Softwood Lumber Board Update: Industry Leaders Reflect on SLB’s Impact

The Softwood Lumber Board
February 20, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Throughout the year, we’ll be highlighting industry, SLB program, and partner leaders illustrating how and why the softwood lumber industry is working collectively to ensure we continue to grow market share in the years to come. This month, the SLB’s former Board Chair, Brian Luoma, describes the importance of the SLB’s work to grow market share for lumber in multifamily and nonresidential buildings.

A recent profile of the JJ Carroll Redevelopment from MASS Design Group puts the spotlight on the advantages of light-frame construction in affordable housing, with the architecture firm highlighting its value and speed of construction benefits. Affordable housing represents a significant opportunity to increase demand for light-frame and mass timber construction, with estimates of the housing shortage ranging from 1.5 million units… Wood-focused design competitions continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of architecture and engineering education by inspiring students to explore innovative applications of wood and mass timber.

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Forestry

DC Equipment ready to expand its presence on the American Market

By DC Equipment
Forestnet
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

DC Equipment, a manufacturer of logging and forestry equipment, joins the Oregon Logging Conference, February 20-22 in Eugene, Oregon. They will be showcasing Madill logging equipment for the first time in the United States along with its Falcon forestry equipment brand. “Last year, we relaunched production of the Madill brand, renowned for its reliability in the logging industry, and are excited to be bringing a Madill 3000B log loader to this event along with our Falcon equipment series,” said Dale Ewers, Managing Director of DC Equipment. “We now have the capacity to support North American logging contractors and customers first hand.” …DC Equipment manufactures and exports equipment to North and South America while supplying the New Zealand and Australian markets. With the recent acquisition of the Madill brand, DC Equipment has opened a Prince George facility to build on the Madill legacy and recognize its heritage in British Columbia. 

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Trump Killed a Major Report on Nature. They’re Trying to Publish It Anyway.

By Catrin Einhorn
The New York Times
February 10, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

…More than 150 scientists and experts had collectively spent thousands of hours working on a draft report, a first-of-its-kind assessment of nature across the United States. But President Trump ended the effort, started under the Biden administration, by executive order. On Jan. 30, the project’s director, Phil Levin, sent an email telling team members that their work had been discontinued. But it wasn’t the only email he sent that day. “This work is too important to die,” Dr. Levin wrote in a separate email to the report’s authors, this one from his personal account. “The country needs what we are producing.” Now key experts who worked on the report, called the National Nature Assessment, are figuring out how to finish and publish it outside the government. …Rajat Panwar, a professor of responsible and sustainable business at Oregon State University who was leading the chapter on nature and the economy, was preparing slides to present his section when he got the news. 

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Agriculture Commissioner Simpson leads push to exempt US forests from EU deforestation plan

By Michelle Vecerina
Florida’s Voice News
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

Wilton Simpson

TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson released a letter urging U.S. senators and members of the Trump administration to exempt American forests from effects of the European Union’s proposed deforestation regulation. The letter was signed by 18 state agriculture commissioners across the U.S. According to Simpson’s office, the rule, if enacted as currently written, could severely impact the U.S. timber industry, which is a global leader in forest management and sustainability. …The 18 commissioners requested the country’s leaders address the potential “negative implications” the European Union Deforestation Regulation rule will place on the country’s agricultural forestry industries. The European Union’s deforestation regulation, set to take effect on Dec. 30, aims to ensure that the products it imports do not contribute to global deforestation or forest degradation. …The commissioners urged the U.S. senators and members of the Trump administration to express opposition to the rule.

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We’re Having Fewer Forest Fires – And That’s a Big Problem

By University of Colorado at Boulder
SciTechDaily
February 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Fewer wildfires occur in North American forests today than in past centuries, but this decline has increased the risk of more intense wildfires, according to a study published in Nature Communications. While it may seem unexpected, frequent low-intensity surface fires help maintain forest health by naturally reducing fuel buildup over large areas. Researchers from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station compared wildfire frequency across two periods: 1600 to 1880 and 1984 to 2022. Using data from 1,850 tree-ring records in historically burned areas, they assessed past fire activity and compared it with modern fire perimeter maps from Canada and the United States. The findings show modern-day fires are much less frequent than they were in past centuries, despite recent record-breaking fire years, such as 2020. 

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Environmental nonprofit says Trump cuts could threaten Oregon’s spotted owl population

By Anthony Macuk
KGW8 News
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Ore. — An environmental nonprofit is sounding the alarm over the federal funding cuts and hiring freeze instituted by President Donald Trump’s administration, which it said could threaten the population of Oregon’s endangered spotted owl. The widespread layoffs and cuts instituted by the Trump administration have set off a series of protests across the country and around Portland, some of which have focused specifically on the thousands of U.S. National Parks and Forest Service workers who have been fired. The Northwest Forest Plan and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) require the endangered owl population to be monitored, but the Center for Biological Diversity said in a news release that the federal freeze means the monitoring “either won’t occur or will be greatly reduced.”

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Conservation Groups File Lawsuit to Protect Elk Habitat, Wildlife Corridors and Old Growth Forests in Montana

By Mike Garrety
CounterPunch
February 20, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Native Ecosystems Council and Council on Wildlife and Fish filed a lawsuit in federal court in Montana against a road-building and commercial logging project on public lands in the Big Belt Mountains of Montana. The challenged Wood Duck project is located in a wildlife corridor that is critical for recovery of grizzly bears, and is highly desirable elk habitat.  Logging and road building harm elk and grizzly bears and will likely displace both species from the public lands in the area. The lawsuit raises challenges against the project, and also against the Forest Service’s failure to implement strong protections for public land elk habitat, grizzly bear travel corridors, and old growth forest across the Helena – Lewis and Clark National Forest.

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Remember that big SDS Timber land sale? Here’s what’s happening with that forest

By Kendra Chamberlain
Columbia Insight
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Back in 2021, the SDS Lumber and Timber Company’s sale of its extensive mill properties and nearly 100,000 acres of Pacific Northwest forest reserves to sent a shockwave through the Columbia River Gorge as well as the global timber industry. Now, through a complex partnership agreement, nearly all of the forests formerly owned by SDS in southwestern Washington are remaining open to logging, while being protected against future commercial or residential development.  The Columbia Land Trust has announced a $36 million award from the U.S. Forest Service that will go toward establishing a new conservation easement on a 29,000-acre piece of former SDS Lumber land… Keeping timberlands as “working forests,” rather than carving up the land into commercial or residential parcels, is considered a major conservation win, according to Columbia Land Trust Executive Director Meg Rutledge.

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New Washington state public lands chief defends pause on logging ‘almost old-growth forests’

By Libby Denkmann and Alec Cowan
The Chronicle
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Dave Upthegrove

Can Washington state hold off harvesting older forests in the face of a projected $12 billion budget deficit without impacting local governments and school districts that get money from those timber sales? That’s the big question facing Dave Upthegrove, Washington’s new Public Lands commissioner. As one of his first acts on the job, Upthegrove did what he promised to do on the campaign trail — pause the harvest of timber from 70,000 to 80,000 acres of older forests that don’t yet qualify as “old-growth” but still are old enough to provide valuable habitat. Upthegrove said the pause on logging older forests would be offset by increasing harvests in younger forests. He also said the fact that timber values have gone up should dampen the blow.

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It’s not clear how the Trump administration may affect the management guide for federal forests across the Pacific Northwest

By Michael Dotson
Ashland News
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

The U.S. Forest Service is at a crossroads in 2025. As the Trump administration takes hold and federal employees are dealing with threats of termination from Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the agency is set to wrap up a 120-day comment period on March 17 to amend the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. Meant to guide forest stewardship across more than 20 million acres in the Pacific Northwest, the original Northwest Forest Plan left tribes and Indigenous communities out of the negotiating room. Climate change was barely mentioned in 1994, and here we are 30 years later addressing issues that are important to many communities across Northern California, western Oregon, and western Washington… It remains to be seen what the Trump administration will do with the Northwest Forest Plan amendment effort, and there is potential that it could go the way of the National Old Growth Amendment and be abandoned.

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Rep. Schrier Denounces Sweeping New Cuts to Forest Service

By Matthew Richards
News Radio 560 KPQ
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

There’s no two ways about it: the U.S. Forest Service is at an impasse, seized by uncertainty like hardly ever before. In its quest for a supposedly leaner, more decentralized government, the Trump administration, led by DOGE chieftain Elon Musk, is taking an ax to the federal workforce. The Forest Service in particular is hemorrhaging manpower: it was reported on Friday that Trump had pink-slipped 3,400 workers. That is roughly one-tenth of USFS personnel. “These cuts are particularly impactful for the Northwest because we have vast expanses of national forest and public land,” says Rep. Kim Schrier. However much the PNW has to lose, this is no mere regional issue. It’s an affront to Mother Nature herself, Schrier says, because “we’re taking away people who do what we call ‘wildfire mitigation’: they do the work that thins the forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires. They do that year-round so we aren’t choking on smoke all summer.”

Sampling of additional coverage:

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Gov. Kotek, Legislature want to pause action on wildfire hazard map to quell public frustration

By Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Amid mounting criticism from the public and lawmakers from both parties, Gov. Tina Kotek has paused any further agency action on the state’s new Wildfire Hazard Map until the Legislature decides what to do with it. …But it has provoked backlash from homeowners in some high-risk areas who are worried about wildfire insurance rates and coverage, and potentially having to comply with new building requirements. …House and Senate Republicans at the press conference said the burden of wildfire mitigation should be on state and federal agencies, not private landowners. “It is unfair to place the burden of fuel reduction and wildfire mitigation solely on private property owners, while our state and federal governments fail to steward our forests and public lands adequately,” State Rep. Christine Drazan said. …An ongoing federal funding freeze is also threatening wildfire investments going into the 2025 fire season.

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Saving the Pacific Northwest’s symbolic Douglas fir

By Elliott Almond
The Cascadia Daily News
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Suzanne Simard

The Douglas fir is a symbol of the Pacific Northwest [that] represents the checkered past of overlogging. Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia … is no friend of Big Timber after her groundbreaking research elevated the understanding of preserving healthy old forests. …Simard and colleagues are focused on the species’ survival in the face of climate stressors. …migrating genotypes or provinces northward gives the seedlings a chance to take root. …The study counters grim environmental concerns by encouraging individual action. A recent example can be found at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island [where] authorities arrested about 1,200 protesters who stopped [harvesting]. Now, Canadian officials have extended a moratorium on logging in Fairy Creek to next year. “It’s not that one watershed is going to change the world, but the movement changes the world,” Simard said. Then she adds, “The trees are still there, communicating with each other.” 

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Land Trust’s third phase adds almost 30K acres to working forest

By Flora Martin Gibson
Columbia Gorge News
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Another 29,800 acres of timberland just got conserved under easement as working forest, the third phase in Columbia Land Trust’s project of protecting about 75,000 acres, sold by SDS lumber company in 2021. Columbia Land Trust hopes to conserve almost everything except the mill itself, buying the most important 15,000 acres of habitat outright. They hope to put the other 60,000 under conservation easements. In this case, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources will hold some of the rights over the 29,800 acres of land. It can be sold, but never developed; it must always remain working forest. This is the trust’s biggest project to date… SDS Lumber was the last family-owned, vertically-integrated (meaning it owned and operated most stages of its own supply chain) timber company in this part of the Northwest.

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Opinion: Furor over Forest Park power line a glimpse of climate tradeoffs ahead

By Angus Duncan, Guest Columnist
Oregon Live
February 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A small but important drama is playing out now in a city of Portland land use decision involving power lines, Portland General Electric and five acres of Douglas Fir at the north end of Forest Park… The land-use fight obliges us to confront uncomfortable tradeoffs. Carbon from burning fossil fuels in power plants and automobile engines drives climate change. Shifting to zero-carbon wind and solar electricity drives down climate risk – including the risk of wildfire. Connecting new wind and solar to Portland will require upgraded and new transmission lines across many prairie and forestlands. Where we can avoid impacts to community, cultural and natural values, we should. But it is a vexing fact of our climate-altered world that where we can’t, we have to make these tradeoffs.

Related content: 

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The fire paradox: Tree-ring data shows wildfire activity has declined, not increased

By Elena Lopez
University of Arizona
February 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Photo Credit: Peter Brown

Contrary to what people might think, North American forests are burning less, not more, according to new data. A study published in Nature Communications reveals how this trend may be causing more aggressive fires… Using a fire scar dataset known as the North American Tree-Ring Fire Scar Network, which originated from work done at the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, researchers were able to compile a clearer picture of historical fire geography and frequency. This allowed them to compare recent seemingly extreme wildfire events – such as the California August Complex Fire and the Arizona Bighorn Fire of 2020 – with events from the past… The fire scar data used in the study was collected from more than 1,800 sites across North America, spanning diverse forest types.

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Trees might need our help to survive climate change, study finds

By James DeLoss
Colorado State University
February 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

A new Colorado State University study of the interior U.S. West has found that tree ranges are generally contracting in response to climate change but not expanding into cooler, wetter climates – suggesting that forests are not regenerating fast enough to keep pace with climate change, wildfire, insects and disease. As the climate becomes too warm for trees in certain places, tree ranges have been expected to shift toward more ideal conditions. The study analyzed national forest inventory data for more than 25,000 plots in the U.S. West, excluding coastal states, and found that trees were not regenerating in the hottest portions of their ranges – an expected outcome. More surprising to the researchers was that most of the 15 common tree species studied were not gaining any ground in areas where conditions were more favourable, indicating that most tree species likely will not be able to move to more accommodating climates without assistance.

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Tree Genetics: Understanding the White Oak for a Sustainable Tomorrow

WGNS News
February 19, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A group of scientists has been quietly working for decades on a project to improve tree genetics, with white oaks among the target species for the UT Tree Improvement Program. For those who are curious, genetics in organisms refers to the study of genes and how they are passed down from generation to generation. Genetics in trees, however, focuses on the study of genes within tree species and examines how their genetic makeup influences traits such as growth rate, wood quality, and resilience to environmental stresses. Scott Schlarbaum, a distinguished professor of forestry at UTIA, leads the UT Tree Improvement Program and is among the co-authors of the paper that describes the white oak genome and how local adaptations may have implications for the species in relation to heat and drought stress. Photo by A. Mains, courtesy UTIA.

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Georgia Department of Natural Resources Announces 2025 Forestry for Wildlife Partners

By Georgia Department of Natural Resources
EIN Presswire
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Gov. Kemp joined Georgia Department of Natural Resources leaders in recognizing four corporate forest landowners for stewardship and land management practices benefiting Georgia wildlife. Georgia Power, Weyerhaeuser, PotlatchDeltic and Forest Investment Associates were named DNR’s Forestry for Wildlife partners for 2025. Forestry for Wildlife Partnership is a voluntary, 30-year-old program that promotes wildlife conservation and sustainable forestry as part of forest management. Partner projects are coordinated by DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division and focused on improvements synced with the Bobwhite Quail Initiative and State Wildlife Action Plan, two statewide strategies. Work varies from restoring habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers to preserving wetlands used by rare amphibians and prairies harboring endangered plants.

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US Forest Service worker firings threaten Helene recovery in Western North Carolina, workers say

By Jacob Biba
Asheville Citizen Times
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

ASHEVILLE – Caroline Becker was on a list of probationary employees who would soon lose their job with the U.S. Forest Service. Becker, 23, who was employed as a GIS specialist at the agency’s Asheville headquarters, would have celebrated her one-year anniversary as a full-time employee on Feb. 25. Instead, Becker received a letter from Dedra Fogle, the U.S. Forest Service’s human resources director, notifying Becker of her termination. …“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” Fogle wrote. …A program manager with the U.S. Forest Service who spoke to the Citizen Times on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from her employer, said the recent firings are a huge strain on the already understaffed agency and pose a major threat to the Helene recovery effort and future wildfire response.

Additional coverage from Colorado, Montana and Idaho: More than 150 Forest Service workers managing public land in Colorado lose jobs as part of Trump cuts – Several of the fired workers shared the Feb. 14 email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management that informed them they were being fired. The email said they were losing their jobs based on performance. One Forest Service worker told The Sun that neither they nor any of their fired colleagues had ever received any negative feedback on annual performance reviews. 

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Explainer: What’s behind a Hoosier National Forest management project controversy

Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism News
February 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

On Feb. 6, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun wrote to the United States Forest Service (USFS) asking for the immediate withdrawal of a forest management project that would log 5,000 acres and burn over 15,500 acres of the Hoosier National Forest—204,000 acres of woodland located in south central Indiana. It is known as the Buffalo Springs Restoration Project, and it would directly impact Tucker Lake, Springs Valley, Youngs Creek and Lick Creek Trails, affecting the habitats of Indiana wildlife and a popular recreation site. The project is set to begin this month. Braun is selling property close to the project area for $1,675,000 and has a listed asset of over $250,000 worth of “timber ground” in the French Lick area. …A USFS newsletter explains the reasoning behind the project: concerns about disease and wildfires from dry plant matter and trees in the area and carbon emissions from decaying wood. …Braun and many other Hoosiers are still in opposition. 

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Gov. Mike Braun joins Indiana locals in long-held opposition against proposed forest project

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle
February 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A recent letter penned by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun urged federal officials to “immediately withdraw” a controversial plan to log and burn nearly 20,000 acres of The Hoosier National Forest. The Buffalo Springs Restoration Project, proposed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), seeks to log 5,000 acres and burn 15,500 acres of the national forest land in southern Indiana.  Although USFS originally estimated a decision on the project would come in January — and that work could begin early this year — a final determination is still pending. When proposed in 2021, it was pitched as a way to improve sustainability of the forest’s oak-wood ecosystem. The removal of non-native pine trees would also regenerate native hardwood communities and “improve overall forest health and wildlife habitat,” according to the federal agency. But in a letter sent last week to USFS Chief Randy Moore, Braun pointed to increasing pushback from Indiana residents, and said the project could threaten the drinking water for more than 100,000 Hoosiers.

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Texas A&M Forest Service Awards $951,000 To Landowners For Prescribed Fire

Brownwood News
February 15, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Texas A&M Forest Service awarded over $951,000 to 168 landowners to conduct prescribed fires this year. This funding will treat 35,138 acres. Prescribed fire is a strategic land management tool that uses low-intensity fire on a specific area of land to achieve set goals. Prescribed fire is the most effective and efficient land management tool for decreasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires by reducing hazardous fuels. “Over the past 10 years, our prescribed fire grants have treated over 100,000 acres helping reduce the risk of wildfire,” said Karen Stafford, Texas A&M Forest Service Community Resiliency Coordinator. “Our prescribed fire grants prioritize wildfire mitigation and emphasize protecting homes, communities and natural ecosystems.”.. Following the burn, management goals and the ecosystem are monitored by Stafford and her team.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Climate Forest Expands to North America, Advancing Sustainable Forestry and Carbon Credit Solutions

Digital Journal Press Release
February 20, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, United States

Climate Forest, a global leader in climate forest development and carbon credit generation, has officially launched its operations in North America. This strategic expansion marks a significant step in the company’s mission to integrate sustainable forestry with economic value, providing businesses with impactful investment opportunities while enabling forest owners to generate long-term revenue. By leveraging its expertise in transforming traditional forests into climate forests, Climate Forest enhances biodiversity, promotes resilient mixed forests, and strengthens vital ecosystem services. The company’s approach aligns with global climate goals, ensuring corporate sustainability efforts translate into tangible environmental impact.

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