BURNABY, BC — Interfor announced plans to reduce its lumber production by approximately 175 million board feet between May and September of 2024, representing just under 10% of its normal operating stance. The temporary curtailments will impact all of Interfor’s operating regions, including the US South, through a combination of reduced operating hours, prolonged holiday breaks, reconfigured shifting schedules and extended maintenance shut-downs. The curtailments are in response to persistently weak market conditions. “Benchmark lumber prices have continued to weaken since the beginning of the year, from already unsustainably low levels, as available supply has outstripped product demand,” said Ian Fillinger, Interfor’s CEO. “This action… follows Interfor’s February 15, 2024 announcement to indefinitely curtail its sawmill operations in Philomath, Oregon. The Philomath sawmill had an annual production capacity of 220 million board feet and ceased operations and shipments at the end of March 2024.
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Spend any time thinking or talking about insurance in California these days and you’re bound to hear the word “mitigation.” Fire officials, lawmakers, insurance agents, and others are asking homeowners to help lower the risk of devastating wildfires by making improvements to their properties—in some cases at great expense—and often in the context of trying to keep their insurance policies. The state has spent about $3.7 billion on forest management in the past seven years. Communities, fire districts, and others are doing their part, too. But some insurance companies citing growing risks and costs have paused or stopped writing new policies in California, causing a crisis of home-insurance affordability and availability. Some homeowners have 
VANCOUVER, B.C. – Canfor Corporation reported its first quarter of 2024 results. Highlights include: Q1 2024 operating loss of $86 million; shareholder net loss of $65 million; Sustained pressure on global lumber markets and pricing, especially for Southern Yellow Pine; Solid earnings from Europe; US South results directly impacted by weak SYP lumber pricing; Western Canadian results remained challenging despite uplift in Western Spruce/Pine/Fir lumber pricing; Modest uptick in NBSK pulp unit sales realizations, 7% increase in pulp production quarter-over-quarter. …CEO Don Kayne, said, “Although global lumber markets remained under pressure in the first quarter, especially Southern Yellow Pine, our global lumber footprint helped mitigate some of these market-related pressures, as our European operations delivered positive results and our Western Canadian operations benefited from an uplift in SPF pricing. ….In British Columbia, the operating conditions remain challenging, as we continue to face persistent constraints associated with a lack of economically viable fibre.”
Summary of the week-to-week lumber prices and plywood prices (for the week ending April 26, 2024): The Random Lengths framing lumber composite price fell 3.6% (the fifth consecutive week of declines); The price of lumber futures rose 1.2% (down 12.0% in the past month); The structural panel composite price was down 3.5% (OSB prices decreased 5.3%, Western Fir plywood prices declined 0.9% and Southern Yellow Pine plywood prices dropped 2.4%). …Softwood lumber prices have been especially volatile in recent years largely because of increased demand, rising tariffs, supply-chain bottlenecks and insufficient domestic production. ….Surveys conducted by Home Innovation Research Labs show that the average new single-family home uses more than 2,200 square feet of softwood plywood, and more than 6,800 of OSB, in addition to roughly 15,000 board feet of framing lumber.
Invasive termites that can munch their way through your home might be expanding into new territories, thanks to climate change. As temperatures climb due to the effects of the changing climate, highly destructive termites could start invading urban cities from Miami to New York, according to a new paper in the journal Neobiota. This could be catastrophically expensive, as termites already cost $40 billion every year. There are over 2,000 known termite species worldwide, with a large diversity in terms of behavior, size, and habitat preferences. Termites primarily feed on cellulose, a major component of wood, which they are able to digest with the help of symbiotic microorganisms in their guts. …Invasive termites are responsible for considerable economic damage to buildings, crops, and forestry, and can undermine wooden structures rapidly. …The dense populations and interconnectedness of an urban sprawl provide the perfect environment for termites to invade, putting several U.S. cities at risk.
A consortium of eight U.S. wood-related trade groups signed a letter requesting the European Commission to push back the mandatory compliance deadline of the 
The U.S. exported 938,662.3 metric tons of wood pellets in March, up from 696,692.9 metric tons in February and 909,787.1 metric tons in March of last year, according to data released by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service on May 2. The U.S. exported wood pellets to approximately 18 countries in March. The U.K. was the top destination for U.S. wood pellet exports at 554,934.5 metric tons, followed by the Netherlands at 129,622 metric tons, Denmark at 94,706 metric tons, Japan at 76,995.4 metric tons, the French West Indies at 50,000 metric tons and Belgium-Luxembourg at 29,436.4 metric tons. 
Massachusetts — I’m writing in response to Katy Eiseman’s recent column, “