Alice Palmer
On October 14, the US began charging a Section 232 (“national security”) tariff of 10% on imports of Canadian softwood lumber, on top of the duties that were already being charged. The premise that imports of Canadian 2x4s, sofas and bathroom vanities are somehow a threat to America’s national security is so ludicrous it hardly deserves rebuttal (although you can read a good analysis here). …The duties, in contrast, have been promoted as being carefully calculated responses to Canadian wrongdoing. The US Lumber Coalition outlines how the duty investigations by the US Department of Commerce take over a year to complete. Even the duty rates, calculated to the hundred of a percent, give off an aura of precision and accuracy.
Nevertheless, the duty rates are every bit as ridiculous as the new tariffs; this ridiculousness is just more cleverly hidden. For example, the argument that Canadian companies pay less for their logs than American companies do has been shown to be inaccurate: cost comparisons by analysts such as Forest Economic Advisors show that Canadian mills’ log costs are often higher than those of their US neighbours. Similarly, the argument that Canadian logs are “dumped” into US markets is based on biased calculations, due to the US Commerce Department’s use of zeroing in its calculations. …Selectively including some export sales while excluding others from the calculations – biases the results against importers and yields an imposed competitive advantage to the US domestic mills. …Graphically, we can see that the higher-priced US transactions no longer balance out the lower-priced transactions, because the higher-priced transactions have been “zeroed out” (ignored in the calculations). There is an obvious bias to this calculation method!
Industry leaders say they are disappointed with the additional 10% tariff on Canadian goods announced Saturday by US President Trump… over Ontario ad. Jean Simard of the Aluminum Association of Canada said that this announcement is “very unfortunate and uncalled for.” …“I don’t think it’s going to add anything to the situation that the U.S. will be facing moving into the fall season with prices that will be increased by these stacked up tariffs on everything that moves into the U.S.” A $75-million television ad from the Ontario government, featuring remarks by former US President Reagan on tariffs is what prompted Trump to announce he was ending trade discussions with Canada. …“We might see the same phenomenon that unfolded in the course of the months of July and August, where our metal started moving towards Europe instead of the U.S,” Simard said. 
President Trump said that he, personally, wants to attend next month’s Supreme Court hearing on his tariff policies. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments, beginning on November 5th, whether the president can unilaterally impose tariffs under emergency powers and is acting legally in his bypassing of Congress. The case involves the import tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China, over allegations of fentanyl trafficking, as well as Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. …Canada is suffering under some of the toughest US tariff actions for some of its largest export sectors — the auto industry, along with steel, aluminum, and Canada’s softwood lumber. …John Weekes, one of the chief Canadian negotiators of the original North American Free Trade Agreement said a lot of Canadians seem to be holding onto hope that Trump’s tariff war will disappear when the USMCA is renegotiated next year. To that, John Weekes says don’t bet on it.
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ leading industry, agriculture, is facing a crisis. But it’s not just row-crop farmers that are struggling — the forestry industry is as well. The market for timber has become so bad that mills are closing and loggers are getting out of the business. “This is devastating to the timber industry in South Arkansas. Eight of the last 11 weeks, we have experienced mill closures in Arkansas, some permanent, some temporary,” said John Dawson, president of Arkansas Pulpwood Co. in Camden. “We’re seeing loggers drop out. Lifelong families that are two, three, four generations of loggers are getting out of the business. Banks in South Arkansas are moving away from loaning money to loggers,” Dawson said. As you’d expect, demand for paper has plummeted. …But demand for lumber is down too. …There’s simply too much supply for the diminishing demand.
TILLEDA, Wis. – A groundbreaking moment in Tilleda, with the introduction of the first chip mill in the United States purchased by a logger co-op, marking the start of a new chapter for the industry. “Because it’s the first of its kind in the country there were a lot of hoops that we had to go through first to figure out what it all looked like legally and logistically,” said Dennis Schoeneck, president of Timber Professionals Cooperation Enterprises. Founded five years ago, Timber Professionals Cooperation Enterprises aims to sustain and grow the timber industry. The co-op is made up of loggers and truckers, and it was those groups who helped raise the $418,000 that went towards the purchase of the mill. They don’t want to stop here, the co-op has big plans for the future.
Lumber futures tumbled toward $590 per thousand board feet, a near one-month low, as weakening US housing activity and pre-tariff front-loading left wholesalers awash with stock while stacked US duties on Canadian imports and trade uncertainty pushed prices lower. US homebuilding has slowed, with housing starts falling 8.5% in August to a 1.307 million annualized pace and building permits drifting lower. Many US buyers front-loaded inventories ahead of expected import tariffs earlier this autumn, leaving distributors to work down excess stock before fresh order flow returns. On the supply side, a 10% Section-232 tariff added in mid-October atop roughly 35% in existing duties lifted border costs above 45% for many Canadian shipments, forcing sellers to find new markets or accept lower domestic prices. Producers like Interfor have trimmed output since mid-October, but the cuts are too recent to significantly reduce inventories or regional log supply.
VANCOUVER, BC —
NASHVILLE, Tenn.– LP Building Solutions (LP) announced the continuation of its partnership with the [US based] Forest Workforce Training Institute’s ForestryWorks® program and a new collaboration with the [British Columbia, Canada] First Nations Forestry Council. Both initiatives aim to develop the next generation of forestry professionals and advance sustainable forest management across North America. …“Programs like ForestryWorks and First Nations Forestry Council help ensure forests remain healthy and productive while supporting the future of sustainable forestry,” said LP Chair and CEO Brad Southern. “By investing in tomorrow’s workforce, we’re also investing in the continued success of renewable, high-performance building solutions.” …“We’re pleased to welcome LP Building Solutions as a program partner in advancing Indigenous participation in forestry through the Indigenous Forestry Scholarship Program,” said BC First Nations Forestry Council CEO Lennard (Suxʷsxʷwels) Joe. 
Ecological stoichiometry can help clarify how symbionts and other co-occurring organisms mediate nutrient deficiencies for hosts. We used ecological stoichiometry (comparisons of elemental compositions in food vs consumer) to investigate whether obligate mutualist fungi (Grosmannia clavigera, Ophiostoma montium) of the tree-killing bark beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae (mountain pine beetle) and the invasive tree pathogenic fungus, Cronartium ribicola (causal agent of the disease white pine blister rust) influenced availability of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the beetle in Pinus albicaulis (whitebark pine), as well as how these elements varied among three populations of the tree. 
The bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday morning, marking the first advancement of the bill since it previously stalled in committees under both the Biden and the previous Trump administration. The Act would create an interagency Fireshed Center focused on wildfire prediction and tracking, establish fireshed management areas in forests with high wildfire risks, and expedite the review of wildfire-related forest management projects under the National Environmental Policy Act. The act has gained support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, along with numerous environmental and wildfire-focused organizations. Critics of the Act claim it would further open up 
Fall is the busy season for forestry work, like fuels reduction. Summer fire restrictions have ended, and winter snow has not yet arrived. But Armando Lopez, owner of DL Reforestation in Jackson County, said the federal government shutdown has put his work on hold. Inspectors can’t visit project areas, and he’s waiting on hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments. Every day, he eagerly checks whether the government has reopened. …Lopez employs around 40 workers, most of them on temporary H-2B visas. If the shutdown doesn’t end next week, Lopez said, he won’t be able to pay them. …The Oregon Department of Forestry said in a statement that payment delays for contractors like Lopez are varied, depending on the federal agency and funding source. …But U.S. Forest Service, state, private and tribal forestry awards are continuing.
EUGENE, Oregon — With the Trump administration poised to rewrite forest management policy, groups are on guard for changes to climate and lumber harvesting sections. Travis Joseph has a message for environmental groups worried that the Pacific Northwest’s oldest trees are about to fall to loggers: Timber companies don’t really want to cut them down. Joseph, who heads a timber industry group and is a former aide to ex-Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, made that proclamation. …“I love these trees, too,” said Joseph, CEO of the American Forest Resource Council (AFRC). “But they’re at risk. Let’s save them. Let’s come in here and protect them.” Joseph’s group says the threat to big trees in western Oregon — these giants were 5 or 6 feet across at the trunk — isn’t logging. It’s wildfire that’s becoming a bigger menace as climate change makes summers hotter and reduces the winter snowpack. [to access the full story a subscription is required]
Oregon’s 2025 fire season officially wrapped up Friday with significantly fewer acres burned — and at a lower cost to the state — than in previous years. But fires this year got much closer to communities, burning 200 homes and structures. …And humans caused most of this year’s fires. Oregon experienced more than 1,100 fires from early June to mid-October. They burned roughly 350,000 acres, far less than the 1.9 million acres that burned in 2024. Fires this year also cost the state less to fight. …The U.S. Forest Service has had a target for nearly a century of keeping at least 90% of wildfires from growing larger than 10 acres. But it has come under scrutiny by some indigenous wildfire and ecology experts and scientists, as well as Forest Service scientists. They argue that some wildfires must be allowed to burn more acres to help regenerate plants that support animal habitats, reduce pest infestation and invasive species and keep ecosystems healthy.
The Fix Our Forests Act passed out of a Senate committee Tuesday, and now heads to a full vote. Some environmental groups are warning that a federal bill intended to prevent major wildfires could effectively increase logging, cattle grazing and mining on federal lands — which make up half of Oregon’s land base. The bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act passed out of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday and now heads to the Senate floor for a final vote. It could overhaul how the nation prepares its land for wildfires, while also scaling back environmental oversight of land management projects. The bill has conservationists divided. On one side, some advocates say it would bring long-needed changes by fast-tracking prescribed fires. …On the other side, environmental groups say the bill significantly weakens environmental protections and public oversight.
CLANCY, Montana — Healthy forests depend on a strong forest products industry. Sawmills help support thousands of Montana jobs, reduce wildfire risks, and provide a renewable resource. Despite recent mill closures in Missoula and Seeley Lake, Marks Lumber in Clancy continues to carry on. …Both Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula and Pyramid Mountain Lumber in Seeley Lake closed last year. Marks Lumber has been open for 36 years, and they have adapted to industry changes before. “ …In light of the recent closures, they have made some changes, including shifting to more board production (processed wood) rather than the raw tree, which is more expensive to manufacture, and slowing down on how much logging they do. Marks Lumber also had to change where their sawdust and chips go. Roseburg used to buy that material, but now they send them to Weyerhaeuser Forest Products in Columbia Falls.
Ash trees are an important part of the basket weaving tradition, which has long played a significant cultural, spiritual and practical role in the lives of tribal citizens across the country, including John Daigle, a citizen member of the Penobscot Nation in Maine. But the emergence of the emerald ash borer beetle …has posed challenges for Indigenous basket makers. A grant awarded to Daigle, a professor of forest recreation management at the University of Maine, could help preserve and advance the craft. It’s part of the Indigenous Forest Knowledge Fund, a program run by the Northeastern States Research Cooperative to support projects related to tribal homelands or ancestral territories of the Northern Forest region… Daigle’s project was one of three winners this year. His team will also develop technologies to support the processing and storage of ash splints before widespread ash mortality, which could help sustain basket-making supplies.
…An ice storm 
PASCAGOULA, Mississippi — A fire is burning inside one of the wood pellet domes at the Port of Pascagoula. The fire started Monday afternoon inside one of the two Enviva domes at the port. Jackson County Emergency Management Director Earl Etheridge said there is no danger of explosion. Jackson County firefighters are on scene to assist Enviva and port crews. The fire started Monday afternoon inside one of the two Enviva domes at the port. …Etheridge says that Enviva is injecting the dome with pressurized nitrogen to suppress the fire. The fire is contained to the dome. Crews are working to offload the 20,000 metric tons of wood pellets. 
Ten lawsuits have been filed against Drax after diagnoses of asthma allegedly linked to its wood pellet fuel, it has been revealed. Current and former workers at the UK’s largest power station claim they have not been adequately protected against sustained exposure to wood dust, which can cause serious health problems including asthma, dermatitis and nasal cancer. Six compensation claims were settled out of court and four have trial dates in 2026, an investigation by Land and Climate Review found. A class action lawsuit was also filed against the company this month over health concerns in the US, representing 700 people who live near one of Drax’s wood pellet mills in Mississippi. The company is also being investigated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority over “historical statements” made about its wood pellet fuel. 