CASS COUNTY, Michigan — A man was sentenced to prison after he was found at a Michigan sawmill with a walnut tree that did not belong to him. Trever Wallace was sentenced to three years and two months up to 10 years in prison for his criminal concealment of a fully mature walnut tree, Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz said. …The tree’s owner was able to locate it at the sawmill before Wallace could profit from it, Fitz said. The defendant pleaded guilty as charged to larceny over $1,000. On Friday, Cass County Assistant Prosecutor Jason Ronning asked for prison time due to the defendant’s nine prior felony convictions and two misdemeanor convictions, including thefts. Fitz did not know the current state of the tree.
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. — A family-owned sawmill plans to create 18 jobs by opening a multi-million facility in northern Horry County amid high-profile shutdowns of other sites across the region. “This facility will support area businesses impacted by recent closures, and we’re proud to expand our services and give back to the region that has supported us,” Matthew Johnson, founder of Galivants Ferry Sawmill, said in a news release shared on Facebook by the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation. In August, Canfor closed its Darlington and Estill plants — eliminating 290 jobs in a move it blamed on “an extended period of consistently weak market conditions.” And in December, Georgetown County’s International Paper ended operations, cutting 674 jobs. The Galivants Ferry facility on McCracken Road will support the local timber industry and help fill the gap left by those closures
JONESBORO — The Arkansas State University System board of trustees approved several policy changes during a meeting Friday at Arkansas State University. Trustees approved a policy to “ensure the efficient disposition of real property,” effective immediately. …Trustees also approved creation of a new hire and annual employee training policy — effective Jan. 1, 2026 — as the system doesn’t currently have a mandatory training policy. …Trustees approved naming the workforce training center at Arkansas State University Three Rivers for West Fraser for the next decade. …West Fraser “has made significant contributions to ASU Three Rivers, of a magnitude worthy of special gratitude and lasting recognition, including funding that will provide program support for workforce development and generous support through sponsorships, donations, resources, and collaboration that has created significant revenue for the college,” according to the resolution. …Over the past eight years, the college has collaborated on more than 15,000 training hours with West Fraser.
LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. — A large fire at Weaber Lumber comes just over a month after the company filed for bankruptcy. Weaber, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 1, according to online records. The company also filed a WARN notice in July at its distribution center on 25 Keystone Drive. In that notice, the company said 145 people would be laid off from July 26 through Sept. 9 of this year. The fire broke out Monday night around 10 p.m. at the company’s headquarters at 1231 Mt. Wilson Road, and it took firefighters until Tuesday morning to bring the blaze under control over eight hours later.
ORONO, Maine — At the 
Last April, a pair of teenage boys … set fire to wooden pallets someone had dumped in the woods. Within a few hours it became one of the fastest-moving and most destructive wildfires on record in the New Jersey Pinelands. By the time it was brought under control three weeks later, about 15,000 acres of preserved forest were destroyed, and thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and businesses. Most official accounts of what became known as the Jones Road Fire attribute its ferocious power to the intensifying cycles of drought and heat linked to climate change that continue to affect coastal areas. But forestry experts in New Jersey point to another cause. …On Sept. 18, the New Jersey Pinelands Commission took a big step toward more aggressive management of the state’s Pinelands National Preserve voting to thin out a 12,000-acre stretch of pine and oak woodland adjacent to the wildfire site.
MONTANA — With the federal government in a shutdown, the Forest Service has paused much of the wildfire preparation and prevention work it does on its 193 million acres of national forest. A Forest Service contingency plan, current as of Sept. 30, calls for continued wildfire response. But the work necessary to reduce the fuels for massive wildfires, including prescribed burns, is on hold. …“We were told, ‘No ignitions,’” said a Forest Service fire management officer, who didn’t want to be named for fear of losing his job. “‘Don’t even start.’” The cooler, wetter fall season is an ideal time for prescribed burns and pile burning across the West. …Other significant activities will be delayed during the shutdown, including statewide forest inventories, processing special use permits and reimbursing partners like the states and non-governmental organizations that do forest management work with federal funds.
INDIANA — The controversial and slow-moving forest management plan inside the Hoosier National Forest hit another roadblock last week. All related activities — including timber sales, prescribed burns, road construction — have been temporarily halted by a court order. The Houston South Project would have opened up about 13,500 acres of the Hoosier National Forest to prescribed burning, 4,000 acres to logging, 2,000 acres to herbicide application and 400 acres to clearcutting. Opponents of the Houston South Project say this ruling is a meaningful step in the right direction. …Groups like the Indiana Forest Alliance have argued that cutting, spraying and burning on the steep slopes could lead to pollution in the reservoir jeopardizing drinking water quality and public health for the 130,000 people in the Bloomington area. …Chief Judge Tanya Pratt halted the project after finding that the USFS violated the National Environmental Policy Act in failing to consider the potential environmental impacts of the plan.
WISCONSIN — Lawmakers from northern and north-central Wisconsin are circulating a bill supporting Johnson Timber Corp. in Hayward to build a processing plant for aviation fuel made from logging debris to establish a processing plant in Wisconsin. The legislation would reward the company with a $60 million tax credit and access to $150 million in borrowing through Wisconsin’s bonding authority. Republican lawmakers wrote in a memo circulated Monday seeking cosponsors that the proposal would create 150 jobs and generate $1.2 billion a year in income after three years of operation. The processing plant in Hayward would be built by Johnson Timber Corp., in partnership with a German company… Synthec Fuels. Wisconsin along with Michigan and Minnesota are all vying for the project, Felzkowski said, “and the state that helps will be the first state” to get the facility and probably the headquarters for the overall processing operation.
NEW YORK — Some countries’ leaders are watching rising seas threaten to swallow their homes. Others are watching their citizens die in floods, hurricanes and heat waves, all exacerbated by climate change. But the world US President Donald Trump described in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly didn’t match the one many world leaders in the audience are contending with. Nor did it align with what scientists have long been observing. “This ‘climate change,’ it’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong. If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.” Trump has long been a critic of climate science and polices aimed at helping the world transition to green energies like wind and solar. 
FREMONT, Nebraska — Confined and concentrated combustible dust can ignite and generate secondary dust explosions “powerful enough to destroy buildings,” the Chemical Safety Board warns. CSB issued the warning as part of its 
Four people were taken to hospital in the US on 12 September after an explosion at the Fiberon site in Stanly County, North Carolina. Initial inspections of the facility, which manufactures composite decking and railing products, suggest the incident was a result of a dust explosion, officials said. …Several people received treatment at the site for minor injuries with four Fiberon employees taken to a local hospital. Fire crews managed to bring a small fire under control and extinguished it within a couple of hours. In a statement, the Stanly County Fire Marshal’s Office said an investigation was already underway involving several agencies… According to local media, the explosion wasn’t the first fire-related incident at the site. In 2020, several silos and a dust collector caught fire which resulted in a number of small explosions. No employees were injured, however two firefighters were hurt while attempting to extinguish a fire the following day.