Region Archives: US East

Froggy Foibles

This National Park uses a ‘Skeeter Meter’ to inform visitors about mosquitoes

By Laura Baisas
Popular Science
June 16, 2025
Category: Froggy Foibles
Region: United States, US East

Taking a peek at the UV index to gauge how much sunscreen and protective clothing to wear is par for the course during the summer. But predicting just how bad mosquitoes might be is another story. For visitors to the National Park unfairly voted the worst to visit due to its many mosquitoes, there is a way to anticipate just how bad these biters may be. The Mosquito Meter or “Skeeter Meter” at Congaree National Park near Columbia, South Carolina has six levels: All Clear, Mild, Moderate, Severe, Ruthless, and War Zone. …With the Skeeter Meter and educating people about safely visiting Congaree, the park has embraced their reputation for mosquitoes instead of fighting it. At least 20 different mosquito species are found in this park, which includes the largest remaining intact expanse of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the southeastern United States. …To protect wildlife and biodiversity in the park, it will not spray pesticides to control the mosquito population.

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Business & Politics

Hampton Lumber to build new sawmill in Fairfax, South Carolina

Hampton Lumber
June 24, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West, US East

Hampton Lumber announced it selected Allendale County to establish the company’s first sawmill on the East Coast. The company’s $225 million investment will create at least 125 new jobs. Headquartered in Oregon, Hampton Lumber is a fourth-generation, family-owned producer, operating nine sawmills in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Hampton Lumber will construct a state-of-the-art, 375,000-square-foot lumber mill located at Highway 321 and Barker Mill Pond Road in Fairfax. The new operation will specialize in producing quality Southern Yellow Pine framing lumber. Operations are expected to be online in 2027. Individuals interested in joining the Hampton Lumber can learn more about employment opportunities on the company’s careers page. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project. “We are proud the company recognized South Carolina as the ideal home for its first East Coast mill,” said Governor Henry McMaster.

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Kruger Products’ Memphis site announces new converting line for bathroom tissue and paper towels

Kruger Inc.
July 9, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — Kruger Products announced today that its subsidiary, K.T.G. (USA) Inc. will be investing approximately $35 million in a new converting line for bathroom tissue and paper towels at its site in Memphis, TN. The installation is expected to be completed in Q2/2026 and will create about 20 jobs. “With the latest technology, this new converting line will allow us to expand our capacity and produce a wide range of high-quality tissue products for our customers and our White Cloud® brand”, said Gordon Goss, SVP & GM, U.S. & Mexico Consumer Business. “This new line is also part of our plan to reinvest and refocus our Memphis site on driving efficiency for our growing U.S. business.” [END]

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Cascades announces the permanent closure of its Niagara Falls corrugated medium manufacturing operations

Cascades Inc.
Cision Newswire
July 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US East

KINGSEY FALLS, QC – Cascades Inc. announces that its corrugated medium manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls, NY will be permanently closed as part of the optimization of the Company’s packaging production platform. Production will end no later than September 3, 2025. This announcement aligns with the Company’s commitment to support strategic growth by focusing on profitability and customer service levels. The Niagara Falls production site has an annual production capacity of 200,000 short tons. A second machine at this facility was closed in 2023. “This is a difficult decision, but one that is an essential part of our focus on optimizing the performance of our Packaging sector,” said Jean-David Tardif, Executive Vice-President, Packaging. “The future growth momentum for Cascades and our customers is very promising, and we are well positioned to capitalize on opportunities for strategic and sustainable growth,” he added. Cascades would like to sincerely thank the 123 employees that are directly impacted by this decision…

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Hardwood Forestry Fund voluntarily dissolves operations; passes ‘torch’ with final distribution of $190,000

By Larry Adams
Woodworking Network
July 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

After funding 5 million seedlings for 289 projects, in 38 states and 4 foreign countries, the Hardwood Forestry Fund (HFF) has decided to voluntarily dissolve its operations.  The Board announced its final distribution of $190,000 to the Arbor Day Foundation and One Tree Planted to implement Hardwood Tree plantings in line with the HFF’s mission and goals. The Hardwood Forestry Fund promoted hardwood timber growth, management, education, and environmentally sound uses of renewable forest resources by providing grant funding to partnering organizations. …The HFF was formed in 1990 by members of the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, which eventually became the Decorative Hardwoods Association. …During its 35 years of operation, the HFF funded projects that used seedling planting, direct seeding, and forest management techniques to promote natural regeneration and create sustainable forests on suitable and quality public sites. 

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Chillicothe Paper Mill: Potential Buyers, Shutdowns, Rumors, Reminiscences…

By Kevin Coleman
Sciotopost.com
July 7, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Possibly 18 potential buyers have looked at the Pixelle facility before Thursday’s deadline to make offers. And again, the weekly Monday meeting of the ‘paper mill response team’ was in executive session to be free to hash out plans – as reminiscences from employees, as well as rumors about what is happening there and what is being removed, fill the internet. Mill operator Pixelle – based in Pennsylvania, and owned by H.I.G. Capital of Miami, Florida – has been cooperative with corporate tours of the facility that has been largely shut down. …“The deadline set by HIG for purchase offers to be submitted – July 3 – has passed. To date, no information has been shared with local leaders or regional economic development partners regarding a sale or the future of the mill.

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Media got it wrong when it comes to Maine’s pulp and paper mills

By Krysta West, ED, Maine Forest Products Council.
Bangor Daily News
July 5, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Krysta West

Biomass is part of the natural carbon cycle, which is why both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Maine Department of Environmental Protection — along with the vast majority of environmental agencies in other industrialized nations — consider it carbon neutral when it comes from sustainably managed forests. As new trees grow, they absorb the carbon released when wood is used as fuel, unlike fossil fuels, which add carbon that had been stored underground for millions of years. Some, like the D.C.-based Environmental Integrity Project, disagree. Their recent report criticizes mills for using forestry leftovers and other fuel that they claim “can be dirtier than coal.” …This is not just an attack on our pulp and paper industry, it’s an attack on our heritage, which is why it is troubling that the Bangor Daily News and others published a recent article that originated in the Maine Monitor based on EIP’s faulty report.

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Sumitomo launches its first ‘timber industrial complex’ in the US

By Larry Adams
The Woodworking Network
July 6, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Sumitomo Forestry, a prominent Japanese timber and construction firm, completed July 1, 2025, the acquisition of Teal Jones Louisiana Holdings and plans to launch its first timber industrial complex in the US. This complex may also include taking wood waste and turning it into mass timber. …In addition to outside purchasers, Teal Jones-Plain Dealing (TJPD) plans to supply product to its group operations, such as the Fully Integrated Turn-key Provider operations and its residential property and real estate development operations. Furthermore, the company plans to utilize the approximate 40 hectares of unused land on the site to manufacture and sell mass timber and wood products in preparation for future increased demand. “We are also considering processing wood chips and lumber residue generated from the manufacturing process into biomass power generation fuel, bio-refineries and other,” the company said.

See Sumitomo Press Release: Launch of our first overseas timber industrial complex with the group integration of a major US lumber company 

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Donald Trump’s tariffs test a legacy Maine industry that global trade decimated

By Lori Valigra
Bangor Daily News
July 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Simon Varney pre-ordered extra hardwood from Canada in February when President Donald Trump threatened broad 25 percent import tariffs on goods from that country. The next month, the administration exempted that wood. That left Varney, co-owner of Wells Wood Turning & Finishing in Buckfield, spending more money ahead of time and holding onto extra inventory, eating into cash flow. Ironically, the pearlescent gold pigment the company purchased from its Vermont supplier to make its famous wooden eggs for the White House Easter Egg Roll — a color specifically requested by the president in both of his terms in office — had to be imported from Germany and falls under Trump’s tariffs. “The tariffs were a real concern because they basically would raise our wood costs by 25 percent, which is pretty significant,” Varney said. “The wood manufacturing business is not a high margin or high profitability business.”

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Domtar receives Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation permit for anaerobic digester

By Allison Winters
The Times News
June 27, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

KINGSPORT, Tennessee — Domtar’s Kingsport mill received a long-awaited permit last week leading to the start of the anaerobic digester project. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued the 142-page permit Wednesday. …“Receiving this permit is an important milestone in our efforts to advance the anaerobic digester project at the Kingsport Mill,” Charlie Floyd, VP of strategic capital projects, said. “This investment underscores Domtar’s commitment to sustainable innovation and environmental stewardship, while supporting good jobs and economic vitality here in Kingsport.” …Start-up of the new wastewater treatment system is expected by the third or fourth quarter of 2026, according to Domtar’s latest timeline. Around 150 contractors are expected to be on site to build the digester and associated equipment, Floyd said. Domtar estimates a $12.8 million economic impact from the project — including labor, hotel and dining within the community.

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Canfor Announces Closure of Darlington and Estill Sawmills in South Carolina

Canfor Corporation
June 26, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States, US East

VANCOUVER, BC – Canfor announced today its decision to permanently close the Estill and Darlington sawmills in South Carolina, effective August 2025. These closures follow an extended period of persistently weak market conditions and sustained financial losses, which have made continued operations at these facilities no longer viable. “We understand the significant impact this difficult decision will have on our employees,” said Lee Goodloe, President, Canfor Southern Pine. “This outcome is in no way a reflection of the dedication and hard work of our teams. We are committed to supporting our employees through this transition, including providing severance payments and exploring opportunities for redeployment within our other operations where possible.” Approximately 290 employees will be affected by the closures, which will also reduce Canfor’s U.S. lumber production capacity by 350 million board feet annually.

Related coverage in ABC15 News Darlington: Lumber losses loom: Darlington sawmill closes, furthers threat to $23B industry

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Indiana’s Hardwoods and Lumber Industry Plays Huge Role in State’s Economy

By C.J. Miller
Hoosier AG Today
June 26, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

When you think about Indiana’s ag industry, you might not think about hardwoods and lumber, which play a huge role in the state’s economy. Indiana’s hardwood industry has an annual economic impact of over $10 billion to the state’s economy. In fact, Indiana is the number one producer of wooden hardwood and office furniture in the US. Indiana’s hardwood sector also ranks: 2nd in wood kitchen cabinets and countertops, manufactured homes, 3rd in engineered wood products, 4th in pre-fabricated wood buildings, and 5th in upholstered household furniture. Much of the lumber that is harvested and used here in Indiana comes from private woodland owners. “There’s over 4.5 million acres of forest land in Indiana, and of that 85 percent of that is privately owned, so there are a lot of farmers and families who own forest land,” says Tyler Smith, Sales Manager of Cole Hardwood in Logansport.

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Domtar to clean up decades of PFAS contamination under Michigan settlement

By Fuad Shalhout
Michigan Live
June 25, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Dana Nessel

PORT HURON – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has finalized a settlement agreement with Domtar Industries to clean up PFAS-contaminated materials at the Techni-Comp composting site near Port Huron. The agreement follows a lawsuit filed by the attorney general against the paper manufacturer in December 2022. As part of the settlement, Domtar will remove compost piles containing PFAS-contaminated sludge from the site and dispose of the waste at a licensed landfill. The company will also investigate the presence of PFAS in sediment and surface water at the location. …The mill began using PFAS chemicals to make specialty paper in the 1980s. Domtar acquired E.B. Eddy and the Port Huron mill in 1998. …Nessel’s office said the waste was “fraudulently” declared inert… and that Domtar continued to maintain that representation until the mill closed a few years ago. Under the decree, Domtar will pay $300,000 to support further response efforts at the site. 

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Logs from overturned truck collide with train in northern Ontario

By Chelsea Papineau
CTV NewsBy
June 25, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, US East

ONTARIO — A northern Ontario forestry company says a train crossing Highway 560 collided Wednesday morning with logs that were spilled by an overturned contractor’s trailer. It happened at the railroad crossing near Interfor’s Gogama Division and resulted in the road being closed between highways 144 and 560A. “There are no injuries or derailment,” Ontario Provincial Police said in a social media post at 8:40 a.m. “A train stop order is in place.” Interfor also confirmed this. …“At Interfor, the safety of our people and the communities where we operate is our highest priority. We are focused on supporting those affected and are actively monitoring the situation.” There is no estimated time of reopening, said OPP Const. Michelle Simard. “The officers are still investigating,” Simard said.

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SmartLam North America, in Dothan, featured in Business Alabama

By Debora Storey
Business Alabama
June 24, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

SmartLam makes wood construction products at two locations — Dothan and Columbia Falls, Montana. The company just invested $60 million in a new manufacturing facility in Dothan adjacent to the existing cross-laminated timber, or CLT, plant. The new facility spans 144,000 square feet and is designed to produce 84 million board feet of glulam beams and columns each year. …A total of 113 people work in manufacturing and another 10 in management. The Montana division employs roughly 100. SmartLam is the largest mass timber producer in North America. The company started in Montana in 2012. In 2019, they acquired IB X-Lam in Dothan, a CLT and glulam plant that had been operating since 2018. …The Dothan location works with mostly yellow pine but can process spruce and Douglas fir, too. The Montana operation gets about half of its wood from Montana and the remainder from Oregon, Washington and Canada.

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Forestry turmoil: Mill closures threaten $23B industry and jobs

By Caitlin Richards
ABC News 15
June 25, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The timber industry in South Carolina is grappling with significant challenges following the closure of major mills, including the International Paper mill in Georgetown and the WestRock plant in Charleston. These shutdowns have left local loggers scrambling to find new markets for their products. The forestry sector is a crucial part of South Carolina’s economy, contributing over $23 billion and being the top job provider in the state, according to the Forestry Commission. However, the loss of pulpwood markets due to mill closures has raised concerns among industry leaders. …Chip Campsen, chairman of the Senate Fish, Game, and Forestry Committee said when you have logging crews and timber owners who can’t bring their product to market, they’re going to have to just shut down, and he said they’re not going to come back. Industry leaders emphasize the need to find new markets for pulpwood quickly to sustain the state’s timber industry.

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US trade faces pressure in Middle Eastern markets amid recent Israel-Iran conflict and Trump tariffs

By Asher Redd
Fox Business News
June 25, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tennessee – Recent missile attacks put global trade on alert as the Baltic and International Maritime Council warned the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf could face disruption. …Mike Cardin, Cardin Forest Products Chief Manager, said the conflict could hurt the American lumber industry as well. Cardin’s hardwood sawmill reported fewer orders coming out of the Middle East. Uncertainties about President Trump’s future tariff policies forced Cardin to change how his sawmill operates. Before Trump took office, Cardin said his sawmill shipped wood products across the globe. He said foreign buyers proactively stopped buying American wood because they expect Trump to slap new tariffs on timber imports by the end of the year. Most of Cardin’s sales now come from Mexico and within the U.S. …”Right now, no one knows what’s going to happen,” Jarrod Cardin, Cardin’s Controlling Member, said.

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Weyerhaeuser Breaks Ground on New TimberStrand® Facility in South Arkansas

Arkansas Economic Development Commission
June 18, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

MONTICELLO and WARREN, Arkansas – Weyerhaeuser has broken ground on its new TimberStrand® facility near Monticello and Warren, Arkansas. The company is investing an estimated $500 million in the facility, which is expected to create 200 high-quality jobs in the region once fully operational. …The facility is expected to add approximately 10 million cubic feet of annual production capacity and help Weyerhaeuser meet growing demand for TimberStrand® and better serve its customers across the US South. Weyerhaeuser plans to source fiber logs from company-owned timberlands in south Arkansas and surrounding regions. …The Monticello/Warren facility will be Weyerhaeuser’s fourth manufacturing facility in Arkansas. Weyerhaeuser currently operates a lumber mill in Dierks, a plywood and veneer plant in Emerson, and a seedling nursery in Magnolia. …Weyerhaeuser announced plans for the new facility in November 2024 with the goal of starting operations in 2027.

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International Timber & Veneer closing Pennsylvania facility

The HBS Dealer
June 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

International Timber & Veneer (ITV) will cease operations in August. According to a WARN notice filed with the state of Pennsylvania, the company is closing its facility located at 75 McQuiston Drive in Jackson Center, Pa., leaving at least 81 workers in the lurch. The company puts blame on the current economic situation. On a statement posted on its website, ITV specifically highlights the difficulty of navigating fallout from the ongoing trade war. “Increasingly unpredictable customs policies, a tense international trade climate, and above all, the import ban on American logs into China, have made raw material procurement highly uncertain. Under these economic conditions, we no longer see a viable long-term outlook for the continued operation of International Timber & Veneer.”

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Veldman brothers, BMI Group financing restart of Michigan paper mill

By Ian Ross
Northern Ontario Business
June 14, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The impact of the pandemic and the boom in takeout food delivery has spurred the restart of a Port Huron, Mich., paper mill owned by the Veldman brothers’ BMI Group. Four years after being mothballed, the former Domtar mill in the Michigan border town is coming back to life thanks to a resurgence in the sustainable, lightweight specialty papers used in fast-food restaurant packaging, candy wrappers, medical table covers, tissue overwraps, and other sustainable uses. Under the new banner of the Legacy Paper Group, the company is aiming for an August production start. The mill’s cornerstone Paper Machine No. 8 will be restarted, putting out 30,000 tons annually of production, according to Mark Bessette, managing director of Legacy Paper Group. …The three Veldman brothers, owners of a former forest mill sites in Fort Frances, Red Rock, Iroquois Falls and lately Espanola, have made an undisclosed “seven-figure” investment in Port Huron, according to Bessette.

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Finance & Economics

Southern Pine Lumber Exports Are Up In April

The Southern Forest Products Association
June 24, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

April 2025 Southern Pine lumber exports (treated and untreated) were up 22.7% over the same month in 2024 at 57.4 MMBF and up 34.8% over March 2025, according to April 2025 data from the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Services’ Global Agricultural Trade System. Year-to-date exports, however, are running 4% behind the same period in 2024 at 179.7 MMBF. When looking at the report by dollar value, Southern Pine exports were up 27% to $22.6 million in April – a 12-month high – compared to the same month in 2024 and up 26% over March 2025. Mexico leads the way YTD 2025 at $20.7 million, followed by the Dominican Republic at $15.8 million, and Canada at $5 million. Treated lumber exports, meanwhile, were up 47% compared to April 2025 at $15 million and up 53% over March 2025. …Softwood lumber imports were down 5% in April to 1.2 MMBF over the year and down 13.7% over March 2025.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

How the pulp & paper industry is encouraging more women to join

By Zhen Wang
The Post Crescent
July 8, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Nationwide, women made up 26.4% of the roughly 775,000 people who worked in the paper manufacturing and printing industry in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At pulp, paper, and paperboard mills, they made up 14% of positions. That’s what brought the Wisconsin Paper Council and Ahlstrom — a global Finnish company that produces specialty papers and packaging at five plants in Rhinelander, Mosinee, Kaukauna, De Pere and Stevens Point — gifted $20,000 to establish the program in 2023. In 2024, Ashman received $1,000 from the program after graduating from Appleton East High School. Now, at 19, Ashman works as an intern with Thilmany mill in Kaukauna, helping with environmental compliance and coordinating cleanup efforts along the Fox River. The scholarship was used to help pay for her college tuition. She said what was even more valuable was the internship opportunity she landed at the award-giving reception in 2024.

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Forest Biomaterials Researchers Developing Sustainable Alternative to Plastic Foam Packaging

By Andrew Moore
North Carolina State University
July 2, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Researchers in the Department of Forest Biomaterials are developing a proprietary material that could serve as a sustainable alternative to one of the world’s most significant sources of pollution: plastic foam.  “Our material eliminates polystyrene foam materials that are filling landfills and persisting as litter in the environment,” said Richard Venditti, the Elis-Signe Olsson Professor of Pulp and Paper Science and Engineering. Plastic foam, often known by the brand name Styrofoam, is used in many everyday products — from disposable food and beverage containers like cups and plates to shipping materials such as packing peanuts and protective packaging. While convenient, plastic foam presents a significant environmental challenge due to its lack of biodegradability and difficulty in recycling. Estimates indicate that plastic foam takes up to 30% of landfill space globally. 

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Inside the 1st Mass Timber Broadcast Facility in the US

Commercial Property Search
July 2, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills neighborhood is now home to a development unlike any other in the country: a fully mass timber broadcast facility. Built by Skanska with cross-laminated timber components assembled in just over five weeks, the 35,000-square-foot Cincinnati Public Radio headquarters marks a premier in both design and delivery. The $32 million project is both the first modern mass timber building in the city and the first broadcast center in the U.S. built entirely from cross-laminated timber. …Skanska brought deep technical expertise to the project and coordinated closely with Emersion DESIGN, WSDG and Nordic Structures to deliver this first-of-its-kind facility. We asked Jeff Smoker, who served as project manager during construction and now works as preconstruction manager with the construction and development company, to take us behind the complex logistics, integrated sustainability and acoustic precision of this milestone project.

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Council launches wood industry internship program

The Bennington Banner
June 25, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US East

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Wood Works Council (VWWC) announced the launch of its new Internship Program, a hands-on initiative designed to connect emerging woodworkers with professional makers, manufacturers, and artisans across the state. This program aims to strengthen Vermont’s wood economy by offering real-world experience in local shops to students, career changers, and anyone curious about working with wood. Internships are hosted by Vermont-based woodworking businesses and tailored to each shop’s unique style — whether it’s furniture, cabinetry, millwork, or modern manufacturing. The goal is to introduce the next generation of craftspeople to the skills, tools, and culture that define Vermont’s wood products industry. “This program is about preserving our legacy while preparing for the future,” said Scott Duffy, president of the Vermont Wood Works Council and owner of Rockledge Farm Woodworks. “Woodworking is not just a trade — it’s a meaningful, creative, and sustainable career path rooted in Vermont values.”

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Groundbreaking Held For Tallest Mass Timber Tower in the Western Hemisphere

By Jeramey Jannene
Urban Milwaukee
June 16, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US East

A record-breaking apartment tower is under construction in Milwaukee. Neutral Edison will be the tallest mass timber building in the Western Hemisphere when completed in 2027. The 31-story building on Edison Street will include 353 high-end apartments and loads of environmentally-friendly features. Once complete, it will eclipse the height of the current world record holder, the 25-story Ascent building located just a half mile east. [Another building is] under construction in Sydney, Australia and is expected to claim the world record, limiting The Edison’s claim to the Western Hemisphere. …Neutral estimates that the carbon footprint of the building’s construction materials will be 54% lower than a structure built using conventional materials. It estimates that the building’s operational carbon footprint and energy consumption will be 45% lower. The firm intends to pursue Living Building Challenge 4.0 Core Certification and Passive House certification using the PHIUS 2021 Core Standard to formally measure the building’s environmental friendliness.

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Forestry

A look at Louisiana’s timber industry 2 years after wildfires

By Colin Vedros
KALB News
July 10, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana — Wildfires and drought destroyed over 60,000 acres of trees in the summer and fall months of 2023 and costing the state $71 million in timber loss. …The wildfires came from record-breaking high temperatures and little to no measurable rainfall that summer. Now, as Louisiana continues to revive its timber industry, there is a renewed interest in the Virginia pine trees that are across the state. But that is also being facilitated by the potential for tariffs on Canadian and Chinese wood and wood products. “The issue has been of Canada and China flooding our markets with their products,” Dr. Mike Strain, the commissioner of Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry said. “So, all of that together, I think we’re going to see a strengthening in the timber industry.” …Strengthening the timber industry also calls for more paper mills. “We really need a mill in the Florida parishes,” he said.

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Can Michigan’s forests survive climate change? One researcher is finding out

Emilio Ibarguen, Michigan Environment Watch
Bridge Michigan
July 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Jeremy Johnson

As Michigan’s climate warms, tree species like red pine and eastern white pine may no longer thrive here. Their native regions are moving north faster than forests can keep up with. …To help forests stand a chance, Michigan State University forest genetics professor Jeremy Johnson is experimenting with “assisted tree migration.” …“We can improve the genetic gain in those trees and start an orchard where we have seed that is adapted to the future climates”. Johnson is backed by a $500,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which he’ll use to plant thousands of trees at nine sites across the state and spend the next 20 years tracking their performance. …Johnson hopes to find individual trees with traits that help them survive in the simulated conditions. Their seeds can then be planted on the edges of existing forests where they can cross-pollinate with other trees and spread those traits, making the forests more resilient.

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Rayonier Completes Sale of New Zealand Business to The Rohatyn Group

By Rayonier Inc.
Business Wire
June 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East, International

WILDLIGHT, Florida –Rayonier announced the completion of the previously announced sale of entities holding its 77% interest in the New Zealand joint venture to a special purpose vehicle owned by an investment fund managed by The Rohatyn Group (“TRG”) for a purchase price of $710 million. …Rayonier continues to anticipate using at least 50% of the proceeds to reduce leverage and/or return capital to shareholders through special dividends and share repurchases. …“We want to extend our gratitude to the team in New Zealand, which has done an outstanding job in managing these highly productive assets, and we are pleased to transfer the stewardship of this business to TRG, a well-regarded manager of forestry assets in the region,” added McHugh.

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Trump administration plan could allow reconstruction in 85,000 acres of Tennessee National Forest land

By Justin Wallace
WBIR.com
June 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Around 85,000 acres of national forest land in Tennessee could be open to road construction, reconstruction and timber harvest under a new Trump Administration plan, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. …The USDA described the rule as being “outdated,” claiming it contradicts the will of Congress and goes against the mandate of the department’s Forest Service to “sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands.” …Rescinding the rule would remove the prohibitions on reconstruction, allowing for fire prevention and possible timber production, the federal department said. …The USDA also said the rescinding aligns with President Trump’s “Executive Order 14192, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation” to get rid of “overcomplicated, burdensome barriers that hamper American business and innovation.”

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How Maine is impacted by Trump administration’s plans to rescind rule blocking national forest logging

By Russ Reed
WMTW ABC News 8
June 24, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Monday that the Trump administration plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, which blocked logging on national forest lands for nearly 25 years. The Roadless Rule has affected 30% of national forest lands nationwide… This includes the White Mountain National Forest, which is located mostly in New Hampshire. But part of that national forest land is located in western Maine… According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the White Mountain National Forest contains approximately 368,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas. The nonprofit organization said the Roadless Rule has kept logging at bay on about 213,000 roadless acres, but noted the remaining 155,000 roadless acres are vulnerable to road construction and timber sales because they were identified later in the 2005 Forest Plan. …The announcement comes amid recent talk of selling off federal lands in part to improve housing affordability, an idea criticized by Democrats as a public land grab.

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Start seeing Minnesota’s trees for the forest values they are

By Brian Buhr, Dean of Natural Resource Science, University of Minnesota
The Duluth News Tribune
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Brian Buhr

…However, few people consider how Minnesota’s nearly 18 million acres of forests can drive bioinnovation, supporting both a healthy environment and economy. For those who do, they’d likely underestimate the growing diversity of products that can use components of wood sustainably harvested from our state’s forests. Research at the University of Minnesota is leading the way to further develop those innovations… One such emerging opportunity is using woody biomass to produce climate-smart, low-carbon biofuels. …Clearly, forest loss also brings economic costs. Each acre burned or left unproductive loses $234 in carbon value, not to mention all the other products that could be created from that acre. Bottom line: Managing forest health and timber harvesting creates jobs, strengthens the economy, and reduces carbon emissions and wildfire risks. The University of Minnesota leads this effort through partnerships with industry, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Minnesota DNR, supported by public investment. 

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Why Canada’s wildfire smoke is now a fixture for Minnesotans when the weather warms

By Patrick Hamilton, Science Museum of Minnesota
The Star Tribune
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States, US East

It has only been in the past few years that wildfire smoke from Canada has become a persistent risk to the air we all breathe. Why is this? …A vast swath across northern Canada has a subarctic climate. The types of vegetation best adapted to these conditions are conifer forests dominated by black and white spruce with some pine, balsam fir, larch, aspen and birch. Fire has always been an element of this biome. Historically, about 7.3 million acres have burned annually but in 2023, an astonishing 67 million acres burned. This year’s acreage is on pace to meet or exceed the record-breaking year of 2023. …The fire season is changing in Canada because the climate of Canada is changing. …What this means is that large, long-duration wildfires in Canada’s boreal forest and the smoke plumes they produce are likely to be a new and persistent phenomenon going forward. 

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Study reveals US timber supply inelastic and South-Central reforestation profitable

The Lesprom Network
June 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A new analysis quantifies US timber harvest and supply dynamics and finds that, although national timber supply is largely price inelastic, rapid growth in South-Central forests now makes private reforestation clearly profitable, according to David Wear at Resources for the Future institute, and John W. Coulston at the USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station. …In their modeling of owner behavior, Wear and Coulston find that price signals drive increased cutting in every region and ownership class except public lands on the Pacific Coast. …Supply responds more strongly to sawtimber than to pulpwood prices, underscoring the influence of higher-value markets on harvest intensity. Tree-planting choice models further show that private landowners in high-production regions (South, Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Northern Rockies) boost reforestation probability by roughly 0.5 % for every 1 % rise in sawtimber price. …This integrated, plot-level research positions the eastern US as the primary locus for future timber supply expansion.

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Whitefish Creek Enterprises Named 2025 Minnesota Logger of the Year

Minnesota Logger Education Program
June 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US East

Brady Hasbargen & Rick Horton

Whitefish Creek Enterprises, Inc. of Baudette has been named the 2025 Minnesota Logger of the Year by the Minnesota Sustainable Forestry Initiative Implementation Committee. The award was presented to Brady Hasbargen of Whitefish Creek at the Minnesota Logger Education Program workshop held in Bemidji in April. The Logger of the Year Award recognizes outstanding independent logging contractor performance with the purpose of honoring Minnesota’s competent professional independent logging contractors. The formal nomination clearly demonstrates that Whitefish Creek Enterprises are recognized by their peers for professionalism, commitment to sustainable forestry, using best business management practices, trade organization involvement, fostering excellent landowner and forester relationships, and for their exceptional community outreach activities. 

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Iowa woodland owners pledge to keep advocating for the Forest Reserve Program

By Olivia Cohen
The Gazette
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Tim Meyer’s interest in the outdoors goes back decades, beginning with hunting. In 1987, he bought 115 acres of land in Davis County in southern Iowa. It was on that land that his love of the outdoors — and his interest in developing a healthy forest — grew. Today, that property has grown to 384 acres, which includes 320 acres of forest. Last year, Meyer’s knowledge and care for trees was honored when he and his wife, Pam Goschke, were named Iowa’s Outstanding Tree Farmers by the Iowa Tree Farm Committee. The award honored Meyer’s work fostering woodlands across the state, but learning the ways of tending to woodlands wasn’t always easy. “I didn’t realize how cruel nature can be,” said Meyer, who lives in Iowa County. “If you leave a forest unmanaged, there’s really a war going on out there in the forest because, you know, bad trees outgrow good trees.”

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Environmental groups sue to protect western North Carolina forests from increased logging

By Michelle Alfini
WSOC-TV
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

As Western North Carolina’s forests recover from Hurricane Helene, environmental groups say Pisgah and Nantahala face a one-two punch from the federal government, potentially setting the stage for further destruction. For as long as the country has had national forests, logging has been a part of their management, but those needs are also weighed against the need to maintain habitat, recreational opportunities, protect local water systems and defend wildlife. In the past few years, the U.S. Forest Service has opened up more land to logging and now with a recent executive order calling for increased timber production across the country, environmental nonprofits like Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Asheville-based MountainTrue are suing to prevent what they believe could severely damage habitat in a way that could take decades to recover from.

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Maintaining, Protecting Forests and Woodlands Across NY Needs to Take Priority

By Hugh Canham, Legislative Affairs Committee Chair, New York Forest Owners Association
The Adirondack Almanack
June 16, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…The recently introduced bill by Senator Rachel May and Assemblymember Dr. Anna Kelles (S.5603/A.7550) would give partial property tax relief to landowners statewide who agree to permanent easements agree to permanent easements to protect private forest land from development while increasing carbon storage, in response to the stated need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the State.  This is a worthy objective and using easements instead of fee purchase is a good way to proceed. However, there are several concerns when viewed from the perspective of the private landowner concerning timber harvests, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, type of easement, and property tax relief. …Carbon sequestration is an important function of New York’s forests and woodlands. …While it may seem counterintuitive to those unfamiliar with modern forestry, data show that sustainably managed forests yield substantial climate benefits. The data does not support the common misconception that older forests always provide superior carbon benefits.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

As it searches for new markets, can South Carolina’s forestry industry tap into energy?

By Lucy Valeski
The State
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

After Georgetown’s International Paper mill shut down at the end of last year, the pressure is on for South Carolina’s forestry industry to find new local markets. The solution may be as simple as burning wood, a type of renewable energy. …South Carolina produces wood pellets but much of the product is shipped abroad. …Some lawmakers hope wood biomass specifically could address two problems the state faces: the forestry industry’s need for new local markets and consumers’ demand for more energy. State lawmakers attempted to address the latter in the South Carolina Energy Security Act. The new law is aimed at generating more energy in the state. …Forestry industry leaders delivered a report at the beginning of 2025 highlighting the economic impact of the closures. The short report, led by the SC Forest Recovery Task Force, identifies potential markets where the forestry industry could expand. Biomass tops the list.

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Health & Safety

Exoskeletons may help curb high injury and fatality rates in forestry

Safety and Health Magazine
July 8, 2025
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Forestry workers could benefit from the use of exoskeletons that support their back and upper limbs, results of a study show. Researchers from Texas A&M University and Oregon State University used sensors on 10 forestry workers to determine what type of exoskeleton may help them. The workers, along with 12 other foresters, completed a survey that assessed how much they knew about exoskeletons, their level of acceptance, and their perceived barriers and risks of using the technology. The results indicated that the workers experienced musculoskeletal pain in the neck, shoulders, lower back, wrists/forearms, knees, legs and feet/ankles. “This finding suggests that back-support and upper-limb support exoskeletons may be suitable to the forestry industry,” study co-author Jeong Ho “Jay” Kim, an associate professor at Texas A&M, said. “Forestry is vitally important but its workers pay a high price, with an injury rate that is 40% higher than the average.”

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