JACKSON, Mississippi –Hood Industries is expanding its sawmill operations in Wayne County. The project is a $245 million corporate investment. The company’s strategic expansion involves the construction of a new advanced sawmill in Waynesboro. The mill will be built in multiple phases on a site adjacent to the company’s existing mill. Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance through the Mississippi Flexible Tax Incentive program. MDA also is providing assistance for road and infrastructure improvements. Wayne County and AccelerateMS are assisting with the expansion, as well. …Hood Industries has been manufacturing wood products in Mississippi for nearly over 40 years. The company currently operates three southern yellow pine sawmills, including two in Mississippi. The new Waynesboro mill is expected to be complete by October 2026.
The timber industry, a cornerstone of South Carolina’s economy, is grappling the closure of several key mills. The recent shutdowns of mills in Darlington and Estill have sent ripples through the local supply chain, affecting forest management and the livelihoods of many in the industry. …The timber industry in South Carolina is struggling with significant challenges after major mill closures, including the International Paper Mill in Georgetown, the WestRock Plant in Charleston, the International Paper in Savannah and the Containerboard Mill in Riceboro. Michael Campbell, president and CEO of the South Carolina Timber Producers Association, highlighted the broader economic impact. “It’s a widespread county thing because the loggers tend to haul up to 100 miles away from the mill, so within 100 miles of that mill everything’s impacted,” he said. Despite some new mill announcements, Campbell said they are insufficient to compensate for the lost wood volume.
DARLINGTON COUNTY, South Carolina — Monday marked the last day of operation at the Canfor sawmill in Darlington. The mill announced its closure 
KINGSPORT, Tennessee — Vera Gilmer, a 30-year Kingsport resident, arrived at the Kingsport Economic Development Board meeting for the update on Domtar’s packaging mill. She shared her frustration with the board about the mill’s odor over the last month. …Gilmer stressed that the smell has worsened recently. …Domtar mill manager Troy Wilson gave an update on the digester’s construction and addressed what could possibly worsen Domtar’s odor in the meantime. …Wilson said worsening odor is likely attributable to Domtar’s current wastewater treatment system, a lagoon system which he described as “antiquated” and sensitive to the weather. He also shared that the rainstorm that passed over Kingsport Wednesday last week put a strain on the wastewater system. …Domtar has spent $20 million on the digester so far. At its peak, the digester project will employ 140 people, according to Wilson.
This study investigates the economic impact of sawmill entry and exits in Michigan between 2019 and 2023, a period marked by ongoing structural changes in the industry, including the closure of several large mills and the opening of smaller or mid-sized operations. Using observed employment changes… we applied an employment-based multiplier analysis to estimate how net sawmill job losses affected the statewide economy. The results show that while only 273 direct jobs were lost due to net changes from sawmill entry and exit during this period, the broader ripple effects were much larger, approximately 820 jobs and $211 million in output loss. These effects were most pronounced in labor-intensive sectors such as logging and transportation, as well as in downstream sectors like wholesale trade and real estate. The findings highlight the central role of sawmills in regional supply chains and states labor markets, with two-thirds of job losses occurring outside the mills themselves.
When Millard Dority came out of retirement to oversee the expansion of Jesup Memorial Library, he had one goal: to prove that Maine could produce its own cross-laminated timber. Instead, he uncovered a glaring hole in the state’s forest economy. …But with no CLT factories in Maine, the wood had to be trucked from New England to Illinois for processing, then hauled back to Bar Harbor—a headache in a state blanketed by forests. …The Jesup Library expansion is one of just 27 CLT projects in Maine, using spruce-pine-fir and eastern hemlock from New England. Forestry expert Andy Fast said these underused species are finding new life through CLT, but warned, “Supply chain efficiencies will determine whether it’s a viable product longer term.” Despite interest, Maine has failed to land a CLT manufacturer. LignaTerra Global and SmartLam both announced plans in 2018, only to back out. [to access the full story a Bangor Daily News subscription is required].
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would invest more than $8 million in five new projects, including one in North Carolina. These projects will improve forest health by reducing wildfire risk and improving water quality. …North Carolina has two primary wildfire seasons, one in the spring and one in the fall. …The five new projects include efforts across several states to restore and protect essential landscapes. The National Forest is launching the “Alabama Chattahoochee Fall Line Restoring Longleaf” project in Alabama. Colorado and Wyoming will see work in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest through the “Headwaters of the Colorado” initiative. Montana’s Lolo National Forest is beginning the “Blackfoot River Valley Landscape Mosaic” project, while North Carolina’s National Forests are moving forward with “Uwharries to Sandhills, Phase 2.” Finally, Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest will focus on “Hood River Wildfire and Watershed Resilience.”
…a University of Delaware professor has found that there is something of value to be learned from what’s left behind in the remnants of a wildfire. The charred debris left in the wake of wildfires … is known as wildfire char. UD’s Pei Chiu, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, studies wildfire chars and the ways they just might prove useful in reducing methane, a powerful gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Methane emissions come from many different sources, ranging from livestock manure to landfills and wastewater treatment plants. This work also informs his research on biochar — man-made chars created from leftover wood chips, rice husks, corn stover and other agricultural biomass — that can be used in soil amendments, stormwater treatment and other applications. Chiu shares five important facts about char — both natural (wildfire char) and manmade (biochar). 
The US Forest Service kicked off timber sales in the Hoosier National Forest this week despite resistance from advocacy groups and Gov. Mike Braun, who called the federal project “misguided.” The timber auction is part of a controversial forest management plan called the Houston South Project — an initiative the USFS says will promote tree growth, reduce disease and move the landscape toward “desirable conditions.” Local environmental advocates have been suing the agency to halt operations since 2020, saying the project could jeopardize the quality of drinking water 130,000 Hoosiers rely on in Lake Monroe. But the project is plowing ahead, despite local outcry and direct pleas from Braun to halt the project. The Forest Service declined to immediately comment to IndyStar’s request, instead asking for one to two weeks to respond. …The project includes prescribed burns on 13,500 acres of forest and permitting timber harvests on another 4,300 acres across the next 10-15 years.
Near the bottom of a shady hillside in Jericho, a lone beech tree stretches high into the canopy, a relic of a bygone forest. Through luck or (hopefully) genetics, this mighty tree has avoided contracting beech bark disease—a fatal fungal pathogen that has proven deadly to mature beech trees. And it stands just outside a hotspot where a new pathogen called beech leaf disease (BLD) is spreading across Vermont forests. “Beech is here a lot as a sapling … but if you look out into the forest it’s not really common in the overstory,” said Jess Wikle Ph.D. ’24, lecturer in forestry and manager of the University of Vermont’s Research Forests. The beech trees that do succumb often send out a series of root sprouts before they die, turning a forest of big trees into a thicket of saplings. Beech leaf disease is different. It seems to be spreading faster and young beech trees tend to die first.
A new study, led by the University of Missouri, has uncovered how poplar trees can naturally adjust a key part of their wood chemistry based on changes in their environment. This discovery … could help create better biofuels and other sustainable products. The study, “Factors underlying a latitudinal gradient in S/G lignin monomer ratio in natural poplar variants,” was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. …”Understanding how plants make lignin could help us improve its conversion into high-value biomaterials and improve the competitiveness of U.S. biorefineries,” Jaime Barros-Rios, an assistant professor of plant molecular biology, said. Poplars are used in the paper and pulp industry. Now, they’re being explored as a source of bioenergy—fuels, plastics and other bioproducts. They are useful for scientific research because their genome has been fully mapped.
Mechanization has reduced fatal injuries for loggers in the northeastern United States but introduced new health risks linked to prolonged equipment use, according to interviews with 29 loggers across New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Participants reported concerns over weight gain, back pain, and cardiovascular risks from extended sedentary work, as well as mental stress from financial burdens and limited access to affordable health insurance. The findings come 
FREMONT, Neb. — The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has opened a formal investigation into the July 29 explosion and fire at the Horizon Biofuels facility in Fremont that killed three people, officials announced Thursday. The blast fatally injured 32-year-old Dylan Danielson and his two young daughters who were inside the plant at the time. “This horrific incident should never have happened,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said in a statement. “We want to prevent a terrible tragedy like this from occurring again.” …The independent federal agency, whose members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, does not issue citations or fines but makes safety recommendations to companies, industry groups, labor organizations and agencies such as OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
