Eric Larson and Jeff Floyd
CHICAGO — Sierra Forest Products and Upper Canada Forest Products announced the promotion of Eric Larson to Chief Operating Officer of Sierra Forest Products and Jeff Floyd to Chief Operating Officer of Upper Canada Forest Products, strengthening the Group’s country-specific leadership while continuing to operate as one integrated North American organization. The decision to appoint dedicated Chief Operating Officers for Canada and the U.S. sharpens the Group’s focus on the distinct dynamics of each market, while preserving the advantages of a unified platform for customers, suppliers and partners. This enhanced structure reflects a deliberate investment in long-term growth, leadership depth, and exceptional service.
Duties on Canadian imports are driving up domestic sales at some Maine lumber companies. …Protection from historically lower Canadian lumber prices has given Pleasant River Lumber the confidence to add an additional manufacturing shift in Enfield, according to co-owner Jason Brochu. Photo by Katherine Emery. …Historically Canadian companies have both outbid them for timber harvested in Maine and undercut American lumber prices when they export the finished lumber product back across the border. …An industry analyst and two other mill leaders said that inflation and a sputtering housing market make it unclear whether the tariffs will have a positive or negative effect on business in the long run. The effects of the tariffs will also vary based on the different products sawmills make. …Sawmills rely on certainty, said Alden Robbins, of Robbins Lumber, and neither the markets nor foreign trade relationships have been stable recently.
Massachusetts is considering changing state building codes to allow single staircases in multi-family residential buildings up to six stories. Advocates say the change would result in smaller buildings, space savings that could lead to 130,000 new housing units. Before changing the building codes, which currently require two exit stairways, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has signed an executive order establishing a technical advisory panel to study potential safety issues. “We’re all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone,” Healey said in a statement. “While the double-stair requirement plays an important role in ensuring safety, it’s also holding us back from the type of housing construction we need to meet demand.” …New York City and Seattle, Washington have “permitted single-stair buildings up to six stories for decades,” the administration says…, as have the states of Tennessee, Montana, and Connecticut.
LANSING, Michigan – A state program to aid mass timber projects in Michigan has been extended for the Upper Peninsula after the region submitted no applications for funding in 2026. …A supplemental call for proposals makes available $50,000 through March 2. Those awards will be announced March 16. The awardees are:
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A state panel this week extended its offer to help finance construction of a new 129-room boutique hotel in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. While that doesn’t guarantee the hotel will move forward, the developer leading the project said construction can’t start without the state’s financing. The board… offered until Jan. 31, 2027 are $35 million worth of state bonds for the roughly $55 million project that would build a Marriott Tribute Portfolio boutique hotel. …The air quality facilities noted in the resolution include the seven-story building’s proposed use of mass-timber in its construction. …The presence of wood-timber construction above a first-floor reinforced concrete deck is noted in this axonometric view of the proposed Ohio City Hotel (DLR). The use of mass timber instead of reinforced concrete can save up to 40% in ongoing heating and cooling emissions for a building’s user as well as reduced emissions, according to Dan Whalen, at Places Development. 
WILMINGTON, N.C. – The N.C. Forest Service (NCFS) is reminding the public to use best practices and common sense with outdoor fires ahead of the state’s spring wildfire season. NCFS officials say escaped yard debris burns are the leading cause of wildfires across the state, often due to carelessness. 99% of wildfires are caused by human activity, officials said, often when people work in their yards in spring and burn yard debris. Other causes of human-caused wildfires include machine and vehicle use, such as dragging tow chains, arson and escaped campfires. “With the recent rainfall combined with multiple winter storms earlier this year, some folks may not realize that most of North Carolina is still experiencing very dry conditions,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “Our state’s gradual descent into drought and prolonged dry conditions are going to lead to wildfires igniting more easily, burning more intensely and spreading quicker.”
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — The Arkansas Department of Agriculture announced some of its forestry personnel will go to Oklahoma and Tennessee to help with wildfire suppression and winter storm response. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders authorized state forestry personnel to support wildfire suppression in Oklahoma and urban tree recovery in Tennessee. …Six wildland firefighters will go to Oklahoma for around two weeks. These firefighters will focus on attacking and suppressing new wildfires to prevent further spread. The Department is also sending four bulldozers and two pick-up trucks to help. Three urban forestry personnel will go to Tennessee to join an Urban Forest Strike Team, a specialized group of certified arborists, foresters, and urban forestry experts. Arkansas forestry personnel will help the UFST with tree damage and risk assessments, hazard mitigation planning, and technical expertise and training.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia’s forestry leaders are working to address mounting pressures that could undermine the long-term viability of forest management throughout the state. The newly formed Virginia Wood Council convened its inaugural meeting in September, bringing together representatives from various industry groups and government agencies. Participants included the Virginia Farm Bureau, Virginia Forestry Association, Virginia Loggers Association, Virginia Forest Products Association, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, along with loggers, mill operators and manufacturers. “The plan is to understand all the emerging forest product industry issues, and figure out what’s causing them,” said Sabina Dhungana, utilization and marketing program manager for the Virginia Department of Forestry. …The industry operates through collaboration between forest property owners, forestry professionals, loggers, timber purchasers and other specialists who work to maintain a consistent supply of renewable timber resources used for lumber production, paper manufacturing, energy generation and other purposes.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Carbon dioxide is the most commonly produced greenhouse gas, the substances that trap heat in the atmosphere keeping the planet warm enough for life. Carbon is stored in high amounts in timber, of which Mississippi has an abundance. The state ranks in the top 10 nationally in timber production, with close to 20 million acres of timberland. The U.S. Geological Survey says that carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere reduces the potential for global climate change. Since timber stores carbon efficiently, a tremendous amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is stored in Mississippi’s forests. This makes timber a valuable resource in efforts to limit the amount of carbon available as a greenhouse gas. Carbon credits and the carbon offset market have made an impact on Mississippi’s economy to a degree for about 20 years.
PITTSBURG, New Hampshire — The state has reached a deal on the management of the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Working Forest, a 146,000 acre property constituting 3% of New Hampshire’s forests, according to Gov. Kelly Ayotte. The forest is privately owned but is under a conservation easement, which means the state has oversight regarding how the land is managed and can ensure it remains a working timberland. Since the land was purchased in 2022 by an out-of-state carbon offset company, Aurora Sustainable Lands, local loggers have raised concerns about reduced timber harvesting on the property. As a carbon-offset company, Aurora curbed logging in order to sell the carbon they stored. …In the plan agreed upon last month, Aurora will increase the average annual timber harvest. …“The Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Working Forest is critical to recreation, tourism and the timber industry in our North Country,” Ayotte said.
…Timber prices have been low for a long time; they never really recovered from the 2008 housing crash. Nearly a dozen paper mills closed across the South in recent years, and Hurricane Helene tore down trees in much of Georgia and the Carolinas. It’s left many in Georgia, one of the leading states for forestry, with a dilemma: what do you do when your income relies on a forest but nobody wants to buy your trees? A group of researchers and industry leaders thinks paying landowners for carbon storage could help. “We may see a decline in the number of acres that are kept in forests and the quality of the land that is forested,” said David Eady with Georgia Tech’s business school. Losing those trees would shrink the industry and be devastating for the environment. …So Eady and others asked: why not use that carbon storage to keep foresters in business?
Construction in New York City is one of the most dynamic and demanding industries in the country — but it’s also one of the most dangerous. …That’s why innovation in building materials and methods can have a real impact not only on efficiency and sustainability but also on safety. One such innovation, mass timber, is gaining traction. …Mass timber components are prefabricated in controlled factory settings. This approach greatly reduces the need for tasks like cutting, welding, or mixing concrete on-site — tasks that are commonly associated with jobsite injuries. …Additionally, since large panels arrive ready to install, crews spend less time working at height, which directly reduces the risk of falls — the leading cause of construction fatalities in the U.S., according to OSHA’s fall protection guidelines. …It also means a reduced need for powered hand tools and high-decibel equipment, lowering the risk of accidents related to hand injuries or communication breakdowns.
Warm, dry and windy weather in Oklahoma has fueled multiple wildfires and prompted authorities to urge nearly one-third of the residents of the small city of Woodward to flee. Matt Lehenbauer, director of emergency management for Woodward and its nearly 12,000 inhabitants, said the evacuation recommendation covers roughly 4,000 people. It is voluntary, he said, because Oklahoma prohibits mandatory evacuations. The wildfire in Woodward, about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, is approaching a “worst-case scenario,” Lehenbauer said, but it hasn’t moved into the most populated area of the city. A blaze in Beaver County at the base of the Oklahoma Panhandle, about 217 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has consumed an estimated 15,000 acres alone, Oklahoma Forestry Services said. 