MONTREAL — Unifor delegates from across Eastern Canada kicked off bargaining preparations for the forestry industry by selecting Domtar as the target company for the upcoming round of pattern bargaining. “This is a critical moment for our forestry sector and for the members we represent across Eastern Canada,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “The industry is facing a number of serious challenges, but we have been through difficult times before and I have complete confidence in our local leaders to achieve fair collective agreements that make progress for workers.” …Key bargaining priorities were discussed at the conference including wage improvements, pension security, benefit coverage, Employment Insurance protections, and measures to support workforce stability and long-term sustainability of operations. …The pattern agreement reached with Domtar will serve as the template for negotiations with all other employers in the eastern forestry sector, including paper mills, sawmills, and forestry operations.
Efforts to support forestry workers displaced by the closure of the Crofton pulp mill and the ongoing curtailment at the Chemainus sawmill are expanding, as local leaders press the federal government for clearer and more robust income supports. The District of North Cowichan says its Mill Closure Response Working Group met for the first time last week, bringing together municipal, provincial and federal representatives, along with labour, industry and impacted workers, to coordinate next steps. …“The stories we heard at the first working group meeting show how urgent this is,” North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas said. “This is why we’re continuing to press the federal government to extend employment insurance supports for all impacted workers and to release the forestry industry support funding announced last summer. People need income security while they plan their next steps.” Updates and resources for affected workers and businesses are available at 
Montana’s forestry industry is entering this year with more questions than answers, from low lumber prices to high housing costs for workers to questions about tariffs, but there is room for strategic adaptation. That’s according to an economist who gave an update on the sector in the 2026 Montana Economic Report, put out by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana. …Scott said the number of people employed in the private sector in forestry in Montana statewide has dropped in 2025. …His main points are that while timber harvests are down, the federal government is making a push to increase harvests. …He said the Trump administration’s tariff policy remains another wildcard. “A combination of lumber and trade-related tariffs has been implemented to bolster domestic demand, by raising the cost of Canadian lumber… it is still too early to tell whether these measures will meaningfully shift trade flows.”
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.
Lumber futures slipped below $590 per thousand board feet, the lowest level in nearly four weeks, as housing demand weakened and earlier restocking momentum faded. Demand softened as financing costs edged higher and housing activity cooled, with US pending home sales plunging 9.3% month on month in December 2025, removing a key source of construction and renovation related wood consumption ahead of the spring building season. At the same time, mills continued running to rebuild inventories after the winter squeeze, increasing physical availability while distributors reported quieter order books. The combination of softer demand and rising availability encouraged position unwinds after January’s rally, with falling volumes and open interest amplifying the price decline. [END]
When it comes to housing affordability, the logic of “build build build” is straightforward enough: Housing is too expensive. If there were more of it, prices would fall. …Homebuilders are even pushing a plan for a million new affordable houses. …Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The problem of housing affordability is much bigger than insufficient supply; it’s a mismatch with demand. And that demand is driven by income inequality that has seen soaring income growth at the top and tepid growth (or even stagnation) in the middle. In other words: The way to improve housing affordability is to reduce income inequality. …What’s needed are policies that increase income for households at the bottom and middle. Rather than boosting the housing supply in the hope that they benefit, the answer is to fix the labor market to make sure that they do. 
Long-term mortgage rates continued to decline in January. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.10% last month, 9 basis points (bps) lower than December. Meanwhile, the 15-year rate declined 4 bps to 5.44%. Compared to a year ago, the 30-year rate is lower by 86 bps. The 15-year rate is also lower by 72 bps. The 10-year Treasury yield, a key benchmark for long-term borrowing, averaged 4.20% in January – an increase of 8 bps from the previous month, but remained considerably lower than last year by 43 bps. While mortgage rates typically move in tandem with the treasury yields, the spread between the two narrowed during the month. Reports that the Trump administration encouraged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) boosted demand for MBS, pushing mortgage rates lower. However, treasury yields rose sharply in the final week of January from global and fiscal pressures. 
The United States is one of the world’s largest timberland investment markets, with returns driven primarily by land values rather than timber prices, according to Domain Timber Advisors’ timberland market analysis. Timberland values remain strong at the end of 2025, supported by continued appreciation in land values, while timber prices remain relatively flat. …During 2025, Domain underwrites 14 institutional bid events, 54 public listings, and 38 off-market or non-public offerings. By the end of the fourth quarter, the acquisition pipeline consists of 46 deals covering more than 500 thousand acres, providing visibility into pricing dynamics, regional demand shifts, and emerging non-timber value drivers. …Looking ahead, Domain states that renewable energy development and technology infrastructure are expected to expand non-timber revenue opportunities in 2026 and beyond. Alternative timber product markets, including molded fiber products and biomass-to-electricity, are expected to offset part of the pulpwood demand lost due to mill closures and production quotas.
The federal government 
Imagine if we embraced wood as the primary solution for everything we are capable of building tall. As Canada and industry mobilize to scale our national housing stock under Build Canada Homes, I believe that the way we build in Canada is on the precipice of a pivotal moment. Optimizing mass timber for multifamily residential construction — a key pillar of the federal housing plan — presents a tremendous opportunity to bolster our forestry and manufacturing economies while gaining on national targets for emission reductions. On top of delivering urgently needed housing, prioritizing Canadian mass timber is also regenerative for our communities, our economies and our planet. …Having received Royal Assent in 2009, British Columbia’s Wood First Act was enacted to promote the use of wood in provincially funded buildings — a prime example of legislation that strengthened the provincial forestry industry and heavily influenced mass timber adoption across the province. 
Walk through any design-forward neighbourhood… and you’ll notice something the catalogues haven’t caught up with yet. The windows are changing. After decades dominated by vinyl, aluminium, and composite frames, timber is making a decisive return to high-end residential architecture. And the architects driving this shift aren’t motivated by nostalgia. They’re choosing wood because, for the homes they’re designing, nothing else performs quite the same way. The broader design world has been moving in this direction for several years. Mass timber construction, reclaimed wood interiors, rammed earth walls, natural stone — the 2025–2026 architectural conversation is dominated by what designers call “material honesty.” The idea is straightforward: use materials that are what they appear to be. No laminate pretending to be oak. …The knock against timber windows has always been practical: they need maintenance, they warp, they cost more. Two decades ago, much of that was fair. Modern engineered timber has changed the equation. 
California’s wildfire insurance crisis intensified this week as major insurers faced renewed scrutiny over denied or delayed payouts, while regulators and lawmakers moved to address mounting consumer complaints. The
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:
Surprised and devastated. That was West Kelowna Fire Chief Jason Brolund’s initial reaction to hearing about changes to the FireSmart program due to a lack of funding. The FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FCFS) program closed its intake application on Jan. 30, according to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). “To hear that the funding is abruptly not being replenished is really concerning for us,” said Brolund. “We know our community is no stranger to wildfire. We know the devastating effects that it can have.” The FireSmart Program is a provincially-funded initiative to increase the awareness of community-based planning and acitivies to reduce the risk of wildfire. …In lieu of this, UBCM president Cori Ramsey is asking for B.C. Premier David Eby to make renewing the FireSmart funding a priority while encouraging local governments and First Nations to write about the benefits they’ve gained from the program.
NORTH COWICHAN, BC — A representative for mill workers in North Cowichan addressed council to oppose the idea of a special task force to identify why mills are closing in the region. Adrian Soldera, president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 8… said everyone already knows why the mills are closing and that a new task force would be a waste of time. …He said the Crofton mill is ending several jobs at its plant and that the Chemainus sawmill now faces extended curtailment efforts due to a fibre crisis. Soldera added that putting another group together to investigate why the mills are closing would be redundant. …“its like asking for a committee to study why a house is on fire while the roof is already collapsing,” Soldera said. “Every day this task force spends sitting in a boardroom another family in a mill town wonders if they can pay their mortgage.”
The Provincial Forest Advisory Committee’s (PFAC) 
BC NDP Forests Minister Ravi Parmar avoided the usual political pledges to accept recommendations from the latest in-depth analysis of the province’s troubled forest industry. The NDP government’s appointed experts, the Provincial Forest Advisory Committee, tabled their findings on February 2 after a six-month review of an industry that is moving from decline to collapse. …Parmar took the NDP’s familiar path, rather than address the sweeping recommendations to restructure the entire forest land base… he said the mill closures that are devastating communities across the province are mostly Donald Trump’s fault. …The 
The attorney general of BC has decided to take over any potential prosecutions of those arrested for violating an injunction prohibiting people from blocking roads in an area of the Walbran Valley. Forestry company Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership, which has rights to log in the area where protesters have set up blockades, asked the attorney general to take over the proceedings, and to determine if there is enough evidence to charge those arrested with criminal contempt. Those arrested have faced civil contempt of court charges for alleged breaches of the injunction. …Lawyer Noah Ross, who represents Bill Jones, a Pacheedaht First Nation elder who opposes the logging, said, “By being willing to step in and fund the prosecution, they make it effectively cheaper for the logging company”. …The decision means it’s now up to the BC Prosecution Service to determine what charges, if any, it will approve against those arrested.
For the first time, researchers have been able to confirm that our planet’s boreal forests are on the move. Using nearly a quarter million Landsat satellite images spanning 36 years, scientists have confirmed for the first time that Earth’s boreal forest—the planet’s largest forested biome—is shifting northward, revealing unprecedented changes in this critical ecosystem that stores more than a third of the world’s forests and helps regulate our global climate. [5 min. video]
MISSOULA, Montana — Forester Sean Steinebach felt stunned when US District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula vacated a federal magistrate judge’s favorable recommendations about the proposed South Plateau timber project. “Judge Molloy is a thorn in my side,” said Steinebach, outreach forester for Sun Mountain Lumber, based in Deer Lodge. …Molloy’s ruling was filed Dec. 11, vacating March 31 recommendations by Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto that had allowed the project to proceed. Sun Mountain Lumber operates a sawmill in Deer Lodge and one in Livingston. …Steinebach said incessant lawsuits by environmental groups like the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Council on Wildlife and Fish sabotage timber projects, threaten sawmill communities, loggers and others. …One key issue for Judge Molloy was secure habitat for grizzly bears, but Canada lynx habitat was also a concern. Both are considered threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
University of Oregon Assistant Research Professor James Johnston said he was taught that when a large fire burned a moist, Western Cascade forest to the ground, and the area didn’t burn for hundreds of years afterward, that’s what created a complex, old-growth landscape. Instead, his study found that ancient tree stumps in the Mount Hood and Willamette National Forests had burn scars from multiple fires over their long lives. It’s the first time tree-ring scars have been used to document fire records in the region. Johnston said forests are complex because of—not in spite of—lower-severity wildfires which don’t kill many of the trees. …Johnston said to figure out the best ways to foster healthy forests, relatively recent upheavals also need to be considered. Those include clearcuts, human infrastructure at the margins of forests, and hotter and drier weather patterns.
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.