Interfor is selling its two Quebec sawmills and one reman plant to Chantiers Chibougamau. In related news: International Paper is cutting 650 jobs; True Value hardware is selling to Do It Best; Drax is found to have burnt wood from old forests; and Canfor Pulp appoints Stephen Mackie as its new President and CEO. Meanwhile: Canadian housing starts rose 5% in September; BC’s manufacturing is nearing crisis levels; and if elected, BC Conservatives’ plan to return 20% of BC’s forests to First Nations.
In Forestry/Climate news: despite pushback—Europe is fast tracking its Deforestation Regulation delay; the American Forest Foundation will auction carbon credits for family forests; Oregon plans to put Elliot State Forest in a carbon market; and Brazil engages Indigenous communities on carbon offsets. Meanwhile: the Canadian Forest Service is celebrating its 125th B-day; and resilience and renewal stood out at Alberta Forest Products Association’s 82nd AGM.
Finally, the biophilic properties of wood are reaching Space Station design levels.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Happy Thanksgiving to our readers in Canada! We’ll be back tomorrow with all the weekend News.
The forest products sector has long served as B.C.’s leading source of exports and a key driver of jobs and other business activity across the province. …A host of policy changes adopted by the province have slashed fibre supply, sterilized an ever-growing portion of the Crown land base, increased operating costs for logging contractors and lumber companies, and created endless delays and uncertainty across all segments of the industry. …Current policy directions point to further pain in the next few years. What can be done to improve the outlook for B.C.’s foundational forest industry? The near-term priority should be to stabilize and then gradually increase the accessible fibre supply. …A second priority is to advance agreements with First Nations to increase their role in the forest sector. Another policy commitment should be to accelerate innovative management and regulatory models to expedite land use planning, speed up regulatory decision-making, improve wildfire mitigation and pursue biodiversity goals.
The state of B.C.’s forest sector and the global forest products industry and market overall will be the topic of the first Global Wood Summit in Vancouver. B.C. forestry consultant Russ Taylor and ERA Forest Products Research have teamed up to organize the two-day summit which takes place Oct. 29 and 30. Industry experts on markets in the U.S., Sweden, Russia, China and Japan will discuss global forest products and pulp and paper markets and trade, and emerging sectors such as engineered wood manufacturing. …The summit will include a panel on the Chinese and North American lumber markets, and sessions on pulp and paper. Panel experts will include John Brink, the B.C. wood manufacturing veteran who recently announced plans to acquire shuttered Canfor mills. …“Companies are bleeding ink right now,” Taylor said. “The third quarter results have come out – they’re going to be horrible. But prices are now picking up, so we’re trying to figure out what’s next.”
ASHVILLE, North Carolina — Norfolk Southern Railway track running through Asheville, North Carolina, will be out of service for at least three months due to damage caused by Hurricane Helene. The deadly Hurricane Helene made landfall Sept. 26, severely flooding and damaging infrastructure and homes across multiple southern states. Hundreds of NS railroaders have been working to restore rail service on impacted rail lines as quickly as possible, NS said on its website. The railroad’s AS Line runs between Morristown, Tennessee, to Salisbury, North Carolina. Knoxville, Tennessee-based WBIR-TV reported yesterday on the status of the AS Line and its impact on the Asheville community. Service has been restored to AS Line track between Morristown and Newport, Tennessee, and between Salisbury and Old Fort, North Carolina. Track between Newport and Old Fort, which run through Asheville, will require significant repair and replacement.
The EU is launching an anti-dumping investigation into cheap plywood imports after complaints by the bloc’s domestic producers, opening another front in its trade conflict with China. EU producers say there has been a surge in cheap hardwood plywood coming from China, much of which they believe originates in Russia. Brussels banned Russian wood imports after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. …“This investigation is crucial to protect the entire EU hardwood plywood value chain,” said the Greenwood Consortium, which represents forest owners, loggers and suppliers to producers. “Unfairly priced Chinese imports — now apparently also using cheap conflict Russian timber — threaten the survival of many European businesses and jobs.” …The main EU producers are in Poland, Finland, France and the Baltic states. The EU has already put tariffs on birch plywood imports from Kazakhstan and Turkey after finding they included some Russian content. 
GEORGIA — Researchers at the University of Georgia have identified a promising approach to addressing a longstanding challenge for plant geneticists: balancing disease resistance and growth in plants. The breakthrough could help protect plants from disease in the future while also promoting higher biomass yields to support sustainable food supplies for both humans and animals, production of biofuels and lumber, and more. “Combating pathogens has been a top challenge in agriculture,” said C.J. Tsai, a professor in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “Solutions that balance disease resistance and growth are much needed.” …Salicylic acid-based strategies have long been known to enhance resistance to pests and pathogens, but practical applications were hindered by the reduction in yield. This study offers a method to separate growth suppression from the defense response, opening the door to use both salicylic acid and cold-regulated genes in agriculture without compromising crop success.
On 10 October 2024, the European Parliament’s (EP) Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) fast-tracked the European Commission’s (EC) 
SEATTLE — A groundbreaking law that forces companies in Washington state to reduce their carbon emissions while raising billions of dollars for climate programs could be repealed by voters this fall, less than two years after it took effect. The Climate Commitment Act is under fire from conservatives, who say it has ramped up energy and gas costs in Washington, which has long had some of the highest gas prices in the nation. The law aims to slash emissions to almost half of 1990 levels by the year 2030. It requires businesses producing at least 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases including methane, to pay for the right to do so by buying “allowances.” …Many programs already are or will soon be funded by money from polluting companies, including projects on air quality, fish habitat, wildfire prevention and clean energy.
Drax found that it was “highly likely” to have burnt wood sourced from old forest areas in Canada deemed to be environmentally important, according to internal emails, as the UK’s biggest biomass power station operator battled to maintain its green credentials. The wood received by pellet plants owned by Drax from its suppliers in British Columbia was traced to areas local authorities classed as ecologically significant, as well as “high-risk” private land. While the material was not illegal to use, many environmental experts said old-growth woods and forests should be protected given their ecological benefits, including absorbing and storing atmospheric carbon for centuries. A lengthy investigation by Ofgem into its reporting concluded recently after the UK regulator cleared it of a deliberate breach, and Drax agreed to pay a penalty of £25mn into a voluntary scheme for failing to record adequate data about the wood it imported.
