B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar is in Ottawa pushing the federal government to prioritize a softwood lumber deal with the US. That’s as a US lumber lobby group praises the Trump administration for reducing ‘harmful’ Canadian imports with the use of tariffs.
Princeton’s mill celebrated not just new owners but a new name as well with the handover of forestry tenures from Weyerhaeuser to West Kelowna-based Gorman Bros on March 19. …The transfer of the timber tenures has happened quickly since being announced in September 2025, as far as tenure transfers go and especially with the new legislative requirements to consider public interest. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said “Here you have a company that is continuing to make investments in BC in a time where things are tough right now in forestry. …That speaks well to the future of forestry and gives me the hope and optimism.” …The Ministry of Forests received nearly 300 letters in support of the Gorman tenure transfer from individuals, businesses, First Nations, contractors, community forests and unions during the public input period. “This is a good step forward for a sustainable forestry sector,” Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne said.
Acadian Timber, one of Canada’s largest forest landowners, wants to close the performance gap between New Brunswick and its business in Maine, a goal its new interim CEO says is achievable despite labour and market challenges. …Malcolm Cockwell, who was named interim boss last month, said, “There are a lot of strong companies here that are investing in their facilities and running them pretty consistently even in challenging markets. Maine is a little bit more hit-and-miss with facilities not being as consistent with their operating schedule and a number of facilities dropping out over the last couple of years.” Acadian has just under 1 million hectares of land under management across New Brunswick and northeastern Maine, with approximately 313,000 hectares of freehold timberlands – privately owned forest land – in New Brunswick and 121,000 in Maine. …One way to make that happen in Maine is to improve Acadian Timber’s contractor base.
The Supreme Court of Canada is being asked to consider a clash between Aboriginal title and private land in a New Brunswick case that would have significant national implications. Last December, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal ruled that the Wolastoqey Nation could not seek a declaration of Aboriginal title over private property as part of its claim against the province. The decision was a sharp contrast to a lower-court ruling in BC last summer. After a trial that stretched five years, the BC Supreme Court declared that the Cowichan Tribes had Aboriginal title to about 800 acres in the Vancouver suburbs. In the Wolastoqey case, Justice Ernest Drapeau wrote that he was “unable to see” how Aboriginal title could co-exist with private land. He stated that a declaration of Aboriginal title over such land “would sound the death knell of reconciliation.” …The Wolastoqey are Tcalling on the top court to enter the fray to settle the legal uncertainty. [to access the full story a subscription is required]
WASHINGTON STATE– Current and former employees are suing Western Forest Products’ Vancouver operation, alleging the company failed to give employees breaks and pay wages owed. …Western manufactures lumber at its Fruit Valley location and formerly operated a Columbia Vista sawmill that closed after a fire last year. …The group of current and former employees also allege Western Forest Products didn’t keep accurate payroll records. The complaint states about 40 employees could have been impacted by the alleged practices. Babita Khunkhun, spokesperson for Western Forest Products, said “While we cannot comment on the specifics of the allegations at this time, we take all employee concerns seriously,” Khunkhun said. The company is reviewing the lawsuit and will respond through the appropriate legal process, she added. Western Forest Products recently unveiled plans to expand its Fruit Valley manufacturing operation.
At the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference, US Department of Agriculture Administrator J.R. Claeys announced the USDA is guaranteeing $115.2 million across eight states (
Lumber futures fell below $600 per thousand board feet as a slowdown in the North American housing market and rising financing costs outweighed persistent supply constraints. This downward pressure was driven by a 5.4% decline in building permits and a sharp 14.2% collapse in single-family housing starts, which signaled a cooling of construction activity as the spring season began. Additionally, 30-year fixed mortgage rates climbed to 6.22% following the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold interest rates steady, the market was further pressured by a sharp drop in crude oil prices that reduced the energy-heavy transport and production overheads. These factors effectively neutralized the marginal one-point gain in the NAHB Housing Market Index to 38, leaving 37% of builders reliant on deep price cuts to move a 2.4% increase in unsold inventory. Structural supply issues like the 45% combined duties on Canadian softwood and ongoing sawmill closures continue to provide a floor.
VANCOUVER, BC — Conifex Timber reported results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2025. EBITDA* from continuing operations was negative $12.6 million for the quarter and negative $27.5 million for the year, compared to EBITDA of negative $2.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 and negative $13.6 million for the year. Net loss was $35.7 million or negative $0.87 per share for the year versus net loss in the preceding year of $29.8 million. …Our lumber production was 147.9 million board feet in 2025 reflecting an annualized operating rate of 62%. Lumber production in 2025 benefited from higher operating rates in the first half of the year but was impacted by curtailments and modified operating configurations in the second half of 2025 in response to lower lumber prices and higher duty deposit rates and tariff impositions. Lumber production in 2024 was 134.8 million board feet, reflecting an annualized operating rate of 56%.
The Trump Administration is scavenging for ideas to lower costs for home-buyers. One idea being considered is to ease credit checks for loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—that is, backed by taxpayers. Americans saw a version of this policy two decades ago, and it didn’t end well. Mortgage rates have dropped in the last year, but many Americans still can’t afford to buy a home. Enter the Mortgage Bankers Association, which is lobbying the Administration to let lenders underwrite mortgages based on a single credit report. The outfit says this would reduce borrower costs. Maybe, but taxpayers may pay a bigger price later if this results in more defaults. The Federal Housing Finance Agency currently requires lenders to pull three credit reports. …The real reason lenders want to eliminate the tri-merge requirement is so they can make more loans to borrowers with poor credit. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]
According to a joint study from the American Institute of Architects, the Associated General Contractors of America, and ConstructConnect® News, tariff-driven cost increases are causing delays and cancellations for some projects across the country. …The NAHB has worked alongside Senators Jacky Rosen and Chris Coons to introduce legislation that would address the housing affordability crisis by creating an exemption process for building materials from tariffs. The Housing Tariff Exclusion Act would exempt many home building materials from President Trump’s current and future tariffs and allow importers to apply for tariff exemptions. …Though the Housing Tariff Exclusion Act has not been passed yet, it would be a boon to not only manufacturers, but also to the construction teams and homeowners across the country that have been unable to move forward with their projects due to the current leap in pricing. 
US stocks were set to surge at the opening bell Monday, after President Donald Trump announced that he was postponing all military strikes on Iranian power plants for a 5-day period. Iranian state media responded to Trump’s post by saying the US president has “backed down” after Iran’s firm response. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency also relayed a message from the nation’s foreign ministry that, “there is no dialogue between Tehran and Washington.” S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures initially soared about 3% on Trump’s post, but those gains faded to about 1.6% after the statements from Iranian media. …Oil prices also fell about 5%, with U.S. crude oil trading down to around $92 per barrel around 8:15 a.m. ET. International Brent crude oil fell to around $105 per barrel. Initially, oil prices had plummeted 10% on Trump’s post.
The Brussels-based Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) has released a statement indicating the forests and “state-of-the-art recycling system” of Europe stand ready to serve European Union policies supporting “Made in Europe” objectives. “A ‘Made in EU’ competitiveness model should be anchored in sustainably sourced biomass, high quality recycled materials and European technological leadership across these sectors,” states CEPI. The forest products and paper sectors can help Europe “build a more resilient, future proof growth model,” continues the group, that can be less reliant on coal, gas and other fossil fuels. Among resources the continent has in abundance, according to CEPI, are “sustainably managed forests, efficient recycling systems and the industrial know how that powers them. This pragmatic approach aligns industrial policy with Europe’s bio-based, circular strengths and advances some of the Clean Industrial Deal’s (CID’s) original ambitions.”
A national organization is seeking people with experience in Canada’s forestry sector as they put together a working group that will examine ways to improve forest recovery following wildfires. Jessica Kaknevicius is the CEO of Forests Canada. She said last year the group reached out to tree planting organizations, to ask them how they are changing their planting practices after forest fires. “We got a lot of insight in terms of this kind of gap of knowledge with how should we be planting differently?” “That’s everywhere from looking at species selection, to looking at how densely are we planting, health and safety of planters, where are we planting, all those things,” she said. “From that dialogue last year, what really came about was the need to bring together a national working group to share best practices, identify gaps, to get better trees in the ground, and really focus on survivability.”
In Oregon… fights over how much to cut defined the 1980s and ’90s. Steep declines in timber harvest, meant to save Oregon’s last ancient forests, ripped an urban-rural divide that still festers. Today, Oregon still produces the most softwood lumber in the US. But the state’s timber harvest has hovered near historic lows, at least seven mills have closed since 2024 and logging on federal lands has been limited. President Trump’s administration wants to change that. …The moves have been met with cautious optimism in Oregon’s timber industry. …Environmental and outdoors groups, meanwhile, are gearing up to fight. …Battles between timber and environmental groups are quieter now than during the pitched height of the Forest Wars, but they never went away. A lot else has changed, however. Wildfires have become the state’s biggest issue, there have been historic agreements between the two sides and there’s a new industry, mass timber.
When the US announced plans to rescind a rule limiting roadbuilding and timber harvests on national forests, officials called the repeal necessary to prevent and manage wildfires. But as the USDA prepares to release its draft environmental impact statement for the rescission, that justification is unraveling. And many critics of the move see the claim that roads are needed to fight fires in remote forests as cover for a giveaway to the timber industry. …Wildfires on federal lands average about five times the size of those in the rest of the country, leading some land managers to argue that national forests are a front line for fighting the nation’s steep increase in wildland blazes. Yet a new study has fire scientists, frontline firefighters, legal experts and the agency’s own historical record saying that roads don’t reduce wildfire risk; they multiply it. [see 
Finland’s sawmill industry is warning of serious economic fallout if proposed restrictions on logging are implemented. According to industry representatives, between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs could be lost, while export revenues and overall economic activity may decline significantly. The debate follows calls from Finland’s climate and nature panels to reduce logging levels in order to meet climate and biodiversity targets. The proposal would cut annual harvest volumes by around 15 per cent by 2035. The industry group Sahateollisuus ry says the impact could be substantial. CEO Tino Aalto argues that limiting logging poses a direct threat to the sector. …He estimates that the total economic impact could reach around 3 billion euros, as both export revenues and income from timber sales decline. …At the same time, the sector is already under pressure. Rising raw material costs and weak demand have weighed on profitability. …The conflict between climate policy and industrial competitiveness is therefore set to continue.
For more than 30 years, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization has told us how terrible things are getting with global climate change. Their annual “State of the Climate” report is a compendium of climate change facts and figures collected throughout the previous 365 days. It’s an authoritative look at the state of our global climate and its increasingly precarious condition. …This year’s edition, covering 2025, is out today. The findings are stark, even frightening. But, like every year, it also feels like a bit of a rehash. …The fact that the past 11 years were the hottest on record? Yawn. The announcement that greenhouse gases in the air are at unprecedented levels for all of human history? Wake me when you’ve got something new to report. …The findings should be jarring reminders of planetary vital signs flashing red. But similar observations were made last year … and the year before that.
LOUISIANA — Legislation to expand wood pellet manufacturing in Louisiana is gaining traction despite concerns over the industry’s connection to underground carbon storage, which has attracted a growing number of critics among state lawmakers. Louisiana is a burgeoning producer of wood pellets, which have been branded as a sustainable alternative to coal for generating electricity in overseas markets. As of 2023, mills in the South produced about 85% of the America’s wood pellet exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reps. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, and Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Hornbeck, are carrying the proposed Louisiana Wood Pellet Manufacturing Strengthening Act. It directs the Louisiana Economic Development agency to promote the expansion of the industry throughout the state. …Legislators who have become hostile to carbon dioxide sequestration projects in their local districts openly disagree with economic development officials on whether the wood pellet industry even needs to store the CO2 they generate.
In this opinion article, Gustav Melin, Chairman of Working Group Industry, Bioenergy Europe and WTS AB, BKtech Group, explains how adding 10 million tonnes of sustainable pellets by 2030 would cut fossil gas dependence, strengthen EU energy security, and support stable renewable heat supply. …Europe must accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, particularly imported fossil gas. The European Union still spends enormous sums every year on gas imports from outside the EU. This dependence exposes Europe to geopolitical risks, price volatility, and supply disruptions. Reducing fossil gas use must therefore be a central part of Europe’s long-term energy strategy. One of the most practical and immediately available solutions is to increase the use of sustainable bioenergy. Unlike fossil gas, bioenergy can largely be produced within Europe using resources from forestry, agriculture, and bio-based industries. Expanding bioenergy reduces the need for imported fossil fuels and strengthens Europe’s energy security.
The EU’s General Court has rejected a legal challenge aimed at reversing the European Commission’s decision to categorize forest biomass energy as a sustainable investment within the bloc’s green finance framework. The court’s decision, issued on 18 March 2026 dismissed an attempt to annul a Commission ruling from July 2022, which had turned down a request for an internal review of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139. This regulation set the technical criteria for determining which forestry management and bioenergy practices can be regarded as environmentally sustainable. The plaintiffs, including Robin Wood and six other environmental NGOs, contended that the Commission’s designation of forestry and forest bioenergy as sustainable was illegal and violated EU legislation, particularly the Taxonomy Regulation. These rulings affirm that the Commission possesses significant discretion in establishing and implementing the taxonomy’s technical criteria, allowing politically sensitive sectors like bioenergy.