Blog Archives

Special Feature – COFI Convention

COFI 2026 Convention Opens with Call for Collective Action on Forestry’s Future

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada

The 2026 BC Council of Forest Industries Convention opened Thursday morning at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver with a welcome session that set a clear tone for the two days ahead — forestry as both an industry under pressure and a source of solutions to some of British Columbia’s most pressing challenges. The session was anchored by Greg Stewart, President of Sinclar Group Forest Products and Chair of the COFI Board of Directors, who noted the convention was sold out. Speakers also included a territorial welcome from Squamish Nation Forestry Specialist Brian George, a civic address from City of Vancouver Councillor Lisa Dominato, and opening remarks from Kim Haakstad, President and CEO of COFI.

…Stewart followed with his own remarks as COFI Board Chair, framing the sector’s history and its current stakes in direct terms. …He warned that losing or significantly reducing the forestry sector would remove benefits well beyond economics: community viability, the infrastructure needed to maintain forest health and mitigate wildfire risk, and the skilled workforce that underpins both. His call to delegates was explicit — to take the conference theme to heart, listen closely to each panel, and consider what each person could do within their own operations, with colleagues, and in their communities. Haakstad closed the welcome session by describing “Forestry is a Solution” not only as the conference theme but as a province-wide campaign involving more than a dozen organizations representing communities, workers, and the full forest value chain.

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Minister Parmar Outlines Working Forest Vision, Commits to Structural Shift as Sector Presses for Fibre Flow

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar used his address at the 2026 COFI Convention to lay out what he described as the key objectives that will define his work as minister over the coming months — anchored by a vision for a working forest that moves British Columbia away from the permit-by-permit, boom-and-bust model that has defined the sector for decades. The session, moderated by COFI President and CEO Kim Haakstad, also included Deputy Minister of Forests Makenzie Leine, who joined the stage for a question-and-answer period that drew heavily from audience submissions and covered tenure obligation costs, BCTS reform, DRIPA, and the immediate challenge of moving fibre. …Parmar said his job is to work with industry and all British Columbians to chart a path that delivers good-paying, family-supporting jobs, and that he is unapologetic about that work. He identified six key objectives that will guide his ministry: defending forestry jobs and the communities that depend on them; building a competitive value-added forest economy; creating healthier, more resilient forests to protect communities from wildfire; forging partnerships to compete in global markets; and protecting watersheds, biodiversity, and wildlife through responsible stewardship.

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Central 1 Chief Economist Sees Slowing Growth, Persistent Uncertainty Ahead for BC and Canada

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bryan Yu, AVP and Chief Economist at Central 1 Credit Union, opened the 2026 COFI Convention’s macroeconomic outlook session by telling delegates that Canada and BC are navigating what he described as an era of poly-crises — with a Middle East conflict, ongoing trade pressures, and structural domestic weaknesses all converging simultaneously. His assessment was cautious across virtually every major indicator, with forestry among the sectors he identified as facing both immediate and longer-term headwinds. Yu said the Middle East conflict, now in its sixth week at the time of his address, had driven oil prices sharply higher reflecting the significance of the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint for roughly 20% of global oil supply. A ceasefire had briefly pushed prices down by approximately $20 in a single day, but Yu said the world is already in a different place than it was six weeks ago. Higher oil prices, he said, are here to stay in the near term and are inflationary, though he was clear this is not a hyperinflationary environment comparable to 2008-09 or the period following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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Regional Chief Teegee Calls for Full DRIPA Implementation, Warns Against Negotiating Through Media

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada, Canada West

Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the BC Assembly of First Nations used his opening keynote address at the 2026 COFI Convention to deliver a frank assessment of the current state of the relationship between First Nations and the provincial government — describing it as being at a very low point — and to issue a clear call for the full implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, rejecting what he characterized as a proposal to suspend it in all but name. Teegee, who is serving his third term as Regional Chief and has been in the role for nine years, opened by acknowledging the broader economic context facing the sector. He cited 15,000 jobs lost in BC since 2022 and 21 permanent or indefinite mill closures since 2023, and noted that fibre supply constraints are reducing economic viability at the same time that regulatory complexity and costs are increasing. He said the current pressures are structural changes putting pressure on every part of the system, but that moments of pressure test whether governments stay grounded in sound policy and cohesive strategy. Challenges, he said, should not be used to justify decisions that create more instability in the long term.

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Federal Government Pledges Partnership in Forest Sector Transformation, Announces $4 Million for BC-Based Project

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 10, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada, Canada West

Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, delivered the federal government’s address at the 2026 COFI Convention Thursday morning, telling delegates that Canada’s forest sector stands at a genuine moment of transformation — and that the federal government intends to be an active partner in navigating it. Representing the riding of Calgary Confederation and serving on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Hogan outlined more than $2 billion in federal measures announced since April 2025 and made a new $4 million funding announcement tied to a BC-based company. …NRCan’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation, known as IFIT — Hogan announced $4 million for Atlas Engineered Products, a BC-based company building a new robotics-enabled wood components manufacturing facility in Clinton, Ontario. The facility is designed to improve precision, reduce material waste, and produce engineered structural components intended to accelerate housing construction timelines across Canada. Hogan described it as exactly the kind of project the government wants to see more of.

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COFI 2026 Opens with Call to Reframe Forestry’s Public Narrative

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature - COFI Convention
Region: Canada, Canada West

The BC Council of Forest Industries launched its 2026 annual convention Wednesday evening with an opening reception at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, drawing what COFI President and CEO Kim Haakstad described as 650 delegates expected over the three-day event — making it Western Canada’s largest gathering of forestry sector leaders. Haakstad and Andrew James, Partner at KPMG and sponsor representative for the evening, both took to the podium to welcome attendees and frame the days ahead around the conference theme: “Forestry is a Solution.” Haakstad welcomed delegates and acknowledged the sponsors supporting the convention, with particular recognition of KPMG as the sponsor of the opening reception.

James developed the theme at greater length, describing it as both a statement of fact and a strategic assertion — a necessary counterpoint to public narratives that tend to focus on the sector’s constraints rather than its contributions. Speaking to an audience that included forestry professionals, industry executives and government representatives, he argued that forestry functions as a solution across several distinct dimensions. For rural and Indigenous communities in BC, he said, the sector provides a foundation for sustainable economic development, skilled employment and long-term community resilience. On climate, he pointed to renewable materials, carbon storage and responsible forest management as areas where forestry contributes directly to environmental objectives. And on innovation, he noted ongoing industry investment in new technologies, products and operating models as evidence of the sector’s capacity for adaptation.

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Business & Politics

Trade agreement talks unlikely to be resolved by July 1: U.S. trade representative

By Kelly Malone
Victoria Times Colonist
April 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Jamieson Greer

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that he doesn’t expect negotiations on the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement on trade to be resolved by July 1. …July is the required deadline for the trilateral trade pact, known as CUSMA. The CUSMA review sets up a three-way choice for each country. They can renew the deal for another 16 years, withdraw from it or signal both non-renewal and non-withdrawal — which triggers an annual review that could keep negotiations going for up to a decade. …Canada is still being slammed by Trump’s separate tariffs on industries like steel, aluminum, autos, lumber and cabinets. Greer previously has floated the idea of abandoning the trade pact in favour of two separate bilateral agreements. …Greer said the Trump administration’s baseline is that “things have to be changed.” …Greer, however, said there are “load-bearing pillars” in the North American trade deal that work well.

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Fighting U.S. tariffs, Canada mulls its own as cheap imports surge

By Thomas Seal
Bloomberg in the Financial Post
April 2, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Canadian officials are considering unusual measures to protect domestic producers of vegetables and wood products from low-priced imports. The move threatens to complicate Prime Minister Mark Carney’s efforts to fight US tariffs and strengthen Canada’s trade relationships with other countries, while also tackling cost-of-living challenges. Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne ordered an investigation last month into imports of frozen and canned vegetables. …He also said he’d received an “urgent” request for trade protection from makers of wood furniture, cabinets and flooring, adding that his department would respond soon. …The group behind the appeal on wood products, the Canadian Wood Products Alliance, is seeking a temporary tariff of 100 per cent to 125 per cent for four years, representative Alain Ouzilleau said. The measure would apply to all imports except those from the US. or Mexico, he added. …Canada wood-products manufacturers were already facing increased competition from China.

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Bed Bath & Beyond, making second pivot, to buy retailers Lumber Liquidators, Cabinets To Go

By Linda Moss
CoStar News
April 8, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Bed Bath & Beyond will soon have a second $150 million acquisition under its belt, now striking a deal to buy the company that owns retailers Lumber Liquidators and Cabinets To Go and their roughly 300 stores. The back‑to‑back acquisitions signal a sharp strategic pivot for Bed Bath & Beyond, underscoring its effort to reinvent itself from a traditional home‑goods retailer into a home‑services company focused on higher‑ticket renovation and installation projects rather than low‑margin merchandise sales. Bed Bath & Beyond, based in Murray, Utah, said it signed a letter of intent to acquire the equity interests and substantially all the assets of F9 Brands. That company owns and operates Cabinets To Go. …The deal is expected to close after Bed Bath & Beyond’s annual shareholder meeting in May. …The announcement comes about a week after Bed Bath & Beyond said it was buying Texas-based Container Store in a deal valued at $150 million.

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US tariffs disrupt global forestry trade flows

By Markku Bjorkman,
Finish Forestry Association in PulpaperNews.com
April 8, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

Global trade is being reshaped by escalating tariffs and geopolitical tensions, with the Nordic and European forestry industries directly affected. During 2025 and 2026, the United States introduced a series of trade measures that are altering the conditions for exports of timber, paper and pulp. …At the same time, the US has imposed steep tariffs on several major trading partners. Canada faces tariffs of 35%, although some products covered by the USMCA agreement are exempt. Brazil is subject to tariffs of up to 50% on paper and paperboard, while China continues to face high tariff levels. …Even where products are exempt from tariffs, trade is affected by higher supply chain costs, currency fluctuations and weaker demand. There is also a risk of trade diversion. If Canadian or Brazilian exporters face higher tariffs, they may redirect volumes to other markets, increasing competition in Europe. The broader trend points to a more fragmented global trading system.

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On Montana’s border with Canada, the Blackfeet want off Trump’s train of tariffs

By Nathan Vanderklippe
The Globe and Mail
April 6, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

Builder Ed Kennedy finished this powwow and event space last May in Browning, Montana, seat of the Blackfeet Nation. Mr. Kennedy got this lumber from Canada before tariffs raised the price by more than 57 per cent. ‘Now everybody wants my wood.’ …Mr. Kennedy has instead begun to seek ways to avoid tariffs altogether, laying plans for the establishment of an inland seaport on Blackfeet land that could be used to import goods from Canada for re-export, or perhaps for additional manufacturing and eventual re-export, based on a belief that centuries-old law enshrines the right of Native Americans to trade duty-free. …In the year since Mr. Trump began his large-scale imposition of tariffs, the Blackfeet have actively sought to turn their territory into a small but potentially economically important tariff-free portal. So far, they have failed. An initial case seeking tariff relief was rejected by a federal court. [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]

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Kimberly Clark Warehouse Destroyed by Fire in Ontario, California; Employee Arrested

By Janet Freund, Redd Brown, and Andrea Chang
Bloomberg Industries
April 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US West

ONTARIO , California — A Kimberly-Clark Corp. employee has been arrested on arson charges after a massive fire broke out Tuesday morning at a California distribution center that serves around 50 million people. The 1.2 million-square-foot facility — located in Ontario, about 35 miles outside of Los Angeles — houses facial tissue and toilet paper, according to a local Fox report. Ontario Deputy Fire Chief Mike Wedell said the building’s roof completely collapsed and all products inside were destroyed. …The blaze reached a six-alarm response, involving around 175 firefighters. The fire was contained to the building of origin. …The department also said it had identified a suspect: Chamel Abdulkarim, an employee of NFI Industries, a third-party logistics provider for Kimberly-Clark products. …Kimberly-Clark said that there were no reported injuries. The company’s shares fell 4.1% on Tuesday. Analysts warned that the fire could lead to supply problems in the region.

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Domtar wastewater treatment project remains on schedule

By Jorgelina Jmanna-Rea
The TimesNews
April 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

KINGSPORT, Tennessee — A new wastewater treatment system at Domtar’s Kingsport mill is still on schedule to start running later this year, part of an effort by the mill to mitigate odors affecting neighboring residents. Mill Manager Tony Clary updated the Kingsport Economic Development Board on the project’s timeline, the construction of an anaerobic digester, at the board’s monthly meeting Tuesday. The project is at a halfway point, and the new system is expected to ramp up at the end of the year. The mill faced scrutiny from city officials and residents over odors emitting from its wastewater after the site converted from manufacturing paper to recycling containerboard in 2023. The company secured funding to construct a new wastewater treatment system in December 2024 and broke ground in August 2025.

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Packaging Corporation of America to close Richmond, Virginia packaging plant

Packaging Gateway
April 6, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

RICHMOND, Virginia  — Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) is shutting its converting plant in Richmond, Virginia, resulting in the loss of 110 jobs, effective June. In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing, the Illinois-based containerboard producer said it will coordinate with state and local authorities in Virginia on support for employees who lose their jobs. The company also said it will assist workers interested in relocating to other PCA sites. Mark Romaniuk, deputy general counsel at the company, described the move as “a difficult business decision.” …PCA also referenced a satellite warehouse in North Chesterfield, Virginia, which employs six people. …The decision to close the Richmond plant follows downsizing in Washington state. …The closures affected 168 jobs – 60 in Allentown and 108 in Salisbury.

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Will shipping in the strait of Hormuz – and oil prices – return to normal?

By Joanna Partridge and Jillian Ambrose
The Guardian UK
April 8, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

If the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran holds, it could offer the clearest hope of an end to the energy crisis since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards assumed control of the strait of Hormuz. …Even if the temporary detente manages to hold and hundreds of tankers stranded in the Gulf start to transit once more, analysts fear that will not be enough to return the flow of oil, gas, chemicals and other vital items to pre-crisis levels. An estimated 2,000 vessels have been trapped in the Gulf. …Shipping analysts predict operators will gain confidence once a ship owned by a large European company has safely made the crossing. However, they caution that it is a different matter for empty ships to decide to enter the strait to load up at the region’s ports, and it is unclear when this may start to happen. …Experts have said it could take months or years to fully restore the Gulf’s energy production.

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Finance & Economics

Lumber Futures Fall to 1-Month Low

Trading Economics
April 7, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Lumber futures tumbled toward $580 per thousand board feet, marking a one month low as the combination of high interest rates and falling home construction has crushed demand faster than sawmills can reduce supply. This downward pressure is driven by a 14.2% collapse in single family housing starts and a 5.4% decline in building permits that signaled an abrupt cooling of spring activity. While ongoing sawmill closures have removed 1.3 billion board feet of capacity and US duties on Canadian imports remain at 45% these supply factors are failing to support prices against a sharp loss of buyers. The recent surge in mortgage rates to 6.46% has stifled traffic and left builders managing a 2.4% increase in unsold inventory that necessitates immediate price cuts. Furthermore the April 2nd announcement of C$2.1 billion in Canadian forestry subsidies has introduced expectations of more wood availability that offsets the risks of shipping delays through the Strait of Hormuz.

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Trump Seeks Nearly $11 Billion Cut to HUD Programs

The National Association of Home Builders
April 7, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

President Trump has proposed a budget that would cut non-defense discretionary spending by $73 billion for fiscal year 2027, which runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027. The spending reductions include a $10.7 billion cut — about 13% — for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). …The president’s proposed budget changes include:

  • Eliminating funding for the Community Development Block Grant program.
  • Eliminating the Home Investments Partnerships Program.
  • Eliminating the Fair Housing Initiatives Program under the Fair Housing Act.
  • Eliminating programs deemed to fall under the executive orders “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Programs and Preferencing” and “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” including homeless assistance programs, housing counseling, Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing, and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS.

Although the cuts are unlikely to be enacted, NAHB will continue to monitor the appropriations process as funding decisions are made on key housing, tax, labor and environmental programs.

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US Job Growth Rebounds in March

By Jing Fu
NAHB Eye on Housing
April 3, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

The U.S. labor market showed signs of a modest rebound in March following a weak February, as payroll employment increased and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%. Job growth was led by healthcare, construction, and transportation and warehousing. However, signs of cooling are emerging. Job openings posted their largest decline in nearly a year and a half in February, pointing to a potential easing in labor demand. Meanwhile, growing geopolitical uncertainty adds further downside risk to the labor market outlook. Wage growth slowed in March, with average hourly earnings rising 3.5% year-over-year. This pace is 0.7 percentage points lower than a year ago. Importantly, wage growth has been outpacing inflation for nearly two years, which typically occurs as productivity increases. …Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate—the proportion of the population either looking for a job or already holding a job—declined 0.2 percentage points to 61.9%. 

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‘All roads lead to higher prices and slower growth,’ warns IMF chief as Iran war hits global economy

By Joseph Wilkins
CNBC News
April 7, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, International

Higher inflation and weaker growth ahead are inevitable for the global economy as a consequence of the Iran war, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Monday as the institution prepares to cut its forecasts. “All roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said Monday night. Before the war, the IMF anticipated issuing a small upgrade on its outlook for global growth of 3.3% in 2026 and ​3.2% in 2027, according to Georgieva. But those expectations have since been upended as the Iran conflict has sent shockwaves through the global economy that are unlikely to unravel anytime soon, even if the war is brought to a rapid resolution. …“Directionally, it is stagflation,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “It’s higher inflation and weaker economic growth that is the result of policy — tariff policy and immigration policy.”

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Big tech eyes mass timber for construction

By Larry Adams
The Woodworking Network
April 7, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

Mass-timber built structures are being constructed at a breakneck pace around the world, in metro area and converted rural locations, from residential buildings to office complexes and in greater numbers to data centers and big tech office spaces. Vittorio Salvadori, director of design at TimberBLDR, reflected on the recent International Mass Timber Conference in Portland, said that “About 10% of mass timber sold in 2025 went to data center–related projects. Amazon and Meta alone are leading this shift. …Meta, for instance, is utilizing mass timber in its new data centers in an effort to achieve net zero emissions across its value chain in 2030. …Most data centers today are constructed of concrete, structural steel and other pre-engineered metal. …In 2024, Microsoft constructed two data centers in Northern Virginia using a hybrid structure of CLT, steel, and concrete to reduce carbon emissions. …A recently opened Amazon delivery center in Indiana makes heavy use of mass timber.

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Associated Press (AP) says it will offer buyouts as part of pivot away from newspaper-focused history

By David Bauder
The Start Beacon
April 6, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The Associated Press, one of the world’s oldest and most influential news organizations, said Monday it is offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its US-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and their print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s. The News Media Guild, the union that represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers on Monday. The news organization is becoming more focused on visual journalism and developing new revenue sources, particularly through companies investing in artificial intelligence, to cope with the economic collapse of many legacy news outlets. Once the lion’s share of AP’s revenue, big newspaper companies now account for 10% of its income. “We’re not a newspaper company and we haven’t been for quite some time,” Julie Pace, executive editor and senior vice president of the AP, said.

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Roseburg’s newspaper will stop printing after 159 years, shutter the newsroom

By Mike Rogoway
The Oregonian
April 8, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

The News-Review newspaper in Roseburg notified staff this week that it will stop printing and shutter its newsroom, the latest casualty in the long decline of local journalism. “Due to declining revenue, increasing print costs, and broader industry decline nationwide, The News-Review has reached a level of unsustainability that we can no longer overcome. As a result, The News-Review will be shutting down in its current form at the end of April,” the paper’s owner wrote. “As part of this transition, the editorial department will be discontinued and The News-Review brand will sunset”. The newspaper’s website lists 15 employees. …The News-Review traces its roots to the founding of the Roseburg Ensign in 1867. It took its current name in 1920, with the merger of the Umpqua Valley News and Roseburg Review. The paper serves a community south of Eugene that has been struggling for decades amid the protracted decline of Oregon’s timber industry.

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West Virginia hosts forest products trade mission with buyers from India and Vietnam

West Virginia Department of Agriculture
April 2, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

CHARLESTON, West Virginia — The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) recently hosted a highly successful inbound trade mission March 26-28 in partnership with the Southern United States Trade Association (SUSTA), connecting international buyers from India and Vietnam with West Virginia’s log and lumber industry. The mission focused exclusively on forest products, with visiting buyers touring log yards and sawmill facilities across the state. These site visits provided a firsthand look at West Virginia’s high-quality hardwood resources, sustainable forestry practices, and production capabilities. Stops included Cherry River Lumber (Richwood), Meadow River Hardwood Lumber (Rainelle), and Laurel Creek Hardwoods (Richwood). In addition, buyers met with additional companies in one-on-one meetings before the site visits.

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Stora Enso executes new hybrid timber building in Austria

Wood & Panel Europe
April 8, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

AUSTRIA — Stora Enso announced that they have introduced a complete new hybrid timber building for modern operational logistic and sustainability. With the new building for the Bernstein Volunteer Fire Department, a forward-looking facility is being created that harmoniously combines functionality, sustainability and architecture. …The new building was constructed using a hybrid timber system: while all parts in contact with the ground and the columns of the vehicle hall are made of reinforced concrete, all load-bearing walls and superstructures were implemented in mass timber. This combination ensures maximum stability, efficient construction and significant CO₂ reduction. The timber installation was carried out by our partner company, Zimmerei Franz Gollubits, whose precision and craftsmanship played a key role in realising this modern emergency facility.

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Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association of New Zealand Targets High-Value Wood Processing

By Jason Ross
Wood Central Australia
April 9, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International

Mark Ross

NEW ZEALAND — Wood Processors and Manufactures Association (WPMA) CEO Mark Ross, released the Association’s 2026 general election manifesto calling on the next government to back a decisive national shift from raw log exports to high-value wood manufacturing. Global softwood fibre is in short supply, and New Zealand must act before the window to capitalise closes. The 2026 election manifesto calls on all sides to pivot from raw log exports to high-value wood manufacturing across five interlocking fronts. …As it stands, up to 60% of New Zealand’s harvest currently leaves the country as raw logs. WPMA argues the sector is forfeiting billions in unrealised value and leaving regional communities exposed to commodity price cycles beyond their control. Its primary demand is a national commitment to shifting that equation, backed by regulatory settings that incentivise long-term investment, support innovation, and accelerate the development of emerging forest bio-products as commercial pillars alongside sawn timber and engineered wood.

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Forestry

Wildfires play major role in boreal forest biodiversity: report

By Derek Cornet
Laronge Now
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

LA RONGE, Saskatchewan — With Canada aiming to protect 30 per cent of land and water by 2030, a new study shows the federal government should pursue a conservation method which takes wildfires into account. That’s according to La Ronge’s Aaron Bell, who recently had a research paper published by the Ecological Society of America on March 30 as part of his PhD in Biology. The project, which includes experiments on 42 islands in the Lac La Ronge region, focused on testing competing ideas on how government’s design protected areas such as nature reserves, or provincial and national parks. …Bell proposing government’s use a pyrodiversity-biodiversity method, which promotes and maintains diverse plants and fauna and thereby generating diversity. …“I’m hoping it enables people in the North to say we’re not managing fires at all for biodiversity and maybe this is something we should think about moving forward,” he said. 

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Forestry company secures five years of wood, adding stability to sector

By Ministry of Forests
Government of British Columbia
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A non-replaceable forest licence has been awarded to Box Lake Lumber Products, enhancing its operations and the sustainable use of local timber. The opportunity is targeted to boost B.C.’s value‑added wood sector, putting to work unlogged timber. “A stable supply of wood to small-town forestry companies is a win for everyone in the community,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “This means more wood … for manufacturing companies, logging contracts for haulers and another boost to our value-added wood manufacturing sector. Our independent wood manufacturers put B.C. on the map as the global leader in high-quality wood products, and this licence is one more way to support that work.” A competitive opportunity provided specifically to value-added wood manufacturing companies, the non-replaceable forest licence will provide a consistent and stable supply of wood to Box Lake Lumber Products in the Kootenays.

Additional coverage in Castlegar News: Nakusp wood company granted logging licence near Slocan

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Nakusp wood company granted logging licence near Slocan

The Nelson Star
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

NAKUSP, BC — A Nakusp company has been awarded a five-year licence to log in an area west of Slocan. Box Lake Lumber Products will be allowed to harvest approximately 445 truckloads of logs per year, according an April 8 announcement by the Ministry of Forests. The accepted bid allows the company to access Interfor’s Tree Farm Licence 3, located south of Valhalla Provincial Park on what the ministry describes as steep mountain slopes where wood has been damaged by wildfires and pests. “This licence will help us secure logs to keep our mill operating,” said Box Lake Lumber Products president Daniel Wiebe. “We look forward to working with the ministry and Interfor, and are very appreciative of their support.” Box Lake Lumber Products, located southeast of Nakusp, specializes in split-rail fencing that it ships to North American and European markets. The licence is part of the province’s Value-Added Accelerators program.

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Watchdog’s report on controversial RCMP unit delayed due to lack of chairperson

By Chantelle Bellrichard
CBC News
April 7, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

A years-long investigation into a special RCMP unit that polices protests against resource extraction in BC is finished but can’t be finalized because the RCMP’s oversight body has been without a chairperson for more than a year. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) receives and oversees public complaints against the Mounties. It recently announced the completion of a systemic investigation into the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), which drew national attention in 2019. …It’s unclear why the CRCC has been without a chairperson since January 2025. …At the top level of the agency there is meant to be a chairperson and up to four other members. According to the CRCC, all of those positions are currently vacant. …The majority of complaints against C-IRG came in response to civil court injunction enforcements and arrests in relation to Wet’suwet’en-led opposition to Coastal GasLink pipeline and protests against old-growth logging in the Fairy Creek area.

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US Forest Service seeks big increase for timber operations

By Marc Heller
E&E News by Politico
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

For more than a year, the Trump administration has said it wants to harvest more timber from national forests. Now, officials are asking Congress to pay for the promise. The administration’s budget request would more than quadruple Forest Service spending on timber preparation and sales in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, even as many other agency priorities face steep reductions or elimination. The proposal calls for $175 million in the forest products account, up from $39 million this year. The administration didn’t ask for an increase a year ago, as it was settling in after taking the reins from the Biden administration. Spending on forest products has been flat for years, said Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the American Forest Resource Council, which represents companies harvesting timber from federal lands… saying the requested increase was a long-overdue investment in a programme that had operated at a small scale for decades. [to access the full story an E&E subscription is required]

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Trump’s Forest Service Reorganization: Timber Over Conservation

By Ethan Brooks
The Times News
April 7, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The administrative architecture of America’s national forests is undergoing its most radical transformation in decades. In a series of swift moves designed to prioritize industrial output over conservation, the Trump administration has initiated a sweeping overhaul of the US Forest Service (USFS), relocating its headquarters and dismantling the regional oversight structures. …By moving the agency’s center of gravity from Washington, DC, to Salt Lake City, Utah, and shuttering nine regional offices, the administration is pivoting away from a centralized, science-driven conservation model toward a decentralized system focused on the immediate extraction of timber and wood products. For rural America, the impact is twofold. While the administration is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the timber industry and sawmill infrastructure, the move guts the scientific research and environmental safeguards that many rural communities rely on. This transition effectively replaces long-term ecological stewardship with a short-term commodity-driven mandate.

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Faster Detection of Forest Loss

NASA Earth Observatory
April 6, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

Tropical forests span 1.6 billion hectares of Earth. …But over the past two decades, an average of 10 million hectares of these forests have been lost each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, affecting the ecosystems and communities that depend on them. NASA scientists recently developed a new method for tracking tropical forest loss that delivers deforestation alerts more than three months faster than current methods. Although the technique was designed for the Amazon rainforest, data from a recently launched satellite are expected to expand its application globally. …To address Landsat’s cloud challenge, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center tuned into a different wavelength. Led by Africa Flores-Anderson, associate program manager for NASA’s Ecosystem Conservation Program, the team piloted a system for the Amazon that combines existing satellite-based approaches with cutting-edge radar data. …Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) doesn’t require daylight or clear skies. 

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Trump Administration Declares War on American Conservation

By Glynn Wilson
The New American Journal
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

COULTERVILLE, California – Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot are turning over in their graves as Donald Trump launches a devastating war against the conservation movement. “With the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the US Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. …The administration announced it would move the USFS headquarters out of Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. “They’re shuttering every single one of the 10 regional offices that have governed this agency and with them, the career professionals,” wrote Jim Pattiz. More than 50 research outlets across 31 states are set to close, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, “the kind you literally cannot restart once it’s gone,” Pattiz says. …Unfortunately, conservation groups like the Sierra Club built by John Muir have lost their focus and their power to bring change.

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New U.S. Forest Service unit aims to support timber economy

David Lepeska, Editor
Jefferson County Monitor
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

MONTANA — The U.S. Forest Service plans to create a logging unit across regional national forests, seeking to boost economic stability by committing to process timber only via local businesses. The new Sustained Yield Unit – a concept created by 1944 federal law – would include 22 Montana counties and all of Helena-Lewis & Clark and Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests, as well as most of Custer Gallatin. …Speaking for the Governor’s Office, Amanda Kaster, director of Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, expressed the state’s strong support. …The draft plan estimates that the unit would directly support 192 jobs per year over the next decade, plus an additional 225 jobs via economic ripple effects. But the Marks saw the yield unit’s harvest plan as inadequately ambitious. …Barb Cestero, Montana director at the Wilderness Society, feared that given the Forest Service’s recent staff cuts, a potential over-emphasis on logging could be problematic.

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How a dubious emergency timber directive is fast-tracking logging into 25 million acres of protected wilderness

By Dillon Osleger
High Country News
April 7, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

For the last 25 years, 58 million acres of American forest have had no new roads, no logging equipment, and no reason to appear on anyone’s industrial map. This year that is changing — and much faster than most people realize. The 2001 Roadless Rule has functioned as a safeguard for some of the most secluded and pristine lands in the Western US. …On June 23, 2025, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the intent to rescind the rule entirely. As of 2026, the process has moved into its most critical phase; the USDA has announced an imminent release of the draft environmental impact statement and a formal proposed rule this spring. This release triggers a final public comment period. Compounding this shift, on March 31, the USDA issued a formal reorganization order for the Forest Service. This structural overhaul, including the moving or closure of regional offices and science centers, is anticipated to accelerate the implementation of extraction orders.

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Rural Washington schools struggle with drop in logging dollars

By Aspen Ford
The Washington State Standard
April 6, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

In the North Cascades… the Mount Baker School District is facing a budget deficit exceeding $1 million, which local officials say is tied to declining timber sales on state lands. Three years ago, the rural district entered into what’s known as “binding conditions,” an arrangement where the state now oversees its day-to-day financial operations. Since then, it’s cut around 30 employees and increased class sizes. “Our main reason that we went in binding conditions was a precipitous drop in timber revenue,” said Russ Pfeiffer-Hoyt, school board president. The district’s timber revenue predicament is not unique among rural school districts. And it highlights rising tension around how the state is managing its public forests at a time when Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove has limited logging of some older tracts of trees. In the backdrop is a debate about whether Washington’s K-12 schools should depend heavily — or at all — on timber harvests.

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New Specialized Sawmill Outside Boston Taps Potential of Urban Forests

By Justin Wolf
The Green Building Advisor
April 7, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

BOSTON — Urban forestry is a noble and necessary pursuit, yielding environmental and health benefits almost too numerous to count. …Urban forests, broadly speaking, also happen to be sources of large amounts of wood waste. The most recent estimates from the USDA Forest Service indicate that 46 million tons of sellable wood from urban areas is felled each year, most of which gets chipped, landfilled, or burned for energy. There is a missed opportunity afoot; not one of those pathways—with the possible exception of biomass power generation—involves making something of tangible value that’s inversely proportional to the amount of waste being generated. …Tridome Structures, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of mass timber products, saw the gap in the Northeast market and acted accordingly. Only six months ago, the company opened a subsidiary mill operation called TimberWise in the town of Millis, a Boston suburb.

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New book guides readers through histories and forests of campuses across the eastern U.S.

The University of Georgia
April 3, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the eastern US own acres of forested land, ranging from Virginia Tech’s modest 11-acre Stadium Woods to Rutgers University’s 500-acre William L. Hutcheson Memorial Forest.  The forthcoming “Woodlands of the Mind” features 15 campus forests in 11 states, spanning from North Georgia to the Ohio Valley to coastal Maine. The selected forests represent diverse ecosystems and management systems, with some left wild and others more controlled and aimed for recreation than conservation. While some are protected in perpetuity, others face development and money troubles, and all face ecological threats. But each forest is unique, representing the various ways they serve their campuses, whether for research, recreation or preservation.  For wanderers and armchair adventurers alike, these essays discuss each forest’s ecology, landscape architecture and history. 

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University of Maine ecology professor Brian McGill named a 2026 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow

The University of Maine
April 3, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Brian McGill

University of Maine ecology professor Brian McGill has been named a 2026 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, one of the highest honors in the scientific community. AAAS Fellows are a group of scientists, engineers and innovators recognized for their achievements across disciplines, from research, teaching and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public. …McGill’s work established the importance of prediction in ecology and identified unifying principles in the field. He also pioneered solutions to conceptual issues in his discipline related to the widely-used and vaguely-defined term biodiversity. …Through the blog “Dynamic Ecology,” McGill and two co-authors shape the way research is conducted in labs across the planet and provide mentorship globally on successfully navigating academic cultures.

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Forest loss persists despite certification and protection

Chris Taylor, Maldwyn Evans & David Lindenmayer, The Australian National University
Nature.com
April 8, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Forest loss is a significant global problem. Forest certification schemes and protected areas are two key approaches for improving forest conservation and management outcomes, but their effectiveness in reducing national-level forest loss remains unclear. Here, we analysed an 11-year high-resolution satellite dataset on tree canopy removal from 2013 to 2023 to assess associations between forest loss, certification, protection, and economic factors globally. We found that forest loss persisted globally with no evidence of decline in countries with higher levels of certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Forest loss was lower in higher-income countries (measured by gross domestic product per capita) and higher where industrial roundwood and fuelwood production was greater. While forest certification may improve management of certified forests, our results suggest limited effectiveness in reducing overall forest loss. Strengthening certification and protected-area strategies will be essential to slow global forest loss.

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