We’re proud to share that in 2024 the Tree Frog Forestry News readership surged by an impressive 44%, reaching 105,411 unique users (per Google Analytics)! This remarkable growth far outpaces our average annual increase of ~20% over the past decade. Even more, our audience is becoming increasingly continental: in 2020, 22% of our readers were US-based, but by 2024, that number climbed to 39%. Canada still leads at 51%, with the remaining 10% representing international readers from the UK, Australia, Japan, India, and beyond.
Your feedback is essential to ensuring the Tree Frog Forestry News remains your trusted source for forestry updates. Completing our quick 6-8 minute survey will help us improve and continue to offer this free, open-access resource. The survey is completely anonymous, and your responses will be kept strictly confidential. Thank you for helping us grow and better serve the forestry community!
President Trump conceded Sunday that there may be “some pain” from his sweeping tariffs on Mexico and Canada, but they will eventually lead to a new “GOLDEN AGE.” Nice of him to promise a glorious future because the pain is already unfolding. …He also included a blast at these columns for leading the “Tariff Lobby” after our editorial called his 25% across-the-board tariffs on our friends and neighbors “
“
PORTLAND, Maine — Tariffs that are central to Trump’s economic policies could destabilize markets for numerous Maine products from lumber to electricity. …Tariffs on products from Canada, which is Maine’s biggest trading partner, would send powerful ripples across the state’s economy. Maine brought in $4.4 billion of goods – fuels, oil, electricity, wood pulp and more – from its neighbor in 2024. Imports from Canada far outpace those from any other trading partner. …Patrick Woodcock, CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce said, “many state businesses see Canada not just as a market to buy and sell items, but a place with mills and processing plants that are “fully integrated in their business plans”. …New tariffs could complicate trade relations between the U.S. and Canada, which have been tested in disputes over lumber for decades, said Patrick Strauch, of the Maine Forest Products Council… but a universal tariff would have the biggest effect on the price of energy. [the access the full story a Portland Press Herald subscription is required]
Lumber futures surged to over $590 per thousand board feet, approaching the two-month high of $600 from January 6th following US President Trump’s decision to implement tariffs on Canada, a major supplier of wood to the US. The tariffs were threatened by the US President shortly after taking office, but conflicting messages from the Presidential administration raised skepticism for investors on whether trade barriers would actually be raised. According to the latest data, Canada supplied around 30% of lumber used in the US last year. The 25% tax on Canadian goods, including wood, add to the already existing anti-dumping duties of 14.5%, raising capacity pressures on domestically produced alternatives. In the meantime, the greater degree of confidence that the Fed will deliver more than one rate cut this year drove benchmark mortgage rates to ease below 7%, giving some respite to construction demand. [END]
Framing lumber markets hovered in a holding pattern as traders embraced a wait-and-see approach to a potential 25% tariff on Canadian shipments. The Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite Price finished the week $1 lower. Western S-P-F buyers moved to the sidelines in late trading, citing minimal immediate needs and uncertainty about the tariffs and near-term prospects. …Price weakness lingered in the Southern Pine market amid sluggish to stagnant sales. Buyers lacked urgency and the potential impact of tariffs on demand for SYP was a widespread topic of conversation. …Traders debated how much of a price spread between Western S-P-F and SYP would need to emerge before end users substituted species on a larger scale. …In Coast markets, Hem-Fir dimension continued to face serious downward pressure from soft Inland prices. Meanwhile, dry Douglas Fir dimension prices stabilized, assisted by a green market that has found its footing.
Canada’s central bank has cut interest rates for a sixth consecutive time as inflation remains around two per cent and the threat of U.S. tariffs looms. The 25-basis point cut comes as the Bank of Canada forecasts GDP growth will strengthen in 2025 if there is no trade war with the United States. Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said while tariffs are top of mind, they were not factors in the rate cut and the monetary policy report MPR). “Since scope and duration of a possible trade conflict are impossible to predict, the MPR projection we published today provides a baseline forecast in the absence of tariffs,” said Macklem. …Macklem says a protracted and broad-based trade war would hurt economic activity in Canada with the higher cost of imported goods putting direct upward pressure on inflation.
US Mortgage rates edged higher in January, with the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reaching 6.96%. Rates had been climbing steadily since mid-December—even surpassing 7%—before easing in recent weeks as the bond market stabilized following news that President Donald Trump postponed tariffs plans to February 1. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 24 basis points (bps) from December, extending a two-year trend of fluctuations between 6% and 7%. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage increased 23 bps to land at 6.13%. The 10-year Treasury yield, a key benchmark for mortgage rates, averaged 4.63% in November—33 basis points higher than December’s average.
Lumber prices are 9.6% higher than they were one year ago. …Impact of wood and lumber prices on the cost of a new home: In addition to narrowly defined framing lumber, products such as plywood, OSB, particleboard, fiberboard, shakes and shingles make up a considerable portion of the total 
Homeownership has long played a starring role in the American dream. …Nearly nine in 10 homeowners (88% / 81% in 2025) in a survey said the true cost of owning a home is more expensive than they’d expected. …Recent, unexpected hurricane-related floods in Western North Carolina and massive fires across Los Angeles County, which both occurred after the survey was conducted, will surely raise costs even more dramatically this year, and not just in the affected regions. This will be due to fierce competition for construction supplies and labor as disaster-stricken areas compete for resources and everyone else looks to maintain and improve their homes. Tariffs, depending on how they’re applied – e.g., Canadian lumber for rebuilding or across-the-board Chinese imports hitting home improvement store shelves – and potential disruption to the construction workforce can also surge homeownership costs.
OTTAWA — Across the country, the impacts of climate change are becoming more severe and more frequent with extreme events like floods, wildfires and heatwaves on the rise. …Marc G. Serré, Parliamentary Secretary to the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, along with Member of Parliament Viviane Lapointe and Member of Parliament Anthony Rota, announced over $2.7 million in funding for five projects based in northern Ontario under Natural Resources Canada’s 
Climate change increased the likelihood of the extreme conditions that allowed the recent fires to roar across the Los Angeles area, an international group of scientists said Tuesday. The hot, dry and windy conditions that preceded the fires were about 35% more likely because of human-caused global warming, according to a new report from the World Weather Attribution group, which analyzes the influence of global warming on extreme events. …“This was a perfect storm when it comes to conditions for fire disasters,” John Abatzoglou, at the University of California, Merced said. …The authors analyzed weather and climate models to evaluate how a warmer atmosphere is shifting the likelihood of fire weather. …The researchers found that the kind of conditions that drove the L.A. area fires are expected to occur on average once in 17 years in today’s climate. Such conditions would have been expected once every 23 years without climate change.
