US Wildfires have already set records that could foreshadow a smoky, fiery summer. In related news: snow drought is making its mark in Utah; and rural BC lacks air quality monitoring as smoke risks grow. Meanwhile: Oregon focuses on forest protections—wants more public input on federal logging plans; and Australia and New Zealand launch a forest valuation standard for plantation and native forests.
In Business news: Canada supports tariff-impacted Saskatchewan workers; challenges abound for companies seeking tariff refunds; the Wisconsin Senate passes biofuel incentive bill; Fibre Excellence seeks to avoid receivership in France; US consumer sentiment declines again; and why both SPF and SYP are essential to solving the US housing shortage. Meanwhile: Murray Wilson wins top award for BC is Burning documentary; Meggin Messenger is appointed chair of BC Forest Practices Board; Bruce Anderson is speaking at COFI’s 2026 Convention; and Simon Matthis highlights the Pulp & Beyond 2026 convention.
Finally, a different kind of creature — what keeps the Tree Frog hopping.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
The Council of Forest Industries 2026 conventions welcomes veteran strategist 
B.C.’s latest budget confirmed: One of the province’s foundational industries has lost more than half its public revenue base in a single economic cycle. Forestry revenues are projected at $521 million, down from $1.3 billion just a few years ago. …It is a structural failure. For decades, Canada built its forest economy around a single export market and a narrow set of commodity products. That strategy has now been exposed as dangerously fragile. …The issue is not a lack of fibre, skills, infrastructure or industrial heritage. …The issue is the absence of investment-grade data and intelligence that allow global firms to move quickly from site selection to financing and construction. …Canada already has a strong global investment attraction network through Invest in Canada and the trade commissioner service… What is missing is nationally consistent, standardized data sets on forest biomass availability, infrastructure capacity, workforce readiness, and permitting pathways that allow those teams to respond immediately when firms begin evaluating locations.
Alberta’s government has tabled legislation to ease regulations and barriers to more easily enable the sale of some goods from other provinces. It’s part of a commitment Alberta made with its provincial and federal counterparts in signing an interprovincial free trade pact in November. That trade accord, which is supposed to take effect this summer, would see provinces recognize each other’s regulations for most consumer and capital products to avoid duplicative inspections and requirements. …Government officials told reporters before the bill was tabled that manufacturers in industries such as oil and gas, lumber and logging and fertilizer producers will likely see the most positive impact once the pact takes effect.
With just 13 days to go, anticipation is building for the 
The United States is facing a housing shortage that continues to put upward pressure on home prices and limit access to affordable housing. According to the Up for Growth 2025 Housing Underproduction study, the country remains millions of homes short of meeting current demand – a gap that cannot be closed without increasing the pace and scale of home construction. …In residential construction, two primary lumber species underpin nearly all home building: Spruce-Pine-Fir (SPF) and Southern Yellow Pine (SYP). These are not interchangeable commodities, they are complementary materials with distinct structural properties, regional availability, and performance characteristics. SPF, largely grown in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, is valued for its strength-to-weight ratio, dimensional stability, and ease of use in framing applications. SYP, produced primarily in the U.S. Southeast, offers high density and strength, making it well-suited for other structural and composite uses. Both are essential, and neither alone can meet the needs of the U.S. housing market.
A 17-storey mass timber-Passive House tower under construction in downtown Vancouver will help push forward clean, tall timber construction techniques, the company building the mixed-use structure at 981 Davie St. says. The builders, 
BRIMLEY, MI – The Bay Mills Indian Community will receive $50,000 in state funding to support planning and design of a long-term care facility in Brimley, making it the only Upper Peninsula project selected in the first round of Michigan’s Mass Timber Catalyst Program. The planned facility is among 10 projects statewide sharing $400,000 in grants aimed at expanding the use of mass timber construction in Michigan. The state received six applications from the Upper Peninsula. “We received six applicants for a number of different projects in the Upper Peninsula,” said Patrick Mohney, senior lands program manager with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Public Lands. “This shows that interest in this building technique is growing.” Nine Lower Peninsula projects were also selected, with individual grants ranging from $25,000 to $60,000. Recipients include a woodworking school in Adrian, a municipal building in Grand Rapids, and mixed-use facilities in several locations.
2025 was Canada’s second-worst wildfire season on record. Canada’s air quality was worse than the United States in 2025, thanks to a record-breaking wildfire season last summer, according to a new report by IQAir. Canada doesn’t have the worst air quality in North America: That designation goes to Mexico, which landed at 50 on IQAir’s 2025 list of most polluted countries and regions. Wildfires pushed Canada to 117 in 2025, with the United States taking the 120th spot. These wildfires not only made Canada more polluted than the United States, but they were also large enough to affect air quality in Europe as smoke crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Between May 2025 and November 2025, Canada experienced its second-worst wildfire season ever, with over 6,000 wildfires and 8.3 million hectares burnt across the country. …Health Canada estimates that air pollution contributes to 15,300 premature deaths each year in Canada. 
The Okanagan Screen Awards, a two-day celebration of film, creativity, and community, took place March 28–29, 2026 in the sunny paradise of Kelowna, BC. The Okanagan Screen Awards are proudly presented by the Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking (OSIF), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for independent filmmakers in the Okanagan region. Congratulations to “BC is Burning” for winning 1st Place in the Feature Docs category! 
The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) will be jointly working on two fuel reduction measures near Lytton, one in Botanie Valley and the other near Highway 1 north of the town, and one in the Hat Creek Valley. The Hat Creek cultural burn will cover an area of up to 40 hectares, approximately 15 kilometres west of Cache Creek in the Upper Hat Creek Valley. The project, known as the Harry Lake Grasslands cultural burn, is in partnership with the Thompson Rivers Natural Resource District and Bonaparte First Nation. The burn is part of a multi-year project meant to introduce fire into the Upper Hat Creek Valley. Key goals of the burn include revitalization of cultural burning practices by St’uxwtéws (Bonaparte) First Nation; reintroduction of fire to a fire deficit ecosystem; and ecological maintenance and improvement of grasslands. It is also part of a research initiative being undertaken by the University of British Columbia into prescribed fire in the area.
Wildfire fuel mitigation will remain a priority for the city, despite the B.C. government’s plans to stem the flow of FireSmart funding. At its March 23 meeting, city council received a presentation by Assistant Fire Chief Carmen Guidos, who was seeking direction on a couple of matters. One had to do with the Community Wildfire Resiliency Plan (CWRP) currently under development. The other was in regard of fuel mitigation work already planned for Coyote Park, South Canoe, and a small treatment area on Mt. Ida. The connecting thread prompting Guidos’ presentation was recent changes by the BC government to how it funds community FireSmart initiatives. The province introduced the FireSmart Community Funding and Supports (FSCFS) programs in 2018, providing approximately $175 million since then for communities to hire coordinators, conduct education campaigns and pay for fuel management efforts.
Recovery operations are ongoing after 19 log bundles ended up on beaches in the PQB area after rough weather caused a log boom to break open at Mosaic Forest Management’s Northwest Bay waterfront facility two weekends ago. Mosaic said more than half of the bundles have been retrieved, but crews need favourable tides and calm weather to safely recover the remaining logs. “We’re hoping to have suitable conditions in the next few days to complete the recovery as quickly and safely as possible,” Mosaic told the PQB News on March 24. Mosaic notified the provincial regulator and is in direct contact with Rathtrevor Provincial Park representatives about its plans and timeline. The province has declared the area where the logs went astray as a “closed area in so far as the marine salvage of logs is concerned”. END
A commentary by two forest ecologists who lead Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s Forest Conservation Program, and Raincoast’s executive director, who is a Southern Gulf Islands resident. The Islands Trust recently invited public input to help update its Trust Policy Statement, a document that guides how land-use decisions are made across the Trust Area in the Salish Sea. While the draft includes some overdue updates, it drifts from its mandate of environmental protection and fails to connect words in a policy document to decisions on the ground. To work properly, the Trust Policy Statement must clearly show how the Islands Trust will carry out its environmental protection mandate. The Islands Trust is a unique form of government. When it was established 50 years ago, its role was clear: to prevent unrestrained growth and development in the Trust Area of the Gulf Islands. The legislation recognized that the islands’ natural environment and rural character were fragile and irreplaceable.
Oregon’s congressional Democrats are asking federal officials to give the public more time to learn about and comment on new plans that would open up millions of acres of federal forests in Oregon to logging activity not seen since the 1960s. The Bureau of Land Management in late February announced it would change the Western Oregon Resource Management Plans that have governed logging and conservation in Oregon counties for decades. The stated goals were “maximum” timber production to “advance Trump administration priorities,” including logging in areas that are home to federally protected, vulnerable species. The announcement kicked off a month-long public comment period that ended March 23, but the agency did not hold any public meetings. Officials said in the announcement they would not hold any meetings before releasing a draft proposal for new logging. Oregon’s U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden and [others], all Democrats, said such generational change in logging practices deserves far more public scrutiny.
A new satellite-based study indicates widespread drought stress and insect damage across the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, with significant implications for wildfire risk, forest management and long-term ecosystem change. Researchers found roughly one in four ponderosa pines are experiencing moderate to high levels of drought and insect damage. More than half show signs of “fading,” a condition tied to prolonged moisture loss, though the severity varies by ranger district. The study analyzed tree “greenness” across the forest, a key indicator of health derived from satellite imagery. The Apache-Sitgreaves spans roughly 6 million acres in northern Arizona, including the White Mountains, among the state’s wetter regions. Despite that reputation, the findings reinforce a growing body of research showing that decades of drought, increasingly severe wildfires and bark beetle infestations are reshaping these forests. In some areas, ponderosa pine stands have failed to recover following high-intensity fires, particularly where drought stress was already severe.
A large chunk of private forest land near Mount Spokane is now permanently protected from development. The Idaho Department of Lands announced Wednesday that more than 22,000 acres of Inland Empire Paper Co. is now protected under a conservation easement. Inland Empire is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review. The property is between Mount Spokane and Spirit Lake in Bonner and Kootenai counties. …It includes habitat for a variety of wildlife, such as elk, deer and westslope cutthroat trout, according to a Department of Lands news release. It also covers part of the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which provides drinking water for people in Spokane and Kootenai counties. The deal locks in public access for the property, which has long been used by hunters, hikers, berry pickers and other recreationists.
After firing about 3,400 employees nationwide and instituting a seasonal hiring freeze last year, the U.S. Forest Service is planning to hire 2,000 seasonal workers this year. A Colorado lawmaker wants more information about the U.S. Forest Service’s plans to hire seasonal staff again this summer, after the agency cut thousands of positions and did not employ seasonal help last year. U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, whose district includes Eagle, Grand, Jackson, Routt and Summit counties, penned a letter to Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz earlier this month describing the impact that massive cuts to staffing have had on the agency and the importance of seasonal workers. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, also joined the letter. “As you know, seasonal employees play a critical role in the maintenance and stewardship of some of our most treasured public lands and national forests,” Neguse wrote, noting that more than 130 million people visit the country’s national forests annually.
For more than a decade scientists have documented how Antarctic sea ice has been retreating because of human-caused climate change. Now a team of Canadian and Chilean scientists is returning to Punta Arenas, Chile from a 14-day expedition on an icebreaker with data that will contribute to understanding how the continent’s ice, oceans and ecosystems are changing and how much glacier melt is accelerating. …Understanding climate change in Antarctica is important because it holds about 90 per cent of the world’s glacier ice, so what happens here will have major effects on the rest of the world, said B.C. scientist Thomas James. He’s the chief scientist of the expedition with the Geological Survey of Canada. …With this data, scientists can begin to understand how much human-caused global warming is changing the environment over time.
