The Forestry Transformation Task Force report adds details to Canada’s transformation agenda. In related news: Canada’s Private Forest Owners welcomed recognition of their contribution; while AFPA, Steelworkers and SFI expressed support. In other Business news: Interfor added a second shift at their Grand Forks mill; Western Forest Products’ workers in Chemainus join the Steelworkers; and International Paper completes acquisition of NORPAC. Meanwhile: Ottawa extended consultations on environmental assessment reforms; the US proposed a 25% tariff on Brazil linked to deforestation; lumber prices hit 8-week high; and US mortgage rates rose again.
In Forestry/Wildfire news: BC supports wood-waste innovation in the Kootenays; the US Endowment partners on forest residues study; Nova Scotia takes action on spruce budworm outbreak; California expanded it firefighting fleet; new research on how wildfire spreads in urban areas, New Zealand new forestry rules explained; and the UN says progress on forestry goals is too slow.
Finally, new kudos for mass timber, and reasons to exhibit at Global Buyers Mission 2026.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
OTTAWA, ON—Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) congratulates the Honourable Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, and members of the Forestry Transformation Task Force on the release of their report, which recognizes the important contribution of Canada’s private forests in building a competitive, sustainable, and resilient forest sector. Representing approximately 480,000 private forest owners across the country, CFO’s members manage 25 million hectares of privately owned forest land from coast to coast. Together, they account for approximately 10 per cent of Canada’s forest land base and 20 per cent of national forest production. As the report notes, “Canada has a proud tradition of private forest ownership.” Private forests contribute an estimated $14.5 billion annually to Canada’s economy and support nearly 40,000 direct jobs in silviculture, harvesting, transportation, and forest products manufacturing. …For CFO, the report’s recognition of private forests is an important step forward. However, the organization believes that recognition must now be accompanied by policy action.
VICTORIA, BC
VANCOUVER, BC 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Representatives Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Andrea Salinas (D-OR) introduced the Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act. This marks the third consecutive year that legislation promoting mass timber for federal contracts has been introduced. This bipartisan legislation provides incentives for the use of mass timber building materials in federal contracting, giving timber and other forest products companies the ability to compete for construction, renovation, or acquisition of public buildings, and for military construction. The bill creates a two-tier contracting preference for mass timber and other innovative wood projects. The first-tier preference applies to mass timber that is made within the U.S. and responsibly sourced from state, federal, private, and Tribal forestlands. The optional second tier applies to mass timber products that are sourced from restoration practices, fire mitigation projects, and forest owners. Additionally, this bill contains a reporting requirement for a whole building lifecycle assessment. 
In this edition of Market Insights, you’ll find:
The natural cooling effect of snow in northern forests following forest fires is rapidly diminishing. As a result, a fragile climate equilibrium threatens to disappear, potentially leading to additional warming in one of the most climate-sensitive regions on Earth. This is the conclusion of new research by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. …After a forest fire, the landscape in northern regions often remains open and covered with snow for a long time. This snow reflects a great deal of sunlight and makes the Earth’s surface brighter—an effect known as snow albedo. For years, this compensated for part of the warming caused by CO2 emissions from forest fires. [The study found] that the cooling effect of snow has decreased by nearly 30 percent since the 1960s. Whereas in the past almost half of Canadian forest fires eventually reached natural climate equilibrium …this now applies to only about one in four or five fires.
Suzanne Simard’s 1997 forest experiment did not show trees whispering to each other. It showed something narrower, stranger, and easier to test: carbon that began in the air around a paper birch seedling later appeared inside a neighbouring Douglas fir, after passing through roots and fungal tissue in the soil. The experiment, published in Nature in August 1997, used two carbon labels in the field. Paper birch and Douglas fir seedlings were sealed in plastic labelling chambers, exposed to carbon-14 dioxide or carbon-13 dioxide, left for a nine-day chase period, then harvested and analysed to see where the labelled carbon had gone. The result was not a fairy tale about kindness. It was a measurement. Carbon moved both ways between Betula papyrifera, the paper birch, and Pseudotsuga menziesii, the Douglas fir, with a net gain by Douglas fir in the second year of the field experiment. 
When BC’s community forestry leaders gather each year, one of the sector’s highest honours is the Robin Hood Memorial Award for Excellence in Community Forestry. Established in 2016, the award recognizes the community forest that best exemplifies the values of British Columbia’s community forestry program—leadership, innovation, local economic opportunity, stewardship, and a passion for community forestry. The award is presented jointly by the 
Kelowna has topped the list of Canadian cities most at risk from wildfires in 2026, according to a report from a Toronto-based online insurance company. Using data from Natural Resources Canada’s recently upgraded Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, MyChoice said Kelowna has a wildfire Risk Index score of 6.8/10. It was the only city to get a “very high” rating on the MyChoice Canada’s 2026 wildfire risk map. “While Prairie cities recorded more severe forecast fire weather conditions, Kelowna’s extremely high community exposure, driven by dense wildland-urban interface development, surrounding forest fuel, and historical wildfire activity, pushed it to the top overall,” said MyChoice in its annual wildfire study. To calculate the wildfire risk index, MYChoice gave equal weight to two factors: Forecast fire weather severity and community exposure.
The Syilx Okanagan Nation is calling on the federal government to issue an emergency order protecting critical habitat for Southern Mountain Caribou. In a filing under Section 80 of the federal Species at Risk Act, the Syilx Okanagan Nation is calling for immediate and enforceable protections for habitat used by the Columbia North, Frisby-Boulder and Central Selkirk herds, which occupy areas within Syilx Okanagan territory in southern British Columbia. “The current provincial and federal recovery measures have failed to address ongoing habitat destruction and cumulative effects across caribou ranges,” Chief Dan Wilson of the Okanagan Indian Band said in a media release. … “The continued logging of critical caribou habitat is inconsistent with Syilx Forestry Principles and Standards, yet the province continues to authorize logging in these core areas,” Coun. Jordan Coble, chair of the Syilx Nation Natural Resource Committee said in a media release.
A new logging road project on the Sunshine Coast has drawn concern from local environmental advocates. At the same time, provincial officials say the work is designed to improve access and protect water resources. The Ministry of Forests confirmed to Coast Reporter that it is responsible for the road-building contract tied to Timber Sale Licence A94817. This project will see “just over 4km” of new road constructed to “move industrial traffic away from high-use public roads” and to create long-term access for multiple user groups. The ministry also said that the design has “enhanced overland techniques to minimize impacts to ground water,” along with water-quality monitoring and environmental oversight. However, Elphinstone Logging Focus’s (ELF) Ross Muirhead says the scope of the project is unusual for the region, saying four kilometres of brand new logging road is “unprecedented” on the Coast and that most projects are much shorter.
The start to the 2026 wildfire season has been slow with the number of fires raging across the country well below average, but government officials warn that as the summer progresses there’s a risk things could get much worse. “Despite the fact that we’re seeing so little activity so far this year … this summer retains the potential to be a significant one right across the country,” a government official said Thursday during a technical briefing. The official said that while the wildfire risk is unlikely to result in a record-breaking year like 2023 or 2025, the federal government is forecasting above average conditions as the season progresses. Whether that happens depends, officials explained, on what happens to the weather over the next few months. If the above average temperatures predicted for across the county come to pass, B.C. faces the highest wildfire risk, particularly in July.
Olds College entomologist Ken Fry says forest tent caterpillars are native to Alberta and relatively common, but their populations go through cycles in which they increase dramatically. Municipalities in Alberta are advising residents of an increase in the caterpillars this spring. “Roughly every 10 years populations increase enormously,” he said. The cyclical population explosion is called an outbreak. He said the causes of these cyclical outbreaks are still being studied but are believed to be influenced by weather, health status of trees, and other factors like predators, parasites and disease. Forest tent caterpillars are perhaps best known for the damage they inflict on trees. …”Trees can usually withstand a one-season munching, but when it comes to prolonged persistent defoliation over two, three years, that can result in some twig death or branch death or die back, you know, vulnerability over the winter to winter kill, things like that,” Fry said.
Prescribed burning is getting renewed attention in parts of B.C. as communities look for ways to reduce wildfire risk before summer. In Kimberley, B.C., that conversation recently took residents onto the trails near the city’s nature park. The city-led walk gave residents a look at treated areas where crews have been reducing forest fuels. They also heard from local fire officials and wildfire specialists about how planned fire can help protect nearby homes, trails and forested parkland from wildfire risk. Kimberley Fire Department Chief Will Booth says the tour was meant to help residents understand prescribed burning before more fuel management work happens in the city. The local tour comes as prescribed and cultural burning are getting more public attention after years of being less visible. …Bob Gray, a wildland fire ecologist and fire scientist, says warmer temperatures and drought are adding pressure to forests that already have too many trees competing for moisture.
In 2025’s budget, Ontario allotted $135 million for its Emergency Forest Firefighting fund, which Firefighter Noah Freedman describes as money that “keeps the lights on.” The province ended up spending double that: $271 million, according to this year’s budget. But that same document penciled in just $150 million again for this year. The province did not respond to requests from Canada’s National Observer asking why the budget hasn’t been increased. Not allotting adequate funds translates to real impacts on the frontlines, said Freedman, who is also vice president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 703. He said last season was “riddled with logistical problems” due to a lack of available funding: not having crews and helicopters where they were needed, and scrambling to request more… “None of that is because of our leadership in our agency. It’s a result of not getting anywhere near the funding that we need to truly be decision-makers,” Freedman said.
As bad as things got in Los Angeles in January 2025, when 31 people died and more than 16,000 buildings were destroyed by wildfires roaring into residential neighborhoods, many wildland firefighters look back on the rest of last year as a dodged bullet. Across the nation, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), which coordinates the federal wildfire response, the total area burned in 2025 was about two-thirds of the average over the past 10 years. This year is shaping up to be a very different prospect, wildfire experts warn. Key environmental indicators show that the nation is a tinderbox, gripped by widespread drought and with a light snowpack in the mountains that will offer little relief as its remnants melt away. At the same time, upheaval in the federal wildland firefighting effort and the loss of many staff qualified to join wildfire incident teams since Donald Trump took power for the second time have left firefighters deeply concerned about their ability to mount an effective response.
Barred owls …are now officially under attack themselves. Theoretically, they’ve been in danger since the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife released its barred owl management plan in 2024, announcing its intention to kill tens of thousands of barred owls per year for up to 30 years to protect the northern spotted owl and California spotted owl populations. The federal government and some environmentalist groups agree that protecting the endangered owl is necessary, but others argue it is inhumane and exists only to aid the timber industry. It’s been two years since the plan’s announcement, but only since November has a group in Washington officially begun killing barred owls… The Yakama Nation Tribe in South Central Washington has initiated barred owl management on reservation lands and is actively killing the once-protected species. They are the first and currently the only group in Washington to do so.
NAPLES, Maine — The New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is giving out grants to landowners to help preserve some of Maine’s oldest trees. The organization got $4.3 million from the U.S. Forest Service in 2024 to pay loggers to put off cutting late-successional and old-growth forests, which are typically over 100 years old. The first grant was awarded to Chaplin Logging Inc. in Naples to conserve 23 acres of late-successional forest and improve other parts of their land. This type of forest is rare for southern Maine. The one on the Chaplins’ property has been mostly untouched for likely more than a hundred years. According to Brian Milakovsky, senior forester of NEFF, these trees provide a unique habitat for many important species and they’re good for the atmosphere. …Since these trees are being taken out of production, part of the grant is going toward timber stand improvement, removing undesirable trees in landowners’ other, younger forests.
The world is losing its forests faster than it can save them, with severe consequences for the climate, biodiversity and over one billion people who depend on forests for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations’ latest Global Forest Goals Report 2026. Although many countries have expanded forest restoration efforts, strengthened governance frameworks, and improved monitoring systems, progress remains critically insufficient to halt deforestation, lift forest-dependent communities out of poverty, and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. “We know what to do. We need to act on the information and knowledge we have. But do we have the will to act?” said Éliane Ubalijoro, chief executive officer of Landscape Alliance, the new operating name of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR & ICRAF). That question runs through the report, which finds that existing tools, policies and institutions have yet to deliver change at the scale required. 
Japan’s forestry sector is at a crossroads. Population decline and cheap imported timber are driving down prices. Forest ownership is fragmented and small-scale, further limiting profitability. The workforce is aging and shrinking. As a result, many forests — planted decades ago, when timber profits seemed surer — are now under-managed, abandoned, or not replanted after being clear-cut. “Especially over the past few years, we have seen a lot of forest owners decide to give up their land,” says Akio Abe, associate director of the Ishinomaki District Forestry Association in Miyagi Prefecture. …Carbon credits, Abe hopes, can provide the financial backing needed to turn the Ishinomaki District woods into a boon, not a burden, for both local landowners and the environment. Together with corporate partners, the foresters are applying for credits certified by an international body, a rarity among forest carbon projects in Japan.
European timber organisations have made a last, united call for changes to be made to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) before it comes into force this December. Eighteen organisations from various sectors, including timber, panels and packaging groups, called for an EUDR Information System “without flaws and technical constraints, aligned with business practice”. The coalition underlines that the Information System must be operationally workable and aligned with real business practices. The EUDR Information System, which represents the backbone of the traceability feature of the EU regulation, is aimed to prevent products linked to deforestation from entering the EU market. Particular coalition concerns relate to DDS aggregation, technical limitations of the TRACES-based system, the usability of simplified declarations for SMEs and micro-enterprises and the lack of clear procedures in the event of system disruptions or outages.
A bill aimed at making Louisiana more enticing to the wood pellet industry has sailed through the state Legislature. House Bill 670 won unanimous approval in the Louisiana House and Senate and was granted final passage on Wednesday (May 27). It would ease regulations for pellet manufacturers while directing state support toward workforce development, financial incentives and infrastructure improvements designed to meet the industry’s needs. The industry has come under fire for repeatedly breaking air pollution rules in Louisiana and Mississippi and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, where most of the pellets are burned to produce energy marketed as “sustainable biomass.” The bill’s supporters admitted they knew little about the industry but backed the measure in hopes of reviving the state’s struggling logging sector. …“This bill uses taxpayer money to support a foreign industry and makes it easier for them to pollute Louisianians’ air and water,” said the Dogwood Alliance. 
Classification change policy in the Assessment Manual lists the possible reasons for changing a firm’s classification. Under this policy, a firm’s failure to provide timely, complete, and accurate information to WorkSafeBC, and to respond promptly to information requests or information provided by WorkSafeBC (the positive duties), is addressed under the heading of fraud or misrepresentation. This creates confusion when the contravention is inadvertent. Our Policy, Regulation and Research Department is releasing a discussion paper with proposed amendments to policy in the Assessment Manual to clarify how a contravention of the positive duties is interpreted in the context of classification change. The discussion paper and information on how to provide feedback can be found here: 
A massive fire near Gogama has doubled in size again overnight. This morning (June 4), the Ministry of Natural Resources mapping has the fire at 2,945 hectares. That’s more than double what it was last night, when it was reported as 1,100 hectares. Here’s what you need to know about the situation today: