New Zealand, Canada, and even England look to innovative wood-frame building solutions in the housing market. In related news: tariff uncertainty dominates the construction industry; the BC Lumber Trade Council warns of soaring costs; New Hampshire sees issues already; and BC and Canada feel the impacts of a global trade war.
In Forestry news: David Elstone gets to the heart of the BC Timber Sales review; Port Alberni finalizes it’s waterfront deal; a pilot project for automated firefighting with drones; spring flooding still a concern in BC; reconciliation at the heart of a BC Supreme Court decision in Haida Gwaii; FSC responds to Swedish firm’s decision to self-terminate its certification; Michigan prepares to battle bark beetles; and NASA collaborates with the forestry team in Fort Stewart.
Finally, would you wear wood? Low carbon adventure shirts hit the market.
Hoppy Easter. See you Tuesday.
Suzanne Hopkinson, Tree Frog News Editor
The BCTS Review that was launched in January 2025, and co-chaired by Brian Frenkel, Lenny Joe and George Abbott, is nearing an end for public input intake. The BC government describes this initiative as a periodic review to ensure BCTS is evolving in an ever-changing marketplace while meeting its mandate commitments. The reality is that BCTS performance has been seriously impacted over the last few years. This review comes as the Premier seeks to meet his mandated target for a timber harvest of 45 million m3. Raising the BCTS harvest off its historic lows will help the Premier in his drive to 45!
Tariffs could impact efforts to rebuild a former paper mill in Jay that was destroyed in an explosion almost five years ago. Godfrey Wood Products is looking to build a new factory on the property that would manufacture oriented strand board, a type of structural wood paneling. The company says that they have all of the permits they need, but they haven’t been able to move forward with construction because of uncertainty with tariffs. A lot of the equipment they need would come from Europe. “The stated goal of all of this tariff business is to, incentivize domestic manufacturing. Well, hell, I’m trying my level best to become a domestic manufacturer of OSB in Jay, Maine, and it seems like the public policy of the country is trying to thwart that,” said John Godfrey, owner of Godfrey Wood Products.
Timber construction has long been widely used in North America, Scandinavia and Scotland, but has struggled for traction in England — where houses are typically still built by hand out of bricks and blocks. England’s biggest housebuilders are all now pushing to build more with timber. Behind the shift is a worsening shortage of the skilled labour that the industry will need to meet the government’s ambitious target for 1.5mn new homes by 2029, as well as looming environmental regulations that will demand better insulation and less carbon-intensive materials. Industry remains sceptical that this scale of construction can be achieved without financial help for buyers still squeezed by high mortgage rates, or an easing of lending rules. But it also probably lacks the capacity to build at this rate — the highest since the 1960s — without changing how houses are built.
ʔakisq̓nuk First Nation is among communities that have taken a proactive approach to reducing risk ahead of B.C.’s next wildfire season, supported by Indigenous-owned resource management firm Nupqu and $365,000 from the Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC). East of the Nation’s reserve and just north of Fairmont Hot Springs, work will continue through summer and into fall as the ʔakisq̓nuk community collaborates with foresters and the province to treat natural fire fuel and ensure a safer future for locals. It’s become a successful project, first proposed back in 2018. According to ʔakisq̓nuk Chief Donald Sam, fire suppression in these forests for more than a century has challenged and restricted the health of these ecosystems.
A decision by the Supreme Court of British Columbia to reject a $75-million compensation claim made by a logging company that once operated on Haida Gwaii could have reverberations across the province as the government continues its reconciliation efforts with First Nations… A prime example is the $84 million in compensation that the B.C. government agreed to pay MacMillan Bloedel in 1999 after the government created a number of new parks on Vancouver Island. In seeking $75 million in compensation for alleged losses of portions of its logging tenures on Haida Gwaii, however, Teal Cedar Products Ltd., a subsidiary of the Teal-Jones Group, tried to argue something entirely different: that changes to where it could log, how it could log and when it could log amounted to a form of expropriation for which the company should be compensated millions in taxpayer dollars.
Proposed changes to Port Moody’s tree protection bylaw will adjust the requirements for developers and property owners to replace trees, afford greater protection to larger trees and establish a registry for significant landmark or legacy trees. In a report to be presented to council’s city initiatives and planning committee on Tuesday, April 15, Port Moody’s manager of policy planning, Mary De Paoli, said the new rules are consistent with council’s strategic goal to strengthen the city’s urban forest and enhance its natural assets. The revisions come more than five years after some councillors advocated for increased protection of Port Moody’s tree canopy. “It’s such and important part of our climate action plan,” said Coun. Amy Lubik. “It’s critical for keeping our community safe in these extreme climate events.”
A Salmon, Idaho man has pleaded guilty to a seven-count indictment for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period while providing fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters. Kris Bird, 62, pleaded guilty at the end of March to all counts two weeks before trial, with no assurances from the government as to what sentence will be recommended when he goes before a judge with another involved executive in June 2025. The men were indicted after a federal wiretap investigation in December 2023… “The defendant illegally profited from American taxpayer money,” said Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. “The FBI and our partners are committed to rooting out fraud and protecting fair competition in the bidding for government contracts.”
In the months after Hurricane Helene leveled thousands of acres in Pisgah National Forest, John Beaudet and other volunteers cleared downed trees from the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Chopping them up and moving them aside was back-breaking work, but essential to ensuring safe passage for hikers. So he was dismayed to learn that a section of the trail in western North Carolina could remain closed for more than a year because the National Forest Service wants that timber left alone so logging companies can clear it… The fast-track approach to environmental review following Helene has many people concerned that the public isn’t being given any chance to inform the process. According to forest advocates who have been in communication with the Forest Service, the government reportedly plans to announce 15 salvage projects in western North Carolina. Volunteers, scientists, and hikers are asking for transparency in a process they say could prioritize profit over ecosystems.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is proud to join communities, organizations and individuals throughout the state in celebrating trees and forests during Forest Appreciation Week, which runs from April 21 to Arbor Day (April 25) and includes Earth Day (April 22). Forest Appreciation Week is a time to reflect on the importance of urban and rural forests. “Everyone has a role in ensuring that forests continue to serve a vital role in the ecological, cultural and economic health of our state, our local communities and our individual lives,” said Carmen Hardin, DNR Applied Forestry bureau director. 17 million acres of forests cover nearly half of Wisconsin and millions of urban trees provide many benefits; to maintain these many benefits, we need to be good stewards of the forest resources.
Governor Stitt said he’s standing by his firings of staff from the Forestry Service after the March deadly fires. Several fire crews have now called for an independent investigation into what happened and what the state could do better. “It’s tough to believe anything – he’s been fact-checked several times by fire departments and the media and his facts have been incorrect. So right now you just can’t believe anything that comes out of the governor’s office,” said Fire Chief Jason Dobson of the Olive Volunteer Fire Dept. His department was one of the first to share the Change.org petition which called for Governor Stitt’s impeachment… “If the governor can’t fire the head of the forestry, who can?,” said Gov. Stitt.
On 10 April 2025, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was notified of Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget’s (SCA) intention to self-terminate its forest management certification in Sweden as of 1 June 2025, while keeping their forests in the Baltics certified and maintaining the Chain of Custody certification as well as membership in FSC Sweden. We regret this decision, but acknowledge SCA’s continued commitment to FSC, and its openness to finding a solution through engagement with FSC and other stakeholders. FSC, a membership-based organization, is founded on the belief that lasting solutions to complex problems require diverse voices at the table. Our unique three-chamber governance structure brings together environmental, social, and economic interests, ensuring that no single perspective dominates, and that consensus guides our decision making.
After almost a decade of negotiations, the agreements on carbon markets achieved at Cop29 have been broadly seen as a great success. As well as providing the basis for a global trading system, it may also unlock another source of green finance for global south countries. In Baku, important decisions on article 6 of the Paris Agreement were made and adopted. Countries have agreed on the ground framework to implement a global, centrally governed carbon market, widely seen as the successor to the clean development mechanism developed under the Kyoto protocol. There were also agreements on helping to refine the mechanisms allowing carbon trading between countries through voluntary cooperation… Given the uncertainty, carbon markets may provide an alternative vehicle to channel the funding necessary for climate adaptation and mitigation.
Like giant bones planted in the earth, clusters of tree trunks, stripped clean of bark, are appearing along the Chesapeake Bay on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast. They are ghost forests: the haunting remains of what were once stands of cedar and pine. Since the late 19th century, an ever-widening swath of these trees have died along the shore. And they won’t be growing back. These arboreal graveyards are showing up in places where the land slopes gently into the ocean and where salty water increasingly encroaches. Along the United States’ east coast, in pockets of the west coast and elsewhere, saltier soils have killed hundreds of thousands of acres of trees, leaving behind woody skeletons typically surrounded by marsh.
A new study led by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and the Missouri Botanical Garden has uncovered a surprising layer of diversity in tropical forests. Not only are the forests populated by a dizzying number of tree species, but each of those species takes a different approach to chemistry, increasing the array of natural compounds that provide important functions for the plants — and potentially for humans. The research helped clarify the ecological and evolutionary forces that make tropical forests such hotbeds of biodiversity. While the team wasn’t specifically looking for compounds that could be useful for humans, their findings underscore the value of tropical forests as natural factories of plant chemicals that could have important uses in medicine and other fields, said Jonathan Myers, a professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at WashU. “Tropical plants produce a huge diversity of chemicals that have practical implications for human health.”
Last week, Pindstrup – a global supplier of growing media for the horticultural industry – opened a wood fiber plant at its factory in Kongerslev, Denmark. This €4 million investment marks a significant step in Pindstrup’s transition towards a more sustainable future. The company is actively working to reduce the CO2 footprint of its growing media by replacing peat with renewable and circular raw materials. CEO René Gjerding says, “For decades, Pindstrup has incorporated wood fiber into its growing media and has been producing it at our factories in Northern Ireland and Latvia. We are pleased to now bring wood fiber production to our factory in Denmark, using locally sourced, PEFC-certified wood chips. The plant runs on renewable energy, further reducing our CO2 footprint.”
The scale of forest damage caused by recent wildfires in North Gyeongsang is nearly double the amount initially estimated by the Korea Forest Service, according to multiple local governments and authorities on Thursday. A joint investigation conducted by government agencies, including the Korea Forest Service, found that the wildfires that swept across five cities and counties in North Gyeongsang burned close to 90,000 hectares (222,395 acres) of forest. This is a significant increase from the 45,157 hectares that the Korea Forest Service previously announced as the affected area after fire suppression efforts concluded. The actual damage is twice the originally reported figure and nearly four times greater than the forest damage caused by the East Coast wildfires in 2000, which had been considered the worst in the country’s history until the recent disaster.