This month’s Softwood Lumber Update includes:
Expanding Lumber’s Market Share, City by City: A key element of the SLB’s strategy to achieve 2.9 BBF of incremental annual lumber demand by 2035 is a focus on cities and regions where the potential for conversion to wood construction is highest.
AIA Awards Signal Growing Demand for Wood Design: Education facilities represent a 203 MM BF annual lumber demand opportunity in the SLB’s long-term strategy. At the 2026 AIA Architecture Awards, every Education Facility Design winner featured mass timber.
AWC’s Fire Service Engagement Protects Lumber Markets: Fire service leaders shape how wood construction is understood, accepted, and ultimately used. When equipped with technical information, they become some of the most credible voices for safe wood construction.
WoodWorks Grows Tall Timber’s Long-Term Potential: WoodWorks is supporting more than 200 tall wood projects in design and, over the past year, a tall wood project has broken ground each quarter.
Canada’s nascent mass timber industry escaped a direct hit from the Trump administration… But steep US levies on the wider Canadian forestry sector still present sizable challenges for manufacturers as they chase a global market for engineered wood forecast to grow to more than US$12 billion by 2035. …Engineered-wood products such as CLT and glulam were left off the latest tariff list. Yet the emerging mass timber industry could feel the “broader hit”. “Mass timber does not become mass timber without the raw wood inputs,” said FPAC’s Derek Nighbor. …Canada Wood knows what it takes to develop a market for Canadian lumber products in China and other Asian nations. But CEO Bruce St. John cautioned that shifting exports to markets other than the US will “take years still” and require more than simply shipping Canadian lumber to overseas buyers. …Canada Wood’s Lance Tao noted, Canada’s opportunity in Asia’s engineered wood market is still less about shipping finished “modules” to the region and more about selling lumber to Chinese mass-timber manufacturers.
Urban conversations in North America often seem trapped between competing visions… between detached suburban development, low-scale missing middle housing, and high-rise intensification. An alternative lies in a form of urbanism that has shaped some of the world
Wood is everywhere at Toronto’s Limberlost Place. From tall structural columns to ceilings, walls and stairs, nearly every surface in the airy, three-level central atrium is timber, complete with rustic knots and growth rings. It all feels welcoming and surprisingly intimate. “I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about structures in my entire career,” says architect Phil Silverstein, a partner at Moriyama Teshima Architects, the local firm that designed the new classroom hub for George Brown Polytechnic in collaboration with Vancouver’s Acton Ostry. “People walk through the halls of Limberlost touching the wood. They [even] want to hug a column! There’s something innate about it that excites people.” But all that wood isn’t just about feeling – or looking – good. Part of a wave of new mass timber development, Limberlost Place is a testing ground for a technological revolution that could fundamentally transform Canadian housing and infrastructure.
Federal Way, Washington – Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB) has expanded its 
The Hive at 2150 Keith Drive in Vancouver is one of the most seismically advanced mass timber projects in North America. The building features nine levels of mass timber construction, sitting atop a concrete base, with a honeycomb structure of diagonally oriented braces arranged in a cellular pattern. The building’s design uses a perimeter-braced structural system that creates a striking exterior expression and eliminates the need for conventional cast-in-place concrete cores. A mass timber structure for all floors above Level 2; a series of timber shear walls in the interior and a series of structural braces at the exterior resist the wind and seismic load. Exposed wood is a major feature of the building’s interior design. The use of mass timber is complemented by a palette of earth-toned materials, including composite metal panels, wood soffits and abundant glazing. A perfect pairing for the views of the North Shore mountains and downtown Vancouver skyline.
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Canada’s wood products manufacturers are on the operating table, bleeding out. …The United States has slapped tariffs on foreign steel, aluminum, and automobiles — but many Canadians don’t know the Section 232 and 338 tariffs also target wood products, like furniture and kitchen cabinets. …Those US tariffs have created a two-headed monster. On one side, wood products manufacturers like us have lost meaningful access to our largest export market. On the other, every other country in the world is now scrambling to find alternative buyers for product they can no longer sell into the United States. They found one: Canada. Today, Canada’s warehouses are bursting with cheap imported wood products. …Local manufacturers are prepared to compete globally, but not on an impossibly imbalanced playing field. …The solution is not a subsidy, or more loan programs. We need a short-term provisional tariff now, to bridge the gap between launching an investigation and finding an appropriate longer-term solution.
Certain forces affecting the built environment are beyond human control. …At the same time, increasingly stringent fire- and life-safety requirements have raised expectations for structural systems performing under multiple hazard conditions. For decades, steel and concrete have been the default materials for meeting these demands. However, in recent years, timber construction has emerged as a viable engineered system capable of meeting prescribed wind-load criteria and code-required fire-resistance standards, offering construction professionals a viable solution for mitigating risk and protecting both buildings and occupants. …Heavy timber and mass timber can withstand extreme wind and fire through a combination of material properties and engineered design. Timber’s ductility allows it to absorb and distribute wind forces, while high-wind connectors, hold-downs, and continuous load paths help resist uplift and lateral loads during hurricanes. …Code-recognized fire-resistance design, appropriate member sizing, tested assemblies, and protective materials allow timber systems to meet rigorous life-safety requirements. 
With interest from Big Tech and a new bill before Congress that would expand its use in federal projects, mass timber is on the cusp of a new era of growth. Relatively stable lumber prices that buck the broader trend of increasingly expensive construction inputs are meeting with greater levels of comfort around the material’s use to drive faster adoption after years of cautious incorporation. “There’s a more robust supply chain and we’re getting more experienced,” said Dean Lewis, director of mass timber and prefabrication for Skanska USA. “When you say, ‘I want to use mass timber,’ people aren’t like, ‘What is that?’ They want to know what you want to do with it. The conversation has changed.” Construction using mass timber is expected to grow to a $5.7B market by 2030, with annual growth rates topping 20% to 30%, according to Grand View Research data. [to access the full story a BISNOW subscription is required]
Washington has been developing new wildfire safety regulations for several years, including building codes for homes constructed in risky areas and rules for managing plants and vegetation. But restrictions that affect people’s homes and gardens can be unpopular. After public pushback, state legislators backtracked and repealed some of the requirements. Other Western states have also struggled to pass wildfire regulations affecting homeowners’ properties. …Understanding wildfire risk can be challenging in many Western states. For floods, the federal government releases national maps showing which places are at risk of inundation. Wildfire mapping is left to the states, which involves using complex computer models to determine the chances of a fire based on vegetation, terrain and fire behavior. …Washington state officials say the new wildfire maps will be released in December. …Oregon faced similar pushback while developing its wildfire regulations. …Building codes for housing in wildfire-prone areas were pioneered by California.
NORTH DAKOTA — Eric Hoffer, senior project manager at JLG Architects in Bismarck, North Dakota, says mass timber projects are surging due to updated building codes, regional supply chain advantages and a growing focus on embodied carbon — the emissions from manufacturing and transport. Despite accounting for fewer than 1% of national building projects, mass timber is one of sustainable architecture’s fastest-growing trends, with roughly 20% annual growth. “Mass timber sequesters carbon, which then acts as a carbon sink,” Hoffer explained. …The growth of mass timber construction, including cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam), continues to gain momentum. Project owners are choosing mass timber for a number of reasons, including lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete and steel, faster prefabricated construction, and the warm, natural interior aesthetics it provides. …Some examples of mass timber projects in the region include the Wurth Elektronik Headquarters expansion in Watertown, South Dakota, completed this spring. 
With the US imposing new tariffs on select Canadian exports, North Carolina State University experts warn that the escalating trade war could raise the price and reduce the quality of toilet paper and other tissue products. …Canadian NBSK is a critical raw material in global tissue manufacturing, accounting for roughly 15% to 30% of the fiber blend in premium bath tissue products and 50% to 65% in premium paper kitchen towels. Brazilian eucalyptus fiber makes up the remaining share. Gonzalez said the 50% tariff on Canadian NBSK could raise manufacturing costs for premium toilet tissue by 11% to 20%, while costs for premium paper kitchen towels could increase by 31% to 38%. …“If tissue producers choose to switch to Southern Bleached Softwood Kraft, the softness of premium tissue products will be compromised,” Jameel said. On the other hand, Gonzalez said the tariffs could create an opportunity to use more local fibers for tissue manufacturing, though they are less soft than northern softwood.
MILAN — In a business setting perfect for the moment, Gov. Kelly Ayotte last Friday ceremonially signed into law a bill seen as crucial to the state’s lumber industry, one that puts it on an even playing field with how Canada grades its lumber. Local elected officials, employees and guests gathered at the Milan Lumber Co., for the signing of House Bill 1204, that changes how New Hampshire grades state-grown timber for sale. The change removes an “s” at the end of three other letters, s-p-f, standing for spruce-pine-fir, which is how Canadian lumber is marked. Before the Legislature passed the bill, the state’s lumber was marked as s-p-f-s. The “s” at the end stands for “south,” meaning south of the Canadian border. Removing the extra “s” at the end of New Hampshire milled lumber means it is graded the same as Canadian milled lumber and should be sold at the same price.
The Canada Wood Market Insights has these headlines and more:
Wind turbines are a powerful alternative to fossil fuels, with wind power now accounting for about 10.5% of all utility-scale electricity generated in the United States. In Germany, the combination of wind and solar power has passed fossil fuels as the nation’s top electric generators. But the environmental impact of wind turbines and their massive blades cuts both ways. The blades are generally made of reinforced fiberglass, a material that is strong, light, and durable. They can last 20 to 30 years. But they’re so difficult to recycle that Europe came up with an unexpected new job for old wind turbines: Pedestrian bridge girders. A company in Germany has a solution that could make the recycling process easier. Voodin Blade Technology made 63-foot wind turbine blades from laminated veneer lumber (LVL). It’s not a completely new idea. In the 1980s, NASA approached Michigan boatbuilders Gougeon Brothers about applying their wood-composite techniques to wind turbines.
The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) has launched an international project to develop practical guidance on managing water and moisture risk throughout the lifecycle of mass timber buildings. Funded by the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and Swedish Wood, the project will bring together existing research and industry expertise to produce practical guidance on the design, construction and long-term management of mass timber buildings. With mass timber being adopted in a wider range of building types, the ASBP said practical guidance would help build confidence for the industry and insurance providers. The guidance will build on the success of the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook, published by ASBP and co-authored by Dr Jim Glockling. …the principles of moisture management are governed by universal building physics. The guidance will therefore be developed as an internationally applicable resource, with regional considerations added where appropriate. It is scheduled to be published in October 2026.
AUSTRALIA — Forest & Wood Products Australia released a draft standard for cross laminated timber design to provide a dedicated framework for the structural design of CLT elements. The Standard has undergone independent technical review and provides comprehensive design methods for structural CLT components, subject to the requirements and limitations described in the Scope. Developed through collaboration with industry, researchers and technical experts, the Standard is intended to give architects, engineers and builders a national method for designing cross-laminated timber floors, walls and stairs, under a 46-page document out for comment. …Industry Benefits include consistency across engineering, manufacturing and certification practices; growing use of CLT and mass timber construction in Australia; and an independently reviewed basis for CLT structural design. …The public comment period for this Standard is open for a six-week period to 29 September.
TAIWAN — The Taiwan Forestry Research Institute said it is promoting full utilization of Taiwan’s incense cedar to develop a high-value circular economy for forest resources. Incense cedar is an endemic species of Taiwan and is one of Taiwan’s five major coniferous tree species, the institute said. …While Taiwan incense cedar wood is popular with consumers thanks to its distinctive aroma, surplus materials generated during the process of forest tending, pruning and wood processing are usually used as fuel or disposed of, it said. The institute’s Chiayi Research Center promoted research on the reutilization of Taiwan incense cedar surplus materials at the Yunshui Experiment Station from last year to this year, the institute said. Water distillation was applied to extract Taiwan incense cedar oil from surplus materials, while the remaining materials would be ground into scented powder or made into incense cones, it said.
The EU has introduced new rules targeting packaging waste and “forever chemicals.” Although the changes will be phased in slowly, some small sellers have already paused shipments due to the additional red tape. In a drive to cut waste and improve public health, new 
The first requirements of the EU’s new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) take effect today, August 12. Duni Group is well prepared and welcomes the regulation, which creates a common framework for the European packaging market. 
IRELAND — Timber construction is moving from the margins of Irish residential development to its mainstream. An 
Auburn engineers are working with the U.S. Air Force to redesign deployable military housing using mass timber, with the goal of creating temporary barracks-style structures that can be assembled faster and perform better in cold-weather environments. Led by Auburn Engineering, the project combines structural design, materials testing and prototype development with architecture and building science… Battelle, an applied science and technology organization, is partnering with the Air Force to build prototypes. The work focuses on improving structures traditionally built with light wood-frame construction, similar to conventional residential framing. While effective, that approach can require several days of on-site assembly and additional measures to withstand harsh climates. …Roueche said the Air Force needs temporary housing that can be transported, assembled and occupied quickly. Mass timber gives the team a way to meet that need by shifting more work into prefabrication, reducing on-site assembly time and improving thermal performance for cold-weather deployments.
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — The fourth floor of the new apartment building on Long Shoals Road is designed like the upper levels of countless other rental blocks: A staircase on one end of the floor is connected by a long corridor to another set of stairs at the opposite end. Floor plans with two sets of stairs are mandated by decades-old building-code requirements based on outdated fire-safety concerns. …Eliminating the second-staircase rule would cut construction costs and open up more income–generating living space. …Citing such potential benefits, state Sen. Julie Mayfield, and Sen. Tim Moffitt co-sponsored a bill, that would end the second-staircase mandate for apartment buildings up to 75 feet tall. Firefighting groups oppose the bill, not all local builders are convinced it will be a difference maker, and its progress stalled. …The effectiveness of such features can be seen in New York City and Seattle.