Around the world, we’re celebrating International Day of Forests, and here at Tree Frog headquarters in BC, it’s the first day of Spring! So, wherever you are, take time today to recognize a tree, or plant one, or photograph one! Despite Statistics Canada’s claim that the forest sector’s contribution to the economy has declined, professor Tom Beckley at the University of New Brunswick says, “forestry is still relatively healthy“. 

In Business news: a family-owned sawmill in South Carolina is expanding, Charles Ingram Lumber is creating new jobs and new product lines; US newspapers paying higher taxes thanks to tariffs on Canadian pulp are “baffled” saying, “the Canadian government appears to care more about our jobs than our own US government“; and in Maine, tariffs have US Gov. Paul LePage fired-up, where he has been accused of diverting state-owned logs away from companies critical of his position. 

Finally, while the mass timber masterminds are meeting in Portland, a story today in the Corvallis Gazette-Times reports a CLT failure at Oregon State University where a section of CLT subflooring delaminated and “came crashing down”. We’ll keep you posted.

–Sandy McKellar, Tree Frog Editor