It’s home building season and lumber prices are plunging due to ailing demand and over supply. In other Business news: JD Irving presents plan for $1.1B Saint John’s pulp mill upgrade; Manitoba will create 20-year forestry plan with three First Nations; and two BC First Nations chiefs say the province’s permit process is handcuffing industry. Meanwhile: positive timber stories thanks to BC’s Mass Timber Demonstration Program; an Oakland, California developer; the Insurance Journal; and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In Forestry/Wildfire news: Chief Randy Moore updates US Forest Service’s hiring & retention plan; federal judges rule on logging and road building in two of Montana’s National Forests; BC moves to protect 300 hectares of old-growth at eight sites; controversy in Oregon State University’s research forest; and Arizona attacks wildfire that forced evacuations near Phoenix.

Finally, BC wildfire ecologist Bob Gray opines on the need to rethink wildfires.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor