Chris Gruenwald

Mission’s forestry director says the city’s tree farm license is “well positioned” with potential increased tariffs looming. “We don’t have a huge cut,” forestry director Chris Gruenwald said. “It’s big for us but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not huge. So I’m confident we can weather the storm.” However, Gruenwald says there are a number of challenges on the horizon. …Mission forestry doesn’t sell timber directly to buyers in the United States but Gruenwald says a “big chunk” of the product goes south of the border. It’s sold to local buyers who then ship the timber. “It’s another challenge for us. It seems there’s lots of negativity but at the end of the day, we have a very secure, high-quality supply of timber within our tree farm license and that’s not going to change. So I think we just have to ride some of this out and see where it goes,” he said.