Canada is pushing for a broader US trade deal to resolve long-standing disputes, as Prime Minister Carney rethinks reliance on the US. In related news: Canada’s inflation rates ticks-up to 2.4%; laid off workers at Vanderhoof Specialty Wood Products worry about their future; JD Irving benefits from University of New Brunswick student projects; and DWB Consulting and Chartwell Resource Group rebrand as Kintera.
In Forestry/Wildfire news: a Nova Scotia judge rules against province-wide ban on entering forests — as the province seeks to add value to its fibre; ENGOs say Finland is no longer a model for Quebec forestry; a judge refuses to block Oregon timber sales; US Forest Service research station closures stoke fear as the wildfire season approaches; and a UK study says burning wood for power is worse for the climate.
Finally, a look back at Hurricane Hugo’s billion-dollar 1990 toll on the US timber industry.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
OTTAWA — Ottawa’s temporary suspension of some fuel taxes kicks in today, with Canadians likely to save 10 cents per litre on regular gasoline, and four cents on a litre of diesel. Prime Minister Mark Carney had announced last week a pause on those fuel excise taxes up until Labour Day. The Liberals say this is a prudent way to tame prices at the pumps, at a cost of roughly $2.4 billion. The Conservatives argue this isn’t enough to meet rising energy costs, calling for the pause to extend to the end of the year, as well as an end to clean-fuel standards and the industrial carbon tax. U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to wage a war against Iran alongside Israel has sent global energy costs surging, with Tehran and later Washington constraining certain shipments in the Strait of Hormuz.
Canada-United States Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government wants to resolve trade frictions with the Trump administration as part of a comprehensive agreement, rather than through “one-off” deals. LeBlanc said the irritants U.S. officials raise privately are the same ones they’ve outlined publicly. A recent report by U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s office flagged Canada’s supply-managed dairy system, regulations affecting major US technology firms and other long-standing trade concerns. “If we’re going to resolve some of these issues that Ambassador Greer referred to, Canada is ready and willing to do that work,” LeBlanc said. But he said any progress must come as part of a “larger agreement” that would ease pressure on tariff-affected sectors of Canada’s economy and provide greater certainty around the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement review process. The minister’s comments shine a light on the strategic considerations of the US, Canada and Mexico in the trade discussions.
Vancouver, BC — DWB Consulting Services Ltd. and Chartwell Resource Group Ltd. today announced they are moving forward under a new unified name: Kintera. This rebrand marks a significant milestone in the merger of the two firms, reflecting their shared vision and the next step in their evolution as a single, integrated organization. For decades, DWB and Chartwell have built strong reputations in British Columbia’s natural resource sector—known for making complex challenges understandable and delivering practical, meaningful solutions. Since merging in August 2025, the combined organization has continued to build on that foundation, strengthening its technical capabilities and expanding its service offering. The transition to Kintera reinforces this momentum, positioning the company to deliver enhanced expertise, greater capacity, and increased value to clients across the sectors it serves. Clients can expect the same high level of service, responsiveness, and trusted relationships that have defined both organizations.
Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.4% in March, Statistics Canada said on Monday, as the cost of oil sent fuel prices way up. High prices for energy, especially gas, due to the war in Iran drove inflation higher. Energy prices were 3.9% higher compared to a year ago, and the data agency said March’s 21.2% monthly increase in the price of gasoline was the largest on record. The impact on inflation would have been higher, Statistics Canada noted, if it weren’t being compared to prices from March 2025 that still included the consumer carbon tax, which was dropped in April of last year. Higher fuel costs also impacted the cost of transportation — up 3.7% year over year in March — and helped drive overall inflation higher. …Without the price of gas, the pace of inflation would have risen to 2.2%. Douglas Porter, at the Bank of Montreal, says core inflation was actually milder than expected.
After more than three years of community engagement, expert input and advisory committee work, residents in Coquitlam are left asking a simple question: Why is the city choosing not to include the very measures needed to make its Urban Forest Management Strategy succeed? The draft strategy presents a strong vision and highlights planting programs, volunteerism and monitoring. These are positive steps. But they are not enough. What is missing are the core elements that actually determine whether our urban forest survives and thrives over time. There are no measurable canopy targets to tell us whether we are gaining or losing tree cover. There is no clear alignment with the bylaws that regulate tree removal and development. There is no defined pathway to update the Tree Management Bylaw, which has not been meaningfully revised since 2010. …That is not a plan. It is a deferral. And deferral has consequences.
In a province that is largely carpeted with forests, it is no surprise that timber production has long been a mainstay of Nova Scotia’s economy. Yet recent years have not been kind to the sector. Several major pulp mills have ceased production. …Worsening trade relations with the US have created further headwinds. Yet out of the apparent demise of traditional lumber, some see opportunity for. “Cheap, low-grade pulp was the key to the past,” says Royden Trainor, at the Greenspring Bioinnovation Hub, a public-private partnership working to promote the low-carbon bioeconomy in Nova Scotia. The way forward, he says, is to focus on opportunities where value can be added to forest raw materials. This involves looking towards the fibres that can be used to produce chemical products and advanced materials. Trainor highlights how residues from pulp mills or food processing plants can be used to produce biofuels, biochar and biochemicals.
The U.S. Forest Service’s plan to close scores of research stations could threaten the nation’s wildfire readiness, many foresters fear, and erode decades of work to understand timber production, soil health, pests and diseases, watersheds and wildlife. …It’s unclear how many scientists will be affected by the transition, but it comes as part of a larger agency reorganization that is expected to move roughly 5,000 employees to new outposts. …The Forest Service has not said how much money it expects to save by closing the research stations. Many Western leaders are skeptical that the consolidated operation will be able to replicate the work of the existing research stations. …Forest Service veterans say its research program is valued by loggers and tree-huggers alike. “Nobody was asking for this,” said Robert Bonnie, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment during the Obama administration. “There was no call to do anything like this.”
Five years ago, a tragic and depressing environmental story unfolded when thousands of giant sequoia trees, an iconic California species that tower 300 feet high and can live for 3,000 years, were killed during multiple large wildfires that roared across the southern Sierra Nevada. The fires in 2020 and 2021 at Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest and other areas burned with unprecedented intensity, killing nearly 20% of the world’s giant sequoias, and exposing the growing vulnerability of the most massive trees on the earth. …After the fires, stunned scientists, park managers and environmental groups formed a partnership to reduce the chances of similar catastrophic outcomes in the years ahead. Now, with another summer fire season looming, they say they are making encouraging progress. Since their efforts began in 2022, the partnership has thinned the overgrown brush and small trees that provide fuel for fires to burn hotter in 44 of the 94 giant sequoia groves in California.
A federal judge has refused to halt logging operations on a Southwest Oregon forest project that allows more than 8,000 acres of commercial timber harvest. Though a lawsuit has raised “serious questions” about errors in the environmental analysis of the Last Chance Project, those problems don’t rise to the level of warranting a preliminary injunction, said U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has authorized several timber sales to implement the Last Chance Project, which the agency finalized last year to reduce excessive forest stand density and provide a sustained log supply. Three environmental non-profits … filed a complaint alleging the project would harm the threatened spotted owl and the northwestern pond turtle, a sensitive species, contrary to several federal laws. The BLM has acknowledged there’s a discrepancy among its environmental reports about the acreage of spotted owl critical habitat that is slated for treatment.
Louisiana’s timber industry is at a critical turning point. For generations, forestry has been one of the economic backbones of our state, especially in north Louisiana. Families like mine have built their livelihoods around logging, trucking and land management. But today, that foundation is weakening — not because our forests are failing, but because our markets are. Over the past several decades, Louisiana has lost a significant portion of its wood-using infrastructure. Mill closures across north Louisiana have reduced demand for fiber, leaving a growing supply of timber without a market. While our forests continue to thrive and produce, the outlets that once supported them have steadily disappeared. …Expanding markets like pellet-to-power could help restore demand for low-grade timber, which is essential to keeping logging operations viable. These industries have the potential to sustain hundreds of jobs, increase fiber demand and bring new economic activity to rural parishes.
UK — Burning wood for power generation can be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are captured and stored,