Citing soft demand, LP Building Solutions will indefinitely curtail OSB production at its Jasper, Texas mill. In related news: Australia clears Kimberley-Clarke’s acquisition; Canadian housing shows signs of recovery, and US construction spending fell in July. In US-Canada Trade War news: Nanaimo forest companies brace for new tariffs; former US Trade Rep. Robert Zoellick says Trump’s threats are self-defeating; Bloomberg’s editorial board says the war serves “no intelligible purpose”; Arizona senator Ruben Gallego calls for a return to CUSMA; and Canada’s counter tariffs pressure Trump-supporting states.
In Forestry news: BC’s wildlife need an endangered species law; debate continues over BC’s wolf culls and caribou habitat; forestry contractors urge BC to expand thinning; a US Forest Service document warns of Roadless Rule impacts; a lawsuit challenges logging in Alaska’s Tongass, and a former supervisor criticizes the USFS reorganization. Meanwhile: International Pulp Week announces its 2027 conference; PLIB launches an online grader training course; the CWC is looking for a sustainable wood specialist; and why Canada’s private working forests are an essential long-term partner in securing Canada’s future fibre supply.
Finally, Canada’s iconic water bombers are in high demand, but production can’t keep up.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
The complete index of American products subject to Canadian retaliatory tariffs on September 8 include more than 600 different entries. Searching for patterns can drive you to madness. Butterfly nets will be hit with a 50 percent tariff. So will eye make-up preparations and fish egg incubators. …When asked about the decision-making process, industry minister Mélanie Joly said some goods are meant to hurt Trump-supporting states, though she declined to say which. …States with Republican senators, such as Maine, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Texas, all have substantive trade relationships with Canada—and are considered possible battleground states. Some experts are calling the issue “a political trap for Republicans,” with Democrats already seizing on the matter as a talking point. Here’s a look at some of the red states vulnerable to Canada’s new round of tariffs and the industries that may feel the most hardship.
One of the world’s closest trading relationships is about to break down at enormous cost to both countries — and for no intelligible reason. …Canadian Prime Minister Carney suggested the US made unacceptable last-minute demands, including measures that would “compromise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine our key industries.” US Trade Representative Greer said Canada inexplicably turned its back on improvements that would’ve made a good deal for both sides even better. That claim was hardly credible. This White House has shown no interest in mutual advantage. …American voters, on the other hand, may be unwilling to bear any burden merely to show Canada who’s boss. …US businesses are puzzled too. Many American companies have supply-chains tightly linking domestic and Canadian operations. …But it isn’t too late to step back. Washington should revert to the terms in play before the talks collapsed. …If the worst happens, who are Americans heading to the polls in November going to blame?
Nanaimo is bracing for the impacts the implementation of the 50% tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian goods that came into effect on Aug. 22 will have on the local business community. Julie Sperber, the new CEO of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce said… it’s clear that many of the region’s forest companies are going to take a big hit. …“Companies like the Harmac Pacific pulp mill won’t be affected as much because much of their products go to Asia, but Coastland Wood Industries are feeling the impacts of US tariffs for the first time.” Secondary-wood products like veneer sheets have been explicitly targeted for the first time. Doug Pauze, president of Coastland, said the company has scaled back production. …Sperber said officials from Western Forest Products and Mosaic Forest Management have planned meetings with government members in Victoria to discuss strategies to deal with the tariffs.
Prince George city council voted to send a letter to the federal jobs minister asking her to extend temporary employment insurance program for forestry workers in response to the impending closure of Northwood Pulp Mill at its Monday, Aug. 31 meeting. A report written by intergovernmental relations senior advisor Annie Doran and submitted by Coun. Garth Frizzell in his role as chair of the Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs said that in the wake of the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade war, the federal government instituted several temporary measures, including: Waiving the waiting period for all new claims; Suspending the allocation of separation earnings like vacation pay, severance pay and more; and Increasing the number of weeks that long-tenured workers can received benefits to a maximum of 20. These benefits were implemented on March 30, 2025 and are expected to end on Oct. 10, 2026.
Canadian home resales have been on a winning streak since April, inventory has levelled off, and prices appear to be stabilizing or at least falling more slowly. We see room for further gradual progress ahead as improved affordability and brightening job prospects shore up confidence, increasingly unlocking pent-up demand and slowly draining piled up inventory. But, the path is unlikely to be smooth or uniform across the country. The prolonged market correction in Ontario and BC will take time to heal. And, more resilient regions have little upside left amid stable or rising interest rates and stagnant population growth. …We project home resales and the benchmark price index to fall -3.6% to 453,200 units and -2.3% to $794,200, respectively, this year mainly reflecting weakness this winter and early spring. Recovery will become more visible by 2027 when we forecast transactions to grow 6.7% to 483,600 units, and the benchmark value edges higher by 0.8% to $800,700.
Construction spending during July 2026 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,157.6 billion, 0.5 percent below the revised June estimate of $2,167.7 billion. The July figure is 3.8 percent below the July 2025 estimate of $2,242.6 billion. During the first seven months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,244.6 billion, 3.5 percent below the $1,289.7 billion for the same period in 2025. …Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,614.2 billion, 0.5 percent below the revised June estimate of $1,622.9 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $859.0 billion in July, 1.3 percent below the revised June estimate of $870.6 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $755.2 billion in July, 0.4 percent above the revised June estimate of $752.4 billion.
CAPITAL REGION, New York — Starting next week, Canadian retaliatory tariffs are taking effect. The tariffs are up to 50% on American products. The tariffs are projected to impact $20 billion worth of American goods; materials like lumber, steel, and dairy could be the hardest hit. We see data coming out of the Fed that shows that 90% of the costs of tariffs are passed along to, you know, U.S. businesses and consumers,” said Justin Wilcox, of Upstate United. “That’s having an impact on people’s pocketbooks at a time when they can least afford it.” …The National Association of Home Builders predicts a $10,000 to $14,000 increase per home. …According to an April 2026 report from the New York State Comptroller, Canada is the state’s most significant trading partner. In 2025, exports to Canada declined by $3.8 billion due to tariffs.
Federal Way, WA – Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB) has launched Light Framing, its third online grader training course and the second of a planned three-course syllabus designed to provide comprehensive grader training based on the National Grading Rule for Dimension Lumber (NGR). Light Framing is based on the in-mill grader training PLIB has offered for decades. To replicate the live training experience, PLIB’s online courses offer a wide range of learning activities, making extensive use of images, video captured from in-mill scanners and instructional videos led by PLIB’s experienced grading supervisors. The ultra-realistic learning environment helps users recognize and accurately measure and assess every grade-defining characteristic. …Light Framing is the third grader training course offered at PLIB’s online Learning Management System. Foundations of Lumber Grading, … was released earlier this year and STUDS was launched last month. A fourth course, Structural Light Framing and Joists & Planks, will be launched in the coming weeks, completing the NGR curriculum.
Canada is having an important conversation about the future of its forest sector. Fibre supply is tightening. Mills and communities face growing uncertainty. Wildfires, insects, conservation pressures, changing forest conditions and intensifying trade tensions are reshaping the economics of forestry. At the same time, governments are looking for ways to attract investment, improve productivity and strengthen rural economies. In that conversation, one of Canada’s significant forest resources has too often remained in the background: privately owned working forests. That is beginning to change. When Mark Carney announced the Canadian Forest Sector Transformation Task Force in November 2025, Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) saw an opportunity to challenge the traditional boundaries of Canada’s forest policy. When we presented to the Task Force in February and submitted recommendations in March, our message was straightforward: Canada cannot build a stronger, more competitive and resilient forest sector while leaving private forests and forest owners at the margins.
The end of wildfire season is beginning to fizzle as the B.C. Wildfire Service is nudging open the gates a little bit and allowing category one fires today. The combination of current and future forecasts, recent precipitation and improved overnight recoveries has reduced the need to prohibit campfires in the Southeast Fire Centre region. “The B.C. Wildfire Service takes several factors into account before rescinding prohibitions,” noted the BCWS in a statement. “This includes balancing the needs of the public with the need to mitigate the risk of human-caused wildfires.” As of noon, category one campfires will be permitted throughout the Southeast Fire Centre — which includes the Rocky Mountain Natural Resource District and the Selkirk Natural Resource District — and all non-municipal land across the Regional District of Central Kootenay. However, there are rules involved. A category one campfire must be set in accordance with section 20 of the Wildfire Regulation…
Canada’s last wild spotted owl was known as Skalula. …No official announcement was made when Skalula disappeared in 2023, the year after her mate died. …To this day, neither the provincial nor the federal government has publicly acknowledged the disheartening truth: the northern spotted owl, which nests only in old-growth forests, has gone extinct in Canada’s wild. …How did we so miserably fail the spotted owl? …B.C. is Canada’s most biodiverse province, meaning that it has the greatest variety of life. But the number of species at risk of extinction in the province — a key measure of biodiversity loss — is steadily climbing. …Chris Johnson, the chair-elect of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, says that the only way to help many struggling wildlife species is for the B.C. government to enact endangered species legislation. …Today, almost 500 species in B.C. are endangered, meaning they could soon be lost if nothing is done.
The Wrangell Ranger District has recently wrapped up a large goshawk survey to prepare for potential timber sales. There is a push to increase logging on federally managed lands in Alaska following the 2025 presidential order to “unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.” Ahead of any logging operation, there are a variety of wildlife surveys required before anything can be cut, including these goshawk surveys. …Cooper Freeman, the Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity said that, with renewed push for logging in the second Trump administration, there has been an increase of surveys, but that he did not think the survey methods were very effective at locating the hawks. “So it’s quite likely that many goshawks, if they’re there, would go undetected, and logging would harm the birds.”
Oregon environmental groups are worried that dropping the so-called Roadless Rule, recently proposed by the Trump Administration, will increase fire risk and harm wildlife, drinking water and the recreation economy. The proof, they say, is in the documents produced by the U.S. Forest Service. Other groups say those concerns are overblown and that removing the rule will result in better forest management. …The draft environmental impact analysis — produced by the Forest Service — laid out several risks of removing the Roadless Rule. It acknowledges that road density is linked to human-caused wildfires. …Removing the rule could also trigger a loss of $9 million a year in visitor spending for nearby communities, the environmental analysis said, due to changes in landscape or loss of recreation opportunities caused by future construction. …The American Forest Resource Council, a timber advocacy group, said many of the concerns are overstated because rescinding the Roadless Rule won’t automatically result in new roads or logging.
Two environmental conservation groups and a Southeast Alaska tribe have filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service, challenging a logging project just east of Ketchikan. The Forest Service announced in July that it would move forward with the South Revilla Integrated Resource Project, a plan that includes harvesting over 5,000 acres of trees, mostly old growth, in the Tongass National Forest. …The complaint alleges that the project’s logging of old-growth trees will harm subsistence and recreation resources. It also highlights potential impacts to wildlife, the ecosystem and the economy. The suit lists several defendants, including the Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It also lists Forest Service Region 10 Acting Regional Forester Jeremiah Ingersoll and the Tongass National Forest Acting Forest Service Supervisor Janelle Crocker. The Forest Service could not immediately be reached for comment.
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to suspend a commercial logging project in southern Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, finding the agency’s approval of the project under President Joe Biden violated the Endangered Species Act. Despite the agency’s own preliminary assessment showing an endangered bat species lived in the roughly 70-acre area targeted for the tree thinning project, the Forest Service did not wait for an official opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to approve the project. Environmental groups sued, but by the time the judge issued a temporary restraining order halting the project last summer, a logging company had already cut down trees in 40 of the 67 acres. Separately, the Trump administration this summer has moved to change two federal rules, including one weakening the Endangered Species Act, making it easier to approve projects like logging, mining, oil and gas drilling and other development in federal lands and forests.