Daily News for April 10, 2026

Today’s Takeaway

Thank you for visiting the Tree Frog Forestry News

The Tree Frog Forestry News
April 10, 2026
Category: Today's Takeaway

Hello early bird! We just want you to know that the news team is busy adding stories to this page. Be sure to check back at 9:00 am (PST) for the full line up of articles.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Special Feature

Next Generation Panel Sees Opportunity Amid Complexity at COFI 2026

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

A panel of three emerging forestry leaders offered a ground-level perspective on the sector’s challenges and opportunities at the 2026 COFI Convention, in a session moderated by Natalie McGladrey, Strategic Business Advisor at Canfor. The panelists were Anna McNally, Manager of Cedar Sales at Western Forest Products; Georgina Clarke-Magnus, RPF and Planning Forester at A&A Trading Ltd.; and Mark Roller, RPF and General Manager of Woodlands at Sinclar Group Forest Products. Each described arriving in forestry by a non-linear path — Clarke-Magnus through urban roots and a pivot from psychology, Roller after a carpentry career in Alberta and a formative canoe trip with a forester father-in-law, and McNally after arriving from Ireland and taking a reception position at Western Forest Products that turned into a decade-long career. All three cited the people in the sector and the complexity of the work as what keeps them engaged.

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Mayors Panel Calls for Champions, Civic Engagement and a Return to Honest Dialogue on Forestry

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Three BC mayors brought a community perspective to the 2026 COFI Convention in a panel moderated by Karen Brandt, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Partnerships at Mosaic Forest Management. The panelists were Leonard Krog, Mayor of Nanaimo; Brad West, Mayor of Port Coquitlam; and Maria McFadden, Mayor of Castlegar. The session ranged across polarization, public communications, civic engagement, land use, and what local governments need from the forestry sector to be effective advocates. Each mayor was asked to open with their biggest concern about the state of the sector and their hopes for it a decade out. West said his primary concern is that residents of Metro Vancouver are entirely unaware that mill closures have any material impact on their lives — that they do not connect the health care, education, and public services they rely on to the forestry workers who help fund them. Without that awareness, he said, the political conditions for meaningful action will not develop.

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BC Forest CEOs say Fibre Access, Land Certainty and Regulatory Reform Are Urgent — Not Optional

By Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Four of BC’s leading forest sector CEOs delivered a frank and at times sobering assessment of the industry’s current state at the 2026 COFI Convention, telling delegates that conditions are among the most difficult any of them have encountered in careers spanning more than three decades. The session, moderated by Bridgitte Anderson, President and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, brought together Susan Yurkovich, President and CEO of Canfor; Sean McLaren, President and CEO of West Fraser; John Mohammed, President and Owner of A&A Trading Ltd.; and Steven Hofer, President and CEO of Western Forest Products. The panel was structured around questions, with the CEOs offering distinct perspectives shaped by their different roles across the sector’s value chain. …On current operating conditions, the panelists were unified in their assessment. Hofer said this is the most challenging business environment for a BC forest products company he has encountered in 33 years. …Yurkovich said BC used to be the last company standing in a downturn — with well-placed fibre, excellent sawmills, and skilled workers. That has changed. BC is now the first down.

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Public Opinion Researcher Bruce Anderson Sees Policy Window Opening for BC Forestry

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bruce Anderson, Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at Spark Advocacy, delivered the luncheon keynote at the 2026 COFI Convention under the session title “View from Ottawa: Navigating the New North,” offering delegates a public opinion researcher’s read on the state of Canadian politics, the national mood, and what both mean for the forestry sector. The session was moderated by Zara Rabinovitch, Vice President of Sustainability and Public Affairs at COFI. Anderson, who has worked with the forestry sector since the mid-1990s and described the past year as the most significant period of change he has observed in four decades of public affairs work, organized his remarks around three themes: the shift in Canada’s political life, the mood of the public, and what he called the forest and the trees — his observations on where forestry sits in the current federal landscape. On federal politics, Anderson said Canadians have moved decisively away from performative politics toward a demand for serious leadership and serious solutions.

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Minister Parmar Outlines Working Forest Vision, Commits to Structural Shift as Sector Presses for Fibre Flow

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

BC Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar used his address at the 2026 COFI Convention to lay out what he described as the key objectives that will define his work as minister over the coming months — anchored by a vision for a working forest that moves British Columbia away from the permit-by-permit, boom-and-bust model that has defined the sector for decades. The session, moderated by COFI President and CEO Kim Haakstad, also included Deputy Minister of Forests Makenzie Leine, who joined the stage for a question-and-answer period that drew heavily from audience submissions and covered tenure obligation costs, BCTS reform, DRIPA, and the immediate challenge of moving fibre. …Parmar said his job is to work with industry and all British Columbians to chart a path that delivers good-paying, family-supporting jobs, and that he is unapologetic about that work. He identified six key objectives that will guide his ministry: defending forestry jobs and the communities that depend on them; building a competitive value-added forest economy; creating healthier, more resilient forests to protect communities from wildfire; forging partnerships to compete in global markets; and protecting watersheds, biodiversity, and wildlife through responsible stewardship.

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Central 1 Chief Economist Sees Slowing Growth, Persistent Uncertainty Ahead for BC and Canada

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Bryan Yu, AVP and Chief Economist at Central 1 Credit Union, opened the 2026 COFI Convention’s macroeconomic outlook session by telling delegates that Canada and BC are navigating what he described as an era of poly-crises — with a Middle East conflict, ongoing trade pressures, and structural domestic weaknesses all converging simultaneously. His assessment was cautious across virtually every major indicator, with forestry among the sectors he identified as facing both immediate and longer-term headwinds. Yu said the Middle East conflict, now in its sixth week at the time of his address, had driven oil prices sharply higher reflecting the significance of the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint for roughly 20% of global oil supply. A ceasefire had briefly pushed prices down by approximately $20 in a single day, but Yu said the world is already in a different place than it was six weeks ago. Higher oil prices, he said, are here to stay in the near term and are inflationary, though he was clear this is not a hyperinflationary environment comparable to 2008-09 or the period following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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Regional Chief Teegee Calls for Full DRIPA Implementation, Warns Against Negotiating Through Media

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the BC Assembly of First Nations used his opening keynote address at the 2026 COFI Convention to deliver a frank assessment of the current state of the relationship between First Nations and the provincial government — describing it as being at a very low point — and to issue a clear call for the full implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, rejecting what he characterized as a proposal to suspend it in all but name. Teegee, who is serving his third term as Regional Chief and has been in the role for nine years, opened by acknowledging the broader economic context facing the sector. He cited 15,000 jobs lost in BC since 2022 and 21 permanent or indefinite mill closures since 2023, and noted that fibre supply constraints are reducing economic viability at the same time that regulatory complexity and costs are increasing. He said the current pressures are structural changes putting pressure on every part of the system, but that moments of pressure test whether governments stay grounded in sound policy and cohesive strategy. Challenges, he said, should not be used to justify decisions that create more instability in the long term.

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Federal Government Pledges Partnership in Forest Sector Transformation, Announces $4 Million for BC-Based Project

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 10, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Corey Hogan, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, delivered the federal government’s address at the 2026 COFI Convention Thursday morning, telling delegates that Canada’s forest sector stands at a genuine moment of transformation — and that the federal government intends to be an active partner in navigating it. Representing the riding of Calgary Confederation and serving on the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Hogan outlined more than $2 billion in federal measures announced since April 2025 and made a new $4 million funding announcement tied to a BC-based company. …NRCan’s Investments in Forest Industry Transformation, known as IFIT — Hogan announced $4 million for Atlas Engineered Products, a BC-based company building a new robotics-enabled wood components manufacturing facility in Clinton, Ontario. The facility is designed to improve precision, reduce material waste, and produce engineered structural components intended to accelerate housing construction timelines across Canada. Hogan described it as exactly the kind of project the government wants to see more of.

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COFI 2026 Convention Opens with Call for Collective Action on Forestry’s Future

Kelly McCloskey, Editor
Tree Frog Forestry News
April 9, 2026
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

The 2026 BC Council of Forest Industries Convention opened Thursday morning at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver with a welcome session that set a clear tone for the two days ahead — forestry as both an industry under pressure and a source of solutions to some of British Columbia’s most pressing challenges. The session was anchored by Greg Stewart, President of Sinclar Group Forest Products and Chair of the COFI Board of Directors, who noted the convention was sold out. Speakers also included a territorial welcome from Squamish Nation Forestry Specialist Brian George, a civic address from City of Vancouver Councillor Lisa Dominato, and opening remarks from Kim Haakstad, President and CEO of COFI.

…Stewart followed with his own remarks as COFI Board Chair, framing the sector’s history and its current stakes in direct terms. …He warned that losing or significantly reducing the forestry sector would remove benefits well beyond economics: community viability, the infrastructure needed to maintain forest health and mitigate wildfire risk, and the skilled workforce that underpins both. His call to delegates was explicit — to take the conference theme to heart, listen closely to each panel, and consider what each person could do within their own operations, with colleagues, and in their communities. Haakstad closed the welcome session by describing “Forestry is a Solution” not only as the conference theme but as a province-wide campaign involving more than a dozen organizations representing communities, workers, and the full forest value chain.

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Business & Politics

Mercer Bonds Sink as Pulp Firm Seeks to Strip Lender Protections

By Reshmi Basu
Bloomberg Markets
April 9, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, International

Mercer International’s bonds slumped after it sought to ditch rules requiring equal treatment for all creditors — a move that would give the struggling pulp producer the power to pick and choose which lenders to favor in a restructuring. The company asked owners of its bonds due in 2028 and 2029 to remove a provision that forces it to pay all lenders equally when it seeks to strike a debt deal, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Separately, a group of Mercer’s creditors has organized in anticipation of debt talks with the company and plans to sign a cooperation pact binding them to act together. …Mercer is grappling with weak earnings and dwindling cash flow that’s left it struggling under the weight of its debt, which stood at about $1.6 billion at the end of last year. S&P Global Ratings downgraded the firm to CCC+ in February.

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Half of Russia’s forest companies could face bankruptcy by end-2026

The Lesprom Network
April 9, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

Russia’s forest industry warns that up to 50% of companies could shut by the end of 2026 as lower export prices, higher transport costs and a strong ruble push producers deeper into losses. Regional lawmakers and industry participants ask First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov to approve a three-year moratorium on creditor-initiated bankruptcy cases in the sector, along with tax deferrals and a pause on debt collection for liabilities accumulated by January 1, 2026, Russian Kommersant newspaper reports, citing a committee of the Arkhangelsk regional assembly. The draft says even large companies in the region have exhausted their financial reserves, are operating at a loss and are starting to miss tax and other mandatory payments. It puts total sector losses over the past three years at more than 15 billion rubles. State support for exporters also drops sharply, with compensation for forest export costs falling from 7.6 billion rubles in 2023 to 550 million in 2026.

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Forestry

Criminal contempt charges approved for Walbran protesters

By Roxanne Egan-Elliott
Victoria Times Colonist
April 9, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Charges of criminal contempt have been approved for 10 people accused of breaching an injunction by blocking a Walbran Valley logging road. The charges were approved in 10 of 13 cases involving protesters who set up blockades in the area last year to prevent logging of old-growth trees. Those arrested initially faced civil contempt of court charges for the alleged breaches of the injunction. But forestry company Tsawak-qin Forestry Limited Partnership, which has rights to log in the area, asked the attorney general of B.C. in January to take over the proceedings and determine if there is enough evidence to charge those arrested with criminal contempt. …The lawyers said that if those charged plead guilty, the Crown would seek sentences ranging from a $2,250 fine to 10 days in jail, depending on whether they used devices to impede their arrest and the complexity and risk involved in those devices.

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Conservation groups hold public meetings on Oregon forest protections after feds won’t

By Alex Baumhardt
Oregon Public Broadcasting
April 9, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Before issuing sweeping protections on more than 30% of U.S. Forest Service-managed lands in 2001, federal officials spent more than a year holding 600 meetings across Western states and received more than 1.6 million public comments. …But federal officials have not held a single public meeting since they announced in August an effort to terminate the 2001 Roadless Rule, which prohibits road construction, logging and mining on roughly 60 million acres of public land, including about 2 million acres of forests in Oregon. …Instead, U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas — a Democrat representing Oregon’s Willamette Valley and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee’s forestry subcommittee — and several conservation groups led by the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club are taking up the mantle. …The U.S. Department of Agriculture has so far opened a single three-week comment period since its leader, Brooke Rollins, proposed terminating the rule in August.

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Study finds Tasmanian native forest logging increases potential for more severe bushfires

By Madeleine Rojahn
ABC News, Australia
April 10, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Scientists have analysed satellite images of bushfire damage and found that regrowth eucalypt forest is much more flammable than mature forest, which act as “natural fire breaks”. …David Bowman, a professor of pyrogeography who co-authored the study, said the findings supported earlier research suggesting younger trees were more flammable due to their denser canopies. Professor Bowman said this raised concerns around community safety and the sustainability of the state’s timber industry. …Suzette Weeding, from the state-owned producer Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), said she acknowledged Dr Bowman’s study and the importance of continued bushfire research, but noted multiple factors shaped bushfire risk. …Professor Bowman said this was true due to mature trees acting as natural fire breaks, but fire-risk could arise when large landscapes were made up of regrowth.

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