Daily News for July 18, 2025

Today’s Takeaway

WorkSafeBC surplus spurs debate over possible breaks in forestry premiums

Tree Frog Forestry News
July 18, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

WorkSafeBC surplus spurs debate over possible breaks in forestry premiums. In other Business news: New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt and BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar are open to lumber quotas to end the US trade fight; the US investigates Brazil’s forestry practices; AF&PA warns that EU rules risk $3.5B in exports; and the USDA commits $80M to expand timber markets. Meanwhile: Nova Scotia promises more wood heat and buildings following Northern Pulp’s asset sale; BC Premier Eby shuffles his cabinet; Cascades invests in its Quebec tissue plant; and US single-family housing starts fall while multifamily climbs.

In Forestry/Wildfire news: wilderness groups call for reform on private forest land; Canada partners with Trees for Life on urban planting; Woodlots BC seeks new board members; longleaf pine seed prospects are poor in the US Southeast; the Grand Canyon’s North Rim fire sparks debate on forest health; Sooke, BC’s fire danger rating hits extreme; Mount Hood hikers are ordered to evacuate; and the University of Oregon’s mass timber innovation project earns national recognition.

Finally, the Globe & Mail Editorial Board say it’s time to fight fire with fire in Canada.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Business & Politics

BC’s forests minister open to lumber quotas if it solves U.S. trade dispute

By Mark Page
Today in BC – Black Press
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Ravi Parmar

BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said that if lumber quotas are what is needed to end the decades-old softwood lumber dispute with the United States, then so be it. “It just may be able to address this issue once and for all,” Parmar said. Premier David Eby floated the possibility… and Prime Minister Mark Carney said it could be in the cards. …Parmar acknowledged BC lumber companies might have “differing views” on quotas, but he said it is just one tool. Kurt Niquidet, president of BC Lumber Trade Council did not rule out quotas. “Resolving this long-standing dispute is essential to protecting jobs, supporting communities, and ensuring a stable, competitive future for our forest sector,” Niquidet said. …Regardless of whether Canada puts quotas on the table as part of negotiations, Parmar said Trump could balk. “The president seems to really like tariffs,” Parmar said. “And so he may say, bugger off.”

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WorkSafeBC surplus means big breaks in forestry premiums, but some labour groups cry foul

By Derrick Penner
Vancouver Sun
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada West

B.C.’s employers in forestry-related businesses, sawmilling, stone cutting and oil and gas field servicing could be seen as the biggest beneficiaries of WorkSafeBC’s $2 billion surplus as the corporation proposes cuts to their service premiums approaching 40 per cent or more. WorkSafeBC’s policy is to maintain enough of a surplus “to avoid rate volatility” during economically difficult times. The corporation’s 2024 surplus, however, is equivalent to 141 per cent of liabilities, far more than its 130 per cent target. The corporation says its strong financial position has been helped along by “higher than-required investment returns,” according to WorkSafe’s statement, which is similar to workers-compensation agencies across the country. Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has used its 2024 surplus to issue $4 billion in rebates, over two rounds, to employers and in May, the Workers’ Compensation Board of Manitoba did likewise with $122 million in rebates, which is something the Canadian Federation of Business would like to see.

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Eby reshuffles BC cabinet, switching up heads of housing, public safety and jobs

CBC News
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

David Eby

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s cabinet has been reworked in what Premier David Eby says is a strategic shift in order to focus on jobs and the economy. “The world has changed since the election and since the swearing in of our first cabinet,” said Eby. …Former housing minister Ravi Kahlon takes over as minister responsible for jobs from Diana Gibson, who moves into the citizens’ services role previously held by George Chow. Garry Begg has been ousted as solicitor general and will be replaced by Nina Krieger. Christine Boyle will take over the housing portfolio and her Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation goes to Spencer Chandra-Herbert. The premier says his cabinet will work on the province’s biggest challenges: growing the economy, seizing investment opportunities and strengthening public services.

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Fire at Tatamagouche, N.S., lumber yard under control

By Natalie Lombard
CTV News
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada East

©Truro&Colchester FB

A fire broke out at a lumber yard in Tatamagouche, N.S., Wednesday afternoon. It reportedly started after a piece of equipment malfunctioned and overheated, sparking the blaze. The fire then appeared to spread to some stacked wood and burned through some inventory. Conditions for firefighters were challenging with very warm temperatures. About a dozen fire departments responded, as well as a Department of Natural Resources helicopter, and managed to get the fire under control.

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Province promises more wood heat, wood buildings in wake of Northern Pulp selling off assets

By Taryn Grant
CBC News
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Days after Nova Scotia’s forestry sector was dealt a major blow, the province is promising to use more wood to heat and construct public buildings — although officials deny any connection between the two developments. Two cabinet ministers made the announcement Thursday at Ledwidge Lumber, a sawmill in Enfield, N.S. Public Works Minister Fred Tilley said every government department is being directed to look for opportunities to use wood products that are leftover after trees have been harvested and milled for lumber. The products could include mass timber, wood pellets, biomass and biofuels. Tilley said the move was driven by the province’s desire to become more self-reliant, reduce fossil fuel use and produce more locally-made construction materials. …Meanwhile, lawyers for Northern Pulp were in a British Columbia courtroom on Thursday where they received approval for a plan to extend creditor protection while preparations continue to auction off the outfit’s Nova Scotia assets.

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‘We want to see softwood on the table in these trade talks’: Premier Holt

By Adam Huras
The Telegraph-Journal
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East, United States

Susan Holt

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt says she’s part of a push to see a nearly decade-long softwood lumber standoff end as part of a larger new trade deal with the US. But the premier stopped short of saying whether her government supports the idea of a quota limit,” if that’s what it takes to finally reach a deal. …“The tariffs that are currently in place on softwood lumber are damaging to New Brunswick and the forecast that those tariffs are going to increase significantly has put a real chilling effect on a critical industry for our province.” …New Brunswick’s largest forestry company J.D. Irving, Limited currently pays a duty of 11.68%, while the province’s other softwood producers, including Arbec, H.J. Crabbe & Sons Ltd., Marwood, and Twin Rivers have been assessed a combined rate of 14.54%. The preliminary plans for higher duty rates are set to take effect by September.

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Are we suckers for giving out ‘job creating’ loans like Northern Pulp too easily?

By John DeMont
The Chronicle Herald
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Stop me if you have heard this one before. A company from away lands and makes loud noises about hiring hundreds of people in a job-hungry rural part of Nova Scotia. Government puts up millions of our dollars to bring in a new industry it really doesn’t understand. …Sometimes it works, other times the receivers move in or the multi-nationals move out. Then the recriminations begin. They already have in the 58-year-long saga of Northern Pulp and its predecessor companies which limps to a conclusion in Nova Scotia. This province has had a few successful commercial transplants. …But it is our high-profile failures, like this week’s announcement that Northern Pulp not only wouldn’t build a mill on the South Shore but has started selling off its assets, that seem to stick. …Enough companies have gone bust, sometimes spectacularly so, that they should serve as cautionary tales.

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Cascades invests more than $3.5 million in its Kingsey Falls tissue plant

Cascades Inc.
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Hugues Simon & Jérôme Porlier

KINGSEY FALLS, Quebec — Cascades announced it has recently invested $3,560,000 to upgrade a strategic converting line at its Kingsey Falls tissue plant. The investment involved replacing a packager and bagger with higher-performance equipment, which will result in two major benefits, namely optimizing the bathroom tissue packaging process and increasing productivity. The project is expected to increase the converting line’s production rate at the packaging level by 8% compared to current performance levels, as well as improve overall line throughput, specifically through improved availability and a faster average speed. …This investment exceeding $3.5 million—part of our continuous improvement efforts—demonstrates our commitment to driving our growth,” said Hugues Simon, President and CEO of Cascades. …Opened in 1977, the Kingsey Falls tissue plant currently serves the residential hygiene solutions market. 

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AF&PA Appreciates US Efforts to Address Non-Tariff Trade Barriers

The American Forest & Paper Association
July 14, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON – American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Heidi Brock today reacted to recent US-EU trade negotiations: “We appreciate President Trump and his administration’s efforts to further enhance fair and reciprocal trade with key partners like the European Union. Addressing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers is crucial to ensuring a positive trade relationship for the pulp, paper, packaging and tissue products manufacturing industry. “The EU’s deforestation free regulation (EUDR), which has been identified as a non-tariff trade barrier by the U.S. Trade Representative, risks over $3.5 billion in annual forest products exports to the EU. “We encourage President Trump and his administration to continue working towards a fair and reciprocal trade relationship with the EU that fixes this regulation while improving other aspects of trade for U.S. paper manufacturers.”

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US Trade Representative to investigate Brazil’s trade, ethanol and forestry market practices

By Joe Adamy
Michigan Farm News
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

Is Brazil playing fair when it comes to trade? An investigation launched July 15 by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) aims to find the answer. The Section 301 investigation will seek to determine whether acts, policies, and practices of the Government of Brazil related to a host of trade issues — including ethanol market access and forestry practices — are “unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.” “Brazil has walked away from its willingness to provide virtually duty-free treatment for U.S. ethanol and instead now applies a substantially higher tariff on U.S. ethanol exports,” the USTR office wrote in announcing the investigation. The announcement also said Brazil appears to be failing to effectively enforce laws and regulations designed to stop illegal deforestation — which undermines the competitiveness of U.S. producers of timber and ag products.

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USDA Forest Service Invests $80 Million to Expand Timber Markets, Protect Forests, Fuel Economic Growth

By US Department of Agriculture
Government of the United States
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced the U.S. Forest Service is awarding $80 million in Wood Innovation Grants to spur wood products manufacturing, expand active forest management, and accelerate energy innovation across America’s timber-producing communities. “The United States is blessed with a bounty of natural resources that we must properly manage to sustain our future economy and boost rural communities. Proper forest use and management lowers our reliance on foreign products and is inherently aligned with President Trump’s America First agenda,” said Secretary Rollins. “We’re investing in innovation that ensures a steady, sustainable supply of American wood that not only supports jobs and fuels economies, it protects the people and communities we serve, as well as the forest resources they depend on to survive and thrive.” This investment delivers on President Trump’s commitment to unleashing America’s abundant natural resources by tearing down unnecessary barriers…

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Rado Gazo Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Forest Products Society

By Wendy Mayer
Purdue University
July 17, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US East

Rado Gazo

Dr. Rado Gazo, professor of wood processing and industrial engineering who has been a part of the Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources faculty since 1997, has been named as the 2025 recipient of the Wood Engineering Achievement Award – Lifetime Achievement by the Forest Products Society. “I joined the Forest Products Society as a graduate student in 1990 and have actively participated in various roles ever since,” Gazo said. “While I did not seek this award, now that I have received it, I am very humbled by the recognition of my colleagues and peers.” The Forest Products Society is a premier international not-for-profit technical association founded in 1947. The award recognizes accomplishments and innovations in the discipline of wood engineering including structures, structural elements, building codes, consensus standards, design procedures and education.

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Finance & Economics

US Single-Family Starts Weaken in June but Multifamily Starts Increase More Than Expected

By Robert Dietz, Chief Economist
NAHB Eye on Housing
July 18, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Single-family housing starts declined in June to the lowest rate since July 2024 as elevated interest rates, rising inventories and ongoing supply-side issues continue to act as headwinds for the housing sector. Due to a solid increase in multifamily production, overall housing starts increased 4.6% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.32 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The June reading of 1.32 million starts is the number of housing units builders would begin if development kept this pace for the next 12 months. Within this overall number, single-family starts decreased 4.6% to an 883,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate and are down 10% compared to June 2024. The multifamily sector, which includes apartment buildings and condos, increased 30% to an annualized 438,000 pace.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

University of Oregon-led team named National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines semifinalist

By Thuy Tran, University Communications
University of Oregon
July 16, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West

A University of Oregon-led initiative to revolutionize the mass timber sector in the Pacific Northwest has been selected as a semifinalist in the highly competitive National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program. “This significant step forward for the University of Oregon, and its project to build an even stronger mass timber industry in our state,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. “Mass timber is revolutionizing the construction business with better and safer buildings. The U of O deserves major credit for earning this honor and I am confident it has both the capacity and talent to fully develop the employment and economic benefits of mass timber.” …The NSF Engine: Oregon Mass Timber Innovation Engine, led by principal investigator Judith Sheine, professor of architecture in the UO College of Design and director of design of the TallWood Design Institute, is among just 29 semifinalist teams nationally. 

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Forestry

It’s time to fight fire with fire in Canada

By the Editorial Board
The Globe and Mail
July 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Canada’s premiers met June to talk infrastructure but were distracted by the small matter of the forest fires raging across the West at the time. …Six weeks later, the country is well into one of its worst wildfire seasons ever. …“Suppression alone is no longer adequate to address the growing challenges from wildland fire,“ the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers said in a report last year. ”Wildland fire management in Canada needs to be transformed.” That means creating a national regime of prescribed burns – the deliberate setting of fires under controlled circumstances to reduce the number and intensity of forest fires, and to limit damage to property. It’s a practice that Indigenous peoples in Canada and elsewhere used for millennia to manage their lands. But its use is sharply limited in Canada, mostly because politicians are scared to the point of paralysis by the off-chance that a government-sanctioned burn could get out of control.

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Vancouver Island groups call for forestry reform on private land

By Claire Palmer
CBC News
July 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Dave Weaver

VIDEO STORY: Wilderness advocates on Vancouver Island are calling on the province to reform forest practices on private land. They say conservation is taking a back seat to industrial uses in these areas. As Claire Palmer reports, some say it poses risks to nearby communities.

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Woodlots BC is seeking board members

Woodlots BC
July 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Woodlots BC is looking for people who are passionate about the woodlot program in BC, and have a keen interest in guiding it into the future as a Woodlots BC Board Director. The Board consists of: Seven voting Directors who are all woodlot licence holders and one government appointed non-voting representative (from BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food). Who qualifies: Any woodlot licensee in BC, or in the case of a woodlot licence that is held by a corporation or group (ie: First Nation Bands, communities, school district, non-profit society), a single person approved/appointed by the group representing that woodlot. This person can only represent one woodlot at a time. The WPDC Board aims to: advocate for and ensure the woodlots of BC have a voice and are able to promote themselves … and, guide and govern the WPDC operations team to work for the needs of woodlots in BC.

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Canada Partners With Trees For Life to Grow Southern Ontario’s Urban and Suburban Canopy

Natural Resources Canada
July 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

WHITBY, Ontario — Ryan Turnbull, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance… highlighted a $4-million federal investment for tree-planting projects in urban and suburban areas in southern Ontario. Trees For Life will collaborate with planting partners to plant an average of 24,000 trees annually over five years, for a total of 120,000 trees in communities across southern Ontario. The collaboration with Trees For Life is already ahead of target, supporting the planting of 83,000 trees in southern Ontario with 35,000 trees planted in 2024 and 48,000 trees planted across 40 projects in 2025 to date. This project builds on a successful regional model piloted in the Durham Region. 

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The Longleaf Alliance seeks areas to harvest pine cone crops

By Jennifer Allen
Coastal Review – North Carolina Coastal Federation
July 18, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

©NC Forest Service

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that the cone crop for longleaf pines in the Southeast will be “poor for 2025,” according to the “Longleaf Pine Cone Prospects for 2025”. Because of the anticipated seed shortage … the Longleaf Alliance is scouting for locations to harvest in the fall. Based on observations collected earlier this year … researchers estimate the average for seed-producing cones is 12.4 per tree this fall. The study …defines a good crop as 50 to 99 green cones per tree, a fair crop as 25 to 49, poor as 10 to 24, and a failed crop as less than 10 seed-bearing cones per tree. Once plentiful, the longleaf pine could be found on an estimated 90 million acres in the coastal plains between southeast Virginia to eastern Texas. … [but] demand grew exponentially when the turpentine industry took off, nearly stripping the ecosystem of the native pine. Today, its estimated that there’s around 5 million acres remaining. 

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Wildfire that consumed North Rim ignites tragic debate

By Peterr Aleshire
Payson Roundup
July 17, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

©NationalParkService

ARIZONA — The dawning debate about the wildfire that jumped containment lines and destroyed the iconic, Grand Canyon Lodge underscores the trap that has frozen forest management efforts for half a century. The slow-moving Dragon Bravo fire sudden flared into a monster illustrates the extreme difficulty of restoring forest health after a century of clear cutting. …The National Park Service initially released reassuring bulletins suggesting fire crews would develop fire lines to contain the fire. …Then everything changed, as winds gusting to 40 miles an hour ushered in stormfronts. By July 12, the Dragon Fire had jumped containment lines. …The pattern Is all too familiar to fire ecology experts like ASU professor Stephen Pyne. He argues that… all-out fire suppression had increased tree densities across millions of acres of Northern Arizona from about 50 per acre to more like 1,000 per acre. …Moreover, construction of homes and towns in the most fire-prone landscapes has exploded.

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Forest Fires

Firefighters knock down Sooke brush fire as danger rating soars to extreme

District of Sooke
July 17, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada West

On July 16, 2025, Sooke Fire Rescue responded to a brush fire near Glinz Lake Road and Highway 14. Thanks to the quick action of residents who reported the fire and the coordinated response from Sooke Fire Rescue and mutual aid partners from Metchosin, the blaze was swiftly contained to an area of about 170 square metres – roughly half the size of a 25-metre public swimming pool, like the one at SEAPARC. “We are grateful for the community’s alertness and the dedication of all responding crews,” says Deputy Fire Chief Chris McCrea. “This incident is a clear reminder of the current heightened wildfire hazard. Community awareness and teamwork are critical to keeping Sooke safe.” The fire is believed to be human caused, and the situation highlights the importance of adhering to fire restrictions and practicing extreme caution during the ongoing dry period. The District of Sooke’s fire danger rating is EXTREME.

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New fire on Mount Hood: Sheriff warns remote hikers ‘Leave immediately … Your life could be in great danger’

By Aimee Green
Oregon Live
July 17, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

MOUNT HOOD, Oregon — The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon issued a Level 3 (go now) evacuation order for a new, five-acre wildfire on Mount Hood that was first reported late in the morning about three miles northwest of Timothy Lake. As of 4 p.m., the evacuation order does not affect the campgrounds and trails immediately around Timothy Lake, a popular recreational spot about 90 minutes from Portland. But helicopters are scooping large buckets of water from the lake to suppress the fire. Firefighters on the ground also have started an “aggressive initial attack,” the U.S. Forest Service said. The evacuation order affects a two-mile radius around the much smaller Dinger Lake and includes Anvil Lake and the Anvil Lake Trail 724. The order so far only affects remote campsites and hikers. …Dubbed the Anvil fire, it is burning near Forest Road 5820.

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