Canada and the US are digging in after trade talks broke down and a new round of tariffs took effect. President Trump threatened still higher tariffs on Canada; Prime Minister Carney said Canada walked away because the US asked too much; and US Trade Representative Greer blamed Canada. Meanwhile: the WSJ says the dumbest trade war ever just got dumber; the United Steelworkers say Canada should hold the line; Canadian and American businesses are assessing the fallout, and FPAC’s Derek Nighbor opines on what Canada’s forest sector needs to survive. In other Business news: Ken Kalesnikoff says Canadian forestry is in free fall; CPKC electrical workers’ strike has ended; and more on Domtar’s work stoppage on BC’s Sunshine Coast.
In Forestry news: Mosaic installed wildfire-detection cameras on Vancouver Island; Nova Scotia is proposing a new wilderness area; Oregon receives $15M from the US Forest Service; a Montana fuels-reduction project is moving ahead, the Roadless Rule rollback continues to draw opposition, and a Washington judge upheld larger riparian buffers on timberlands. In Wildfire news: crews continue battling major fires in BC, near Boston Bar, Lillooet, and Summerland; and a wildfire near Reno, Nevada forced thousands to evacuate.
Finally, European wildfires are uncovering—and detonating—bombs left from WW I and II.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
President Trump on Monday hit back at Canadian Prime Minister Carney, who on Friday had announced he would retaliate against any new US tariffs on Canadian goods. Writing on Truth Social, Trump threatened to hit imported cars, trucks, automobile parts and steel with 50% tariffs starting January 1, 2027. “Canada has been ripping off the US for years,” Trump wrote. “On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with.” Canada ranks as the third highest source of US imports. In 2025, more than $380 billion worth of goods were brought over the border. Monday’s announcement follows a wave of new tariffs that already hit Canada early Saturday morning after weeks-long negotiations between the Washington and Ottawa broke down. Carney pulled Canadian negotiators out of those talks late Friday after he said the US “proposed new terms that were uneconomic” and “unfair.”
TORONTO – United Steelworkers union (USW) National Director Marty Warren issued the following statement on the suspension of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations and the imposition of new 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods: “Canada was right to hold the line rather than accept a deal that did not adequately protect Canadian workers, jobs and communities. We have said throughout these negotiations that no deal is better than a bad deal. The terms being discussed – including significant tariffs and restrictive quotas on Canadian steel and barriers across other key sectors – raised serious concerns for Canadian workers and industries. The new needless 50% tariffs coming into force today will have real consequences for workers, businesses and communities on both sides of the border. We support the government’s commitment to respond dollar for dollar, but retaliation alone is not enough. Ottawa must move quickly to support affected workers and industries. 
US companies that export to Canada – steel producers, dairy operations, appliance manufacturers, agricultural equipment makers, electronics firms, and paper producers – are now looking at a confirmed 50% tariff landing on their Canadian sales starting September 8. For any US exporter that has extended credit terms to Canadian buyers, the tariff changes the buyer’s economics immediately. A Canadian importer that contracted to purchase US steel at pre-tariff prices now faces a 50% landed cost increase it did not price in. The credit risk on those receivables has moved. Trade credit insurance for US exporters selling into Canada is the most direct policy line affected. …The second direction is less immediately visible but affects a wider range of American businesses. US manufacturers that source Canadian lumber, metals, cement, dairy ingredients or paper as production inputs are now paying 50% more for those inputs effective immediately, with no exemption for USMCA-compliant goods under the Section 338 mechanism used to impose these tariffs.
For nearly twenty-five years, I have lived in Northern Ontario… and watched one of the province’s foundational industries contract around us. The decline of forestry, and particularly of pulp and paper. …Today, watching the escalating trade conflict between Canada and the US and the extraordinary pressure being placed on Ontario’s automobile industry, I find myself wondering whether there is anything useful in that experience for Southern Ontario. …Act earlier. Distinguish a temporary shock from structural decline. Reduce real cost disadvantages where they exist. Use public money to secure future products and future capital rather than merely extending yesterday’s production. Protect suppliers, tooling, engineering and skilled labour, not simply the assembly building. Treat the loss of the next product mandate as seriously as the loss of the current shift. Northern Ontario learned these lessons at considerable cost. Southern Ontario now has the opportunity to use them.
“One of the hazards of free trade with the United States is the risk of what we’re witnessing now, that the United States could use its economic levers and turn on us as this behemouth next door that has become hostile without us having the time or opportunity to pivot,” said Tom Urbaniak, a professor at Cape Breton University….Where does Nova Scotia stand? “I don’t know,” Stephen Cole answered when asked whether the new tariffs will affect the province’s lumber and paper industries. …Sawmill owners had the same answer. Nova Scotia softwood exports south of the border have been protected under the CUSMA. “We have mostly private wood (about 70% cut off private land), so our timber market here is deemed to be a competitive market,” explained Cole. …What the Nova Scotia forestry industry doesn’t know yet is whether that CUSMA exemption remains under the new tariffs.
About 83 kilometres of Forest Service Road segments across the Merritt Timber Supply Area have been identified for possible deactivation over the next three years, with work aimed at reducing erosion, protecting waterways and addressing safety concerns on inactive roads. BC Timber Sales is planning the work as part of its ongoing management of Forest Service Roads in the Merritt TSA, according to the Ministry of Forests. The tentative list includes segments in the Gordon Tyner, Pimainus, Skuhun, Wallace Creek, Finnegan Red Creek, Matthew Creek, Tulameen Champion, Olivine Champion Creek, Jim Kelly Creek, Sunday Summit, Victor Lake, Cook Creek, Mellin Pennask Lake and Pattinson Lake areas. The province says the road list remains tentative and could change as detailed assessments are completed. …Future wildfire response, silviculture, range management and recreational access will also be considered during planning.
Land managers with the Flathead National Forest plan to approve a fuels-reduction project in the Swan Valley near Holland Lake using an emergency determination on the grounds that it lies in a “high-risk fireshed,” according to an Aug. 18 decision notice. Foresters say the project is eligible for an Emergency Action Determination (EAD) because it proposes to reduce wildfire risk while preserving the area’s old-growth forests. Initially released for public scoping in 2023, the Rumbling Owl Fuels Reduction Project spans 6,200 acres on the Swan Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest southeast of Condon and east of Highway 83. According to an environmental assessment prepared by Jeff Durkin, the district silviculturist for the Swan and the project leader on Rumbling Owl, the project meets the newly established criteria for EAD authorization, which the agency has increasingly used to expedite approval of logging projects featuring a fuels-reduction component.
WASHINGTON — A Thurston County, Washington judge upheld larger riparian buffers on timberlands in Western Washington, affirming a rule that will take 200,000 acres out of timber production. In ruling from the bench Aug. 21, Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller said the Forest Practices Board lawfully adopted the new buffer rule after years of study. She acknowledged the economic hardship faced by timberland owners and that her ruling will be appealed. The board, which regulates logging, voted 7-5 last year to expand buffers along streams without fish. The rule will go into effect Aug. 31 and require continuous 65- to 75-foot buffers. The old rule called for 50-foot buffers on half the length of streams. The Washington Department of Ecology said bigger buffers were need to prevent logging from raising stream temperatures in most cases. The timber industry says the buffers will immediately eliminate $1.8 billion worth of timber and have little environmental benefit
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada – Dense evergreen plantations in Canada’s boreal forest absorb so much winter sunlight that the resulting surface warming can offset 6 to 20 percent of the climate benefit they are credited with. Canada’s current carbon accounting frameworks measure the carbon stored but largely omit the heat absorbed by these forests, according to a new Policy Brief from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH). The result is inflated mitigation estimates and public investment in forests that may not deliver the cooling they promise. The Policy Brief “
For decades, the economics of a pulp mill have centered primarily on fiber, energy and established byproducts. But as low-carbon markets develop, another potential source of value is emerging from the mill itself: biogenic carbon dioxide. Biogenic CO₂ is generated from biomass rather than fossil sources. As governments and companies look for ways to reduce emissions, captured biogenic CO₂ can potentially serve two very different low-carbon markets: as feedstock for synthetic fuels and as a source of permanent carbon dioxide removal. That is beginning to change the conversation around carbon capture. Rather than viewing CO₂ solely as an emissions-management challenge, some pulp mills may increasingly be able to view it as a potential product. For pulp mills, that creates an important strategic question: Which market offers the greatest value for each ton of captured CO₂? …Biogenic CO₂ is just one of several emerging opportunities reshaping the economics of pulp production.
