The BC government’s 2026 budget forecasts a record deficit amid tough times in forestry. In response: the United Steelworkers point to several positives, COFI says falling harvest levels can be reversed; and the Tyee noted the absence of forest policy reforms. In other Business news: Kruger’s Corner Brook mill is partially operating again; JD Irving secures support for New Brunswick paper mill; Louisiana Pacific reports Q4 loss; and Woodland Pulp reports a 2nd worker died from gas exposure. Meanwhile: US single-family housing starts rose in December after full-year 2025 drop.
In Forestry news: Alberta is adding five water bombers to its firefighting fleet; a BC First nation is suing the province over Interfor’s timber licence extension; Oregon counties push for predictable logging levels; Wyoming’s first woodland firefighting teams gain momentum; and Montana seeks to avoid several wilderness designations.
Finally, Bayer has agreed to pay $7.25 billion to settle Roundup weedkiller lawsuits.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
The United Steelworkers union found positives in a difficult BC budget. …Recognizing the uncertainty created by US trade policy… USW Western Canada Director Scott Lunny said… “Today’s budget advances the government’s work towards long-term economic stability, including BC’s goal of securing $200 billion in private-sector investment over the next decade in sectors including mining, forestry and manufacturing”. …USW noted positives, including: a continued commitment in funding to strengthen permitting capacity in resource industries; a $400- million Strategic Investments Special Account to leverage federal government dollars for investment and job creation in key sectors like value-added forestry, responsible mining, manufacturing and clean energy; and unprecedented investment in skilled trades funding as well as a training grant to encourage apprenticeships. …”While we welcome the $20 million to help workers and employers in tariff-impacted sectors like steel and forestry, there is still a missing commitment to stabilizing and sustaining the primary forestry sector,” said Lunny.
The BC government is forecasting that the natural gas industry will play a larger role as the top driver of provincial resource revenue, while warning about tough times in the former economic powerhouse of forestry. Natural gas royalties are expected to ring in at nearly $1.3-billion for the 12 months ending March 31, 2027, up 38%. …The government is anticipating $521-million in forestry revenue for the 2026-27 fiscal year, up 3%, but still down sharply when compared with several years ago. …In the 2020-21 fiscal year, forestry revenue surpassed $1.3-billion and natural gas royalties reached $196-million. …Tuesday’s budget introduces a temporary Stumpage Payment Deferral Program in an effort to ease the cash crunch for companies. The voluntary program covers the first 11 months of 2026. …The government anticipates that the trend of depressed annual volumes of tree harvesting will continue over the next several years, restricting the production of softwood lumber. [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]
New residential construction in the US rose to a five-month high in December, as homebuilders boosted production to take advantage of lower borrowing costs. Housing starts increased 6.2% to an annual pace of 1.4 million homes in December, according to figures released Wednesday by the government, which were delayed by fall’s federal shutdown. …The advance was broad-based, with both single-family home starts and apartment projects rising at year’s end. The number of one-family homes started was the highest since February. The stronger construction numbers suggest that builders were growing more confident at year’s end even as they continued to sell off a bloated inventory of new houses. For the full year, however, starts notched a fourth-straight annual decline …In December, building permits, which point to future construction, rose 4.3% to an annualized pace of 1.45 million, the highest since March, government data show. Single-family permits fell slightly. [to access the full story a Bloomberg subscription is required]
PRINCE GEORGE – [Local forester and forestry advocate Michelle Connolly says what’s being suggested in a recent report, titled “From Conflict to Care: BC’s Forest Future,” is off the mark.] “One of the core beliefs is that people are better at managing nature, than nature is, even though forests have been self-organizing and self-managing for millennia,” says Connolly. “The lack of self-awareness right up front in that report is troubling, because it means that they’re not aware of their own biases and belief systems that are guiding the things they’re putting in this report.” Kiel Giddens, Conservative MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, says the report overlooks a lot of industry concerns. …Giddens says, while the report misses the mark overall, he agrees with Objective Number 2 around regional decision making. …But Connolly says where the report truly hits the mark is over what is seen as a lack of transparency in the decision-making processes.
North Cowichan wants something done about the growing amount of fibreglass pollution in the Cowichan estuary. Council passed a motion at its meeting on Feb. 4 that the municipality write a letter to senior levels of government and the appropriate regulatory authorities asking that they raise awareness of the issue and take action to deal with the problem. Coun. Christopher Justice, who made the motion, said that the issue of derelict and deteriorating fibreglass boats is something that is becoming more acute in local harbours and waterways. …North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas said the municipality must signal its support for the continued operation of the Western Forest Products sawmill, which operates in that area. He said he spoke to officials at the mill before the council meeting. “They advised me that they are not aware of any fibreglass contamination coming from the mill site,” Douglas said.
A BC First Nation in the final stages of treaty negotiation is suing the province for allegedly breaching the “honour of the Crown” after an official extended an expiring timber licence in its traditional territory. Filed in a BC Supreme Court last week, the application for judicial review from ’Wuìk̓inux̌v Nation seeks to overturn an August 2025 decision… that gave Interfor a three-year extension to log an estimated 50,000 cubic metres of timber. The court application argues that allowing a third party to continue harvesting on the nation’s lands—without their consent and against their environmental concerns—is a step backward that the law no longer allows. The claim, which also names Interfor, arrives at a volatile moment for BC politics: by leaning on a landmark legal precedent set in December 2025, it lands squarely in the middle of a heated debate over how the province manages its natural resources in an era of reconciliation.
Oregon entities funded by timber sales want to ensure revenue. For the third consecutive legislative session, a group of Oregon county governments hope to pass a bill requiring more predictable timber harvests in state forests. Similarly to past proposals, House Bill 4105 would require the Oregon Department of Forestry to annually log enough trees to comply with a 10-year “sustainable harvest level” adopted by the agency. If fewer trees are logged than required by the sustainable harvest level, that amount of timber would be added to the next 10-year plan, unless the reduction was due to wildfire, disease or storm damage. …Environmental groups are opposed to HB 4105, similarly to previous versions of the proposal that failed to pass in 2025 and 2024, because they say the ODF already does a good job of estimating logging levels.
Senator Steve Daines received federal agency backing on Thursday for his bill to downgrade three remote Montana landscapes from potential wilderness to regular public forest. Officials from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management told the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests and Mining they supported Daines’ S.3527, the Montana Sportsmen Conservation Act. Chris French, associate chief for the Forest Service, told the subcommittee the Trump administration didn’t support creating new wildernesses or wilderness study designations. BLM state official John Raby added that his agency was intent on fulfilling the president’s agenda supporting “fire management, recreation, access … and domestic mineral production to the maximum practical extent.” Wilderness status is the highest level of protection for public lands. …Outside the hearing, several environmental organizations criticized Daines’ bill. Barb Cestero, The Wilderness Society’s Montana state director, called it “deeply flawed.”
CHEYENNE—A $5.1 million investment that would create the first two ground-based professional wildland firefighting teams in Wyoming history is gaining momentum in the statehouse. On Monday, the Wyoming House of Representatives passed House Bill 36, “Forestry division wildland fire modules.” The bill included an earmark of $2.7 million for one team of firefighters going into the day, but Buffalo Republican Rep. Marilyn Connolly brought an amendment that doubled the funding, providing enough to finance two crews — one each in the eastern and western sides of the state. The former Johnson County emergency management coordinator spoke about her experience being on the ground while wildfires were spreading and resources were lacking. “We need some strike teams, we need engines — and they’re not available,” Connolly said on the House floor. 
With European manufacturing output down by up to 40% since 2018, and 200,000 industrial jobs lost last year, the European Confederation of the Paper Industry (Cepi) wants to put biomass, circularity and decarbonization financing back at the heart of the industrial debate. The trade organization relies on a report commissioned from Deloitte. According to this analysis… the use of biomass and efficiency in the circularity of materials are structural advantages for European industry in the face of imported fossil products. The report highlights the fact that the forestry and timber industry, which is already governed by national legislation, has to contend with over a hundred additional European regulations. In Cepi’s view, this overlap is holding back biomass-related industrial development. Moreover, paper collection and recycling remains fragmented across the member states. This heterogeneity complicates the optimization of secondary material flows, despite the fact that paper is one of the most recycled materials in Europe.
Warm, dry and windy weather in Oklahoma has fueled multiple wildfires and prompted authorities to urge nearly one-third of the residents of the small city of Woodward to flee. Matt Lehenbauer, director of emergency management for Woodward and its nearly 12,000 inhabitants, said the evacuation recommendation covers roughly 4,000 people. It is voluntary, he said, because Oklahoma prohibits mandatory evacuations. The wildfire in Woodward, about 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, is approaching a “worst-case scenario,” Lehenbauer said, but it hasn’t moved into the most populated area of the city. A blaze in Beaver County at the base of the Oklahoma Panhandle, about 217 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, has consumed an estimated 15,000 acres alone, Oklahoma Forestry Services said.