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The Tree Frog Forestry News
August 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.
Recognizing Transformational Change Before it Before it Reshapes the Forest Sector
By Robert McKellar, Principal, Harmattan Risk
Tree Frog Forestry News
August 10, 2026
Category: Opinion / EdiTOADial
Region: Canada, United States, International
Over the past year and a half, Tree Frog has periodically turned to political risk consultant Robert McKellar to help readers make sense of the forces reshaping the business environment for the North American forest sector. Most recently, in International Political Risk: Separating Noise From What Matters, Robert walked through how a political risk professional decides which of the world’s constant stream of headlines — tariffs, wars, trade disputes, sanctions — actually warrant a forest company’s attention, and which are just noise.
This time, Robert turns to a different, longer-running kind of risk — one that isn’t caused by any single event, but by a slow convergence of forces that can remake an entire industry over years, often without anyone recognizing it as it’s happening. Using two cases from the wood products sector — the rise of Chinese dominance in pulp and paper, and the decline of BC’s lumber industry — Robert shows how strategic risk hides in plain sight, and why it’s so often only clear in hindsight. The article closes on a practical question: if this kind of change is only clear in hindsight, how can companies improve their odds of catching it earlier? Robert’s answer is strategic risk management — less a set of day-to-day processes than a habit of thinking decades, not quarters, ahead.
Lumber giant Interfor confirms plans to move corporate support to the U.S.
By Barbara Shecter
The Financial Post
August 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States
Canadian lumber company Interfor Corp. confirmed plans Friday to move corporate support functions to the United States from its Burnaby, BC headquarters. “We recently announced the transition of certain corporate support roles to our Peachtree City office in Georgia, where the majority of our operations are located within the Central, Eastern and Atlantic time zones,” Ian Fillinger, the company’s CEO, said on a conference call with analysts. “This change is intended to better align our support functions with the needs of our business while maintaining a strong corporate presence in both Canada and the United States.” …“This is not a redomiciling of the company, nor does it alter our longstanding commitment within our Canadian operations, mills, employees, or communities,” Fillinger said. “Our leadership team remains in place, and Burnaby will continue to play an important role as our corporate headquarters.”
North Cowichan seeks provincial partnership to unlock Crofton mill redevelopment
By Kendra Crighton
The Ladysmith Chemainus Chronicle
August 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West
The Municipality of North Cowichan is asking the provincial government to help fund critical infrastructure projects it says are needed to support the redevelopment of the former Domtar pulp mill site in Crofton and future growth throughout the municipality. In a letter to Premier David Eby, Mayor Rob Douglas outlines several priorities related to the closure of the Crofton mill, including securing the community’s long-term drinking water supply, exploring the use of the site’s wastewater treatment facilities and investing in infrastructure needed to support industrial, commercial and residential development. Douglas said North Cowichan’s primary goal is to see the former mill property remain an industrial employment centre while restoring the stable industrial tax base the municipality relied on during the mill’s decades of operation. The Domtar pulp mill ceased operations earlier this year… prompting discussions about how the strategically located waterfront industrial property can be redeveloped for future growth.
Feds earmark $1.2M for potential new wood processing facility in B.C.
By Adam Chan
Chek News
August 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada West
Ottawa is sending more than $1.2 million to a B.C. group with ties to Vancouver Island to study the potential opening of a new, state-of-the-art wood processing facility. The money is going to Iskum Investments LP, which describes itself as a “consortium of coastal First Nations-owned businesses,” including some on Vancouver Island. The funding will be used to help complete a detailed commercial, technical and financial analysis of a potential site for the facility. Iskum says it’s already conducting a comparative analysis of three locations along the B.C. coast, and the money will help inform future investment decisions. Once completed, the proposed facility would support more than 700 full-time jobs – ranging from operations to harvesting to logistics – and would be primarily Indigenous owned, according to the federal government. Iksum says the wood processing facility would help the coastal economy and forestry industry, which is “struggling to secure a reliable, economic supply of fibre.”
Tactics used by firefighters may have made Searsmont lumber mill fire, explosion worse
By Adam Bartow
WMTW ABC News 8
August 7, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US East
SEARSMONT, Maine —Federal investigators say firefighters unknowingly used a suppression tactic that likely contributed to the deadly explosion at Robbins Lumber mill fire in Searsmont in May. The report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that neither workers nor responding firefighters understood that the silo involved was designed to limit oxygen or that its contents posed a combustible dust hazard. … A preliminary investigation classified the fire as accidental and identified combustible dust as the cause of the subsequent explosion. The report says the silo was an oxygen-limiting model, which is designed to restrict the amount of air entering the structure. NIOSH said mill employees and firefighters interviewed after the explosion did not know the silo was oxygen-limiting and were unaware that the wood shavings and sawdust inside constituted a combustible dust hazard or that there were different risks with that silo as compared to other designs.
NEW YORK, NY — Mercer International reported second quarter 2026 Operating EBITDA of negative $21.0 million, a decrease from negative $20.9 million in the same quarter of 2025 and positive $7.8 million in the first quarter of 2026. In the second quarter of 2026, net loss was $76.0 million compared to $86.1 million in the same quarter of 2025 and $52.0 million in the first quarter of 2026. Mr. Juan Carlos Bueno, Chief Executive Officer, stated: “Our pulp sales realizations remained steady this quarter, as continued economic uncertainty delayed market recovery. Our second quarter results were also weighed down by rising European fiber costs, driven by regional supply shortages and intense competition for sawmill residuals from energy producers. As a result, we recognized a non-cash impairment of $29.0 million primarily against pulp and fiber inventory.
Taiga Building Products reports Q2, 2026 net income of $16M
By Taiga Building Products Ltd.
PR Newswire
August 7, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada West
BURNABY, BC — Taiga Building Products reported its financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025. The Company’s consolidated net sales for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 were $426.6 million compared to $441.0 million over the same period last year. The decrease in sales of $14.4 million or 3% was largely due to a lower average pricing as well as product mix over the quarter. Net earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 increased to $16.1 million from $15.1 million over the same period last year, primarily due to increased gross margin dollars and lower selling and administration expenses. EBITDA for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 was $25.3 million compared to $23.5 million for the same period last year.
The U.S. labor market weakened in July, with nonfarm payrolls down 23,000 and downward revisions cutting another 103,000 jobs from May and June. Although the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.1%, the decline reflected a smaller labor force rather than stronger hiring, as overall participation fell to its lowest level since early 2021. July marked the 7th monthly job loss over the last year and a half. Wage growth also cooled, with average hourly earnings rising 3.2% year-over-year in July to $37.62, down from 3.4% in June and the slowest pace of 2026. Despite the slowdown, wage gains continue to outpace inflation, consistent with productivity-supported real wage growth. …Employment in the overall construction sector rose by 22,000 jobs in July, following a gain of 5,000 in June. Within the industry, residential construction employment edged up by 2,100, its first monthly increase in four months, while non-residential construction added approximately 20,000 jobs.
NORTH DAKOTA — Eric Hoffer, senior project manager at JLG Architects in Bismarck, North Dakota, says mass timber projects are surging due to updated building codes, regional supply chain advantages and a growing focus on embodied carbon — the emissions from manufacturing and transport. Despite accounting for fewer than 1% of national building projects, mass timber is one of sustainable architecture’s fastest-growing trends, with roughly 20% annual growth. “Mass timber sequesters carbon, which then acts as a carbon sink,” Hoffer explained. …The growth of mass timber construction, including cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam), continues to gain momentum. Project owners are choosing mass timber for a number of reasons, including lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete and steel, faster prefabricated construction, and the warm, natural interior aesthetics it provides. …Some examples of mass timber projects in the region include the Wurth Elektronik Headquarters expansion in Watertown, South Dakota, completed this spring.
Meta names Mercer in mass timber pilot at its Cheyenne data centre in Wyoming
By Jason Ross
Wood Central Australia
August 7, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US West
Meta has named Mercer, alongside contractor Fortis Construction, to build additional mass timber buildings at its Cheyenne campus in Wyoming, a 715,000-square-foot site carrying an investment of more than $800 million. The technology group estimates the embodied carbon savings at 41 per cent across the materials the timber replaces and intends to extend it to administrative buildings, warehouses, and the data halls themselves. Microsoft opened the category in 2024 with the first cross-laminated timber data centres in Northern Virginia, a hybrid system the company estimates cuts embodied carbon by 35 per cent compared with steel and 65 per cent compared with precast concrete. Big tech now takes up to 10 per cent of all mass timber sold in the United States.
It has been another challenging summer for wildfires in northern Ontario, with the latest update from the province stating there have been 687 fires so far in 2026. That’s up from the 442 reported in 2025, and well above the 10-year average of 481. …So what’s the cause of the surge? The very dry weather seen throughout much of the north this summer is certainly at the top of the list, but a near decade long surge of the spruce budworm may have been a significant factor. …The spruce budworm is one of the most destructive natural pests in spruce and fir forests across North America. …This can cause large swaths of trees in the canopy to dry up and turn a reddish-brown colour. …Jean-Noel Candau is a research scientist says “Yes, there is a correlation between spruce budworm damage and the frequency of fire.”
University of Oregon cameras have detected dozens of fires across Oregon this season
By Bayla Orton
The Register-Guard
August 9, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West
When Hells Hill Fire sparked four miles south of Marcola on July 22, a panoramic camera on Buck Mountain detected smoke weaving between distant trees within minutes. This enabled firefighting personnel to react quickly, ultimately containing the fire at 9 acres. …This fire season, Oregon Hazard Lab (OHAZ) cameras have detected dozens of Oregon’s high-priority fires before any human eyes saw them. Located in rural areas, there are 80 cameras set up statewide to detect potential fires. Through partnerships with Watch Duty, a fire monitoring app, and Alert West, which streams camera video live, fires can be spotted even when they ignite miles away from the nearest town. …In 2025, Multi-Mission Aircrafts and the Wildfire Detection Camera System program, where ODF detection centers use OHAZ cameras across throughout fire season, kept 94% of fires throughout the state at less than 10 acres, according to an Oregon Department of Forestry update.
Australia’s buildings are made largely from plantation timber, not native forest wood. That simple fact is missing from a claim now circulating that logging native forests is good for the climate. Native forests store vast amounts of carbon, and protecting them is recognised as being crucial for tackling climate change, along with the deep cuts needed in fossil fuel emissions. Yet, some native forest logging industry lobbyists have claimed that logging native forests is good for the climate and a superior climate solution to forest protection. Is this true? Should we be logging more native forests to stop climate change? The science is clear that the answer to this question is no. …Why does native forest logging generate large amounts of carbon emissions? There are several key reasons. …The bottom line is that logging native forests is not good for the climate because it generates large amounts of emissions.
Europe’s forests are losing more biomass than previously thought, with disturbances such as drought and pests causing increasingly large losses from some of the oldest forests in Europe. This situation has deteriorated markedly since 2018. These are the findings of a study published in Nature Geoscience. The research, which was supported by a European Space Agency (ESA) initiative, found that biomass losses increased sharply after 2018 as drought, windstorms and insect outbreaks increasingly affected some of central Europe’s oldest and most biomass-rich forests. …For the first time, scientists have quantified how much biomass is lost from forest disturbances across Europe, rather than simply measuring the area affected. They found that, for each hectare of disturbed forest, 46% more biomass is being lost since 2018. ..,A second study, also supported by the RECCAP-2 project has produced complementary findings. Published in National Science Review, the study found that increasing loss and damage to forests is putting their role in climate change mitigation at risk.
WALES — This summer has been extremely hot. In Wales we have experienced several record-breaking heatwaves, with deadly results. Around 2,700 people in England and Wales have died due to the heatwaves, with an average of 440 people dying a day during the peak of June’s extreme heat. Meanwhile, water shortages have led to widespread hose-pipe bans, and a drought status came into effect across all of Wales. We have also witnessed wildfires across the UK, and some major incidents in both north and south Wales. Although some forest fires are caused by human activities – such as discarded cigarettes, campfires, and arson – these fires are more likely to catch and spread widely due to plants and bracken that have been dried out during heatwaves. This summer paints a worrying picture of what our future may look like, as temperatures continue to rise. It is a particularly sobering thought that this is likely to be one of the coolest summers of the rest of our lives.
What you need to know about B.C. wildfires on Aug. 9
By Simon Little
CBC News
August 9, 2026
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West
About 12,000 people from Summerland and thousands more from the surrounding area remain evacuated from their homes on Sunday due to the Bald Range fire, while evacuation alerts stretch south to the edge of Penticton and north through Peachland to Highway 97C. In a Sunday update just after 9:30 a.m. PT, the B.C. Wildfire Service said the wildfire is displaying extreme Rank 5 and 6 behaviour — the latter being the highest rank a wildfire can reach. …”Fire behaviour at this intensity is extremely volatile and aggressive, which makes direct attack unsafe for ground crews,” the service said on Sunday. …The fire, first spotted Friday evening, grew so rapidly it forced wildfire crews to use helicopters to rescue dozens of people cut off by the flames, officials said Saturday. As of Saturday night it had burned 103 square kilometres.
F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. has 114 Years of stewardship and quality wood products
The Daily Interlake
August 10, 2026
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: US West
When F.H. Stoltze made his investment in the Halfmoon sawmill site just northwest of Columbia Falls in 1923, it marked a significant change from the cut out and get out business model so common to the sawmill industry at the start of the 20th century. The Halfmoon site, with its company town including company store, cookhouse, family homes, company-provided water and electricity, coupled with a dedicated logging railroad leading into company timberlands in Haskill and Trumbull Creek drainage, was different. It seemed like this site was growing roots. …Now in our 114th year of family-owned operations, Stoltze is known for quality and dependability. The lumber produced out of the slower-growing trees of Northwest Montana provides unique strength and beauty characteristics unmatched by other regions. Couple that high-quality fiber with the assurance of sustainably managed forests and you have a product that is distinctive and well suited to the quality-minded and environmentally aware builder and consumer.
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.
Canadian lumber company Interfor Corp. confirmed plans Friday to move corporate support functions to the United States from its Burnaby, BC headquarters. “We recently announced the transition of certain corporate support roles to our Peachtree City office in Georgia, where the majority of our operations are located within the Central, Eastern and Atlantic time zones,” Ian Fillinger, the company’s CEO, said on a conference call with analysts. “This change is intended to better align our support functions with the needs of our business while maintaining a strong corporate presence in both Canada and the United States.” …“This is not a redomiciling of the company, nor does it alter our longstanding commitment within our Canadian operations, mills, employees, or communities,” Fillinger said. “Our leadership team remains in place, and Burnaby will continue to play an important role as our corporate headquarters.”
The Municipality of North Cowichan is asking the provincial government to help fund critical infrastructure projects it says are needed to support the redevelopment of the former Domtar pulp mill site in Crofton and future growth throughout the municipality. In a letter to Premier David Eby, Mayor Rob Douglas outlines several priorities related to the closure of the Crofton mill, including securing the community’s long-term drinking water supply, exploring the use of the site’s wastewater treatment facilities and investing in infrastructure needed to support industrial, commercial and residential development. Douglas said North Cowichan’s primary goal is to see the former mill property remain an industrial employment centre while restoring the stable industrial tax base the municipality relied on during the mill’s decades of operation. The Domtar pulp mill ceased operations earlier this year… prompting discussions about how the strategically located waterfront industrial property can be redeveloped for future growth.
SEARSMONT, Maine —Federal investigators say firefighters unknowingly used a suppression tactic that likely contributed to the deadly explosion at Robbins Lumber mill fire in Searsmont in May. The report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that neither workers nor responding firefighters understood that the silo involved was designed to limit oxygen or that its contents posed a combustible dust hazard. … A preliminary investigation classified the fire as accidental and identified combustible dust as the cause of the subsequent explosion. The report says the silo was an oxygen-limiting model, which is designed to restrict the amount of air entering the structure. NIOSH said mill employees and firefighters interviewed after the explosion did not know the silo was oxygen-limiting and were unaware that the wood shavings and sawdust inside constituted a combustible dust hazard or that there were different risks with that silo as compared to other designs.
NEW YORK, NY — Mercer International reported second quarter 2026 Operating EBITDA of negative $21.0 million, a decrease from negative $20.9 million in the same quarter of 2025 and positive $7.8 million in the first quarter of 2026. In the second quarter of 2026, net loss was $76.0 million compared to $86.1 million in the same quarter of 2025 and $52.0 million in the first quarter of 2026. Mr. Juan Carlos Bueno, Chief Executive Officer, stated: “Our pulp sales realizations remained steady this quarter, as continued economic uncertainty delayed market recovery. Our second quarter results were also weighed down by rising European fiber costs, driven by regional supply shortages and intense competition for sawmill residuals from energy producers. As a result, we recognized a non-cash impairment of $29.0 million primarily against pulp and fiber inventory.
NORTH DAKOTA — Eric Hoffer, senior project manager at JLG Architects in Bismarck, North Dakota, says mass timber projects are surging due to updated building codes, regional supply chain advantages and a growing focus on embodied carbon — the emissions from manufacturing and transport. Despite accounting for fewer than 1% of national building projects, mass timber is one of sustainable architecture’s fastest-growing trends, with roughly 20% annual growth. “Mass timber sequesters carbon, which then acts as a carbon sink,” Hoffer explained. …The growth of mass timber construction, including cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated timber (glulam), continues to gain momentum. Project owners are choosing mass timber for a number of reasons, including lower embodied carbon than conventional concrete and steel, faster prefabricated construction, and the warm, natural interior aesthetics it provides. …Some examples of mass timber projects in the region include the Wurth Elektronik Headquarters expansion in Watertown, South Dakota, completed this spring. 
Europe’s forests are losing more biomass than previously thought, with disturbances such as drought and pests causing increasingly large losses from some of the oldest forests in Europe. This situation has deteriorated markedly since 2018. These are the findings of a 
