The future of New Brunswick’s Nackawic pulp mill is in doubt, as the province says AV Group may be “tapping out”. In related news: Fibre Excellence’s Saint-Gaudens pulp mill gets an extension; the US and North Carolina sue Domtar over contamination; Weyerhaeuser is investing $1 million in Drayton Valley, Alberta; and a New Zealand processor is caught up in a US investigation into Canadian lumber. Meanwhile: Oregon honours a fallen wildland firefighter; Huber Engineered Woods names Joe Burgess president; and a proposed 25-storey hybrid mass timber tower in Florida.
In Forestry news: Saskatchewan and Newfoundland celebrate National Forest Week; BC urges fall flood preparedness; a UVic report on how to tackle persistent drought; and a UBC professorship reimagines BC’s forestry future. Meanwhile: the US Endowment awards $0.5M for forest technology; a Georgia pilot facility will turn woody biomass into value-added products; Oregon proposes to fast-track fire-burned timber; and US perspectives on responsible forest management, modern logging and the Roadless Rule.
Finally, the Wood Pellet Association of Canada kicks-off its annual conference in Victoria.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
US Customs and Border Protection agents spent four days investigating Auckland timber processor Hermpac after a complaint from the US Lumber Coalition. The finding was uncomfortable. A wholesaler on America’s east coast had been routing Canadian-origin wood through New Zealand for processing before shipping it into the US. …The purpose, according to the investigation, was to dodge the punishing duties the US imposes on Canadian softwood lumber. This is the first confirmed case of a New Zealand processor being directly investigated by US Customs in connection with the Trump-era tariff regime. …The fight is no longer just about headline rates. It is now about who inspects your paperwork, and whether the value you add in New Zealand counts. …The practical takeaway is unglamorous but urgent. Review and document your origin classifications now, before a competitor files a complaint, not after Customs agents turn up.
The United States and the state of North Carolina have filed a 
Drought and water-scarcity challenges persist in B.C., with some areas expected to remain affected through the winter and potentially into 2027. While some recent rainfall has provided local relief, the snowpack is forecast to be low in the coming months, so water conservation must continue through winter. People, businesses, farms, water suppliers, First Nations and local governments are being urged to continue conserving water and planning ahead. Communities, particularly those in and below areas affected by wildfire, should also prepare for flooding, debris flows, landslides and erosion during intense fall, winter storms. …While late-summer rainfall has helped calm conditions, the wildfire season is not over and large areas of the province remain at risk for wildfire activity, including the potential for increased activity in October.
British Columbia has endured another extreme drought with damaging impacts seen across the province. …Playing out year over year, the chaotic cycle of drought crises has become a familiar experience for BC. We argue it’s the result of provincial water management that continues to treat drought as a short-term seasonal emergency rather than the year-round, persistent problem it has become. A 
Recent headlines have made clear the need for change in BC’s forest sector. …We can and should emphasise building with renewable materials sourced from BC timber, such as expanding local production of mass timber and continuing to advance tall wood construction. …The Faculty of Forestry & Environmental Stewardship (FES) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is doing just that. …Our recently launched UBC Richards Buchanan Professorship in Forests, Nature and Human Health is taking this line of research one step further. …Made possible with a multi-million-dollar gift from philanthropist Bruce Buchanan and leveraging support from UBC, the scope of this innovative professorship overlaps with such fields as medicine, public health, epidemiology, environmental health, neuroscience and/or environmental psychology. Potential topics of investigation span urban greening, forest therapy, nature-based solutions, Indigenous health, community well-being, biophilic design and/or environmental change, such as from extreme heat events, air pollution or wildfire smoke.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today announced $500,000 in awards to CTrees and Spatial Informatics Group (SIG) through its Technology Solutions to Improve Forest Health and Forest Management initiative. CTrees will receive $300,000 to develop Forest Asset Intelligence: The Wood Triangle, while Spatial Informatics Group will receive $200,000 to develop and deploy the Planscape Bioeconomy Module. The initiative supports practical technology solutions that can improve forest health outcomes, strengthen wood markets, support forest management decision-making and increase operational effectiveness. Projects were also evaluated for their potential to be applied more broadly across regions, ownership types and markets.
The agency gave the public one week to weigh in on plans to log 5,000 acres of the Akawa Butte Fire burn area. The Trump administration is seeking to fast-track logging in forests recently burned by wildfires in a policy shift that’s starting with Central Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service aims to log about 5,000 acres in the Deschutes National Forest where the Akawa Butte Fire burned this summer. The agency gave tribes, counties and the public just one week to weigh in, with a deadline of just before midnight Monday. Similar projects typically include a 30-day public comment period. The proposal to log the Akawa Butte Fire burn area relies on a new policy that allows the Forest Service to fast-track logging recently burned forests. Forest Service officials say they need to act quickly to remove dead and dying trees that could become fire fuel later on. …Environmental groups say the Forest Service is rushing a sensitive process.
There is a giant misconception regarding the way we manage our forests here in Northern California. …Recently, there has been a lot of talk of two harvest plans in the Charlie Creek area of Branscomb. I’m very familiar with this area and the work being done around it. An organization has sued Calfire over approved harvest plans that surround Charlie Creek. So I simply want to lay out what is being said by the organization’s website, in local news outlets, and what is actually occurring. First off, every timber harvest plan in the state of California goes through an extremely rigorous process before work begins. …The “experts “ from the other side who claim the whole mountain is gonna fall into the creek, have never set foot or eye on plan area. …The two Branscomb harvest plans currently in the courts are fully compliant following the strictest regulations …Here is the truth about the two plans in lawsuit.
The recent Public Forum letter criticizing the Fix Our Forests Act (FOFA) raises legitimate concerns about protecting forests and addressing climate change. But portraying the bipartisan legislation primarily as an effort to expedite logging misses much of what the bill is intended to accomplish. Climate change is making wildfires more dangerous. …We need to address both problems. Recent research provides a striking example. Scientists examined 164 forest plots burned during California’s massive 2021 Dixie Fire. In untreated forests, there was a 58% probability that every tree in a plot would be killed. Thinning alone lowered that risk to 48%. But where thinning had been followed by prescribed fire, the probability of complete tree mortality fell to just 4%. That distinction matters. Responsible forest management is not simply another name for logging. The research suggests that thinning alone provides limited protection unless surface fuels are also addressed. Prescribed fire was a critical part of the treatment.
WISCONSIN — On August 18, the US Secretary of Agriculture announced the US Forest service officially filed an official proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule. …The policy currently protects roughly 69,000 acres in Wisconsin, and with the potential repeal of the environmental policy, experts want to be clear about the relationship between roads and wildfires. Most wildfires in the US are caused by people. According to the
