The Canada-US tariff war is taking a growing toll on forest products businesses on both sides of the border. Rayonier Advanced Materials is closing its Témiscaming mill; Ottawa announced support for Mercer Peace River Pulp in Alberta; BC’s Richmond Plywood is calling for more support; New Brunswick customers are avoiding US-wood; a Philadelphia company is paying more for plywood, Wisconsin and Nevada are bracing for pain; and Buffalo builders are experiencing higher costs. In related news: COFI’s Kim Haakstad backs Canada’s decision; US Trade Rep. Greer counters on why the talks collapsed; and David Elstone says the counter-tariffs bring US forest products into the crossfire.
In other news: FPAC’s Derek Nighbor says mounting pressures can’t come at the expense of worker safety; Maine’s ND Paper mill races to survive; creditors seek damages over Enviva’s bankruptcy; and researchers say drought and storms damaged California’s redwoods. Meanwhile, the US Endowment launched forestry student mini-grants; new guidance on managing moisture risk in mass timber buildings; registration opened for the 2027 International Mass Timber Conference; and the Tyee goes into the air with pilots battling a BC wildfire.
Finally: a look back at the Navy crews who battled BC’s devastating 1938 Sayward fire.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
Barton: You know, it was just a week ago, incredibly, that you and your counterpart, Dominic LeBlanc, shook hands outside, seemed pretty confident that there was a deal to be had. From your perspective, what happened that caused the talks to collapse?
Local officials and an operator are remaining hopeful over the future of the two remaining pulp mills on Vancouver Island, despite recent mill closures and new U.S. tariffs. B.C.’s critical forestry industry is among those that are likely to take a major hit due to the incoming 50 per cent tariffs on certain Canadian goods — with the new duties targeting some Canadian pulp and paper products specifically. But Nanaimo Forest Products, which operates the Harmac Pacific Pulp Mill, says most of its specialty wood products have been spared by tariffs and are mostly exported to markets in Asia. “We’re highly focused on exporting our products overseas into places like Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, even Australia,” said Harmac CEO and general manager Paul Sadler. Harmac produces northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp, which Sadler says is common throughout British Columbia, often used for making tissues and paper towels.
VANCOUVER — A leader in BC’s forestry sector is voicing support for Prime Minister Carney’s decision to walk away from trade talks with the US despite reported concessions on lumber tariffs in a scuttled deal. Kim Haakstad, president of COFI, says the breakdown of talks will create challenges for her sector, but Ottawa had to walk away if negotiators couldn’t secure a deal that worked for Canadians broadly. …BC Premier David Eby said that he understood some progress had been made in addressing the long-standing softwood lumber dispute during the most recent talks and it was “disappointing” to see that fail to materialize. …Haakstad called for measures including reducing regulatory restrictions to allow quicker access to BC lumber for a more competitive product on the global market. …She said Ottawa could also help by addressing rail transport costs, a significant barrier for Canadian lumber producers looking to sell products domestically.
… municipal politicians [will] gather for their annual fall convention and attempt to influence the provincial government’s agenda. The Union of B.C. Municipalities convention takes place in Vancouver, Sept. 14-18. …The City of Nanaimo is calling for a ban on exporting raw logs and lumber cants. …The motion states that a lack of adequate and affordable wood fibre supply has been identified as a key factor in the continued curtailment or permanent closure of B.C. sawmills and pulp mills. Over the past five years, on average about 3.2 million cubic metres of raw logs have been exported. “Therefore be it resolved that UBCM call on the provincial government and federal governments to ban the export of raw logs and lumber cants from B.C. to ensure that forests harvested in B.C. from Crown land and private managed forest lands are processed in B.C., encouraging value-added manufacturing in B.C. and supporting employment in B.C.’s forest industry,” the motion states. [A Vancouver Sun subscription required for full access]
A century-old Philadelphia packaging company is closely watching tariffs and trade negotiations with Canada as it deals with rising costs for materials it uses every day. F. P. Woll & Company, a family business in Northeast Philadelphia, makes packaging for other companies and their products, ranging from cameras to kitchen sinks. Fred Woll runs the company, which has about a dozen employees and a sprawling production operation. …The latest tariffs and trade negotiations with Canada are creating another challenge for the business. One key material the company uses is CDX plywood from Canada. …The company’s concerns extend beyond the materials it needs for its own products. Woll said tariffs on materials used by its customers, including aluminum, can also affect his business if those customers cut production. …Canada is Pennsylvania’s biggest trading partner. Data shows the state sent about $14 billion in goods to Canada last year and imported about $13 billion.
The fight for restitution is on at a fallen green-energy giant, following one of the most disastrous commodity trades of the decade. The ill-fated wood-pellet trades that bankrupted Enviva during the sustainable-investing boom were made by executives hoping to trigger their own bonuses, according to creditors who are seeking more than $2 billion in damages. Instead… the nine-figure trades backfired and bankrupted the company, which once had a nearly $6 billion market value. Five of the company’s top executives concealed the inordinately large and risky trades from its board, according to a lawsuit, suppliers and others with claims. …Enviva said it wasn’t involved in the litigation, and none of the former executives named in the suit are affiliated with the reorganized company, which emerged from bankruptcy in December 2024 with new owners and leadership. …The company was considered one of the winners of the green-energy boom. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]
The brewing tension between Canada and the US has escalated into a full‑blown trade war, disrupting cross‑border supply chains, driving up the cost of construction materials, and threatening to throw the timelines of major housing projects into disarray. …Developers already grappling with labour shortages, high interest rates, and soaring land costs, now face a destabilizing force that could impact every aspect of the construction process. …“The construction industry continues to build through uncertainty, but contractors are facing increasing pressures in getting the job done,” said Rodrigue Gilbert, President of the Canadian Construction Association. …Meanwhile, the US housing market is feeling the shock as well. …The long‑term implications of the trade war reach far beyond construction sites and border checkpoints, according to a report by the Canadian American Business Council by Oxford Economics. The analysis underscores the depth of Canada–US economic integration and how mutually beneficial that relationship has been for decades.
BUFFALO, New York — The changing tariffs policies for the U.S. and Canada are raising cost and supply issues for the home building and remodeling field with possible impact on their customers for planned and future projects… said a contractor and the operator of a lumber and building supplies business. …Domenic Cortese, of Cortese Construction, said “The implications to a new home on the costs of that home are about $10,000 more because of the tariffs. You know you’re probably going to be looking at $2,000 or $3,000 more in lumber costs for a deck just because of the tariffs.” …”The problem is we don’t have the infrastructure in place to ramp up productivity to be able to supply lumber for our needs.” …Lenco’s Stephen Coppola said, “We love the Canadian lumber. Our customers tend to like it quite a bit. But we’ve been very active in trying to find other sources.”
MILAN — In a business setting perfect for the moment, Gov. Kelly Ayotte last Friday ceremonially signed into law a bill seen as crucial to the state’s lumber industry, one that puts it on an even playing field with how Canada grades its lumber. Local elected officials, employees and guests gathered at the Milan Lumber Co., for the signing of House Bill 1204, that changes how New Hampshire grades state-grown timber for sale. The change removes an “s” at the end of three other letters, s-p-f, standing for spruce-pine-fir, which is how Canadian lumber is marked. Before the Legislature passed the bill, the state’s lumber was marked as s-p-f-s. The “s” at the end stands for “south,” meaning south of the Canadian border. Removing the extra “s” at the end of New Hampshire milled lumber means it is graded the same as Canadian milled lumber and should be sold at the same price.
The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) has launched an international project to develop practical guidance on managing water and moisture risk throughout the lifecycle of mass timber buildings. Funded by the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and Swedish Wood, the project will bring together existing research and industry expertise to produce practical guidance on the design, construction and long-term management of mass timber buildings. With mass timber being adopted in a wider range of building types, the ASBP said practical guidance would help build confidence for the industry and insurance providers. The guidance will build on the success of the Mass Timber Insurance Playbook, published by ASBP and co-authored by Dr Jim Glockling. …the principles of moisture management are governed by universal building physics. The guidance will therefore be developed as an internationally applicable resource, with regional considerations added where appropriate. It is scheduled to be published in October 2026.
Large, devastating fires like those B.C. has witnessed this year frequently spark complaints and questions from the public: Why are there helicopters sitting at the local airport while smoke billows from a nearby mountain? Why are no squadrons of water bombers coming to the rescue? While officials might compare fighting a firestorm to spitting into a campfire, it does little to dispel the complaints that more could and should be done — in particular as anxious residents are evacuated and wait to hear if their homes, farm animals and pets have survived. To better understand how aircraft are used as a tool in wildfire fighting, The Tyee climbed aboard a Bell 407 deployed to one of the province’s largest wildfires. Flying above the 
CALIFORNIA — Tall trees are generally associated with high-biomass forests. This is particularly true for forests dominated by Sequoia sempervirens, the world’s tallest tree species. Extreme decay resistance, the ability to survive high-severity fires, shade tolerance and prolific trunk reiteration (resprouting) make the species unique, allowing tall redwood forests to accumulate more biomass and store more aboveground carbon than any other vegetation type. …A new study published in Forest Ecology and Management combined ground-based measurements and repeated (2007–2025) airborne laser scanning (ALS) to inventory the tallest redwoods and quantify forest biomass. …Forest biomass changed substantially over time. Large areas of primary forest gained biomass during the prestorm interval (2007–2022), averaging 10–13 metric tons per hectare annually. …These ALS-derived estimates of biomass change may be somewhat exaggerated. …Nonetheless, the amount of crown damage probably rivaled losses of live-tree biomass to treefall in California’s Redwood National and State Parks. 
