Prime Minister Mark Carney is looking beyond the US to strengthen Canada’s economy, while Sarah Cox and Trevor Hancock raise concerns about the environmental consequences of his agenda. In related news: Trump’s trade war with Canada is adding to the debate in tight US Senate races; the US and China consider more favourable treatment for logs and wood products; and Kentucky’s hardwood industry looks for relief. Meanwhile: US consumer sentiment slips; rising diesel prices squeeze logging and trucking; and European lumber prices remain stable—for now.
In Forestry news: the debate over US forest management includes competing views on the Roadless Rule, and calls for more active forest management. In Canada, a proposed New Forest Act is presented to BC ministers; the Union of BC Municipalities backs call for faster salvage logging; Newfoundland opens a second round of wildfire funding; and a New Brunswick woodlot turns to the US after the Nackawic mill stopped buying. Meanwhile: UBC looks to the future of sustainable timber buildings with its 2026 Burgess-Lane Memorial Lecture.
Finally, the Council of Forest Industries’ ten 2026 Forestry Scholarship recipients.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s trade war with Canada could intensify the headwinds Republicans are navigating ahead of the November midterms, with its effects poised to reverberate in northern battleground states with crucial Senate races. …The escalating beef with Canada stands to heighten voters’ economic worries and add to the GOP’s political challenge in dead-heat races, analysts said. …Trump’s new import bans on some Canadian goods are set to begin next week, a response to retaliatory tariffs Canada levied earlier this month. …Five of the nine states most likely to decide Senate control border Canada — Alaska, Ohio, Michigan, New Hampshire and Maine. Two more, Texas and Iowa, also do substantial trade with Canada. …“What’s weighing on the top of people’s minds is this general affordability crisis … and they realize that tariffs are another factor that is impacting affordability.”
Washington, D.C. — A steep decline in hardwood exports, the growing popularity of man-made wood alternatives and surging fuel prices have been battering the American hardwood lumber industry. In Kentucky, 78 wood industry facilities, mostly sawmills, have closed in the last four years, according to the University of Kentucky Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. The U.S. relationship with China has been a major source of the industry’s problems and a focus of proposals to address them. China once bought about half of U.S. hardwood exports, according to the Hardwood Federation. Then, eight years ago, President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on imports from China, and China retaliated with tariffs on hardwood and other American imports. The reciprocal tariffs were eventually rolled back, but China’s purchases of American hardwood never returned to their previous levels. …advocates are pushing for lawmakers to pass legislation for $12 billion in agriculture relief, including $200 million for the hardwood industry.
Diesel prices have surged to levels that are creating significant cost pressures for logging and log-hauling businesses, which depend on heavy-duty trucks and fuel-intensive operations. As fuel costs climb, the expense of moving raw forest products rises with every mile, tightening margins and straining contractors who already operate on thin financial footing. These increases ripple through the entire supply chain, affecting delivered wood costs and operational predictability. As FRA President Tim O’Hara notes, “Rising diesel prices are creating real challenges for logging and hauling businesses, and mills have been working with contractors to ease some of that burden. It’s a strong reminder that our wood supply chain succeeds when every link supports the other.” The analysis underscores the need for short-term relief measures to stabilize costs and support the sector during this period of volatility. 
The Mark Carney government has been open-handed this year when it comes to funding major projects in BC that it deems to be in the national interest. The government promised $3.9 billion for the North Coast Transmission Line… It invested $500 million to expand the Red Chris gold and copper mine and pledged financial support for the $10-billion Roberts Bank port expansion. …A Canadian scientist and a University of BC professor say the federal government’s funds and perks are subsidizing the destruction of nature, contravening Canada’s global biodiversity commitments “Biodiversity again loses out,” Justina Ray, president and senior scientist for Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, said. Ray and Jessica Dempsey, a University of BC professor who studies the political economy of biodiversity loss, both said Prime Minister Mark Carney’s investment summit in Toronto last week underscores that the government’s priority is to facilitate resource extraction, despite the toll on nature.
Okanagan backcountry patrols are still turning up campfires burning without anyone around, weeks after campfire restrictions were eased across the region. Kane Blake, founder of the Okanagan Forest Task Force, says volunteers have discovered multiple campfires over the past several weeks that were left burning with no one present to monitor them. …Under B.C.’s Wildfire Regulation, a Category 1 campfire must be watched and patrolled while it is burning. The person responsible must maintain a fuel break around the fire and have either at least one firefighting hand tool or eight litres of water available. Leaving a fire unattended can also result in enforcement under the Wildfire Act and Wildfire Regulation. B.C.’s current listed fines include $1,150 for lighting, fuelling or using a fire against regulations. For the Okanagan Forest Task Force, Blake says the goal is also to educate younger generations about safely enjoying the backcountry.
Mission’s forestry department reported a net loss of $234,506 in the second quarter of 2026, but is expected to be profitable by the end of the year. According to the department’s quarterly report from the September 21 council agenda, market uncertainty led to lower volumes harvested during the quarter. The department reported a net profit of $301,844 in the second quarter of last year and projected a net profit of $733,511 for Q2 of 2026. However, the department released just 39 per cent of its budgeted volume to date because market uncertainty. “Continued challenges exist in the timber market. In addition to tariffs from the United States, fuel prices have increased substantially in 2026, which has impacted shipping costs,” the report reads. The report highlights trade friction with the United States as “one big challenge” moving forward, but also notes reasons for optimism for the remainder of 2026 and beyond.
Re: 
NEW BRUNSWICK — Ken Thomas has been harvesting lumber from forests in Stanley for over 32 years. …But these days, he’s consumed with the thought of what to do next, when he pulls these 20-foot logs out of the forest and looks for a buyer, now that his longtime purchaser is pulling out of the game — at least temporarily. Earlier this month, the AV Nackawic mill announced it will temporarily shut down at the end of October. The mill owner, AV Group, had already stopped purchasing wood in August. …If the Nackawic mill closes permanently, there will be about 257,000 hectares of Crown land licensed to AV Group that will be up for grabs. …In the meantime, while the province decides the next steps for the licence, Herron has allowed the mixed hardwood cut and grown for the Nackawic mill to be exempt from regulations keeping it in the province.
NORTH CAROLINA — A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the draft environmental impact statement for its plan to open the remaining pristine roadless areas of our national forests to mining, logging and road building. Pushed by anti-public lands corporate and industry interests, this raid on the lands that belong to all Americans raises the alarm about the ability to pass an irreplaceable resource down to future generations. …The release of the draft environmental impact statement opened a 30-day public comment period with a now-past deadline of midnight Sept. 21 – less than half the traditional 60- to 90-day comment period traditionally provided for proposed actions of this magnitude. Conservation organizations and others are formally requesting an extension, but past behavior shows the current administration is not interested in what you or I think. That’s why it is vital to raise your voice in support of the Roadless Rule before Oct. 6.