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The Tree Frog Forestry News
June 12, 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.
Tuberville demands action on foreign imports harming Alabama producers
By Sawyer Knowles
The Yellowhammer News
June 11, 2026
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States
Tommy Tuberville
ALABAMA — US Senator Tommy Tuberville tore into foreign import trade practices undercutting Alabama’s timber and shrimp industries during a Senate hearing with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, demanding aggressive tariffs to protect producers across the state. Alabama’s forestry sector carries a $36 billion annual economic impact, supports more than 40,000 jobs, and ranks fourth nationally in lumber production. Tuberville told Rollins the industry is under siege. “My foresters are getting killed. Our sawmills are closing down,” Tuberville said. “We’re getting beat up by Canada. I think we have a 25% tariff on Canada. It needs to be about 60, 70 percent. They are flooding our country with lumber.” Tuberville saved his sharpest fire for China, where he said companies buy Alabama timber, ship it overseas for milling, and send finished products back at prices domestic manufacturers cannot match. …“We need to tariff the hell out of China.” …Rollins said the USDA plans to prioritize timber.
New Zealand to fund feasibility study for prefabricated mass timber modules
The Lesprom Network
June 11, 2026
Category: Business & Politics, Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International
The New Zealand Government will fund a feasibility project to assess producing prefabricated, fully fitted mass timber modules in New Zealand and potentially for the Australian market. The project will focus on converting industrial-grade logs into higher-value timber for use in construction… according to the office of Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. The government will contribute $3.2 million over three years to a project with a stated value of $8 million. The project will evaluate whether onshore production of fully fitted mass timber modules is viable by testing design, technical performance, seismic resilience, productivity gains, cost efficiency and carbon savings. The project aims to produce modules for hotels, student housing, apartments and offices and to multiply the value of industrial-grade logs 6.7 times. The plan includes assessing production processes and potential productivity improvements if more timber is processed onshore.
Total value of building permits decreased 7.6% in April
Statistics Canada
June 11, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada
In April, the total value of building permits issued in Canada decreased $1.0 billion (-7.6%) to $12.5 billion. Both the non-residential sector (-10.5%) and the residential sector (-5.5%) contributed to the decline in construction intentions. …The value of non-residential building permits fell $585.9 million to $5.0 billion in April. The decrease was led by the institutional component (-$388.2 million to $1.4 billion), followed by the industrial component (-$323.2 million to $1.2 billion). Meanwhile, the commercial component (+$125.6 million to $2.3 billion) moderated the overall decrease. …Residential construction intentions declined by $437.7 million to $7.5 billion in April. The multi-family component (-$429.7 million to $4.8 billion) accounted for most of the decline in the month, while the single-family component remained virtually unchanged, at $2.7 billion.
US Residential Building Material Prices Rise at Highest Rate In Over Three Years
By Jesse Wade
NAHB Eye on Housing
June 11, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States
Wholesale prices of goods used in residential construction rose in May as energy prices continued to climb. In May, residential building material prices, excluding energy, rose at their highest yearly rate since January 2023, as prices were up 4.4% from a year ago and up 0.7% over the month. Meanwhile, prices for services rose 4.7% over the year, but were unchanged from the previous month. The Producer Price Index for final demand increased 1.1% in May, after rising 1.1% in April. Compared to a year ago, final demand prices were up 6.5%. …The price index for inputs to new residential construction rose 1.3% in May and was up 6.9% from last year. …Among input goods, the largest year-over-year increase was for No. 2 diesel fuel as prices were 105.9% higher than a year ago. …Softwood lumber prices were up 5.6% from a year ago in May while ready-mix concrete prices were up 1.7% and Gypsum building materials prices were down 1.1%.
Fed Rate Hike Possible Amid Inflation and Geopolitical Uncertainty
By Robert Dietz, Chief Economist
The National Association of Home Builders
June 11, 2026
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States
Despite the leadership change at the Federal Reserve, the bond market is now projecting that it is more likely than not that the next monetary policy move by the central bank is a federal funds rate increase rather than a cut. The switch for market expectations from an easing cycle to tightening policy is due to macroeconomic conditions and risks, as well as fallout from current policy. …Higher interest rates have reduced housing activity. New single-family home sales declined 6.2% in April to a 622,000 annual rate and were down 11.3% from a year earlier, while inventory increased to 489,000 homes, equal to a 9.4 months’ supply. …Looking forward, 2026 looks to be the second year in a row of cooling single-family construction. Mortgage interest rates are likely to remain above 6%, with inflation expectations elevated due to higher oil and commodity prices tied to the Iran war and the lingering impacts associated with tariffs.
Career opportunities unfold as housing construction facility opens shop in Port Alberni
By Denise Titian
Ha-Shilth-Sa
June 11, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West
PORT ALBERNI, BC — Tina Gus… a member of the Tseshaht First Nation, is one of two women in the first Green Building Foundations and Manufacturing training program cohort who went on to work at IGV Housing as a Production Operator. …The program brings together IGV Housing, North Island College and Synergy Foundation to deliver a fully funded skills-building opportunity that delivers trained workers to Port Alberni’s new IGV Housing plant and other construction businesses like it. …Located at the former San Group wood manufacturing site next to the paper mill in central Port Alberni, IGV Housing is a facility where new homes are being built. “The company manufactures full-scale homes and is developing a solution for multi-family buildings up to six storeys,” said a spokesperson for IGV Housing. The company uses a systemized hybrid construction model that combines factory-built components with on-site assembly.
Laurentian University prof lauded for architectural research
Northern Ontario Business
June 11, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East
SUDBURY, Ontario — A Laurentian University architecture professor is being recognized for his research in sustainable design. Steven Beites, an assistant professor at Laurentian’s McEwen School of Architecture, has received an award for his paper, “Technology, Ecology and the Housing Crisis.” It explores how advanced technologies, robotics, and sustainable bio-based materials can fundamentally reshape modern design and construction. Beites received the award from the College of Distinguished Professors and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture during the ACSA’s annual convention in Chicago in March. Beites’ work looks at how innovative approaches to design and construction — including using robotics and digitally fabricated systems to move production into controlled manufacturing environments — can help address housing challenges in rural and remote communities in Northern Ontario. One of his projects is the development of a cable-driven parallel robot, which could be assembled on site and used to 3D print housing components.
Ontario sees jump in mid-rise wood construction following 2023 building code change
By Lindsay Kelly
Northern Ontario Business
June 11, 2026
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada East
Three years ago, the Ontario Building Code required that any developer taking on a mid-rise wood-frame building had to construct stairwells out of non-combustible material. That was expensive. It made construction challenging, and, according to the Canadian Wood Council, resulted in a lower adoption of wood-frame building. Since that requirement was removed in 2023, allowing full buildings to be constructed with wood, interest in mid-rise wood-frame building has increased considerably, especially for residential builds, said Hailey Quiquero, with the WoodWorks Ontario program, an initiative of the Canadian Wood Council. “Now, in our market, we’re sitting at around 50% of five- and six-storey buildings being built out of wood construction, so a great jump,” Quiquero said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. In BC, I think it’s greater than 80% of this market.” …Currently in Ontario, mid-rise wood-frame building is largely being used in residential projects, Quiquero said.
WELLAND, ONT. — Currently under construction in Welland, Ont., the Niagara College Applied Health Institute (AHI) Expansion aims to create a community hub that responds to rising enrolment in health care programs such as nursing, paramedicine, personal support work, dental hygiene and pharmacy. The 75,000-square-foot purpose-built mass timber addition was designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects and will feature a new entrance, pedestrian plaza, courtyard and atrium. …At the heart of the building, a feature stair rises through an open atrium to the second level. “Delivered on an accelerated schedule in response to urgent workforce needs, the mass timber expansion is pursuing Zero Carbon Building and Rick Hansen Foundation certifications,” the release adds. “An innovative design-assist partnership with timber supplier Nordic Structures also helped streamline co-ordination between design and fabrication, supporting both schedule certainty and construction efficiency.”
Explore the AIA Education Facility Design Award 2026 recipients—recognized as the best in today’s learning spaces. As education evolves, so does the architecture that supports it. The AIA Education Facility Design Award celebrates innovative projects across the learning continuum, from early childhood to higher education. These designs elevate learning environments and inspire communities.
WoodWorks has announced eight 2026 Wood in Architecture award winners, celebrating excellence and innovation in mass timber, heavy timber, light-frame, and hybrid building design. The annual award program recognizes developers and design teams using wood in innovative ways that positively impact the environment, occupants, and communities throughout the U.S. WoodWorks was founded to support innovation in modern wood design, and we’re fortunate to work alongside the teams taking on that work every day. Our award program gives us a chance to step back and celebrate what they’ve accomplished, and the projects that represent the best of what wood can achieve. This year, we were especially encouraged by the volume of submissions—an indication of expanding confidence in wood as a material of choice. Thank you to all who nominated projects, and to our volunteer jury for the time and care they brought to the process. See all the winning projects here.
New Zealand to fund feasibility study for prefabricated mass timber modules
The Lesprom Network
June 11, 2026
Category: Business & Politics, Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: International
The New Zealand Government will fund a feasibility project to assess producing prefabricated, fully fitted mass timber modules in New Zealand and potentially for the Australian market. The project will focus on converting industrial-grade logs into higher-value timber for use in construction… according to the office of Agriculture Minister Todd McClay. The government will contribute $3.2 million over three years to a project with a stated value of $8 million. The project will evaluate whether onshore production of fully fitted mass timber modules is viable by testing design, technical performance, seismic resilience, productivity gains, cost efficiency and carbon savings. The project aims to produce modules for hotels, student housing, apartments and offices and to multiply the value of industrial-grade logs 6.7 times. The plan includes assessing production processes and potential productivity improvements if more timber is processed onshore.
Environmental group takes province to task over old growth logging in provincial parks
By Timothy Schafer
Castanet
June 12, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West
Amber Peters
B.C. is “failing to preserve ecological integrity” in its provincial parks and the parks system itself is not ready for climate change as old growth forest continues to fall, says a biologist with Valhalla Wilderness Society. Amber Peters said old growth clearcutting has continued throughout the province and locally despite the Old Growth Strategic Review Panel’s recommendations released in 2020 calling for a halt to the practice. She said three of the government-appointed Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel scientists who identified at-risk old growth for priority deferrals in 2021 wrote a follow-up report in 2023 revealing that over 50 per cent of the most at-risk old growth identified has been logged or is targeted for logging. …“A film called BC is burning is claiming that we need to prevent forests from becoming ‘over-mature.’ … Forest Minister Ravi Parmar has advocated for ‘thinning’ in parks and old growth areas, parroting the forest industry narrative,” she said.
Flow reductions begin as Cowichan River braces for dry summer
By Sarah Simpson
The Cowichan Valley Citizen
June 11, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West
LAKE COWICHAN, BC — Pumps will likely be required to sustain the river if dry conditions continue through the summer, according to Brian Houle, environment manager for Domtar Crofton Mill. Though the mill has shut down, Domtar remains the licenced operator. As of a June 4 report issued by Houle, Cowichan Lake has dropped to 80% capacity and the below-average snowpack has already fully melted. Updated modelling for the remainder of the year was analysed at a meeting of regulators and Cowichan Tribes on June 3. Domtar was guided to begin to reduce the flow to below 7.08 cubic meters per second (cms). …With no relief in sight, there’s been a push for a larger replacement weir to store more water in the lake to reduce the need for emergency pumping. …Domtar has been authorized to have qualified professional biologists monitor the river conditions.
US Dept. of Agriculture employees facing relocation weigh whether to stay or go
By Jory Heckman
The Federal News Network
June 11, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States
The Agriculture Department is making an ultimatum to thousands of its employees as part of its sweeping relocation plans — move to keep their jobs or quit. USDA is embarking on a multi-part reorganization plan that involves relocating more than half of its D.C.-area workforce to hubs across the country by the end of this summer. Employees impacted by these relocation plans work at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Forest Service, Economic Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Food and Nutrition Service. …The memo also states that NASS and all components under USDA’s research, education and economic mission area will offer buyouts and early retirement to employees who received relocation notices. The Forest Service told employees earlier this month that it will offer Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) to staff impacted by its relocation plans.
Wildfires are reversing decades of air quality improvements across much of the US. Expanded use of prescribed fire is a primary proposed solution, but air quality trade-offs—more initial smoke for less smoke later—remain poorly quantified. Using two decades of satellite-derived measurements of fire severity and smoke particulate matter across California, we assessed the causal effect of low-severity wildfire, a proxy for prescribed burning, on subsequent wildfire activity and air quality. We found that low-severity fire reduced the probability of very-high-severity wildfire by 92%, with reductions lasting a decade and extending 5 kilometers from treated locations. Reduced future smoke far outweighed the smoke produced during treatment, with benefit-cost ratios exceeding five after a decade. Sustained treatment of 500,000 acres annually would reduce cumulative smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by about 10% after a decade.
Forest Service ignored the law to put chainsaws in the Frank Church—River of No Return Wilderness
By Kevin Proescholdt, director, Wilderness Watch
The Idaho Statesman
June 11, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West
After a year of secret, behind-closed-door negotiations, the U.S. Forest Service recently authorized massive amounts of gas-powered chainsaw use in the largest contiguous Wilderness in the Lower 48 with no opportunities for public comment, no environmental review, and no regard for federal laws, including the Wilderness Act. Incredibly, the chainsaws in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness will not be fired up by Forest Service personnel, but by private commercial outfitters and guides. …Wilderness supporters need to voice their opposition to this ill-advised — and illegal — plan to unleash chainsaws in Wilderness with their members of Congress (202-224-3121) in order to protect the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness from this chainsaw massacre. If we can’t stop this assault in Idaho, we may soon see expanded chainsaw use by commercial interests all over the National Wilderness Preservation System.
One strongman earns honorary ‘Bull of the Woods’ title each year from Deming Logging Show
By Isaac Stone Simonelli
The Cascadia Daily News
June 11, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: US West
Deming, Washington — Leroy Sande was pioneering a road with his excavator in Southeast Alaska when stumps, rocks, everything else — including his rig — started to pitch down the hillside. As if reaching out with his own arm, the logger instinctively grabbed at the slick sandstone beneath 10 feet of soil with the excavator’s bucket. “Well, you ain’t grabbing sandstone,” Sande, now 83, recalled. “…There was nothing to grab onto that wasn’t going down the hill.” About 400 yards down slope, the excavator tipped over and came to a stop. It was the only time in his 50-plus-year career in the woods that Sande put an excavator on its side, and even then, he emerged from the machine unscathed. Logging is the most deadly occupation in the nation… Injuries that aren’t fatal can put someone out of work for weeks, months, years or the rest of their life. The annual Deming Logging Show raises money for “busted up” loggers and their families, and recognizes the “Bull of the Woods.”
Hidden Web of Fungus Inside Earth Could Reach The Sun a Billion Times
By Michelle Starr
Science Alert
June 12, 2026
Category: Forestry
Region: International
Now, for the first time, scientists have compiled a global map of the mycorrhizal network, revealing an underground network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) threads that stretches an estimated 110 quadrillion kilometers through Earth’s soils. Around 70 percent of all plant species rely on mycorrhizal symbiosis. …evolutionary ecologist Justin Stewart of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam assembled data from 322 studies representing more than 16,000 soil cores across nine different global biomes. …Then, they used machine learning to predict the density of unseen AM networks across the world… The surprise was where these networks were strongest …Rather than clustering in tropical rainforests, the highest densities were found in places like grasslands, prairies, steppes, and wetlands. …A more worrying finding is that fungal network density was, on average, 47 percent lower in cultivated croplands. …”Mycorrhizal fungi have shaped life on earth, but we still understand too little it,” says mycologist Merlin Sheldrake.
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.
Three years ago, the Ontario Building Code required that any developer taking on a mid-rise wood-frame building had to construct stairwells out of non-combustible material. That was expensive. It made construction challenging, and, according to the Canadian Wood Council, resulted in a lower adoption of wood-frame building. Since that requirement was removed in 2023, allowing full buildings to be constructed with wood, interest in mid-rise wood-frame building has increased considerably, especially for residential builds, said Hailey Quiquero, with the WoodWorks Ontario program, an initiative of the Canadian Wood Council. “Now, in our market, we’re sitting at around 50% of five- and six-storey buildings being built out of wood construction, so a great jump,” Quiquero said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. In BC, I think it’s greater than 80% of this market.” …Currently in Ontario, mid-rise wood-frame building is largely being used in residential projects, Quiquero said.
LAKE COWICHAN, BC — Pumps will likely be required to sustain the river if dry conditions continue through the summer, according to Brian Houle, environment manager for Domtar Crofton Mill. Though the mill has shut down, Domtar remains the licenced operator. As of a June 4 report issued by Houle, Cowichan Lake has dropped to 80% capacity and the below-average snowpack has already fully melted. Updated modelling for the remainder of the year was analysed at a meeting of regulators and Cowichan Tribes on June 3. Domtar was guided to begin to reduce the flow to below 7.08 cubic meters per second (cms). …With no relief in sight, there’s been a push for a larger replacement weir to store more water in the lake to reduce the need for emergency pumping. …Domtar has been authorized to have qualified professional biologists monitor the river conditions. 
The Agriculture Department is making an ultimatum to thousands of its employees as part of its sweeping relocation plans — move to keep their jobs or quit. USDA is embarking on a multi-part reorganization plan that involves relocating more than half of its D.C.-area workforce to hubs across the country by the end of this summer. Employees impacted by these relocation plans work at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Forest Service, Economic Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Food and Nutrition Service. …The memo also states that NASS and all components under USDA’s research, education and economic mission area will offer buyouts and early retirement to employees who received relocation notices. The Forest Service told employees earlier this month that it will offer Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP) to staff impacted by its relocation plans.
Wildfires are reversing decades of air quality improvements across much of the US. Expanded use of prescribed fire is a primary proposed solution, but air quality trade-offs—more initial smoke for less smoke later—remain poorly quantified. Using two decades of satellite-derived measurements of fire severity and smoke particulate matter across California, we assessed the causal effect of low-severity wildfire, a proxy for prescribed burning, on subsequent wildfire activity and air quality. We found that low-severity fire reduced the probability of very-high-severity wildfire by 92%, with reductions lasting a decade and extending 5 kilometers from treated locations. Reduced future smoke far outweighed the smoke produced during treatment, with benefit-cost ratios exceeding five after a decade. Sustained treatment of 500,000 acres annually would reduce cumulative smoke fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by about 10% after a decade.
Deming, Washington — Leroy Sande was pioneering a road with his excavator in Southeast Alaska when stumps, rocks, everything else — including his rig — started to pitch down the hillside. As if reaching out with his own arm, the logger instinctively grabbed at the slick sandstone beneath 10 feet of soil with the excavator’s bucket. “Well, you ain’t grabbing sandstone,” Sande, now 83, recalled. “…There was nothing to grab onto that wasn’t going down the hill.” About 400 yards down slope, the excavator tipped over and came to a stop. It was the only time in his 50-plus-year career in the woods that Sande put an excavator on its side, and even then, he emerged from the machine unscathed. Logging is the most deadly occupation in the nation… Injuries that aren’t fatal can put someone out of work for weeks, months, years or the rest of their life. The annual