Tariff fallout is mounting for Canada’s forest sector as US duties compound an already difficult market conditions. In related news: tariffs have made a bad situation worse in BC; Harmac Pacific says it is not directly affected; Canada replaced seafood counter-tariffs with levies on wood charcoal and other goods; Minister LeBlanc welcomed a shift in the US position on language and culture; and a US lawmaker says Canada undercuts US forest companies. In other Business news: Northern Ontario municipalities raised concerns about RYAM’s temporary shutdown; demolition of Northern Pulp mill could start soon; and a $750M export logistics hub opened in Prince Rupert.
In Wood Product news: Canada’s mass timber sector faces indirect impacts despite escaping the latest tariffs; US housing costs are set to rise again; and the American Wood Council and the National Association of Home Builders 2027 Building Code wins and losses.
In Forestry news: the Steelworkers endorse BC’s proposed Working Forest Landscape Model; a BC forestry company asks court to extend injunction against Walbran protestors; Washington State forest owners appeal non-fish-bearing streams buffer rule; and Trump rollback of US forest protections could accelerate extinctions. Meanwhile: BC ended its provincial state of emergency; California’s Timber Fire surged again; and Mt. Hood National Forest expands its closure order.
Finally, WorkSafeBC is reminding employers about wildfire smoke & evacuation planning.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
More than 20 lumber mills closed across B.C. over the last three years. Billions in wood products affected by U.S. tariffs. Tens of thousands of jobs lost in Canada. …While there are many factors driving the decline, recent U.S. tariffs haven’t helped. But Donald Trump is hardly the first U.S. president whose government has imposed steep duties on Canadian lumber. The tariffs are the latest chapter in a dispute that’s been going on for more than four decades. …It boils down to differences in how much Canadian and American producers have to pay for access to wood, according to 
Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says Canada “welcomes” the US “withdrawing” its positions on the French language and culture after US Trade Rep. Greer said Canada’s streaming laws are not a “red line” for the American side. “Canada welcomes that the US is now withdrawing its positions on discoverability and labelling and is confirming that measures to promote French language and Canadian culture will not be subject to future US trade actions,” LeBlanc said. …In a Canadian exclusive interview, Jamieson Greer disputed Canada’s explanation about why trade talks fell apart, and said there’s currently no ‘open channels’ to get both sides back to the negotiating table. …In an interview that aired Wednesday evening, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appeared to modify the U.S. position on culture and language. …The Americans’ modified position comes two days after Canada announced its own dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on more than 700 different U.S. imports.
OTTAWA — The federal government is replacing its counter-tariffs on seafood with 50% levies on a series of other American goods, according to Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office. …The decision to remove seafood from Canada’s list of counter-tariffs was made in part to avoid giving the appearance of escalation by Canada in the face of a simmering trade conflict with the United States, as the U.S. does not tariff Canadian seafood imports. Newly added to Canada’s list of counter-tariffs include: Wood charcoal; Printed matter, including printed pictures or photographs; Articles of plaster or of compositions based on plaster, including boards, sheets and tiles; Materials used in the conveyance or packing of goods, including bottles, flasks, jars and pots; And copper wire. On Tuesday, the federal government laid out its plan for countermeasures in the ongoing trade war, and announced a $7.5-billion support package for workers and businesses.
It’s a dynamic moment in time for Nanaimo’s Harmac Pacific pulp mill and the whole coastal forest industry, according to CEO Paul Sandler. Sadler said that the new American 50% tariffs… are not directly impacting Harmac’s operations at this time, but the tariffs’ likely repercussions on the coastal saw and lumber mills… are very worrying. Harmac requires a significant amount of wood chips to produce its high-value kraft pulp that is used globally for tissue, packaging and paper production. …But Sadler said, the biggest news for the forest industry on the B.C. coast recently was the indefinite closure of Domtar’s Howe Sound pulp and paper mill on the Sunshine Coast. …“We need more pulp capacity on the coast to meet the demand than Harmac and the pulp operation in Port Alberni can provide. …Sadler said it’s vitally important that the region’s sawmills get back to operating at full capacity.
Bryan Yu, chief economist for Central 1 Credit Union, had no sooner completed a grim economic prognosis of B.C.’s ailing forest economy when, as if to punctuate the point, Domtar announced it would indefinitely idle its Howe Sound pulp mill in Port Mellon on Aug. 20. He said it was an “unhappy coincidence” that the announced pulp mill closure just happened to be announced the day before Central 1 published its economic commentary, which describes B.C. forest economy reaching the “breaking point.” The mill’s closure will result in about 400 workers losing their jobs. Domtar (formerly Paper Excellence) gave no date for when the mill will shut down. But if it is before the end of this year, that will mean three major pulp mills in B.C. will have shut down in B.C. in a single year. …The Council of Forest Industries (COFI) estimates 21 mills, mostly sawmills, have shut down in B.C. since 2023. 
The wrecking ball is readying for the former Northern Pulp mill, a once major player in Nova Scotia’s forestry sector that also came to be recognized as one of the province’s most prominent examples of environmental racism. Environment Minister Tim Halman announced an amended ministerial order on Thursday, clearing the way for the decommissioning, abatement and demolition of buildings and other infrastructure at the site in Abercrombie that sits on the edge of Pictou Harbour. Officials with Northern Timber Nova Scotia, the company that owns the property, expect the work to begin as early as September. …Halman’s amended order says all solid waste, including construction and demolition debris from the mill site, must be disposed of in an approved facility and everything must be removed within 18 months. …An official for Domtar said the work is expected to be complete in the last quarter of 2027,” Brenda Martin said.
This month’s Lumber Shorts includes these stories and more:
SAVANNAH, Georgia — The South, and Georgia in particular, have borne the brunt of a historic run of pulp and paper-mill closures as recycled boxes, cheap imported pulp and more thrifty packing by e-commerce giants, including Amazon.com, have hit demand. Last year, the US shed roughly 10% of its capacity to produce containerboard. …Demand for pulpwood plummeted. So did demand for wood chips, sawdust and other byproducts. Prices across the South are at the lowest level in nearly 40 years before factoring in inflation. In some parts, there’s essentially no market. Some growers are, for the first time, having to pay to have their pulpwood removed. …A search is on to create new sources of demand. Weyerhaeuser, the South’s largest timberland owner with about 6.6 million acres in 11 states, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build facilities in Arkansas and Mississippi to turn pulpwood surpluses into engineered lumber and an alternative to metallurgical coal, respectively. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]
New US tariffs on Canadian wood products threaten to raise construction costs for US homebuilders and squeeze supply chains already stretched thin as a potentially long and bruising trade war gets underway. …“Basically, the fact that there’s import tariffs on Canadian shipments to the US and vice versa is going to raise the cost of production for everyone, ultimately through the housebuilder to the consumer,” wood market expert Russ Taylor told Mortgage Professional America. …The full impact on homebuilders could take a few months to become clear but the direction of travel is clear, he said. “The builders either can’t find product or the prices go higher for certain products, and then that starts to influence homebuilders,” he said. “Probably not right away – everyone’s got inventory to sell – but certainly looking ahead a couple of months from now, that’s when some shortages or stockouts could start to occur.”
Canada’s nascent mass timber industry escaped a direct hit from the Trump administration… But steep US levies on the wider Canadian forestry sector still present sizable challenges for manufacturers as they chase a global market for engineered wood forecast to grow to more than US$12 billion by 2035. …Engineered-wood products such as CLT and glulam were left off the latest tariff list. Yet the emerging mass timber industry could feel the “broader hit”. “Mass timber does not become mass timber without the raw wood inputs,” said FPAC’s Derek Nighbor. …Canada Wood knows what it takes to develop a market for Canadian lumber products in China and other Asian nations. But CEO Bruce St. John cautioned that shifting exports to markets other than the US will “take years still” and require more than simply shipping Canadian lumber to overseas buyers. …Canada Wood’s Lance Tao noted, Canada’s opportunity in Asia’s engineered wood market is still less about shipping finished “modules” to the region and more about selling lumber to Chinese mass-timber manufacturers.
BURNABY, B.C. — The United Steelworkers union (USW) says the B.C. government’s proposed Working Forest Landscape Model is a step in the right direction, but … implementation cannot wait. “Our union and others have called for a clearly defined working forest for decades,” said Scott Lunny, USW Western Canada Director. “Government needs to move quickly to define the economic land base, increase the sustainable harvest and give workers and communities the certainty needed to rebuild our forest industry.” …USW says establishing where B.C.’s working forest will be only part of the challenge. The province must also determine how access to fibre from that land will support domestic manufacturing and employment. “These are public forests and a working forest needs to work for British Columbians,” said Lunny. “Greater certainty around the land base and fibre supply should mean greater certainty that those resources support mills, investment and good jobs here in B.C.” …“There is no time to waste”.
Prince George city council is being asked to support a call for an independent public inquiry into BC forest and wildfire management. A report, drafted by Coun. Garth Frizzell in his capacity as chair of the Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs, goes before council on Monday, Aug. 31. It recommends the city submit a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) asking the provincial government to establish an inquiry under the Public Inquiry Act. The UBCM holds its annual convention Sept. 14-18 in Vancouver. The proposed inquiry would examine the relationship between forest management practices and wildfire risk and severity, as well as the effectiveness of fuel management, prescribed burning, wildfire prevention and landscape-resilience strategies.
The province has ended its state of provincial emergency. The state of emergency was first declared Aug. 8 following a night of fast-moving fires, including the Bald Range wildfire that led to the evacuation of the District of Summerland. At the time, more than 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes. It was then extended Aug. 21 through to Aug. 29, but the province says the decision to end it early follows advice from emergency management officials. However, the province says the wildfire risk in B.C. remains high. The ending of the state of emergency has no effect on the current evacuation orders, evacuation alerts or local states of emergencies put in place by local governments or First Nations.
More than 400 endangered animal and plant species could face accelerated extinction after the Donald Trump administration’s decision to rescind a rule that has protected old-growth forests for more than two decades. According to a new report from the Center for Biological Diversity, the rollback of the Bill Clinton-era “roadless rule” could put 7.4m acres of endangered-species habitat and nearly 1,800 miles of protected rivers and streams at risk, while opening more than 45m acres of national forests to roads, drilling and logging. The Trump administration moved last week to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, citing “outdated restrictions [that] have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities”.
OLYMPIA, Washington – The Washington Forest Protection Association (WFPA) and Washington Farm Forestry Association (WFFA) will appeal a Thurston County Superior Court decision upholding the state’s expanded buffer rule for non-fish-bearing (Np) streams. The appeal will ask whether forest-practices rules can be changed without first showing that existing protections are failing to protect fish and water quality. WFPA and WFFA said the state’s own record shows expected downstream benefits to fish are negligible to minor, and Ecology acknowledged the expanded rule may still allow temperature changes in non-fish streams. “This is not a conservation win if the state’s own record shows limited fish benefits, and immense harm to working forests and rural communities,” said Jason Spadaro, Executive Director of WFPA. …Elaine Oneil, Executive Director of WFFA. “If a rule strands harvestable timber or makes a parcel uneconomical to manage, that harm cannot be fixed later.” …The court has ruled, but policy questions remain.
In this month’s update, you find these stories and more:
The U.S. Forest Service has expanded its emergency closure order due to wildfires burning across the Mt. Hood National Forest. The Austin and Narrows fires, located in the Clackamas River Ranger District, prompted officials to shut down all public entry and travel across several roads and popular recreation sites, including Lake Harriet, Timothy Lake and Bagby Hot Springs. …The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office says the closure will keep people safe and away from crews working to contain the fires. The USFS is also warning people to continue to follow fire restrictions in order to avoid sparking any new wildfires. The agency says this season’s drought conditions combined with hot and dry weather have increased wildfire risks. The Austin Fire has burned more than 9,000 acres and is still zero-percent contained as of Thursday afternoon. The fire remains under investigation.