The BC Council of Forest Industries 2026 Conference kicked-off yesterday with a strong economic case for forestry—even as the sector faces more losses. In other Business news: a Nakusp, BC company is granted logging licence near Slocan; US big tech is using mass timber for construction; Stora Enso celebrates a hybrid timber building in Austria; and New Zealand wood manufacturers want more in-country processing.
In Forestry news: the US Forest Service move to Utah, and its budget request in support of more logging, is applauded by industry but panned by ENGOs. Meanwhile: an Australian study says forest loss persists despite certification and protection; new research says the leading cause of tree death in US Northeast is now due to natural causes; a CBC feature examines Canada’s pending wildfire season; New Brunswick is hiring more year-round firefighters; another drought emergency declared in Washington state; and the Canadian Forest Owners is expanding into Nova Scotia.
Finally, when will shipping in the strait of Hormuz return to normal—months or years apparently.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
An employee at a national non-profit is accused of fraud involving more than $6 million in public funds earmarked for Indigenous Guardians programming. The First Nations National Guardians Network, or NGN, provides funding, networking, training and education opportunities that support First Nations-led stewardship and sovereignty. In an email, the non-profit – which administers funds from the federal Department of Environment and Climate Change – told operators of Guardians programs it had found “evidence of a sustained pattern of unauthorized financial transactions that appear to have been made by a member of staff.” An investigation identified suspicious transactions over a period of months… 90 Indigenous Guardians projects were funded through NGN in the 2023-24 fiscal year. In the North Island, they include Campbell River-based Homalco First Nation, which received $100,000, and Nanwakolas Council Society, an alliance headquartered in Campbell River that represents First Nations on the South Central Coast and northern Vancouver Island, which received $150,000.
PRINCE GEORGE – “Every day I get a phone call from an employer, and the first thing that comes to my mind is, ‘Oh, we’re going to lose another operation.’ And right now we’re probably down to about half the membership we were, a number of years ago.” That’s the sentiment of the president of the United Steelworkers – the union representing forestry workers in northern and central B.C, Brian O’Rourke. And the numbers are startling. Comparing data compiled from 2024 to 2026, the amount of money invested in forestry in British Columbia dropped from $15.8 billion to $14.4 billion, while the number of people employed in the sector dropped by 5,000. First Nations are acutely impacted, with 4,800 directly employed in forestry leading up to 2024. That dropped to 2,600. Meanwhile, the amount of money the industry generates for the provincial coffers dropped dramatically from $17.4 billion to just $12.8 billion. …But the Council of Forest Industries is infinitely optimistic because – in the words of Kim Haakstad – everyone uses forestry is some fashion.
On March 31, USDA announced that the U.S. Forest Service will relocate its headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, bringing roughly 260 positions and the agency’s top leadership to the Intermountain West. For Utah, a state with more than 8 million acres of national forest land and a $12.3 billion outdoor recreation economy, this is a significant development. The relocation does not arrive in a vacuum. In January 2026, Utah finalized a 20-year cooperative agreement with the Forest Service giving the state a substantially larger role in managing its national forests, covering decisions about logging, grazing, recreation, wildlife, and forest restoration. The Forest Service’s Intermountain Regional Office has been based in Ogden for decades. That office will close under the reorganization, but the new national headquarters in Salt Lake City places an even higher level of decision-making authority in the state.
If the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran holds, it could offer the clearest hope of an end to the energy crisis since Iran’s Revolutionary Guards assumed control of the strait of Hormuz. …Even if the temporary detente manages to hold and hundreds of tankers stranded in the Gulf start to transit once more, analysts fear that will not be enough to return the flow of oil, gas, chemicals and other vital items to pre-crisis levels. An estimated 2,000 vessels have been trapped in the Gulf. …Shipping analysts predict operators will gain confidence once a ship owned by a large European company has safely made the crossing. However, they caution that it is a different matter for empty ships to decide to enter the strait to load up at the region’s ports, and it is unclear when this may start to happen. …Experts have said it could take months or years to fully restore the Gulf’s energy production.
The News-Review newspaper in Roseburg notified staff this week that it will stop printing and shutter its newsroom, the latest casualty in the long decline of local journalism. “Due to declining revenue, increasing print costs, and broader industry decline nationwide, The News-Review has reached a level of unsustainability that we can no longer overcome. As a result, The News-Review will be shutting down in its current form at the end of April,” the paper’s owner wrote. “As part of this transition, the editorial department will be discontinued and The News-Review brand will sunset”. The newspaper’s website lists 15 employees. …The News-Review traces its roots to the founding of the Roseburg Ensign in 1867. It took its current name in 1920, with the merger of the Umpqua Valley News and Roseburg Review. The paper serves a community south of Eugene that has been struggling for decades amid the protracted decline of Oregon’s timber industry.
LA RONGE, Saskatchewan — With Canada aiming to protect 30 per cent of land and water by 2030, a new study shows the federal government should pursue a conservation method which takes wildfires into account. That’s according to La Ronge’s Aaron Bell, who recently had a research paper published by the Ecological Society of America on March 30 as part of his PhD in Biology. The project, which includes experiments on 42 islands in the Lac La Ronge region, focused on testing competing ideas on how government’s design protected areas such as nature reserves, or provincial and national parks. …Bell proposing government’s use a pyrodiversity-biodiversity method, which promotes and maintains diverse plants and fauna and thereby generating diversity. …“I’m hoping it enables people in the North to say we’re not managing fires at all for biodiversity and maybe this is something we should think about moving forward,” he said. 
A private company is seeking exclusive rights to part of a coastal park near Victoria, sparking concerns about the B.C. government’s priorities for public wilderness areas. One With Nature Corp. aims to use 72 hectares of East Sooke Regional Park, …for an outdoor education and wilderness survival skills school. Five hectares near a hiking trail would be used for overnight accommodation and would be off limits to the public if approved. …The school would include an archery range, an outbuilding to process animals, a learning centre, a camping area, bathrooms, a boat dock and cabins built with trees the company would cut down in its exclusive use area, according to One With Nature’s application to the B.C. government. …A spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the land is available because it was never transferred to the regional district or dedicated as park land when the East Sooke protected area was created in 1970.
Sarah Wayne Callies, from AMC’s The Walking Dead, has urged her fans to oppose a Nanaimo zoning change west of Cable Bay trail. On April 16, a hearing will be held in Nanaimo, for the possible rezoning of 74.71 hectares of the total 86-hectare property at from rural resource to industrial, with site-specific provisions over its use, allowed density and lot coverage. Included in the application for rezoning is a provision of an average 100-metre buffer zone around Cable Bay trail, about 13 per cent of the property. The zoning application was submitted by Harmac Pacific. During an information session in 2024, the company shared it would like to turn the land into a private industrial park. At the time, a representative with Harmac told the News Bulletin that the process to lease out the land would be phased over many years, and it would be marketed to businesses that “might have synergies” with Harmac’s existing business. 
A non-replaceable forest licence has been awarded to Box Lake Lumber Products, enhancing its operations and the sustainable use of local timber. The opportunity is targeted to boost B.C.’s value‑added wood sector, putting to work unlogged timber. “A stable supply of wood to small-town forestry companies is a win for everyone in the community,” said Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests. “This means more wood … for manufacturing companies, logging contracts for haulers and another boost to our value-added wood manufacturing sector. Our independent wood manufacturers put B.C. on the map as the global leader in high-quality wood products, and this licence is one more way to support that work.” A competitive opportunity provided specifically to value-added wood manufacturing companies, the non-replaceable forest licence will provide a consistent and stable supply of wood to Box Lake Lumber Products in the Kootenays.
OTTAWA, ON—Canadian Forest Owners (CFO) is pleased to welcome Forest Nova Scotia to its membership, expanding its national network in Nova Scotia, home to Canada’s largest private forest region. The province has the highest proportion of privately owned forest land in the country, supported by a diverse ownership base and a highly integrated forest sector. “Forest Nova Scotia represents a strong diversity of interests within its membership and is a valuable complement to our existing Nova Scotia members, including the Federation of Nova Scotia Woodland Owners and several large corporate members,” said Andrew de Vries, CEO of Canadian Forest Owners. “Forest Nova Scotia will further strengthen our national policy efforts and help raise awareness of the important role private forests play across Canada.” CFO represents approximately 480,000 private forest owners nationwide. Collectively, they manage 10% of Canada’s forest land base, contribute 20% of forest production, and play a vital role in sustainable forest management across the country.
For more than a year, the Trump administration has said it wants to harvest more timber from national forests. Now, officials are asking Congress to pay for the promise. The administration’s budget request would more than quadruple Forest Service spending on timber preparation and sales in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, even as many other agency priorities face steep reductions or elimination. The proposal calls for $175 million in the forest products account, up from $39 million this year. The administration didn’t ask for an increase a year ago, as it was settling in after taking the reins from the Biden administration. Spending on forest products has been flat for years, said Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the American Forest Resource Council, which represents companies harvesting timber from federal lands… saying the requested increase was a long-overdue investment in a programme that had operated at a small scale for decades. [to access the full story an E&E subscription is required]
In 2001, the Forest Service signed the Roadless Rule. The Trump administration is seeking to rescind the rule. During a brief public comment period, 99% of the respondents opposed the idea. The Roadless Rule affected 58.5 million acres of Forest Service roadless lands and put them off-limits to new road construction, logging, and road reconstruction. As the Forest Service recognized in its original review, these roadless lands “have the greatest likelihood of altering and fragmenting landscapes, resulting in immediate, long-term loss of roadless area values and characteristics.” Abolishing protection from logging and roading provided by the Roadless Rule has major economic consequences, both in direct costs and in avoided costs. For instance, a practical rationale for the rule is the Forest Service’s acknowledgment that the roughly 370,000 miles of existing Forest Service road network could not be maintained. There is already an $11 billion backlog in road maintenance, and creating even more roads would exacerbate this situation.
COULTERVILLE, California – Teddy Roosevelt, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot are turning over in their graves as Donald Trump launches a devastating war against the conservation movement. “With the subtlety of a wrecking ball and the morality of a foreclosure notice the Trump administration announced the most devastating attack on the US Forest Service in the agency’s 121-year history. …The administration announced it would move the USFS headquarters out of Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. “They’re shuttering every single one of the 10 regional offices that have governed this agency and with them, the career professionals,” wrote Jim Pattiz. More than 50 research outlets across 31 states are set to close, labs that house decades of irreplaceable long-term science, “the kind you literally cannot restart once it’s gone,” Pattiz says. …Unfortunately, conservation groups like the Sierra Club built by John Muir have lost their focus and their power to bring change.
MONTANA — The U.S. Forest Service plans to create a logging unit across regional national forests, seeking to boost economic stability by committing to process timber only via local businesses. The new Sustained Yield Unit – a concept created by 1944 federal law – would include 22 Montana counties and all of Helena-Lewis & Clark and Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests, as well as most of Custer Gallatin. …Speaking for the Governor’s Office, Amanda Kaster, director of Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, expressed the state’s strong support. …The draft plan estimates that the unit would directly support 192 jobs per year over the next decade, plus an additional 225 jobs via economic ripple effects. But the Marks saw the yield unit’s harvest plan as inadequately ambitious. …Barb Cestero, Montana director at the Wilderness Society, feared that given the Forest Service’s recent staff cuts, a potential over-emphasis on logging could be problematic.
As Washington’s current snowpack conditions become worse than last year, a statewide drought emergency has been declared. It’s the fourth drought emergency for the state in as many years. According to Casey Sixkiller, director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, “widespread shortages and challenges across our state” are expected. “Going into April with half of our usual snowpack is alarming,” Sixkiller said. “… Issuing a drought emergency now helps water users prepare for what is likely to be a very difficult summer. This is becoming an all-too-common experience and is another example of how climate change is visibly reshaping our landscape.” The Department of Ecology declared the drought emergency on April 8.
BOSTON — Urban forestry is a noble and necessary pursuit, yielding environmental and health benefits almost too numerous to count. …Urban forests, broadly speaking, also happen to be sources of large amounts of wood waste. The most recent estimates from the USDA Forest Service indicate that 46 million tons of sellable wood from urban areas is felled each year, most of which gets chipped, landfilled, or burned for energy. There is a missed opportunity afoot; not one of those pathways—with the possible exception of biomass power generation—involves making something of tangible value that’s inversely proportional to the amount of waste being generated. …Tridome Structures, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of mass timber products, saw the gap in the Northeast market and acted accordingly. Only six months ago, the company opened a subsidiary mill operation called TimberWise in the town of Millis, a Boston suburb.
Save the Date: June 9-10, 2026, Prince George, BC. Join industry leaders, safety professionals, and regulators at the 2026 Wood Pellet and Bioenergy Safety Summit, hosted by the Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) Safety Committee, in partnership with the BC Forest Safety Council, WorkSafeBC, and media partner Canadian Biomass. The Summit gathers experts from the pellet and bioenergy sectors for two days of practical learning, discussion and collaboration focused on enhancing workplace safety.