Canada announced its plan to challenge the US decision to maintain duties on softwood lumber. In other Business news: Canada’s lumber mills grapple with unfilled jobs; BC announced funding for 6 value-added wood manufacturers; Canfor adopts a hydrogen energy system; Western Archrib is expanding its glulam production; Catalyst Crofton is fined for 2021 waste discharge; JD Irving reports record hiring in 2023; Weyerhaeuser is working with Habitat for Humanity; and the UK is panned for supporting Drax’s wood energy initiative.
In Forestry/Climate news: BC can reduce impending wildfire risks; Oregon drops its wildfire funding proposal; Wisconsin’s paper industry fights EPA rule; industry promotes forest carbon management in Washington; and a research consortium is working on emission-free pulping in Finland.
Finally, US building permits jump as builder sentiment surges on falling interest rates.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Canada’s lumber industry is being threatened by a shrinking workforce and growing job vacancies, professionals in that line of work are warning. Lumber is a big part of the Canadian economy, intrinsically tied to the country’s growing housing needs. The Western Retail Lumber Association (WRLA) estimates more than 461,000 Canadians have jobs in the lumber industry. But there could be many more. …Kovach says if the thousands of lumber jobs aren’t filled, the impacts will be felt Canada-wide. …Lumber supplier Kaitlyn Chimko, with Dakeryn Industries in North Vancouver, says it’s important to get more faces in the lumber industry as people retire and Canada continues to grow. Twenty per cent of Canada’s lumber force is set to retire within five years. …Joel Hartung, the owner of the LumberZone in Manitoba, confirms there’s “no shortage of work needed in our industry.”
New funding for six wood-product manufacturers and two fabricated-metal manufacturers will create and protect hundreds of resource-sector jobs for people and strengthen B.C.’s value-added wood sector and local economies. …The Government of B.C. is contributing as much as $8.6 million through the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund to fund eight new capital projects to help manufacturers grow and diversify their operations…. San Industries Ltd., a vertically integrated forestry company that produces value-added and engineered wood products, will receive as much as $2.5 million to support purchasing new equipment, optimizing its processing line and constructing a new storage facility at its Port Alberni plant. …Richmond Plywood Corp. Ltd., which has been operating for more than 60 years in Richmond, is receiving as much as $2.3 million to purchase and install new, innovative equipment to enhance its value-added manufacturing processes using second-growth fibre and waste wood. 
A report filed with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Global Agricultural Information Network estimates that Canadian wood pellet production was down 6 percent in 2023, with exports down 14 percent. The expected decline in Canada’s wood pellet production is attributed to the closure of pellet mills, reduction in allowable cut and a high-activity wildfire season. The decline in exports is expected to result from reduced production coupled with diminished demand from South Korea and the U.K. for Canadian wood pellets. …As of 2023, 44.3 percent of Canada’s wood pellet production capacity was located in British Columbia, with 21 percent in Quebec, 16 percent in Alberta, 8.8 percent in New Brunswick, 6.1 percent in Ontario and the remaining 3.7 percent located in other areas of the country. 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending January 13, 2024. For this week, total US weekly rail traffic was 457,453 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.1% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending January 13 were 213,277 carloads, down 10.2% compared with the same week in 2023, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 244,176 containers and trailers, up 1.9% compared to 2023. Three of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2023. They were chemicals, up 2,591 carloads, to 33,076; petroleum and petroleum products, up 389 carloads, to 10,374; and forest products, up 80 carloads, to 8,193. 
After reporting a sharp increase in new residential construction in the U.S. in the previous month, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing a notable pullback by housing starts in the month of December. The Commerce Department said housing starts slumped by 4.3% to an annual rate of 1.460 million in December after spiking by 10.8% to a revised rate of 1.525 million in November. …Single-family housing starts led the pullback, tumbling by 8.6% to a rate of 1.027 million in December after soaring by 15.4% to a rate of 1.124 million in November. Meanwhile, multi-family housing starts surged by 8.0% to a rate of 433,000 in December after slipping by 0.3% to a rate of 401,000 in November. …The report also said building permits surged by 1.9% to an annual rate of 1.495 million in December after tumbling by 2.1% to 1.467 million in November. Single-family permits shot up by 1.9% to a rate of 994,000, while multi-family permits jumped by 2.2% to a rate of 501,000.
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A Chinese billionaire and a California timber family have become among the largest private landowners in the U.S. following major purchases of Oregon forests, according to 
The UK government approved a £2 billion project to create a “carbon negative” wood-burning power plant. But some climate experts say it’s a costly experiment for a technology that may not be green. Energy secretary Claire Coutinho’s decision greenlights a plan to bolt carbon capture units onto two generators at a power station in Yorkshire, northern England, run by Drax. Once operational, each would be capable of preventing 4 million tons of carbon pollution a year from entering the atmosphere. The carbon would then be stored under the North Sea. …Drax switched from burning coal to burning biomass — mostly wood pellets — in 2019. The power station in Yorkshire, which produces around 4% of the UK’s power, mostly burns wood imported from North America. …Adding carbon capture units will convert the plant to a form of energy called “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage,” or BECCS. …But the technology has been heavily criticized by some climate experts.
ESPOO, Finland — 10 research organizations, universities, and companies are establishing a groundbreaking research program with around 20 full-time researchers. The Emission Free Pulping program aims to significantly reduce biomass burning and increase the product yield of wood material used for pulping from approximately 50% to around 70%. The program is projected to have a budget of around 15 million euros over the next five years. The forest industry, technology companies, research organizations, and universities have joined forces to revolutionize the traditional pulping processes under the joint leadership of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. …So far, five industrial companies have committed to the program… ANDRITZ, Arauco, Metsä Group, Stora Enso, and Valmet. The program has been granted substantial funding from Business Finland, amounting to over 5 million euros over a three-year period.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing new air quality regulations. The new rule will have significant and adverse impacts on manufacturing, including Wisconsin’s paper industry, a major driver of the local economy. The EPA is poised to lower the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulate matter. But the agency’s proposal does little to address some of the largest sources of particulate matter, and it fails to acknowledge a decades-long trend of declining ambient air levels of fine particulate matter. …To start, fine particulate matter is emitted by a variety of sources. Major emitters include wildfires, road dust and exhaust fumes. These sources account for nearly 84% of all emissions of fine particulate matter. Yet the EPA’s proposed rule does not account for these sources and their public health impact. …The American Forest and Paper Association has shared these concerns in a letter to the White House.