Daily News for September 23, 2025

Today’s Takeaway

European Commission plans to delay anti-deforestation rules again

The Tree Frog Forestry News
September 23, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

The European Commission plans to delay its anti-deforestation rules again—citing the need to reduce red tape. In other Forestry news: the USDA’s Roadless Rule outreach garnered a massive response; WWF-Canada’s Living Planet Report says over half of species are in decline; Vancouver Island mayors and MP Gunn say BC forestry is in crisis;  Apple launches project to protect California redwoods; the US Forest Service reflects on Hurricane Helene recovery; and the unexpected upside of Canada’s wildfires.

In Company news: Western Forest Products will curtail ~50 million board feet in BC, Interfor secures $5M to upgrade its Sault Ste. Marie mill, Acadian Timber invests in digital forestry at University of New Brunswick; Canadian Kraft Paper says First Nations suit in The Pas, Manitoba should be tossed; and a Sustainable Timber Tasmania error resulted in protester charges being dropped. Meanwhile, perspectives on what’s wrong with housing policy in Ontario and the United States.

Finally, FPAC honoured MP Gord Johns and Mayors Spencer Coyne and Crystal McAteer with the 2025 Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor

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Business & Politics

MP Gord Johns, Mayor Spencer Coyne, and Mayor Crystal McAteer receive the 2025 Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award

Forest Products Association of Canada
September 22, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Gord Johns

Spencer Coyne

Crystal McAteer

Forest Products Association of Canada awards Gord Johns, MP for Courtenay-Alberni, BC; Spencer Coyne, Mayor of Princeton, BC, and Crystal McAteer, Mayor of High Level, Alberta, as the 2025 recipients of the Jim Carr Forest Community Champion Award. The honour recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to supporting Canada’s forest sector and the families and communities that depend on it. Named in memory of the late Jim Carr, former Minister of Natural Resources and International Trade Diversification, a tireless advocate for Canadian forestry and its people, this award celebrates community leaders who have shown dedication to advancing the environmental, social, and economic benefits of sustainable forest management in Canada. 

A Member of Parliament since 2015, Gord Johns has continued to advocate for the forest sector—the backbone of the communities he represents—promoting sustainable forestry, biomass innovation, and value-added wood products that will create jobs and reduce waste. …As Chair of the Vermillion Forks Community Forest, Mayor Spencer Coyne brings together the partners of the Town of Princeton, the Upper Similkameen Indian Band, and the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen to oversee the land management and harvesting rights over 11,000 hectares of forest land. …As a lifelong educator, Mayor Crystal McAteer has been instrumental in raising awareness about the importance of the forest industry and environmental stewardship. 

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First Nation’s suit after toxic spill should be tossed: feds, province, paper mill

By Erik Pindera
Winnipeg Free Press
September 22, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

The federal and provincial governments and the company that owns the paper mill in The Pas say a lawsuit filed last year by a First Nation over a 2019 toxic fluid spill should be thrown out of court. Opaskwayak Cree Nation filed a claim against Canadian Kraft Paper and the governments in the Court of King’s Bench last September, arguing it wasn’t warned about the hazardous spill until the company had pleaded guilty in provincial court to a charge under the federal Fisheries Act and was ordered to pay a million-dollar fine in December 2023. …The federal government said it fulfilled its duties by sending Environment and Climate Change Canada investigators to look into the spill before prosecuting the paper company in court….The paper company denies causing any harm to the environment or that its actions or inaction have resulted in any adverse effects to people’s health.

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Western Forest Products Announces Lumber Production Curtailments

By Western Forest Products
GlobedNewswire
September 22, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Western Forest Products announced planned temporary operating curtailments at its BC sawmills during the fourth quarter of 2025. These planned curtailments, combined with temporary curtailments taken in Q3 of 2025, will collectively reduce lumber production by ~50 million board feet in the second half of 2025, amounting to ~6% of the Company’s annual lumber capacity. The curtailments are in response to persistently weak market conditions, further impacted by increases in US lumber duties. In addition, certain factors relating to the operating environment, including a lack of available economic log supply, ongoing harvesting permitting delays and the strike by the United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 at our La-kwa sa muqw Forestry Limited Partnership are also contributing factors. The temporary curtailments will be taken through a combination of reduced operating hours, an extended holiday break and reconfigured shifting schedules. The Chemainus sawmill, which was curtailed for the third quarter of 2025, will remain temporarily curtailed for the fourth quarter.

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$5M in funding announced for Interfor’s Sault lumber mill

By Stephen Alexander
Sootoday.com
September 22, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Ontario’s Associate Minister of Forestry and Forest Products announced over $5 million in funding today for Interfor Sault Ste. Marie at the company’s mill on Peoples Road. Kevin Holland said the funding will help the mill install equipment and technology – including artificial intelligence screening – to increase production capacity by 12%, reduce wood waste by 25% and reduce emissions by 21%. “This project will enable greater processing of small diameter logs, which are underused in current operations,” Holland said. …The funding will support Interfor Sault Ste. Marie as the Canadian forestry sector grapples with U.S. tariffs. “The whole idea behind our forest biomass program is to invest into the sector as we deal with the increase in uncertainties created by the duties and tariffs that are being imposed by the United States government,” Holland said. …Interfor employs over 100 people in the Sault. …The announcement was accompanied separate funding for Northshore Forest to complete repairs to a bridge.

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Finance & Economics

Ontario housing construction collapse ‘should alarm policymakers,’ report warns

By John MacFarlane
Yahoo! Finance
September 23, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Housing starts and pre-sales in much of Southern Ontario have earned failing grades and are on track to get even worse, a new study warns — a situation that “should alarm policymakers across all three orders of government.” The report from University of Ottawa’s Missing Middle Initiative compares housing starts and sales in 34 municipalities across the Greater Toronto Area and neighbouring Southern Ontario cities for the first six months of 2025 with the same period from 2021–2024. It found starts are down 40% relative to that four-year average, with pre-construction condo sales plunging 89 per cent and other homes 70 per cent. The reduction in starts has direct employment implications, and the collapse in pre-construction sales, the study says, is “a clear indication that Ontario’s housing situation will get worse before it gets better, and that market weakness is not isolated to the condo market.” …The study paints a similarly bleak picture for the first half of 2025.

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Trump Could Help the Housing Crisis, if He Just Did Everything Differently

By Rebecca Patterson, economist
The New York Times
September 23, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Housing is the foundation of the economy. …It’s not a surprise, then, that the Trump administration recently said it was considering declaring the housing crisis a national emergency. The federal government alone can’t solve the housing crisis. That said, the administration could take steps that would meaningfully help make American housing more affordable. …One of the biggest issues is supply. …But according to the NAHB, immigrants represent one in four American construction workers. Want a ceiling for your new home? More than 60% of ceiling installers are immigrants. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. home manufacturers said last year they faced shortages of carpenters and other key construction workers. Today, even fewer available workers means higher wages, which adds to the cost of new housing, and fewer homes getting built. Then there are tariffs that hit the housing industry, including 35% tariffs and related duties on Canadian lumber. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription is required]

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Sylvia Richards combines timber with mirrors for “supernatural” effect in New Hampshire

By Jenna McKnight
Dezeen Magazine
September 22, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Wood is paired with mirrored panels on the exterior of a research building for biotech company Adimab, which was designed by Sylvia Richards Practice for Architecture to blend with its forested setting and preserve a wetland. Located in Lebanon, New Hampshire, the building is part of the headquarters for Adimab, a biotech company that develops antibodies for infectious and autoimmune diseases. …Rectangular in plan, the building has three levels. Going vertical rather than spreading out enabled the architects to provide ample square footage while maintaining a compact footprint. …For the structural system, the team used mass timber, including cross-laminated timber (CLT) for shear walls and decking and a glue-laminated post-and-beam system. Wooden elements were left exposed. …Facades are clad in a rain screen made of Atlantic cedar, which the studio says was sustainably harvested.

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Forestry

The starkest picture of wildlife loss in Canada to date: WWF’s new Living Planet Report Canada

By World Wildlife Fund Canada
Cision Newswire
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

TORONTO — World Wildlife Fund Canada’s Living Planet Report Canada (LPRC) 2025: Wildlife at Home reveals the most severe average decline in the size of monitored wildlife populations in Canada since WWF-Canada began reporting two decades ago. Using the largest dataset to date, the report presents the clearest — and starkest— picture of wildlife loss in Canada yet. More than half (52%) of the species studied are decreasing in abundance. On average, every species group included is trending in the wrong direction. LPRC 2025 comes at a time when governments across Canada are prioritizing rapid development, while loosening regulations that protect nature and species at risk. …The biggest declines were seen in grassland habitats, where wildlife populations declined by 62% on average since 1970. In forests, mammal populations declined by 42%, over the last five decades. Species of concern, those found on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, saw their populations decline by 43%.

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Garbage, gates and wildfire risk among Vancouver Islanders’ top backcountry access complaints: Survey

By Jeff Lawrence
Chek News
September 21, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Mosaic Forest Management says it has heard Vancouver Islanders loud and clear when it comes to accessing private forest lands, releasing the results of its first-ever public survey that drew an impressive 7,600 responses in just 23 days. The survey was launched earlier this summer and asked for public feedback on recreational access to Mosaic-managed lands across Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. …While many respondents supported the need for managed access, frustrations with gates and restrictions on Mosaic-owned lands came through strongly in the responses. …Mosaic says it has already started acting on the feedback. The company will bring in an external consultant this fall to develop a new recreation access framework, with an updated program set to launch by spring 2026. The consultant’s role will be to design a system that balances public recreation with safety, operational needs and environment protection while also improving communication and access.

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North-Island Mayors and MP say forestry industry is in a ‘crisis’

By Tchadas Leo
Chek News
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Today on the back steps of the Legislature building, MP Aaron Gunn, MLA Anna Kindy along with five North Island Mayors are calling on Ottawa and BC to remove the red tape when it comes to cutting permits in the province. North Island- Powell River MP Aaron Gunn sent an open letter today to both Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney telling North Vancouver Island and the province is in a forestry crisis. “Harvest volumes have collapsed in half and more than 5,400 jobs have been lost. It’s the result of made in BC, made in Canada policies that have delayed permitting, dramatically increased harvesting costs and crippled investors confidence,” said Gunn. The Mayor of Powell River Ron Woznow was at the press conference with Gunn, echoing his concerns. …BC Forests Minister Ravi Parmar reacted briefly… adding that more details on a ‘refreshed BC timber sales’ will be released Tuesday.

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Acadian Timber Announces $2.5M Investment in University of New Brunswick’s Digital Forestry Program

By Acadian Timber Corp.
GlobeNewswire
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

EDMUNDSTON, New Brunswick — Acadian Timber, together with its largest shareholder Macer Forest Holdings, is investing $2.5 million over 5 years in the University of New Brunswick to drive innovation in digital forestry. …The investment will support the creation of a new digital stream within UNB’s master of forestry program and fund infrastructure upgrades to enhance education and research capabilities. “This collaboration reflects Acadian’s commitment to advancing sustainable forestry through innovation,” said Adam Sheparski, CEO of Acadian. “By investing in UNB’s digital forestry program, we’re not only supporting the next generation of forestry professionals – we’re also accelerating the integration of cutting-edge technologies into our own operations and across the industry.” Spearheaded through a partnership with UNB’s Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management and the McKenna Institute, this initiative will accelerate the use of AI, remote sensing, and digital modeling in sustainable forest management. 

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Retired wildlife biologist on impact of clear-cutting in Cape Breton Highlands

By Bob Bancroft
The Halifax Examiner
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

The nature of the Cape Breton Highland forests with harsh, stormy winter conditions and deep snows made the sites appropriate for deep-rooted hardwood trees that could better withstand heavy winds and summer droughts. Conifers, on the other hand, are shallow-rooted and more susceptible to drought, insects, and wind. …According to science regarding their history, disturbances in Nova Scotia forests tended to result from hurricanes and insect infestations. Forest fires were rare. …Forests were not as vulnerable to fire until land clearing by humans began roughly 300 years ago. The interval between natural disturbances before Europeans arrived is estimated at 800-1,000 years. Humans are now harvesting and removing trees from many sites every 40 years. …Moose need to move through mature forests with small openings containing younger, diverse tree species for food, with aquatic vegetation available in waterways.

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Apple launches new project to protect and restore California redwood forest

Apple.com
September 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Apple announced a new investment in the restoration and sustainable management of a working redwood forest in California, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund. The forest project is part of the company’s expanded Restore Fund initiative, which is now invested in two dozen conservation and regenerative agriculture projects that span six continents. …The Restore Fund initiative is designed to scale global investment in nature-based carbon removal. Since launching in 2021 with Goldman Sachs and Conservation International, Apple has expanded the initiative — first in 2023 with the addition of a new fund managed by Climate Asset Management, and again in 2025 with additional direct investments from Apple in nature-based projects in the U.S. and Latin America. …Apple’s investments in nature play an important role in the company’s ambitious Apple 2030 goal to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by the end of this decade.

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The Forest Service reflects on Hurricane Helene and looks forward to continued recovery

By Alex Demas
USDA Forest Service
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Only a month after the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, another anniversary comes due for a different catastrophic storm—it is the first anniversary after Hurricane Helene devastated the communities of the Southern Appalachians. On September 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in southwestern Florida as a Category 4 hurricane with a peak sustained windspeed of 140 mph. After inundating Florida with storm surge, Helene swept north into Georgia and then the Carolinas, before stalling over Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia and eventually dissipating. However, it brought both tornado-strength winds and a deluge of rainfall that triggered flooding throughout the mountains and valleys of the Southeast. The hurricane was one of the deadliest and most destructive on record, causing more than 250 deaths and just under $80 billion in damage. Helene cut a path over nine national forests from Florida to Kentucky. The forests and the USDA Forest Service employees that manage them were right in the path of destruction.

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Roadless Rollback Sparks Massive Response, Industry Support

By Bobby Magill
Bloomberg Law
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

Nearly 224,000 people and organizations spoke out and mostly opposed the Trump administration’s plan to scrap protections from logging and road-building on more than 44 million acres of national forests. But the timber and mining industries and some local governments called for opening up vast swaths of undeveloped national forests in order to give miners and loggers more access, according to public comments that were due Sept. 19….An analysis by the Center for Western Priorities, an environmental group, showed that about 99% of the comments oppose rescinding the Roadless Rule. …The Forest Service didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of opposition to the Roadless Rule rollback and how it might factor into its final decision, expected soon. The agency has justified rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule because President Donald Trump wants to cut down forests, boost domestic wood products, and reduce wildfire risks across the US.

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A Tiny Seabird Faces Growing Threats in the Forest

By Jim Robbins
The New York Times
September 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

Nesting often high in the redwoods’ canopy, the marbled murrelet faces new and longstanding risks. …Russian fur traders settled at Fort Ross on the rock-studded California coast in 1812, felling a grove of towering redwood trees for lumber to build a fort, homes and a church. More than two centuries later, the fort is a state park, and the redwood grove has regained the shady, canopy feel of old-growth forest, with a fern-bedecked floor and a creek purling beneath. But is this habitat close enough to old growth for the marbled murrelet, a quirky little seabird the size of a robin that comes ashore each year to lay an egg on a large, high branch deep in the redwood forest? Researchers are trying to answer that question by using advanced technology, including artificial intelligence, to more easily locate the elusive birds, whose numbers have declined significantly in the region. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription is required]

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What led to Maine having its worst August for wildfires in 20 years

By Emmett Gartner
Bangor Daily News
September 22, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

…Campfires and open burns were two of the primary causes of wildfires this August, when Maine saw more wildfires than in any other August over the last 20 years, according to the Maine Forest Service. What made the landscape more susceptible to wildfires might seem counterintuitive: a wet spring. Plenty of rain in May sprouted the growth of fine fuels such as grasses and shrubs. Then three months of severe drought dried them out, turning the Maine landscape into a tinderbox. …“This is a pattern that’s being seen all over the place,” said Andrew Barton, wildfire ecologist and biology professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. “That kind of whipsaw from moist conditions to dry conditions really sets up places to burn.” …Lightning-induced fire is still a rarity in Maine, and human causes will continue to dwarf any projected increases.

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EU plans to delay anti-deforestation rules, again

By Leonie Cater and Bartosz Brzezinski
Politico EU
September 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The European Commission has proposed delaying the EU’s flagship anti-deforestation law for the second year in a row as it continues its war on red tape. The rules, which would force companies to stop using commodities that have been produced on deforested land, are unpopular with many businesses who argue they impose complex regulatory burdens. Several of the EU’s trading partners have also complained about the law. …The EU’s environment commissioner Jessika Roswall, announcing the delay of the European Union Deforestation Regulation said “We need the time to combat the risk with the load of information in the IT system.” …It’s the latest in a long string of actions by the Commission since late last year to weaken or delay green rules, part of a grand push to get rid of red tape and boost the global competitiveness of European industry. 

Related coverage in France 24: EU proposes new deal to anti-deforestation rules

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Sustainable Timber Tasmania mistake ‘compromised’ arrests of logging protesters

By Scout Wallen
ABC News, Australia
September 23, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

Tasmanian forestry company workers “compromised” the prosecution of at least two dozen logging protesters, leading to police dropping charges against them. Right to Information (RTI) documents obtained by the ABC from the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management, showed the prosecutions were dropped “predominantly” due to the formal directions given by Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) representatives to protesters. …The RTI documents stated, in some cases, the directions were too broad, by effectively inferring the protesters had to leave all STT-managed land across the state, while some directions were not specific to the area where the protest was. …Another issue arose when a STT representative cited the wrong gazette date of a logging coupe near Dover in 2023, leading to the police having to drop that charge. …The documents outline that while standard trespass measures are straightforward, matters relating to logging coupes require additional evidence.

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The unexpected upside of Canada’s wildfires

By Ed White
Reuters in BNN Bloomberg
September 23, 2025
Category: Forestry

Colin Penner, who farms about 3,700 acres an hour’s drive north of the U.S. border, crunched up a handful of plump canola pods. Last summer, high heat and harsh sun scorched canola’s yellow flowers and ruined their pollen, knocking down yields across Western Canada. This summer, smoke from nearby wildfires shrouded the July skies and protected Penner’s young crop from the sun’s burning rays, resulting in more seeds per pod and more pods per plant. As Canada’s western provinces experience the second-worst wildfire season in decades, driven by hotter and drier conditions due to climate change, some canola farmers say they are seeing an unexpected benefit to the hazy summer skies – so long as they occur in July, when the crop is flowering. …The finding contrasts with scientists’ understanding that extended periods of heavy smoke have largely negative impacts on crop yields and food quality. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Bill aims to bring aviation biofuel facility to northern Wisconsin, help state forestry industry

By Katie Thoresen
WXPR
September 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Wisconsin’s Forestry Industry is a $42-billion industry providing more than 126,000 jobs, many in the northern portion of state. But, as WXPR has previously reported, the industry also faces many challenges. Disease, pests, climate change, and loss of mills are a major concern. There’s been a decline in harvesting since the closure of several mills starting in 2020—including the Verso Mill in Wisconsin Rapids and the Park Falls Paper Mill. …“We’re growing, at a minimum, two times more than we’re harvesting,” Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association Executive Director Henry Schienebeck said at a press conference in Madison Monday. Because of the decline, Scheinebeck supports legislation being introduced that would incentivize the building of an aviation bio-fuel facility in Hayward. …The plant would take low quality wood and convert it to aviation fuel.

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Forest Fires

Crews fighting large forest fire in North Dundas

CBC News
September 22, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada East

North Dundas, Ont., has declared a state of emergency as crews battle a 40-hectare bog and forest fire that broke out Sunday night. The township said Monday the fire is in the Alvin Runnalls Forest near Morewood, south of Russell. So far, the fire has been successfully contained to the forest, the township said, though firefighting efforts have been complicated by the remote nature of the fire and limited access to the forest. The fire appeared to have started in a bog and spread, according to North Dundas Mayor Tony Fraser. “Peat fires travel underground,” Fraser said. “It’s grown quite a bit since last night.” …Further rain is forecast on Monday night, with officials hoping to assess its impact on Tuesday morning. …”But bog fires, they can last for months, they can go over winter and crop back up in spring, they’re underground and feed themselves.”

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