As deadly wildfires claim lives in Turkey and force emergency rescues in Greece, experts call for greater forest management to reduce fire risks in BC and California. In related news: Newfoundland’s wildfire threat eases; wildfires are hampering forest carbon sequestration; a new US documentary and BC ENGO report call for changes to Canada’s forestry practices; a US bill proposes new forestry career training; and a UN court ruling on climate change opens the door to legal action.
In Business new: West Fraser reports Q2, 2025 loss amid slowing demand; UPM sees Q2 earnings fall; DR Horton downplays the impact of rising duties; and lumber prices remain flat, while lumber futures rise. Meanwhile: the US Lumber Coalition pans Canada for use of ‘scare tactics’; and a trade panel remands elements of the US Commerce Department’s methodology.
Finally, mass timber’s antimicrobial potential; and Woodrise 2025 opens registration in Vancouver.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
In April 2021, Shreveport attorney Rich Lamb saw an opportunity. Lamb’s family has owned timberlands for several generations. …Fast forward to today. A more than $100 million Southern yellow pine sawmill sits outside of Plain Dealing. …Lamb learned that Canadian companies were relocating to the southern United States to build sawmills due to the unfavorable business climate in Canada. Lamb raised money and recruited Canadian company Teal Jones as an operating partner… Teal Jones acquired 57% of the sawmill, with Lamb and local investors owning the remaining 43%. But in 2024, Teal needed to sell. “Because of the pricing environment, interest rate environment and political climate in Canada, Teal Jones got into financial distress and went into reorganization,” Lamb explained. “They needed to sell their 57% interest to get liquidity.” Fortunately for Lamb and his group, a new buyer was found. Earlier this month, Sumitomo Forestry America Inc. purchased Teal Jones’ stake in the mill.
Lumber futures traded above $680 per thousand board feet, approaching the two-and-a-half-year peak of $685 recorded on March?24th, driven by a squeeze on supply meeting unfaltering construction demand. On the demand front, US housing starts held surprisingly steady at an annualized 1.6?million units in June even as existing-home sales slipped 2.7% to a nine-month low, ensuring that framing requirements remained robust. At the same time, US softwood lumber tariffs on Canadian imports continue to add roughly 9% to landed costs, while Pacific Northwest mills have withdrawn nearly 20% of regional capacity for mid-season maintenance, sharply curtailing shipments to distributors. Internationally, imports from Europe and New?Zealand are throttled by 25% duties on Russian lumber and persistent ocean-freight bottlenecks, collectively depleting distributor inventories to their lowest levels in more than two years and reinforcing today’s sharp advance in futures prices. [END]
Lumber markets remained flat this week as vacation time, industry gatherings, sweltering heat and general economic uncertainty contributed to sluggish sales. Minimal immediate needs limited replenishment purchases to modest volumes while a lack of clarity regarding near-term prospects stifled speculative trading across North American framing lumber markets. 2×4 led gains in many species, but the increases were modest. Seasonal factors, including unusually heavy rainfall and normal summer heat, contributed to the ongoing sluggish pace across the South. Mills worked hard to capture modest premiums. The coming hike in duties on Canadian shipments to the US did little to alter the ongoing lack of urgency among buyers. …Sales of Western S-P-F were governed by tepid demand and uncertainty regarding the timing and scope of higher duties and potential tariffs. …Sales in the Coast region were lukewarm with most lumber markets trends holding. 
A CUSMA Chapter 10 binational panel remanded [for further explanation] two statistical methodologies in the US Department of Commerce’s Administrative Review 1 antidumping duty determination on Canadian softwood lumber, requiring Commerce to reassess its use of the Cohen’s d test and to apply weighted pooled variances in its meaningful-difference analysis according to the panel’s Decision and Order. …The panel affirmed all other aspect of the results challenged in this appeal…The review stems from a December 22, 2020 request by Resolute Forest Products and the Ontario Forest Industries Association. …The panel remanded Commerce’s application of Cohen’s d because the Federal Circuit’s decision in Marmen Inc. v. United States Wind Tower Trade Coalition requires that the test’s key assumptions, normal data distribution, equal variances and adequate sample size, be demonstrated before use. …The panel also remanded Commerce’s pooling of variances, directing the Department to use weighted pooled variances that reflect differing sample sizes. …Commerce must respond by October 20, 2025.
VANCOUVER, BC
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Mass timber may have antimicrobial benefits that could make it useful for hospital construction, according to a recent study from the University of Oregon. The research team found that when wood was exposed to a brief wetting, it tested lower for levels of bacterial abundance than an empty plastic enclosure used as a control. “People generally think of wood as unhygienic in a medical setting,” said Mark Fretz, assistant professor, co-director of the University of Oregon’s Institute for Health in the Built Environment and principal investigator for the study. “But wood actually transfers microbes at a lower rate than other less porous materials such as stainless steel.”
A report from the Nelson-based organization Save What’s Left calls on the provincial government to revamp BC Timber Sales and give it an environmental stewardship mandate. The 50-page report titled Public Forest, Public Trust alleges that BCTS logs old growth forests, disturbs watersheds and interferes with wildlife corridors. BCTS is an independent organization within the Ministry of Forests that develops Crown timber for auction. BCTS plans and designs logging operations and builds logging roads, then sells the timber to the highest bidder. The document lays out 24 such allegations, stating they are based on field verification by Save What’s Left, on satellite time-lapse imagery, and on conversations with forest professionals and forest workers. “This paper both outlines the myriad of problems with how BC Timber Sales operates and presents a new path forward,” writes prominent environmentalist David Suzuki in his introduction to the report. “What we need now is courage by leaders to walk that path.”
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and Rep. David Rouzer, R-North Carolina, recently introduced the bipartisan Jobs in the Woods Act, which aims to connect young people with careers and training in forestry. 
In 2023 and 2024 the world’s forests absorbed only a quarter of the carbon dioxide they did in the beginning of the 21st century, according to data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch. Those back-to-back years of record-breaking wildfires hampered forests’ ability absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide, curbing some of the global warming caused by fossil fuel emissions. Those two years also marked the first time wildfires surpassed logging or agriculture-driven deforestation as the biggest factor lowering forests’ carbon-capturing ability. It’s an emerging pattern that’s different from the last big drop, in 2016 and 2017, which was largely the result of increased deforestation for agriculture. …Other recently published studies suggest that climate change is making extreme-forest-fire years more common, and the worst events more frequent and intense. …“We’re reaching the point where global warming is feeding the warming,” said Werner Kurz, an emeritus scientist for the Canadian Forest Service. [A subscription to the New York Times is required to access the full story]
Join Us in Halfax, Nova Scotia, September 23-24, 2025 for Biomass for a Low-Carbon Future. We are pleased to announce that the speaker line-up for more sessions has been finalized for the Wood Pellet Association of Canada Annual Conference in September. As the world moves toward a low-carbon future, biomass and wood pellets play a key role in ensuring Canada has renewable and responsible energy. Join us for Biomass for a Low-Carbon Future to explore the numerous opportunities biomass presents. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Jamie Stephen of TorchLight Bioresources, will explore how local biomass energy is the essential foundation for a competitive and prosperous Maritime economy. The event will also feature a Market and Policy Update: Navigating Regulatory Change. From the impacts of EU trade measures to the effects of U.S. tariffs on fibre supply and pricing, this session explores the economic and policy realities. Be a part of the dialogue transforming our future.
The top United Nations court has ruled that nations are obligated under international law to limit climate change, and countries that don’t act could be held legally responsible for climate damages elsewhere. The decision is a win for many small countries vulnerable to climate impacts, which pushed for the issue to be heard by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It’s the court’s first major ruling on climate change, but the decision is only advisory, meaning that countries are not legally bound by it. Still, legal experts say it could be a boost for other climate change lawsuits pending in national courts around the world. “It’s really groundbreaking,” says Maria Antonia Tigre, director of Global Climate Change Litigation at Columbia Law School. “I think it will create this new wave of climate litigation.”
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Rainfall continues to help crews fighting fires in Newfoundland and Labrador as the number of active wildfires drops from five to three, says the provincial fire duty officer. The active wildfires are the Winokapu fire in Labrador and the Chance Harbour fire in Newfoundland. The Ragged Harbour fire, which forced nearby Musgrave Harbour residents to evacuate over the weekend, also continues to burn. Wes Morgan said Wednesday morning that firefighters hit the ground on Tuesday to fight the Chance Harbour fire, located on the Bonavista Peninsula. “The precipitation that was forecasted did come true and we did see significant amounts of rain — that was a real advantage to us,” he told CBC. Morgan said they haven’t seen any additional fire growth, but it remains steady at 1,820 hectares. “Overall, it was a really great day and spirits are good and crews were back out in that way again this morning,” he said.
A firefighting helicopter crashed into the sea while attempting to collect water to combat a blaze in Athens. All three crew members were rescued and taken to a nearby hospital. Greece is combating a surge in wildfires amid soaring temperatures. A large wildfire broke out near the southern Greek city of Corinth on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of several villages as firefighters battled flames under scorching conditions, authorities said. More than 180 firefighters, supported by 15 aircraft and 12 helicopters, were deployed to tackle the blaze in a pine forest in the mountainous area of the municipality, according to the local fire department. There were no immediate reports of injuries. 
At least 10 forestry and rescue workers have been killed while battling wildfires in Turkey’s central Eskisehir province. Some 24 forest workers and volunteer rescue personnel were left “trapped inside the fire” following a change in the direction of the wind, Turkey’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said in a post on X. Five forestry workers and five volunteers from the AKUT rescue organisation lost their lives and 14 forest workers were taken to hospital, he said. The blaze in the Seyitgazi district of the province began on Tuesday morning and started spreading towards nearby areas, local media said.