Daily News for September 03, 2025

Today’s Takeaway

Trump pushes tariffs fight to Supreme Court, seeks expedited ruling

The Tree Frog Forestry News
September 3, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

President Trump says he’ll seek a swift Supreme Court ruling after a federal appeals court declared many of his tariffs illegal. In other Business news: Weyerhaeuser closed the sale of its Princeton, BC mill to Gorman; Western Forest Products unveiled a refreshed brand; lumber futures remain under pressure; and US construction spending fell 2.2% through July. Meanwhile: BC’s public service unions began job action; the BC Provincial Forest Advisory Council launched its engagement process; and the Canadian Institute of Forestry named Curtis Cook its new Executive Director.

In Forestry/Wildfire news: new analysis shows Canadian wildfire emissions quadrupled since the 1990s; Nova Scotia’s woodland travel ban faces a constitutional challenge; AI applications bring cautious optimism to the forest sector; and wildfires continue near Fort Providence, NWT, the Oregon Cascades, and Northern California. Meanwhile: rice husk boards are promoted as a substitute for lumber; and the latest market news from Canada Wood Group.

Finally, the 22nd Global Buyers Mission kicks off in Whistler tomorrow—uniting wood manufacturers and buyers.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Special Feature

The 22nd Global Buyers Mission kicks off in Whistler tomorrow—uniting wood manufacturers and buyers

BC Wood Specialties Group
September 3, 2025
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada

BC Wood is set to welcome delegates and buyers from British Columbia and around the world to the 22nd Annual Global Buyers Mission (GBM), kicking off tomorrow in Whistler, BC. This signature event brings Canadian wood manufacturers together with pre-qualified international buyers in an exclusive, business-focused environment. The GBM opens with a welcome breakfast, where Premier David Eby will address participants and officially launch the trade show. His presence underscores the critical role of BC’s wood and forestry sector in driving innovation, sustainability, and economic growth. Nearly 800 attendees are expected, a testament to the GBM’s significance in connecting Canadian producers with global markets.

New this year, a high-profile panel will analyze the impact of escalating U.S. softwood lumber duties, now raised to over 35%. Introduced by Forest Minister Parmar, the panel features Mo Amir, Nick Arkle, Liz Kovach, and Kurt Niquidet, who will provide insights on how these tariffs could disrupt supply chains, inflate costs, and reshape the industry.

On the tradeshow floor, buyers will discover Canada’s diverse range of value-added wood products, from mass timber to specialty lumber. Networking continues into the evening, with a reception at Whistler’s Roundhouse Lodge, set against the stunning mountain backdrop.

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Business & Politics

Trump says he’s looking for swift Supreme Court ruling on most tariffs

By Kelly Malone, The Canadian Press
The Associated Press in Bloomberg
September 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

WASHINGTON — US President Trump is indicating that he’ll ask the Supreme Court tomorrow to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that found many of his tariffs are illegal. Trump says he’ll ask the court for an expedited ruling and claims that if the duties are removed, it could be devastating for the United States. Last Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs and his fentanyl-related duties exceeded his powers under the national security statute he used to impose them. Trump used the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977 to hit much of the world with duties, even though the statute does not include the word “tariff” or its synonyms. The appeals court said that the tariffs could stay in place while the Trump administration takes the case to the Supreme Court.

In related coverage:

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Canadian Institute of Forestry Announces Curtis Cook as Executive Director

Canadian Institute of Forestry
September 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Curtis Cook

Mattawa, ON – Tuesday, September 2, 2025 – The Canadian Institute of Forestry/Institut forestier du Canada (CIF-IFC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Curtis Cook as Executive Director, effective September 2, 2025. “After thoughtful consideration, the CIF-IFC is delighted to welcome Curtis Cook to the team,” says Margaret Symon, CIF-IFC President. With over twenty years of senior management and executive experience, including with non-profit organizations, First Nations, and community services, Cook brings to the Institute a wealth of experience as a motivated and innovative leader. “Curtis Cook brings to the CIF-IFC a suite of team leadership skills, as well as expertise at building beneficial relationships with partners, funders, and stakeholders,” noted Symon.

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B.C.’s unionized public service workers authorize strike to start Tuesday

By Mark Page
Oak Bay News
August 29, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada West

The union representing 34,000 B.C. public service workers (including conservation officers, B.C. Liquor Store employees and social workers) is planning to begin striking at the conclusion of Labour Day weekend if the provincial government doesn’t come forward with a better wage offer for the next two-year collective bargaining agreement. B.C. General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) President Paul Finch announced on Friday, Aug 29, that 92.7 per cent of workers voted in favour of authorizing a strike, with 86.4 per cent of eligible members voting. …The union plans to issue a 72-hour strike notice on Friday afternoon for action taking effect as early as 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. Professional Employees’ Association (PEA) members (representing 1,800 provincial government workers such as geoscientists, foresters, engineers and psychologists) have also voted to authorize a strike and will be issuing a 72-hour strike notice alongside the BCGEU. 

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Provincial Forest Advisory Council launches website, engagement process

Provincial Forest Advisory Council
September 2, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Shannon Janzen

VICTORIA – The Provincial Forest Advisory Council (PFAC or the council) has launched a new website where people in British Columbia can learn about the council’s work and share their input about the future of forestry in B.C. Announced in May 2025 by the Ministry of Forests, the council is an independent group of forestry experts tasked with developing recommendations for how to build a stronger, more stable forestry system that works for communities, the economy and the environment. The council’s work will focus on understanding and articulating the underlying issues facing the forestry sector and the systematic changes required to facilitate an effective transition to a new forestry model in B.C. “Through engagement with ministries across government, First Nations and targeted inquiries, were closely examining the changing conditions of B.C.’s forests and the foundation on which our forestry sector has been built,” said Shannon Janzen, Registered Professional Forester and co-chair of PFAC.

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A fresh look, rooted in the same commitment

Western Forest Products
September 3, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Western is proud to launch a refreshed brand that better reflects who we are, where we’re going and what our customers, communities, and partners expect from us. Our refreshed brand is rooted in our belief that wood plays a vital role in building a more sustainable future. Wood has always been part of everyday life – in the homes we live in, the furniture we use and the warmth and comfort we seek in natural materials. At Western, we are proud to carry that legacy forward by helping meet today’s demand for beautiful, low-carbon building materials. This brand refresh is grounded in our long-term strategy and shaped by the people who make Western what it is. It reflects our continued commitment to quality, sustainability and stewardship. Explore the rest of our site to see how our refreshed brand reflects the care we put into everything we do, from forest to finished product.

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Finance & Economics

Lumber futures continue to fall, shed more that 20% in August

By Ryan Dezember
Wall Street Journal
September 2, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Lumber prices, which shed more than 20% in August, have continued to fall to start September, hitting their lowest price this year thanks to a glut of wood that was piled up ahead of a big increase in duties on Canadian imports. “There has clearly been a speculative inventory accumulation at every level from mills to single location lumber dealers,” said Matt Layman, who publishes Layman’s Lumber Guide “For the first time in my 40-plus year career there is indeed a wall of wood that must be liquidated.” As with many raw materials, the lumber market has been whipsawed by President Trump’s tariff threats. The White House is studying tariffs on imported lumber in the name of national security. …Any lumber tariff will come on top of duties on Canadian softwood lumber that rose to about 35% for most producers, from 15% last year.  [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

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Weyerhaeuser Completes Sale of Princeton, BC Lumber Mill to Gorman Group

By Weyerhaeuser Company
PR Newswire
September 2, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

SEATTLE — Weyerhaeuser announced the completion of the sale of its lumber mill in Princeton, British Columbia, to the Gorman Group. The transaction, which was announced in May, also includes Weyerhaeuser’s associated British Columbia timber licenses, which will transfer separately. That transfer is expected to be completed over the coming months and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory review. Weyerhaeuser received approximately $60 million USD upon the sale of the lumber facility, with the remainder of the transaction proceeds to be received in conjunction with the transfer of the timber licenses. 

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U.S. construction spending falls 2.2% through July, led by drop in residential sector

US Census Bureau
September 2, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

Construction spending in the United States reached $1,232.7 billion during the first seven months of 2025, a 2.2% decrease from $1,259.9 billion in the same period of 2024. Residential construction accounted for $524.7 billion, down 4.0%, while nonresidential construction declined 0.8% to $707.9 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Private construction dropped 3.8% year-to-date to $946.5 billion. …Public construction increased 3.8% to $286.2 billion over the same period. …For the month of July 2025, construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,139.1 billion, down 0.1% from June and 2.8% below July 2024. Private sector construction decreased 0.2% from the previous month, while public construction rose 0.3%.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Canada Wood Market News & Insights

Canada Wood Group
September 3, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada

The Canada Wood Group Newsletter includes these headlines and more:

  • Breakthrough Fire Approvals Achieved to Advance Midrise Wood Construction in Japan 
  • Midrise Rising in Japan – A tour of the Mocxion project, a 5-storey midrise condo in Tokyo built with Canadian SPF, Douglas Fir, and OSB.
  • Onwards and Upwards: Largest Ever Midrise 2×4 Project Completed in Kyushu  – A new 5-storey employee dormitory in Kitakyushu—Japan’s largest-ever 2×4 project—has been completed – making extensive use of Canadian SPF, plywood, and engineered wood.
  • South Korea’s Public Housing Giant Looks to Wood – South Korea’s Land and Housing Corporation (LH) is rethinking how it builds the tens of thousands of homes it delivers each year. Its new study urges timber construction as a key strategy for meeting the nation’s 2050 carbon neutrality target.
  • From Demonstration to Mainstream: How Canadian Douglas Fir is Powering China’s Heavy Timber Boom 

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Why Builders Are Swapping Lumber for Rice Husk Boards

By Sara Kitnick
The Los Angeles Times
September 2, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, International

The construction industry accounts for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, which has builders rethinking the materials they use. One unlikely source keeps coming up in those conversations: rice husks. What used to be burned or buried is now pressed into a wood alternative that looks the part and often outlasts traditional lumber. Husks are milled into composite boards that resist water, release very low VOCs, and can be recycled. The manufacturing is lighter on energy, turns a waste stream into something useful, and gives homeowners a material that behaves like wood without the constant upkeep. …Globally, rice husk composites are gaining ground in regions where rice is grown, and research is exploring structural uses such as engineered members. Certification programs, including LEED, are recognizing the category, and analysts expect it to claim a meaningful share of certain wood product markets over the next decade.

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Forestry

Many reasons to feel cautiously optimistic about the application of AI in the Canadian forest industry

By Tony Kryzanowski
The Logging and Sawmill Journal
September 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, remote piloting, and robotics are beginning to have a profound impact on the forest industry as we have known it, from forest management to log harvesting and delivery and right through to lumber production. This is only the beginning. In a recent interview, Bill Gates said that AI will have a more profound impact on humanity than the personal computer (PC) did. …From a forest management perspective, AI offers incredible potential for planning forest cutblocks and reforestation. In the face of climate change, forest companies will have no choice but to design forests that are more resilient to forest fires, pest and pathogens. The ability of AI to provide a variety of solutions in minutes, based on collating and analyzing past research, will make a forest technician’s job easier, while providing better solutions. This is a clear example of using AI for good—and we should make the most of it.

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Canada’s out-of-control wildfire crisis in six charts

By Barry Saxifrage, Climate Analyst
National Observer
September 3, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

Fossil fuel pollution is overheating Canadian forests, spawning an out-of-control wildfire crisis. Wildfire is now incinerating four times more forest carbon than during the 1990s. …This accelerating new source of CO2 is adding to the already massive and growing emissions of CO2 caused by humans burning fossil oil, gas and coal. Canada’s continent-spanning forest is especially vulnerable to this rising heat. Its billions of trees, spread across hundreds of millions of hectares, are overheating at two to three times the global pace. …Let’s start with the 1990s. During that decade, wildfire emissions totalled 800 MtCO2. …Compare that to the most recent decade (2016-2025). Over these 10 years, wildfires released four times more carbon than they did during the nineties – a total of 3,200 MtCO2. …But wildfires also impact the climate system. And that climate impact unfolds over decades.

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Charter challenge on Nova Scotia’s woods ban set for next year

By Blair Rhodes
CBC News
September 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

It will be early next year before the province’s decision to impose a sweeping travel ban in Nova Scotia woodlands gets tested in court. Lawyers for the Canadian Constitution Foundation were in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Tuesday to set dates for its challenge to the ban. The first available dates are Feb. 2-3, 2026. The foundation will be joined in their challenge by Jeff Evely, a Nova Scotian who deliberately violated the ban and was fined $28,000 as a result. …Last week, the government removed the ban in Cape Breton and the eastern part of the Nova Scotia mainland because recent rainfall had reduced the fire risk. …On its website, the Canadian Constitution Foundation describes itself as “a national and non-partisan charity” whose objective is ensuring “government power does not infringe on the rights and freedoms of Canadians.”

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Colorado roadless rule to remain as national rule faces rescission

By Dennis Webb
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
September 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

Colorado’s state-specific rule for largely protecting roadless areas in its national forests will be spared from a Trump administration effort to remove such protections on a broader basis. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a news release on Wednesday that a public comment period is opening on her previously announced proposal to do away with the 2001 national roadless rule. But the Agriculture Department also said in the news release that state-specific rules in Colorado and Idaho won’t be affected by the proposal. Altogether, the proposal would apply to nearly 45 million acres, the release said. Eliminating the rule would open roadless areas to road-building. The existing rule has limited activities such as logging in those areas, and was instituted at the end of the Clinton administration.

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How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest

By Marco Franco, Luciana Rizzo, et al
Nature Communications
September 2, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

The Amazon rainforest is one of Earth’s most diverse ecosystems, playing a key role in maintaining regional and global climate stability. However, recent changes in land use, vegetation, and the climate have disrupted biosphere-atmosphere interactions, leading to significant alterations in the water, energy, and carbon cycles. …Here, we quantify the relative contributions of deforestation and global climate change to observed shifts in key Amazonian climate parameters. We analyzed long-term atmospheric and land cover change data across 29 areas in the Brazilian Legal Amazon from 1985 to 2020. …While the rise in atmospheric methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) mixing ratios is primarily driven by global emissions, deforestation has significantly increased surface air temperatures and reduced precipitation during the Amazonian dry season. Over the past 35 years, deforestation has accounted for approximately 74% of the ~ 21 mm dry season decline and 16.5% of the 2°C rise in maximum surface air temperature. 

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

What the EPA’s plan to deregulate greenhouse gas emissions means for Washington State

By Conrad Swanson
The Seattle Times
September 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The federal government is attempting to abandon years of climate science and regulation, and officials from Washington state are warning those efforts will drastically slow the country’s ability to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency no longer wants to classify greenhouse gas emissions as dangerous and, therefore, something that must be regulated. The agency is now in the middle of a public comment process to reverse its long-standing course. Public officials and climate change experts from across the country are testifying against the federal government’s new direction. Among those in opposition is Joel Creswell, who manages the climate pollution reduction program with Washington state’s Department of Ecology. He said the EPA’s process is built on unscientific research and cherry-picked data. It’s also likely illegal, Creswell said. The federal government is trying to provide the “appearance of a science-based reason” not to regulate greenhouse gases, Creswell said.

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Forest Fires

Crews battling Fort Providence wildfire gearing up for challenging conditions, officials say

CBC News
September 2, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada, Canada West

N.W.T. fire crews plan to take advantage of the favourable weather conditions expected on Tuesday to do everything they can to protect Fort Providence from a wildfire burning less than a kilometre from the community, according to one of the territory’s fire information officers. Crews successfully held back the fire on Monday, Mike Westwick said. …”Sustained gusting between 25 and 40 kilometres per hour is in the forecast right now. And you know, the levels of moisture in the air, the relative humidity at a point that would sustain decent fire activity. And with the fire right on the community’s doorstep … that’s obviously a significant concern.” Hamlet leaders ordered an evacuation Sunday morning because a line of fire approximately 10 kilometres wide was dangerously close to the community. Most of the hamlet’s 700 residents went to Hay River.

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Emigrant Fire grows to 23,400 acres as red flag warning issued for Oregon Cascades

By Zach Urness
Statesman Journal
September 2, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

©Emigrant Fire Facebook

A red flag warning was issued for Oregon’s Cascade Mountains on Sept. 2, including for the area of the 23,400 acre Emigrant Fire. The forecast calls for a 20-30% chance of thunderstorms, with little rainfall, that could ignite new fires with lightning strikes. Hot, dry and unstable winds could fuel the growth of Emigrant or other blazes. It’s the beginning of a dangerous period for wildfires across the state before a cooling trend could help moderate fires for the remainder of the season. …“The dry and unstable air may contribute to development of pyrocumulus clouds,” fire crews warned in a Sept. 2 morning report. “These conditions may result in rapid fire growth where slopes and winds align. Similar hot, dry, unstable weather is anticipated to last at least through Thursday, before a cooling trend begins.”

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Root Fire burns west of I-5. Evacuations and warnings in place in Shasta, Siskiyou counties

By Jessica Skropanic
Redding Record Searchlight
September 2, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: United States, US West

Firefighters are battling the uncontained 300- to 350-acre Root Fire and other lightning-ignited fires on Tuesday morning after the blaze forced evacuations and warnings in communities along the Shasta and Siskiyou counties. Crews fighting the blaze from the air reported a few spot fires burning along the wildfire’s perimeter Tuesday morning, but no new fire starts outside of the burn area. The fire started just before 12:34 p.m. on Monday in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest 3 miles west of Castella and Interstate 5 — at Forest Road 25 and Castle Creek Road, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. …While firefighters are investigating the cause, the U.S. Forest Service reported lightning from thunderstorms ignited multiple fires in the area over the Labor Day weekend.

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