Negotiations begin today to renew a trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada. In related news: BC’s forest minister says market diversification is key; a BC lawmaker says softwood lumber should be a priority; a US economist on how to spur starter homes; and Ukraine’s forest industry rebounds. Meanwhile: lumber futures hit 4-week high; US homebuilder sentiment inched up; Canada’s housing starts rose 4.5%; Canada’s inflation rate fell to 1.8%, and UK timber imports dropped 2.2%.
In Forestry news: the Alaska court ruling halting old-growth logging was led by the US Dept. of Agriculture; BC ENGO’s push for forest conservation and a new Forest Act; a new book by Suzanne Simard—When the Forest Breathes; transforming how Cal Fire manages its forests; and Montana targets 400,000 acres for forest management. Meanwhile: Woodlots BC’s latest highlights.
Finally, Canada’s wildland fire agencies want better masks. If only it were that easy.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
WASHINGTON — Every day more than $4 billion worth of goods cross the United States’ borders with Canada and Mexico. …Much of this bustling cross-border commerce is duty-free, thanks to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, that President Trump negotiated with America’s northern and southern neighbors during his first term. But the future of the USMCA , which took effect July 1, 2020, is cloudy as the three countries begin what could be a tempestuous attempt to renew the pact this year. The United States is demanding changes to the treaty. …Trump also suggested last fall that the United States could negotiate separate deals with Canada and Mexico, ending the three-country North American bloc that previous administrations saw as crucial to competing economically with China and the European Union. The talks kick off Monday between US and Mexican trade officials. …At stake is $1.6 trillion worth of annual trade in goods.
Northern BC communities know better than most how closely their fortunes are tied to major industry. Mills, mines and power generation facilities are more than workplaces — they’re economic anchors… When an industrial business shuts down, it stops paying most of its share of property taxes. This means …the rest of their community must now share more of the tax burden. That’s why a push to revise or eliminate the closure allowance in the BC Assessment Act deserves strong backing from municipalities across northern BC — 
If you want to understand why the American starter home seems to have gone extinct, don’t look at greedy developers, rapacious investors or discriminating banks. Look at the government policies that make building these homes all but impossible. New research puts hard numbers on one part of the problem — and they’re staggering. …Federal, state and local governments have accelerated this decline by increasing construction costs through several channels. …In some cities, such as Los Angeles, the time it takes to get building permits amounts to almost half the construction time. …Land in many localities is made artificially expensive by regulations that dictate home sizes, yard sizes, building setbacks, parking and more. …Federal policies pile on more costs. …Canadian lumber, for example, is roughly 80% of all US imports and is currently subject to “trade remedy” taxes of more than 25%. Similar duties cover a wide range of products that US homebuilders use every day.
Ukraine’s state forestry sector has reported its strongest financial performance to date. Despite operating during wartime conditions, the industry delivered a significant increase in profitability last year. The results were announced during the annual public report presented by Viktor Smal, head of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine. According to the report, the state enterprise Forests of Ukraine generated net profits of UAH 6.9 billion, equivalent to approximately US$167 million. The result represents a 2.76-fold increase compared with 2024. The achievement is considered a milestone for the country’s forestry management system. Industry leaders attribute the growth largely to procurement reforms introduced after 2020. These reforms were designed to improve transparency and reduce financial leakage within the sector. …Profitability within the forestry industry also improved considerably. The sector recorded an overall profitability rate of 22.8%. This figure increased by 12.3% points compared with earlier results.
Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 6.7% in February as more people looked for work and the economy shed 84,000 jobs, according to the latest report from Statistics Canada, released Friday. The country’s employment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 60.6%, the second consecutive monthly decline. …Nearly 23% of the 1.5 million people who were unemployed in February were in long-term unemployment and had been continuously searching for work for 27 weeks or more. Statistics Canada said that percentage was little changed from a year ago, but “significantly above” the pre-COVID-19 pandemic average of 17.1% recorded during 2017-19. Economists had been expecting a gain of 10,000 jobs in February but the numbers were “weaker than expected,” said Andrew Hencic, director and senior economist at TD Economics. “Looking forward, we are expecting the labour market to tread water in 2026, as a rapid slowdown in population growth drags on labour supply, and soft economic momentum limits hiring,” he said.
Lumber increased to 602.00 USD/1000 board feet, the highest since February 2026. Over the past 4 weeks, Lumber gained 1.1%, and in the last 12 months, it decreased 9.51%.
Timber imports into the United Kingdom declined to their lowest level in more than ten years during 2025. The data was reported by Timber Development UK (TDUK), the industry body representing the national timber supply chain. According to the organisation’s latest market review, total timber imports reached 9.1 million cubic metres in 2025. This figure represented a 2.2% decrease compared with the previous year. …Timber demand in the United Kingdom has now remained relatively flat for four consecutive years. …Softwood remains the dominant component of the UK timber market. The material accounts for approximately 61% of total timber imports. However, softwood imports declined by 4% during 2025. …Several traditional suppliers exported smaller volumes to the UK. Other suppliers partially offset these declines. Imports from Latvia and Finland increased during the same period. …Performance within the engineered wood category was uneven. Laminated veneer lumber and timber I-beams both recorded steady growth during the year.
The City of Revelstoke and the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District have passed motions formalizing their intention to push the provincial government to protect an old-growth forest. The proposed Rainbow-Jordan park would stretch 11,000 hectares… Until now, the forest has been spared from logging because the area is difficult to access… But David Brooks-Hill, a Columbia-Shuswap Regional District director said the steep slopes and lack of roads will not protect the rainforest forever. …Brooks-Hill said there is a forest tenure on the Rainbow-Jordan forest, a harvest agreement between a logging company and the B.C. government. …Brooks-Hill brought the motion to protect the area to the regional district after the City of Revelstoke passed its own resolution in February. Next, the city and regional district will present the resolution at the Southern Interior Local Government Association meeting in April. If successful, it will then be presented at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting in September.
Dismantling environmental protections is in vogue, even those enhancing safety and economic prosperity. But California is bucking the trend and now on the verge of modernizing how its 14 Demonstration State Forests are managed. Cal Fire manages these public lands, which span 85,000 acres and 10 counties. Redwoods and other trees are routinely logged to pay for operations, according to a 1947 law that mandates “maximum sustained yield” – that’s simply a euphemism for removing as much lumber as possible without shrinking the forest. This extractive agribusiness model prioritizes revenues, often contrary to the goals of demonstration, recreation and forward-looking research. …In February, Assemblyman Chris Rogers, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, introduced AB 2494, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Information Center, to modernize and align forestry management with the state’s broader goals. The new science-based approach prioritizes restoration and tribal co-management. It decouples funding from timber operations, financing it instead through an existing lumber tax. 
Montana and the U.S. Forest Service announced last week they were moving ahead on a shared agreement between the two to do forestry work in large swathes of the state. Last summer, the state and Forest Service signed an agreement formalizing closer cooperation between federal forest management operations and the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. That came about two months after a Trump Administration executive order seeking to increase domestic timber production. On Friday, Gov. Greg Gianforte, DNRC Director Amanda Kaster and U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said that two large areas have been selected for state and federal work. The focus of the work will be on approximately 213,910 acres in the Flathead and Kootenai National Forests and 200,000 acres within the Bitterroot National Forest. The project areas were selected due to wildfire risk and how close they are to being implemented.
Wildfire smoke is a toxic cocktail of gases, small particles and other ingredients. It’s known to contain hundreds of chemicals. It contains particulate matter, sometimes referred to as soot. …According to an article published by Stanford University, repeated, acute exposure to smoke can shorten firefighters’ life expectancy by about a decade. …Guy Bourgouin, an NDP member of provincial Parliament in Ontario, has demanded breathing protection for wildland firefighters in the province’s legislature. He says the government has been receptive. …Provincial agencies share information and resources through the non-profit Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. It sets standards, including a fitness test used to determine whether a candidate is strong enough to withstand the job’s rigours. But CIFFC has no discernible role in breathing protection and denied an interview request for this story. …The BC Wildfire Service has emerged as Canada’s leader in this quest. Working with the University of Alberta, in 2019 it began studying smoke’s contents and sought to determine whether they were getting into workers’ bodies, with or without N95 masks. [The Globe and Mail is a subscription publication]