It was ‘another challenging day’ fighting Manitoba’s wildfires, officials say. In related news: Premier Eby to visit Asia; Georgia-Pacific to close operations this year; and low-interest loan programs hope to re-open sawmills. Meanwhile: Financial results for GreenFirst are announced; commercial construction statistics released; and Weyerhaeuser stays true to the message of its past.
In Forestry/Wood news: Public input for private land use sought on Vancouver Island; open house addressing recreation in West Bragg Creek; Oregon wildfire map could be repealed; and why some think significant logging won’t happen in the Tongass National Forest. Meanwhile: confidence in biomass exports from the UK; Michigan’s opens first mass timber building with local wood; and residents push back against proposed wood pellet plant in Nevada.
Lastly, would you cause a forest fire if you were a worm? The impacts of the spruce budworm in Montana.
Suzanne Hopkinson, Tree Frog News Editor
ROSEBURG, Ore. — 
Georgia-Pacific has announced it will permanently close its Cedar Springs containerboard mill in Georgia later this year, impacting approximately 535 employees. The company informed workers on May 14 that most positions at the site will be eliminated by August 1, 2025, with all roles eventually affected. While production will continue temporarily to meet existing customer commitments, the mill’s operations are set to wind down in the coming months. Georgia-Pacific cited multiple factors behind the decision, emphasizing that the mill could no longer competitively serve its customers in the long term. The company stressed that the closure is not a reflection of the employees’ performance. “Our focus now is to operate safely and support our employees through this transition,” the company stated, pledging to treat all affected workers with “dignity and respect.”
We are taking a look at developments throughout the Kootenay region. All of these developments are in the planning, permitting stage or development is underway. …Castlegar: Kalesnikoff Mass Timber Project Completion In Sight — Completion is in sight for one of West Kootenay’s biggest projects. Last year the BC government’s Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF) contributed some $6.7 million to assist Kalesnikoff Mass Timber Inc. to expand by establishing a new prefabricated mass-timber and cross-laminated timber modularized building facility, and purchasing new machinery to drive production of building components that will be used for rapid housing construction. The $34 million Mass Timber facility will create 90 jobs… This is the third Kalesnikoff operation in the region. Nelson: Spearhead Timberworks Set to Expand – Spearhead Timberworks, recently received a $7.5-million grant from the B.C government to expand its North Shore facility. The new facility will allow it to upgrade and increase production of its own custom glue-laminated timber. 
The Trump Administration aims to increase lumber production in the U.S. while simultaneously reducing wildfire risk on federal lands across the country, including Dixie National Forest. However, some are concerned the president’s decision could make matters worse. On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, the Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production, to streamline permitting processes. It directs the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to use the Endangered Species Act’s emergency regulations to the maximum extent possible to “facilitate the Nation’s timber production.” Additionally, the order directs federal members of the Endangered Species Committee to develop and submit a report to the president identifying “obstacles to domestic timber production infrastructures specifically deriving from implementation of the ESA and recommends procedural, regulatory, and interagency improvements.” …According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there are over 400 federally listed species that depend on national forest lands, such as grizzly bears, spotted owls and wild salmon.
Industrial-scale logging in the Tongass National Forest was due to monopolies created by the federal government and taxpayer subsidies… A study by the Southeast Conservation Council calculated the federal government spent $386 million for preparation and sale of Tongass timber while collecting only $32 million in stumpage fees from 1982 to 1988. While the heyday of the timber industry supported about 4,000 jobs, many were nonresidents or recent arrivals who left when the pulp mills closed. Most of my former colleagues at the Sitka mill went “back home” to Washington when the mill ceased operation. The pulp mills closed primarily because of tree farms in warmer climates such as South Africa, where forests grow much faster than the Tongass. Many fruit and vegetable farms in the southern U.S. converted to tree farms… So, are there enough standing old-growth trees to support a vibrant timber industry in the Tongass? It depends upon who you ask.
With the passing of the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire on May 10—during yet another bone-dry spring of the Modern Megadrought—we should consider a wildfire variation of the adage, “Those who don’t learn from (fire and forestry) history are doomed to relive it.” In the 1990s, Los Alamos and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) were warned, repeatedly, that they were vulnerable to wildfire. Today, Los Alamos and New Mexico in general, despite Cerro Grande and other fires, have not acknowledged or addressed the dangerous reality of today’s forests. As a correspondent for the Santa Fe New Mexican in the 1990s, I authored multiple stories featuring foresters and wildland firefighters who saw Los Alamos’ peril. I also witnessed, firsthand, the power and destruction of wildfires—Cerro Grande, Dome, Missionary Ridge, Los Conchas—in places I love. …Instead, it’s time to demand municipal, county, state, and federal leaders who acknowledge and aggressively address the wildfire threat.
After Oregon’s devastating 2020 Labor Day fires, the Legislature passed a bill that was supposed to lead to more wildfire awareness and resilience. Among other things, Senate Bill 762 created a map of areas at high risk of fire. But that map led to a huge backlash from property owners — a backlash so strong that a few weeks ago, the state Senate voted unanimously to eliminate it. Jeff Golden is a Democratic state senator from the Rogue Valley. He voted to create the map in 2021, now he’s voted to get rid of it. …“We delegated to Oregon State University, which has credentials — among the best in the world in terms of maps like this — and gave them almost no direction, just said, ‘We need a map to fulfill this purpose. Let us have it within the next 18 months.’” At the time, very few lawmakers were worried about what would come next.
Wildfires are burning through thousands of acres of forest in Northern Minnesota damaging buildings and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. The yet-to-be-contained Camp House fire, Jenkins Creek fire and Munger Shaw fire have a small accomplice to thank for their continued destruction: spruce budworms, a well-known pest that has terrorized Minnesota forests for at least half a century, killing trees and making them more susceptible to fire. The fires’ other helper? Humans. “Spruce budworm’s largest impact, in my opinion, is that it can help perpetuate dense stands of balsam fir on the landscape that are fire prone,” said Mike Reinikainen, a silviculture program consultant with the state’s Department of Natural Resources’ forestry division. Much of the area was infected by spruce budworms, whose infestations worsened the Greenwood fire near Isabella, Minn. in 2021.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Representatives Ryan Zinke (R-MT-01) and Joe Neguse (D-CO-02) introduced the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) Program Reauthorization Act of 2025, which would extend and expand a successful program focused on reducing wildfire risk, restoring forest health, and supporting rural economies through proven, locally driven strategies. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Originally authorized in 2009, the CFLR program is a model of how communities, industry partners, landowners, and local governments can work together to improve forest conditions and prevent catastrophic wildfires. In its first decade, CFLR projects treated and restored 5.7 million acres of forest, improved 1,000 miles of trails, and maintained over 25,000 miles of forest roads helping keep public lands open and safe.
The US agriculture secretary has said the UK could take more US wood pellets as biomass amid ongoing trade talks. Brooke Rollins told reporters the US is ‘100% confident’ that the country’s wood chips adhere to UK sustainability requirements. Rollins met with UK energy secretary Ed Miliband and energy minister Michael Shanks on 13 May. Her visit to London saw her promoting agricultural produce – including US wood pellets. This is despite ongoing questions surrounding the actual sustainability of the biomass sector. In particular, Drax, which is subsidised by the UK taxpayer, has come under scrutiny on several occasions.
FALLON, Nev. – A proposed wood pellet processing plant in Churchill County is facing significant opposition from nearby residents who say it’s a great project in the wrong place. The facility, which would operate 24/7, is being proposed on McLean Road in Fallon. The man behind the proposal, Alex Pedan, is seeking a special use permit to open the plant, but neighbors are raising red flags over concerns about noise, dust, and declining property values. Amber Sanchez lives near the site and says she was notified about the proposal on April 29. She’s concerned that not everyone in her neighborhood received the same letter. …During Wednesday night’s Churchill County Planning Commission meeting, residents filled the room to speak out against the plan. Some said they supported the idea of a wood pellet business — just not in a residential or agricultural area. …In response to community concerns, Pedan claimed the plant’s equipment would be housed indoors, within a sound-insulated structure.
A major wildfire burning in central Canada has killed two people and forced 1,000 more to evacuate their homes, kicking off a fire season authorities warn could prove devastating. Canadian federal police confirmed on Wednesday that two people died in the small community of Lac du Bonnet, in the central province of Manitoba, which is experiencing unusually hot, dry and windy conditions. Manitoba’s premier, Wab Kinew, said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the tragic loss of two Manitobans due to the wildfires”. “My heart goes out to their loved ones,” he added in a post on Twitter/X. In 2023, during Canada’s worst wildfire season, there were no recorded civilian deaths. Chris Hastie of the Royal Canadian mounted police told reporters that authorities “were aware that these individuals had been trapped in the fire”.
Severe wildfires raging in a Siberian region of Russia have engulfed more than 600,000 hectares of forest, local authorities have warned. In the Eastern Siberian territory of Zabaykalsky Krai, a federal-level state of emergencies has been in place since late April, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Despite huge efforts to tackle wildfire outbreaks in the region, which borders Mongolia, 49 forest fires continue to burn, with a total area exceeding 629,000 hectares, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said Wednesday. Since the beginning of this year, more than 1.4 million hectares of land have been affected by wildfires, according to figures from Russia’s Federal Agency for Forestry published on Tuesday, about three times the total area affected by fires in the United States and Canada so far this year combined.