Daily News for February 14, 2025

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Today’s Takeaway

International Paper to close 4 US plants, cut 1% of workforce

Tree Frog Forestry News
February 14, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

Citing reduced packaging demand, International Paper announced it is closing four eastern US plants. In related news: Sylvamo upgrades two South Carolina paper mills; Kruger diversifies its Wayagamack, Quebec paper mill; San Group owners speak to their company’s downfall; and Interfor and Western Forest Products report Q4 losses. Meanwhile: Trump’s tariffs put upward pressure on lumber and housing prices; and HBS Dealer readers comment on whether the tariffs are needed.

In other news: Trump’s downsizing push reduces wildfire mitigation monies—eliminates 3,400 US Forest Service jobs; Canada and New Brunswick invest in wildfire equipment; Parks Canada ramps up plans for wildfire mitigation; Alabama bills would allow heavier truck traffic; and Boston University unveils design for new tall timber tower.

Finally, we’re gearing up to make improvements to the Tree Frog News. Last call to tell us what you think by completing our short survey!

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News

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Business & Politics

Kruger secures Quebec support, invests $6.5 million in Wayagamack mill

By Kruger Inc.
Cision Newswire
February 14, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TROIS-RIVIÈRES, Quebec — Kruger announced a $6.5-million investment to implement an innovation project aimed at diversifying production at its Wayagamack Mill in Trois-Rivières. The initiative will enable the production of innovative label paper grades, reinforcing the Wayagamack Mill’s leadership in Québec and North America. …The project was unveiled in the presence of Jean Boulet, Québec Minister of Labour and Minister Responsible for the Mauricie Region, the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Region and the Nord-du-Québec Region… and Sylvain Bricault, General Manager of the Kruger Wayagamack Mill. …The initiative was made possible by a $2.5 million funding from the Government of Québec under the Programme Innovation Bois of the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts.

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HBS Dealer readers respond to Trump trade policy

The HBS Dealer
February 13, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

HBSDealer’s poll question from Jan. 24 asked “Should the U.S. pursue a policy of aggressive tariffs?” Example responses include:

  •  Kelvin Kunath, Kunath’s Hardware — “If tariffs are not used strategically, then, yes, they can be bad. However, if used correctly they can be a benefit.
  • Peter Ganahl, Ganahl Lumber — “It’s the wrong question to ask. Why? “The Trump administration did not propose the tariffs as a “policy.” It was an opening position for a negotiation. 
  • Chris Guimond, Modern Mill — “With lumber prices expected to rise, the solution is not cutting down more U.S. forests, it is supporting American businesses. 
  • Eric Ortiz, Freres Engineered Wood — Canadian veneer and panel imports massacre the Pacific Northwest producer. The tariffs would do us some good.”
  • Jim Inglis, Inglis Retailing — “So much for campaign promises to lower inflation.“
  • Jonathan Paine, NLMBDA — “The US already has an affordable housing crisis and we as a nation must be focused on advocating for measures that reduce construction costs.
  • Steve Swanson, Swanson Group — “Canadian lumber producers are forcing idling and closures of U.S. lumber mills.

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Packaging firm International Paper to close four US plants, cut 1% of jobs

Reuters
February 13, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

MEMPHIS — International Paper (IP) said it was shutting down four production facilities in the U.S. and laying off about 1% of its global workforce to tackle softer demand for its packaging products from e-commerce and consumer goods firms. Shares of the company, which reported a Q4 loss last month, rose about 2% in early trading. IP has seen tepid demand for its pricey paper packaging as consumer goods companies temper inventories and opt for cheaper packaging options. IP employs 65,000 people globally… said it would lay off 495 hourly workers and 179 salaried workers. IP, which bought UK rival DS Smith in January, has been streamlining its operations in the US as higher prices hit sales volumes. Of its nearly 200 factories in the U.S., a containerboard mill in Louisiana, recycling plant in Arizona, box plant in Pennsylvania and sheet feeder plant in Missouri would cease operations by the end of April.

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Sylvamo to Invest $145 Million in South Carolina Facilities

Sylbamo
February 13, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

EASTOVER, South Carolina – Sylvamo announces major investments at its two South Carolina facilities. The company plans to invest approximately $145 million to reduce costs and enhance the capabilities at its mill in Eastover, South Carolina. The investments come on the heels of the mill’s 40th anniversary. Sylvamo will invest approximately $100 million to speed up one of its paper machines by the end of 2026, modernizing it. The investment will enable the machine to produce approximately 60,000 additional short tons of uncoated freesheet annually. The company will also invest roughly $45 million for a new replacement sheeter at its Sumter, South Carolina, sheeting plant. The state-of-the-art cutsize sheeter will lower costs and add flexibility to service customers when it’s online by late 2026.

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San Group owners speak out

By David Wiwchar
The Nanaimo News Bulletin
February 13, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Suki and Kamal Sanghera

Six months after SAN Group financing and operations started to unravel, two company owners are speaking out and trying to combat the many rumours swirling around the mills. Suki Sanghera says he and his brother have split their holdings with Kamal Sanghera keeping the mills, and Suki and third partner Paul Deol taking Kingsley Trucking. Suki said many mistakes were made including not seeking government help for losses during the Cameron Bluffs fire. …“And then Covid hit, and then the highway fire happened and we didn’t get any help from any government, not provincial or federal government. This was the biggest mistake. …He said over-bidding, over-promising, the high cost of forestry along with family problems all contributed to the company’s downfall. With SAN Group assets are now tied up in Supreme Court hearings and restructuring processes.

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Finance & Economics

Western Forest Products reports Q4, 2024 net loss of $1.2 million

By Western Forest Products Inc.
GlobeNewswire
February 13, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada

VANCOUVER, BC — Western Forest Products announced improved fourth quarter and fiscal 2024 results compared to the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $14.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, as compared to negative $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and negative EBITDA of $10.7 million in the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was $8.9 million for fiscal 2024, as compared to negative $29.9 million in fiscal 2023. Net loss was $1.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, as compared to a net loss of $14.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and a net loss of $19.6 million in the third quarter of 2024. …“Despite challenging markets, we were successful in returning our business to positive EBITDA in 2024,” said Steven Hofer,  CEO. …“The planned incremental US tariff will unfairly target and harm Canadian exporters like us, [and] will also hurt American consumers through higher lumber prices.” …We have informed customers of our intention to pass on the incremental US tariff.

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Interfor Corporation reports Q4, 2024 net loss of $50 million

By Interfor Corporation
GlobeNewswire
February 13, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

BURNABY, BC — Interfor recorded a net loss in Q4, 2024 of $49.9 million compared to a Net loss of $105.7 million in Q3, 2024 and a net loss of $169.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $80.4 million on sales of $746.5 million in Q4, 2024. …For the full year, Interfor reported a net loss of $304 million in 2024, a 14% increase from the $267 million net loss in 2023. Total sales fell 9% to $3 billion, down from $3.3 billion in the previous year. …Near-term volatility could be further impacted by a potential tariff on Canadian lumber exports… however, the Company is well positioned with a diversified product mix in Canada and the U.S., with approximately 60% of its total lumber produced and sold within the U.S. …Despite challenges, the company remains positioned to adjust production and capital spending in response to market conditions. …The company plans to invest $85 million in 2025, including the continued rebuild of the Thomaston, Georgia sawmill.

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Lumber Rise on Supply Constraints and Tariff Concerns

Trading Economics
February 13, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

Lumber futures traded above $610 per thousand board feet in February, a near three-month high as mill closures and trade uncertainty exacerbated supply pressures. North American production capacity fell by 3.1 billion board feet in 2024 due to curtailments, with Canadian sawmills particularly affected by rising U.S. tariffs, which could more than double from 14.5% this year. The looming imposition of a 25% tariff on Canadian softwood lumber, combined with existing anti-dumping duties, further tightens capacity for domestically produced alternatives. The National Home Builders Association warned that higher tariffs on lumber and gypsum, largely sourced from Canada and Mexico, could drive lumber prices up 40%, worsening affordability concerns. While a 30-day delay provides temporary relief, ongoing negotiations leave market outcomes uncertain. [END]

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Power of plastic: Alberta company builds affordable, energy-efficient home in record time

By Michael Franklin
CTV News Calgary
February 13, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, Canada West

Faced with a housing crisis on Canada’s First Nations, an Alberta company has stepped up with an innovative, affordable solution that taps into some cutting-edge green initiatives at the same time. Ecoplast Solutions, based in Lloydminster, Alta., has been working with the Siksika First Nation to build homes in the community. …a three-bedroom bungalow being is set up in only two days. Ecoplast says the home, made of recycled plastic, uses 60 per cent less energy than conventional homes, provides a 24 per cent reduction on greenhouse gases and a 50 per cent savings on the homeowners’ energy bills. The company is doing it by prefabricating each part of the home ahead of time, then trucks all the parts to the location and assembles them on-site. Officials say the resulting buildings are more durable and avoid some of the common concerns that plague traditional homes like wood rot and mold.

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Read My Lips: Tariffs Are Taxes – Trump’s recent moves will put upward pressure on housing prices

By Kevin Williamson, Virginia
The Dispatch
February 14, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

I get a press release about three times a week from the lumber lobby’s PR shop, the upshot of each missive being that U.S. lumber producers are desperate to raise their prices but cannot because of competition from relatively cheap Canadian imports. It is cheaper to produce lumber in Canada than in the US, not because the Canadian firms are “subsidized,” as their U.S. competitors claim, but because of more fundamental differences in the way the two countries’ lumber markets are organized. …Lumber is expensive and awkward to ship, but it has a long shelf life, and there are lots of people all around the world who would like to buy that Canadian lumber. Tariffs on it are probably not going to transfer many economic burdens from US producers to Canadian producers—they are more likely to transfer an economic burden from US lumber producers to low-income young people who want to buy a house.

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Boston University Unveils Mass Timber Tower that Could Become State’s Tallest

By Steve Adams
Banker & Tradesman Massachusetts
February 13, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Boston University unveiled designs for a new academic building that would become the tallest mass timber tower in Massachusetts. BU’s Pardee School of Global Studies would occupy the 12-story tower at 250 Bay State Road, consolidating classrooms and offices spread across the Charles River campus. With a height of 186 feet, the 70,000-square-foot building maximizes the height allowed for wood-framed buildings under the International Building Code, according to a project filing submitted to the Boston Planning Department. The university envisions the project as a leader in minimizing the use of embedded carbon in building materials. Embedded carbon has become a recent focus of regulators’ efforts to reduce the use of greenhouse gases during manufacturing of traditional construction materials such as steel and concrete. Mass timber projects typically use manufactured wood panels.

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Forestry

RBC Foundation Shows Love for Canada’s Forested Landscapes with $100,000 Donation to Forests Canada

By Forests Canada
Cision Newswire
February 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada

BARRIE, ON – In an effort to support Canada’s forests from coast to coast to coast, RBC Foundation has donated $100,000 to support tree planting and community initiatives with Forests Canada, a non-profit charity dedicated to conserving, restoring and growing Canada’s forests. …In 2023, RBC launched Ideas for People and Planet, which outlines three pressing societal challenges: urgent environmental crises, a rapidly changing workforce, and growing inequalities. Alongside these, RBC set key ambitions to address them, mobilizing its business, people, operations and community investments to drive progress on them. …The work of Forests Canada and other non-profit organizations is integral to more than just the health of people and planet, but also to the economic health of communities across Canada.

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Parks Canada trying to keep ahead of the flames to protect Banff

By Cathy Ellis
St. Albert Gazette
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

BANFF – Parks Canada is ramping up plans for logging and prescribed fire work to reduce the risk of a catastrophic wildfire to the Banff townsite following decades of fire suppression in surrounding forests throughout the national park. Much of the work is already underway, with more in the coming year or two, which Parks Canada officials say is on top of 7,000 hectares of logging, thinning and prescribed burns already completed over the past 10 years in Banff National Park and almost 15,000 ha over the past 15-year period. “We have a really busy program here; we are one of the programs that has done the most in the past 10 to 20 years,” said Jane Park, fire and vegetation management specialist for Banff National Park during a presentation to Banff town council Monday (Feb. 10). “We’re trying to mitigate risk from every angle.”

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Bow Valley wildfire prevention projects underway as Parks Canada aims to protect key infrastructure

By Mark Villani
CTV News Calgary
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

It may be the middle of winter, but work is already underway to mitigate the threat of wildfires in the Bow Valley area. Crews are constructing fire breaks, planning prescribed burns and ‘fire smarting’ communities to avoid a major disaster. CTV News had the opportunity to take part in an exclusive tour on Thursday with fire information officers from Banff National Park, Canmore, Lake Lousie and the MD of Bighorn. All of the organizations are working collaboratively to protect the Bow Valley. “Wildfires are not preventable, but we can help mitigate the risk,” said Canmore Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bourgin. “Wildfires are going to happen, but it’s a matter of us working together. It’s a matter of us making sure that we have the mitigation strategies and suppression strategies in place.”

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Canada and New Brunswick Announce Major Investment in Wildfire Equipment and to Improve Community Resilience Against Wildfires

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
February 14, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

MONCTON, New Brunswick –– The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, on behalf of  Jonathan Wilkinson, and the Honourable John Herron, New Brunswick Minister of Natural Resources, announced a joint investment of $40.1 million over four years through the Government of Canada’s Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program (FMWCC) – Equipment Fund and the Resilient Communities through FireSmart (RCF) Program. This joint investment is supporting the purchase of equipment such as tanks and pumps, drones, trucks and heavy equipment. …This joint investment will also support wildfire preparation through the application of FireSmart practices in New Brunswick.

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Forest Service fires 3,400 people after ‘deferred resignation’ deadline passes

By Marcia Brown and Jordan Holman
Politico.com
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States

The U.S. Forest Service will fire roughly 3,400 federal employees across every level of the agency beginning Thursday. The move targets employees who are still within their probationary period, which means it’s easier for them to be let go. Public safety employees at USFS are exempt from the firing. While firefighter jobs appear to be unaffected, other roles that support wildfire prevention are being cut. Employees who work on road and trail maintenance, timber production and watershed restoration are also impacted. The layoffs come one day after the deadline for the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” program, which encouraged employees to resign but stay on the government payroll through September. It’s not yet clear how many USDA employees accepted the option. …This would also reduce the agency’s workforce — a total of 35,000 employees — by about 10%, potentially making it harder to address increasingly intense wildfires.

Additional coverage in Bloomberg Law, by Courtney Roze

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Trump wants states to clean up forests to stop wildfires. But his administration cut off funds

By Claire Rush, Matthew Brown and Chris Megerian
The Associated Press
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US West

PORTLAND, Oregon— President Donald Trump’s administration is holding up money for wildfire mitigation projects funded through legislation championed by his Democratic predecessor, threatening efforts to prevent catastrophic blazes like the ones that recently ripped through Southern California. The decision undermines Trump’s repeated insistence that communities need to clear combustible materials like fallen branches and undergrowth — “it’s called management of the floor,” he said while visiting Los Angeles last month — to guard against wildfires. Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, said via email that mitigation work is “currently undergoing review to ensure consistency” with Trump’s executive orders. The scrutiny is being applied only to projects using money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, two centerpieces of former President Joe Biden’s administration. They included roughly $3 billion for wildfire mitigation efforts, often known as hazardous fuels reduction programs.

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Alabama bills threaten infrastructure with higher truck weights

By Bill Britt
Alabama Political Reporter
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Alabama’s roads and bridges are already under immense strain, but two bills moving through the Legislature could accelerate their decline—adding 150 million dollars in maintenance costs annually, reducing highway lifespan by up to 30 percent, and forcing weight restrictions on hundreds of bridges. Senate Bill 110 and House Bill 204 would allow heavier log trucks to operate on Alabama highways while simultaneously limiting enforcement by requiring state troopers to escort overweight trucks to permanent platform scales—effectively halting roadside safety inspections for extended periods. Experts warn that these changes could have devastating consequences for infrastructure durability, public safety, and taxpayer-funded repairs. The push for heavier loads is being driven by logging and timber industry interests, which stand to benefit financially from relaxed restrictions. However, transportation and infrastructure experts warn that the cost to the public far outweighs any economic gain.

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Dade County Man Receives First-Of-Its-Kind Forestry Award

Georgia Forestry Commission
February 13, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Lookout Mountain native Kerry Phillips, 34, said he is “humbled” to be given the Georgia Forestry Commission’s 2024 Director’s Award. This is the first time the honor has been presented to a GFC employee for their performance excellence. Phillips has been serving as Acting Chief Ranger for GFC’s Dade County Unit for the past year. He stepped into the role after a harrowing wildfire accident injured his predecessor early last year. …The Director’s Award recognizes Phillips’ ability to manage emergency situations, especially as the north Georgia drought worsened and wildfire conditions increased. His leadership in Dade County ensured operations continuity, though faced with numerous geographical, demographical, and political challenges. He is credited for working tirelessly on region-wide projects and trainings, and contributing to important leadership initiatives. Phillips is well known for his professionalism and his commitment to the wildland firefighter core values of duty, respect, and integrity.

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