Tolko Industries will restart its curtailed BC mills in Armstrong and Soda Creek next week. In other Business news: Mercer secures major mass timber contract; Enviva updates plans for new pellet production; and Drax launches a new global foundation. Meanwhile: US construction spending edges down, as other homebuilding materials fail to follow lumber’s price decline.
In Forestry/Climate news: two studies—one US and one Canadian—point to threatened ecosystems; Colorado releases its forest health report; Minnesota looks to biochar to reduced emissions; Vermont conservationist seek more forest protection; and the University of Toronto’s carbon offsets are called a waste of time.
Finally, drone footage show swaths of New Zealand’s forests obliterated by cyclone.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Enviva Inc. reported that the company delivered a record 1.5 million metric tons of wood pellets during the three-month period at higher-than expected sale prices. …Regarding the development of new wood pellet production capacity, Enviva reported that it currently expects its 1.1 million metric ton per year facility in Epes, Alabama, to begin operations during the first half of 2024. …A third plant in the Pascagoula cluster is under development near Bond, Mississippi. Construction on that facility, with an expected capacity of more than 1 million metric tons per year, is expected to begin during the second half of this year. Enviva is also evaluating the timing of a fourth wood pellet plant in the Pascagoula cluster. In addition, Enviva is in the process of securing sites in both Georgia and South Carolina for the potential development of a new greenfield project in the company’s Savannah cluster.
Construction spending during January 2023 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,825.7 billion, 0.1 percent (±0.7 percent)* below the revised December estimate of $1,827.5 billion. The January figure is 5.7 percent (±1.2 percent) above the January 2022 estimate of $1,726.6 billion. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,442.6 billion, virtually unchanged from (±0.5 percent) the revised December estimate of $1,442.0 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $847.4 billion in January, 0.6 percent (±1.3 percent) below the revised December estimate of $852.1 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $595.2 billion in January, 0.9 percent (±0.5 percent) above the revised December estimate of $589.9 billion. …In January, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $383.1 billion, 0.6 percent (±1.2 percent) below the revised December estimate of $385.5 billion. 
WILMINGTON, North Carolina – There’s good news for people who are starting to build a house or have plans for a summer project: lumber prices are down from the historic highs buyers saw during the pandemic. Among rising prices in other industries for consumers, relief is on the way for home builders and anyone planning projects that require lumber. The Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association has seen faster construction rates in the past few months, which can be attributed to increased lumber stock and more affordable prices. …Building material stores aren’t seeing a noticeable difference yet in the lower prices, but it won’t be long before it impacts them. …Lumber prices may be coming down, but other essential homebuilding materials, such as drywall, concrete and metal remain at higher prices. 
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TORONTO — Last week, the University of Toronto announced that most university-funded air travel will be subject to a carbon-offset fee based on the distance travelled. …But offsets won’t help green the university. …There is ample evidence that many carbon offsets – particularly those not regulated by governments – are of dubious quality. …The vast majority of carbon offsets also only remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere temporarily – as long as the trees planted remain standing. Some of these “nature-based” offsets are increasingly at risk of becoming sources of greenhouse gas emissions, rather than sinks, owing to the growing threats of drought, fires and pathogens. By contrast, offsets that remove emissions and/or sequester it for centuries or millennia, make up only 3 per cent of the unregulated offset market. These permanent removals come much closer to a real solution. [the access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]