West Fraser Timber reported a Q4 loss on weak lumber demand. In related news: Clearwater Paper also reported a Q4 loss; lumber prices fall in 8-day losing streak; Canadian housing activity declines; and US progress on inflation slows. In other Business news: One Sky Forest Products is closer to breaking ground on OSB mill; and Nippon is closing its Australian white paper mill. Elsewhere: Auburn University’s Edward Loewenstein is retiring, and BC foresters are recognized by their peers.
In Forestry/Climate news: identifying alternatives to wood waste in BC and California; forest landslides and roads in the Pacific Northwest; wildfire risk reduction in Arizona, and California’s melting snowpack. Meanwhile: Apple backs forest conservation in the US South; and Global Canopy’s climate wake-up report.
Finally, more coverage and pushback on the research connecting forests and fungi.
Kelly McCloskey Tree Frog Editor
Lumber prices are on the decline again as questions continue to linger about the current state of the housing market. Lumber futures fell 3% to $402 per thousand board feet on Tuesday, an eight-day losing streak that has erased 21% off of futures’ pricing. The 23% price decline in February is an about-face from its strength seen in January, in which the commodity surged 37%. But data Raymond James sees is giving it confidence that a bottom is in for lumber prices. …”We do think a strong case has been made that cash lumber prices will continue to rebalance toward British Columbia’s marginal production costs (which we now estimate ~$500/mbf USD), and likely higher still in 2024,” Horne said. …Raymond James projected that lumber futures could rise to $500 per thousand board feet in the second half of the year, and then rise to $525 in 2024. 
VANCOUVER, B.C. – West Fraser Timber reported today the fourth quarter, 2022 and full year results. Fourth quarter highlights include: Sales of $1.615 billion and earnings of $(94) million, Adjusted EBITDA of $70 million, representing 4% of sales, Lumber segment Adjusted EBITDA of $(77) million, including $39 million of inventory write-downs, North America Engineered Wood Products segment Adjusted EBITDA of $109 million, Pulp & Paper segment Adjusted EBITDA of $15 million. …Annual Highlights include: Sales of $9.701 billion and earnings of $1.975 billion, Adjusted EBITDA1 of $3.212 billion, representing 33% of sales, Lumber segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $1.328 billion, NA EWP segment Adjusted EBITDA1 of $1.677 billion, Pulp & Paper segment Adjusted EBITDA of $26 million. …“In the fourth quarter of 2022, we faced a challenging demand market as rising interest rates dampened new home construction activity in the U.S., most acutely impacting our Lumber business” said Ray Ferris, CEO.
A substantial government outreach program focused on Green and Low-Carbon Development in China was conducted by FII China with regional Foreign Affairs Offices (FAO) in 2021, and Jiangsu was prioritized as a key province for the first round of the program. As a result of the first event, in October 2021, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between FII and the Jiangsu FAO to strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation together. The established framework ushered in new chapter for bilateral cooperation and laid the foundation for more substantial cooperation in the era of China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategies. A range of follow-up activities and engagements were carried out under the MOU framework to build momentum, and the past year has witnessed that the collaboration in Jiangsu province achieving new heights for the ways that FII China can work with regional government authorities. 
LONDON — Almost half of the companies most reliant on the commodities responsible for deforestation, and the financial firms that back them, have no policy to rein it in, a 