Daily News for October 09, 2025

Today’s Takeaway

Interfor Grand Forks mill to take extended maintenance shutdown

The Tree Frog Forestry News
October 9, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

Interfor’s lumber mill in Grand Forks, BC to take an extended maintenance shutdown. In related news: MLA Ward Stamer says BC’s industry is in crisis; Trump and Carney avoid collision (save for a nasty comment or two); FPAC’s Derek Nighbor says lumber can’t be left behind; and lumber production continues to outpace demand. Meanwhile: Unifor is reassured on future of Domtar’s Kénogami plant; Sappi and  UPM plan to reduce their paper production in Finland; and the EU imposes duties on Brazil plywood

In Forestry/Climate news: Interfor’s news has BC Timber Sales bracing for selling problems; US groups urge Brussels not to cave on deforestation law; and Amazon rainforest hits record CO2 emissions from forest fires.

Finally, Rooted in Strength: Forestry Technician program in Pembroke, Ontario enters 58th year.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Opinion / EdiTOADial

Forestry Can’t Be Left Behind in Canada–U.S. Trade Discussions

Forest Products Association of Canada
October 8, 2025
Category: Opinion / EdiTOADial
Region: Canada, United States

Derek Nighbor

With over 200,000 direct jobs at stake, sector calls on the government of Canada to bring the same urgency to lumber as it has to steel, aluminum, and energy.

Canada’s forest sector is disappointed that yesterday’s discussions in Washington concluded without relief for 232-affected sectors, including lumber, as the long-standing Softwood Lumber dispute and recently applied tariffs on Canada’s wood manufacturing industry continue to put operations and jobs at risk across the country. While we recognize that the talks were described as substantive and appreciate that these negotiations are complex, after eight years of escalating duties on softwood lumber, the lack of tangible progress for forest sector workers and communities is deeply concerning. With more than 200,000 direct jobs and hundreds of towns and cities across Canada depending on a vibrant forest sector, lumber and forest products must be treated as a greater priority in Canada–U.S. trade discussions.

Our industry continues to face unjustified duties and tariffs that harm forestry workers here at home and raise costs for American families building and renovating their homes. We urge the Government of Canada to ensure that lumber and forest products are clearly on the agenda as talks continue this week. “We simply want to see more urgency, and frankly, we were left wanting more in the post-meeting reports coming out of yesterday’s discussions,” said Derek Nighbor, President and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada.

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Business & Politics

‘We will get an even better deal,’ Carney says after Oval Office meeting with Trump

By John Paul Tasker
CBC News
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canadian and American officials are currently “negotiating terms” of a deal on tariffs a day after he met with the U.S. president to try and bring the trade war to a close — and Canada will come out ahead when the two sides come to an agreement. Speaking in question period … about what he accomplished out of his Oval Office sit-down with U.S. President Donald Trump, Carney said Canada already “has the best deal with the Americans” — most products are still being sold into the U.S. tariff-free despite Trump’s trade action — and “we will get an even better deal.” …Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Carney “pathetically” offered up “a trillion-dollar gift” to Trump when speaking with the president, and it was an instance of him “bowing before the president in weakness.” …Daniel  Smith said Carney is developing a rapport with the president…

In Related News:

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If Trump Tariffs Are Ruled Illegal, Refund Chaos Is Expected

By Laura Curtis
Bloomberg News in Transport Topics
October 6, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

President Trump has warned of disaster if the Supreme Court overturns his signature tariffs. For starters, it would unleash a bureaucratic nightmare involving reams of refund paper checks. Should the court uphold a US Court of Appeals ruling that Trump’s country-based tariffs are illegal, the government could owe the bulk of the $165 billion in duties collected so far this fiscal year back to companies that paid them. But they won’t have an easy time getting their money back; refunds are typically issued slowly and while the administration could streamline the process, experts fear that’s unlikely. …That means Trump likely won’t part with the funds easily if the tariffs are struck down, and the administration is expected to move quickly to reimpose levies using other legal authorities if that happens. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in November in the case.

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‘Extended’ and sudden maintenance shutdown of Interfor mill in Grand Forks

By Timothy Schafer
Castanet
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Plans to institute an “extended maintenance shutdown” of the Interfor lumber mill in Grand Forks is not a permanent shutdown, according to the company. On Sept. 4 Interfor Corporation announced plans to reduce its lumber production by approximately 145 million board feet at all operations between September and December of 2025, representing approximately 12 per cent of its normal output. The temporary curtailments will be through a combination of reduced operating hours, prolonged holiday breaks, reconfigured shifting schedules and extended maintenance shut-downs. The curtailments are expected to impact all of Interfor’s operating regions, with both the Canadian and U.S. operations expected to reduce their production levels by approximately 12 per cent each. “The curtailments are in response to persistently weak market conditions and ongoing economic uncertainty,” read a statement from the company.

Additional coverage in the Castlegar News, by Karen McKinley: Grand Forks Interfor mill shut down ‘indefinitely,’ not a permanent closure

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Kamloops-North Thompson MLA says B.C. forestry industry in ‘crisis’

By Brendan Shykora
Terrace Standard
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Ward Stamer

Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer says B.C.’s forestry industry is in crisis due to over-regulation and a “lack of respect for the people who actually work in our forests.” Speaking in the B.C. Legislature Oct. 6, BC Conservative MLA, Stamer put the blame for closed sawmills in McKenzie, Chetwynd and Houston on “failed government policy” that led to not enough timber being available to harvest. …B.C.-based forestry giant Canfor announced last year it was abandoning its plans to replace its closed sawmill in Houston. “The ability to reliably access enough economic timber to run our manufacturing facilities is critical for our business,” Canfor president and CEO Don Kayne said at the time. Kane attributed a declining harvest level partly to “natural disturbances,” but also to “the cumulative impact of policy changes and increased regulatory complexity.” …”With courage, accountability, and respect for rural British Columbians we can turn this crisis around,” said Stamer.

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Future of the Kénogami plant: Unifor reassured by Domtar management

Radio Canada
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

The Unifor union emerged reassured from its meeting last week with Domtar management regarding the survival of the Kénogami paper mill. The mill has been affected by numerous work stoppages for some time. Unifor’s Quebec director, Daniel Cloutier, received confirmation that the company wants to continue producing paper there and that its hydroelectric facilities, which supply power to the region’s mills, are not for sale. We were nevertheless able to be reassured about certain elements regarding Hydro-Saguenay. The dams are not sold, they are not for sale, according to Domtar’s statements. …The Kénogami and Alma paper mills are powered by the five hydroelectric power plants that Domtar, formerly Resolute Forest Products, owns on the Shipshaw River. [translated by Google Translate]

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Intertribal Timber Council Appoints Cal Mukumoto As Executive Director

City Biz
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: US West

The Intertribal Timber Council is proud to announce the appointment of Cal Mukumoto as its first Executive Director, effective October 1, 2025. Mukumoto brings more than four decades of experience in forestry, Tribal enterprise leadership, and public service to ITC. His distinguished career includes serving as Oregon State Forester, where he managed a $650 million annual budget and a workforce of more than 1,300 employees while advancing forest health, sustainability, and economic value for the state. He also served as CEO and Board Chair of the Coquille Economic Development Corporation, overseeing casino, broadband, and other Tribal business ventures, and leading them through critical periods of growth and stability. His professional roots date back to the 1980s, when he worked with the Makah Tribal Council to establish the Makah Forestry Enterprise, which improved the profitability of Tribal timber sales. 

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UPM Finland to close paper production in Kaukas and relocate operations to Rauma

Tissue Online
October 8, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

FINLAND — UPM has completed employee consultation processes following its late July announcement to permanently end paper production at its Kaukas mill in Lappeenranta, Finland. Coated mechanical paper production will be relocated to the Rauma mill, Finland. Paper machine 1 in Kaukas will be permanently closed during Q4 2025, resulting in a reduction of 220 positions. Following the closure, coated mechanical paper production capacity in Finland will decrease by 300,000 tonnes annually. UPM’s pulp, sawn timber, biofuels production, and R&D activities at Kaukas will continue unchanged. …The closure will affect 220 employees and reduce coated mechanical paper capacity in Finland by 300,000 tonnes per year. …An after-care team will be established to ensure safe conditions at the mill following the closure.

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EU to impose antidumping duty of 6.2% on softwood plywood from Brazil

The European Commission
October 9, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

The European Commission proposed preliminary antidumping duties on imports of softwood plywood from Brazil, following an investigation launched earlier this year into alleged unfair pricing practices. The proposal, published on October 7, sets a provisional duty rate of 6.2% on Brazilian softwood plywood, expressed on the CIF Union border price, customs duty unpaid. The Commission said the rates will not take effect until the provisional measures are formally adopted. The move follows a complaint filed in January by the Softwood Plywood Consortium (SPC) on behalf of EU producers, alleging that Brazilian plywood was being sold in the Union at dumped prices, harming the bloc’s manufacturers. The investigation period, covering January–December 2024, examines both dumping and injury to the EU industry.

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Sappi Europe announces closure of PM2 at its Kirkniemi Mill in Finland

Sappi Limited
October 7, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

LOHJA, Finland — Sappi Europe announced in August the commencement of a consultation process for the potential closure of Paper Machine 2 at its Kirkniemi Mill in Lohja, Finland. The consultation process, aimed at improving the mill’s profitability and cost competitiveness, has been completed resulting in the planned closure of Paper Machine 2 by the end of the calendar year 2025. As a result, Sappi’s annual production capacity of coated mechanical paper will be reduced by 175,000 tonnes. The closure will lead to a reduction of 93 positions. …The shutdown of Paper Machine 2 is part of Sappi’s strategic plan to align production capacity with market demand and to optimise the utilisation of the mill’s remaining paper machines. Production of Paper Machine 2 grades will be transferred to Kirkniemi’s Paper Machines 1 and 3, which will continue operating. Deliveries to customers will continue without disruption. 

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Finance & Economics

Trump’s Wood Tariffs Are Coming. Who Will Be Hit Hardest

By Ilena Peng
Bloomberg Economics
October 9, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

President Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on imported lumber and wood products that his administration says are needed to protect the US economy and boost domestic manufacturing. Starting Oct. 14, softwood lumber will face 10% duties, while kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and other finished wood goods will be hit with 25% tariffs that rise further in January. The biggest blow will fall on Canada, the US’s top lumber supplier, whose lumber exports are already subject to separate duties totaling 35.19%. …Though Canada dominates exports of lumber to the US, many other countries export wood products to the US. The Section 232 tariffs on lumber and wood products affect them in varying ways; some countries benefit from trade deals with the US that cap the rates, and others bear the full brunt. …Though lumber accounts for less than 20% of building costs, the National Association of Homebuilders has long said that restrictions on Canadian lumber translate to higher construction costs. [to access the full story a Bloomberg subscription is required]

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North American Lumber: Production Outpaces Demand Amid Housing Headwinds

ResourceWise Forest Products Blog
October 8, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

North America’s softwood lumber market looks likely to end 2025 no more settled than it was at the beginning. Producers and buyers alike continue navigating a landscape shaped by fluctuating demand, shifting trade patterns, and an uncertain housing outlook. Despite modest production declines in early 2025, the lumber market remains oversupplied. Mills across the US and Canada are contending with high inventories built up earlier in the year. Expectations of tariff hikes spurred an early rush of exports from Canada to the US, flooding the market while demand was soft. However, in the first half of 2025 softwood lumber exports from Canada to the US declined, while US imports from Europe in the first seven months of 2025 increased by 6% year-over-year. Underlying these supply pressures is a US housing market stuck in the doldrums. August saw an 8.5% decline in overall housing starts, with single-family construction down nearly 7%.

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Consumer Watchdog Urges Supreme Court to Rein In Presidential Tariff Powers Driving Up Consumer Prices

By Consumer Watchdog
PR Newswire
October 8, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON — Consumer Watchdog filed an amicus curiae brief in the US Supreme Court urging the Justices to strike down President Donald Trump’s sweeping “emergency” tariffs, warning that unchecked presidential power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) threatens both consumers’ pocketbooks and the Constitution’s separation of powers. The brief argues that:

  • Tariffs act as a regressive tax that raises prices on consumer household essentials and disproportionately burdens families and small businesses.
  • IEEPA lacks an “intelligible principle”—it provides no limits on the President’s ability to impose, vary, or lift tariffs, no standards for rate or duration, and no provision for judicial review.
  • Recent precedent underscores that Congress must set clear boundaries when delegating economic power; IEEPA, by contrast, contains none.

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Fannie Mae Publishes September 2025 National Housing Survey Results

Fannie Mae
October 7, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States

WASHINGTON, DC – Fannie Mae published the results of its September 2025 National Housing Survey, which includes the Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI), a measure of consumer sentiment toward housing. Month over month, the HPSI remained unchanged at 71.4. Year over year, the HPSI is down 2.5 points. The HPSI is constructed from answers to six NHS questions that solicit consumers’ evaluations of housing market conditions and address topics that are related to their home purchase decisions. The questions ask consumers whether they think that it is a good or bad time to buy or to sell a house, what direction they expect home prices and mortgage interest rates to move, how concerned they are about losing their jobs, and whether their incomes are higher or lower than they were a year earlier.

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Forestry

Forestry industry grandstanding

Letter by June MacNab
Campbell River Mirror
October 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Regarding the mayor’s grandstanding on the forest industry: Just a conservative bunch trying to make people believe it is the present NDP government that is causing the decline! Look up MLA Mike Morris of the former Liberal government from Prince George/McKenzie and see where he puts the blame! Along with others. The forest companies have cut all the wood in the nearby areas of the mills, and now it is too expensive to go so far to get the wood. They are also growing wood in Georgia, etc., where it is cheap to do so. (No unions there!). Also, the U.S.has had tariffs on our lumber for some time now, never mind the new ones. Now, we are pushing to cut all the old growth, too, and the government is dragging its heels on fully implementing the program to control that.

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‘Happy place’: Revelstoke woman gifts ‘serene’ urban forest back to community

By Evert Lindquist
The Revelstoke Review
October 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

©Facebook

Walking through a slice of the CP Hill forest one April morning to the gentle rush of streams, Virginia Thompson described the noise as “the million-dollar sound.” Serenity Park, a one-hectare swath of cedar hemlock stands nestled at 711 and 789 Cedar St., has earned distinction this year as something new for Revelstoke: an urban forest. “I wanted to protect this land since I first walked it in 2005,” Thompson said of Serenity Park, which she endowed to the City of Revelstoke earlier in 2025 and will see celebrated later this fall with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Thompson, formerly a mental-health counsellor who spent her two decades in Revelstoke as an environmentalist, originally acquired the land ahead of her arrival to town 20 years ago…

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BC Timber Sales braces for ‘big problems’ selling wood

By Greg Nesteroff
My Kootenay Now
October 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

CASTLEGAR, BC — A BC Timber Sales manager for the Kootenay-Boundary admits they may have a hard time selling wood in the coming months as local mills cope with additional U.S. tariffs. George Edney told Castlegar city council this week that his organization, which manages and auctions 20% of the timber on Crown land, will have sales opening next week in the Boundary. …Interfor has curtailed its Grand Forks operations indefinitely due to “persistently weak market conditions.” …Edney said if the wood they offer in the Boundary doesn’t sell at the upset price, they can drop the price and try again, or they can withdraw it altogether, although typically they want the wood in the market. …Edney said they sold 581,000 cubic meters that BC Timber Sales in the Kootenays in 2024-25. Their target volume for 2025-26 is 715,000 cubic metres.

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Rooted in Strength: Forestry Technician program in Pembroke enters 58th year

By Jodi Bucholtz
The Pembroke Observer
October 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada East

Since 1967, Algonquin College Pembroke Campus’s Forestry Technician program has stood as a pillar of applied education in the natural resources sector. Over nearly six decades, it has shaped countless graduates who walk into the woods, the mills, conservation agencies, and government environmental departments at all levels. In doing so, the program has strengthened our region and the broader stewardship of Canada’s forests. This fall, as students return to campus, the program is thriving, evolving, and more relevant than ever. …What makes the program robust today is its adaptability. The curriculum integrates both traditional forestry foundations and modern tools such as GIS mapping, remote sensing, and forest health assessment. Our proximity to Algonquin Park and partnerships with organizations such as the Petawawa Research Forest and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories ensure that students encounter diverse and real-world conditions. 

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US groups urge Brussels not to bow to Washington on deforestation law

By Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro
EURACTIV
October 8, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, International

US civil society groups are urging the European Commission to resist Washington’s pressure to delay the EU’s deforestation regulation (EUDR) or tweak the rules to grant the country preferential treatment, according to a letter seen by Euractiv. The missive, sent this morning to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the Commissioners responsible for green rules, the economy and trade, warns against any backtracking. “We are particularly concerned by the Commission’s apparent willingness to offer the U.S. special treatment under the EUDR as part of ongoing EU-U.S. trade negotiations,” the letter reads. The organisations refer to the joint statement issued by Brussels and Washington in September, which labels the US as posing “negligible risk to global deforestation.” Rick Jacobsen, senior manager for commodities policy at the US NGO Environmental Investigation Agency, told Euractiv that US interests have “ramped up the pressure campaign” to weaken the law before it even comes into force.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Amazon Rainforest hits record carbon emissions from 2024 forest fires

By Shanna Hanbury
Mongabay
October 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

In 2024, the Amazon Rainforest underwent its most devastating forest fire season in more than two decades. According to a new study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the fire-driven forest degradation released an estimated 791 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2024, a sevenfold increase compared with the previous two years. The carbon emissions from fires in 2024 surpassed those from deforestation for the first time on record. Brazil was the largest contributor, accounting for 61% of these emissions, followed by Bolivia with 32%, the study found. “The escalating fire occurrence, driven by climate change and unsustainable land use, threatens to push the Amazon towards a catastrophic tipping point,” the authors write. …The researchers estimated that the total emissions from deforestation and fire-driven degradation in the Amazon in 2024 was 1,416 million metric tons of CO2. This is higher than Japan’s CO2 emissions in 2022, which ranked fifth after China, the U.S., India and Russia.

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