Quebec renewed its promise to modify the forestry bill that provoked confrontations between Indigenous protesters and forestry workers. In other Business news: Northern Pulp’s proposed $104M sale raises concerns about cleanup and pensions; Canfor is fined after injury at its Northwood pulp mill; Domtar breaks ground on its Rothschild Dam modernization; and firefighters douse fire at Montana’s F.H. Stoltze mill. Meanwhile: custom home building gains share despite weak starts; and higher softwood prices may boost hardwood pallets.
In Forestry/Wildfire news: BC Minister Ravi Parmar signals a crackdown on unused fibre licences; Canada is warned about downsides to prescribed burning; the BC Is Burning documentary screens in Williams Lake and Nakusp; Manitoba experts call for stronger wildfire mitigation; a US study says industry forests are more prone to megafires; researchers highlight wildfire-char’s role in methane suppression; a poplar trait could advance biofuels; and new warnings about the health risks of wildfire smoke.
Finally, APP moves closer to regaining its FSC credentials despite pending review.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor
A proposed sale of Northern Pulp’s vast timberlands appears to leave nothing for the cleanup of its former kraft pulp mill in Pictou County or for the money owed to taxpayers. But the companies that provided interim financing to Northern Pulp through its five-year insolvency, and potentially a significant portion of its underfunded pension obligation to former mill employees, would get paid. On Monday, Northern Pulp filed a proposed “stalking horse” (a minimum bid) of $104 million for Northern Timber with the BC Supreme Court as part of its insolvency proceedings. It is also seeking the extension of creditor protection, leaving the potential that a higher bid could come in for its valuable forest lands. …No estimated cost has been released publicly for cleaning up the Abercrombie site that housed Northern Pulp for 50 years. …On Monday, Northern Pulp said it had provided a cleanup plan to the Department of Environment.
Economic uncertainty has clouded the pallet market outlook, as July’s job report revealed weaker-than-expected job growth. The elimination of the de minimis tariff exemption for low-value shipments is expected to improve pallet demand. Anticipated interest rate cuts will have a knock-on effect on housing affordability, stimulating the construction sector which in turn impacts lumber prices. …As pallet usage has grown, softwood has become the dominant material used in pallet manufacturing due to its abundance and cost-effectiveness. Hardwood mills were hit hard, and many saw closures, after the Chinese property market collapsed as that was its biggest end-use market. This Canadian softwood lumber supply shock does certainly leave the door open for the hardwood pallet to regain some market share. Supply and demand indicators are pointing to higher prices towards the end of 2025 and into 2026.
Both Canada and Australia have experienced megafires in the past few years, the size and severity of which have been unprecedented. It has been suggested that Canada needs to “fight fire with fire” in order to solve the problem, and follow Australia’s lead in tackling this national environmental issue. Wrong. Rather, it is critically important that Canada does not repeat the mistakes that Australia has made. The widespread application of prescribed burning or hazard-reduction burning has been proposed as a way to protect people and property in Canada. Prescribed burning to reduce fire hazards has been employed throughout large parts of Australia. Yet robust scientific evidence showing that it is effective is remarkably limited. In some places, prescribed burning can reduce fire severity and restrict fire spread for a few years, but afterwards the regrowing vegetation becomes more flammable – an increased fire-risk effect that can last for many decades. That is: short-term gain, but long-term pain.
A powerful documentary that addresses BC’s escalating wildfire crisis and the urgent need for solutions will be shown tonight in Williams Lake. “BC Is Burning” was written and produced by retired forester Murray Wilson who has over 4 decades of experience in wildfire suppression and forest management. “In August 2024 I started filming mainly around the Interior of BC.” Wilson said, ” I didn’t do any filming in the Williams Lake area but Central Chilcotin Rehabilitation Ltd. had some excellent videos and they very graciously gave me some of their footage from around the Williams Lake area as well as Percy Guichon who is also in the documentary.” …So far the documentary has been shown in Kelowna, Vernon, Merritt, Kamloops, and Williams Lake tonight (August 19) then it will be in Nakusp and on to Castlegar. A 20 minute Q & A with Wilson and Josh Prestie, Regional Executive Director for the Ministry of Forests will follow the Williams Lake show.
Cowichan Lake had just 16.5 per cent water storage capacity as of Aug. 13 as the recent hot spell, which saw temperatures in the region go above 30C, began to die down. Brian Houle, environment manager at the Domtar Crofton mill, which owns and operates the weir at Lake Cowichan, said the regulators of the watershed decided to reduce water flows from the lake over the weir to 4.5 cubic metres per second beginning on Aug. 13. He said the flow reduction will be done in two stages, dropping to 5.0 cms on Aug. 13 and then to 4.5 cms on Aug. 14 and that flow will hold until the rainfall returns this fall. …Houle said that, as water flows are reduced to the river, Domtar will have qualified professionals in the river helping to salvage fish stranded in pools, as well as measuring water quality.
The odds of high-severity wildfire were nearly one-and-a-half times higher on industrial private land than on publicly owned forests, a new study found. Forests managed by timber companies were more likely to exhibit the conditions that megafires love—dense stands of regularly spaced trees with continuous vegetation connecting the understory to the canopy. The research, led by the University of Utah, University of California, Berkeley, and the United States Forest Service, is the first to identify how extreme weather conditions and forest management practices jointly impact fire severity. Leveraging a unique lidar dataset, the authors created three-dimensional maps of public and private forests before five wildfires burned 1.1 million acres in the northern Sierra Nevada, California. …Although the study demonstrates that private industrial lands fare worse, both private and public agencies have much room for improvement to protect our nation’s forests.
…a University of Delaware professor has found that there is something of value to be learned from what’s left behind in the remnants of a wildfire. The charred debris left in the wake of wildfires … is known as wildfire char. UD’s Pei Chiu, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, studies wildfire chars and the ways they just might prove useful in reducing methane, a powerful gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Methane emissions come from many different sources, ranging from livestock manure to landfills and wastewater treatment plants. This work also informs his research on biochar — man-made chars created from leftover wood chips, rice husks, corn stover and other agricultural biomass — that can be used in soil amendments, stormwater treatment and other applications. Chiu shares five important facts about char — both natural (wildfire char) and manmade (biochar). 
The Forest Stewardship Council has allowed Asia Pulp & Paper — “one of the world’s most destructive forestry companies” — to resume its remedy process toward regaining certification it lost in 2007 for deforestation and land conflicts. Watchdog groups say the decision is premature because a legal review of APP’s links to Paper Excellence/Domtar, the biggest pulp and paper company in North America, is still unfinished. Critics warn the move could erode trust, enable greenwashing, and expose communities in conflict with APP-linked companies to further harm. NGOs are calling for the remedy process to be paused until the review is completed and for full transparency on corporate ownership and compliance.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The recreational vehicle industry is now the biggest consumer of tropical wood in the United States, UK-based NGO Earthsight and Indonesian NGO Auriga Nusantara said. They said evidence showed sheets of tropical “lauan” plywood found in Indonesia were likely being used in the floors, walls and ceilings of RVs produced by major brands like Jayco, Winnebago and Forest River. “Nature-loving RV owners will be horrified,” said Earthsight director Sam Lawson. …Indonesia has one of the world’s highest rates of deforestation linked to mining, farming and logging, and is accused of allowing firms to operate in Borneo with little oversight. …PT Kayu Lapis Asli Murni, sourced timber mostly from rainforest in areas the NGOs visited, half of which was then exported to US firms MJB Wood and Tumac Lumber in 2024, they said.
A new study, led by the University of Missouri, has uncovered how poplar trees can naturally adjust a key part of their wood chemistry based on changes in their environment. This discovery … could help create better biofuels and other sustainable products. The study, “Factors underlying a latitudinal gradient in S/G lignin monomer ratio in natural poplar variants,” was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. …”Understanding how plants make lignin could help us improve its conversion into high-value biomaterials and improve the competitiveness of U.S. biorefineries,” Jaime Barros-Rios, an assistant professor of plant molecular biology, said. Poplars are used in the paper and pulp industry. Now, they’re being explored as a source of bioenergy—fuels, plastics and other bioproducts. They are useful for scientific research because their genome has been fully mapped.
As Saskatchewan experiences one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, smoke continues to prompt air quality alerts for the public. …however, less than five per cent of personnel working the wildfires in Saskatchewan are wearing masks, and despite the health risks, that’s not likely to change any time soon. “Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) personnel have access to N95 masks if they wish to wear them on the fire line, but most choose to wear bandannas,” the SPSA wrote in an email to paNOW. Structural firefighters within urban centres are required to wear self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) to protect them from smoke inhalation and exposure to harmful airborne contaminants, but in Saskatchewan, using facial protection is voluntary for wildland firefighters, and there is no provincial protocol to use them. …N95 masks can help reduce exposure to fine particles, but don’t filter out harmful gases. Bandannas offer little to no protection.
PRINCE GEORGE, BC — Canfor Pulp has been fined after a worker seriously injured their hand in an unguarded piece of machinery. WorkSafeBC issued the $489,104 penalty on July 10 following an inspection at the company’s Northwood Pulp Mill in April. According to the inspection report, a worker was injured on the fifth floor by a hydraulic cylinder that cycles every 64 seconds, “dropping rapidly down” into a metal box. …The agency determined the firm failed to ensure its machinery and equipment was fitted with adequate safeguards to protect workers from hazardous points of operation. …Canfor spokesperson Mina Laudan said a contract worker sustained a hand injury in the incident. “We deeply regret that a worker was injured at our site. It is our responsibility to provide a safe working environment,” said Laudan. “Following the injury, we took immediate steps to safeguard the equipment that was involved in the incident.”
Choking smoke spewed by wildfires is far more dangerous than previously thought, a new study has found, with death tolls from short-term exposure to fine particulates underestimated by 93%. Researchers found that 535 people in Europe died on average each year between 2004 and 2022 as a result of breathing in the tiny toxic particles known as PM2.5 that are released when wildfires rage. Under standard methods, which assume PM2.5 from wildfires is as deadly as from other sources, such as traffic, they would have expected just 38 deaths a year. The study comes as wildfires ravage southern Europe, and new data from EU fire monitors shows that 895,000 hectares (2.2m acres) have burned so far in 2025, breaking records for this time of year. “Our paper shows the health impact for the same amount of particles is stronger for wildfire particles,” said Prof Cathryn Tonne, an environmental epidemiologist and co-author of the study.
Sharie Minions told a news conference Tuesday that officials are working with the BC Wildfire Service to update two evacuation orders and three alerts that are in place due to the out-of-control Mount Underwood fire. The regional district’s chief administrative officer Daniel Sailland said about 50 permanent residents had to be evacuated along with approximately 150 campers and other visitors due to the fire, which was discovered Aug. 11. Fire information officer Karley Desrosiers said 160 personnel are working on the fire, which is not expected to grow beyond its current 36 square kilometres as the area warms up after several rainy days. “We have received considerable rain since Thursday, and more rain is expected today,” she said. “Going forward, we are expecting conditions to get a little bit warmer and a little bit drier and a bit windier as well. …The blaze has shut off power and the main road access to Bamfield since Aug. 11. 
