Daily News for October 01, 2025

Today’s Takeaway

Imposition of additional duties on Canadian lumber is unjustified: Nighbor

The Tree Frog Forestry News
September 30, 2025
Category: Today's Takeaway

Imposition of additional duties on Canadian lumber is unjustified, says FPAC’s Derek Nighbor. In related commentary:

In other news: Ottawa says its still working to keep Ontario’s Kapuskasing paper mill open; GreenFirst announced temporary mill curtailments to reassess its operations; South Carolina’s industry works to expand markets; Domtar supports conservation efforts in Newfoundland; and Montana’s Bitterroot logging project clears legal challenge.

Finally, an interview with BC’s Ministry of Forests’ new deputy minister Makenzie Leine.

Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog News Editor

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Special Feature

An interview with BC’s Ministry of Forests’ new deputy minister Makenzie Leine

By Andy Watson
Truck LoggerBC Magazine
September 30, 2025
Category: Special Feature
Region: Canada, Canada West

Earlier this year, British Columbia appointed a new deputy minister for the Ministry of Forests. Raised in the heart of the forestry sector, born into the family of a truck logger and growing up in a forestry camp, Makenzie Leine has been tasked with supporting a sector facing significant challenges. …Working with Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar and the ministry team to fulfill a mandate focused on both immediate, short-term improvements and long-term sustainability for the sector, there are a series of deliverables she is supporting. These include increasing value by supporting value-added and innovative forest products; diversifying wood products in domestic and international markets; bringing groups together in forest landscape planning tables to chart a path forward for the stewardship of BC’s forests and forest industry; improving permitting efficiency; and, working toward ensuring a sustainable land base to enable the harvest of 45 million cubic metres a year, while fulfilling the Province’s commitment to old growth.

Easy, right? And all this with the added challenge of combatting the impacts of American tariffs—including those on softwood lumber and other protectionist measures—the price crisis in the timber sector, the impacts of wildfires and insect infestation on supply, and increasing wildfire activity due to impacts of climate change. “We’re in a very unique time right now, and it’s very, very tough,” Leine says. “It’s a time that is probably different than anything we’ve seen. …”I don’t think we can come to the table with the answers. I think we have to come to the table with our own understanding of our accountability and our part in it and work together to figure out how we sort through it, together.” Ultimately, Leine says, it can only be achieved by bringing together industry, First Nations, communities, and other interested parties to work together toward these goals, with government being stewards of the work ahead.

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Business & Politics

Canadian softwood producers hit with new 10% tariff on lumber shipments into U.S.

By Brent Jang
The Globe and Mail
October 31, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canada has repeatedly rejected the US positions in the softwood trade battle, which dates back to the early 1980s. “These tariffs will not improve U.S. national security – they will only drive up lumber costs, making housing even less affordable for American families,” Kurt Niquidet, of the BC Lumber Trade Council, said. “Placing additional tariffs on Ontario’s forest sector under the false flag of national security is a disturbing abuse of presidential power,” Ian Dunn, of the Ontario Forest Industries Association, said. …Sawmills in Canada have seen their market share of US lumber consumption steadily decline since 2016. …Raymond James Ltd. analyst Daryl Swetlishoff said the stage has been set for additional decreases in lumber capacity in Canada over the next six to 12 months. RBC Capital Markets analyst Matthew McKellar said the new tariffs will place extra pressure on Canadian producers. “Tariffs will potentially accelerate curtailments of Canadian supply,” he said. [to access the full story a Globe and Mail subscription is required]

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The Imposition of Additional U.S. Duties on Canadian Forestry Products Is Unjustified

By Derek Nighbor, President and CEO
Forest Products Association of Canada
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

Canada’s forest products sector strongly opposes the US administration’s decision to impose additional punitive tariffs not only on softwood lumber but also on derivative products, including furniture and kitchen cabinets. The targeting of Canada’s forestry products under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act is unjustified and disregards decades of evidence and cooperation that confirm Canadian forest products strengthen, rather than threaten, US national security. This broad action further undermines a deeply integrated North American supply chain that supports housing affordability, infrastructure, manufacturing, and shared prosperity and security on both sides of the border. …The new Section 232 tariffs pushes the total duty burden to over 45%. This compounds pressure, distorts markets, threatens jobs on both sides of the border, and escalates trade tensions. …This misguided move risks raising housing costs in the United States and undermines the integrated trade relationship that has provided jobs, investment, and prosperity in both countries,” said Nighbor.

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New Tariffs on Lumber, Wood Product Imports Add Headwinds to Housing Market

The National Association of Home Builders
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, United States

In a move that will raise housing costs, the US Commerce Department today imposed a 10% tariff on all timber and lumber imports and an additional 25% tariff on kitchen cabinets and furniture after announcing that it found that imports of these materials and products pose a national security risk. The tariffs go into effect on Oct. 14. The tariffs on furniture products are slated to rise to 30% and kitchen cabinets to 50%. “These new tariffs will create additional headwinds for an already challenged housing market by further raising construction and renovation costs,” said NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes. …While the 10% tax rate on lumber and timber will put upward pressure on construction costs, it is significantly lower than other Section 232 tariffs. …US sawmills are operating at just 64% of their potential capacity, a figure that has dropped steadily since 2017. It will take years until domestic lumber production ramps up to meet the needs of our citizens. 

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GreenFirst Announces the Temporary Curtailment of Some of its Operations

GreenFirst Forest Products Inc.
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

TORONTO — GreenFirst Forest Products announced a temporary curtailment of certain operations in order to reassess its options, following Kap Paper’s decision to begin an orderly idling of operations at its Kapuskasing paper mill. The announced idling of Kap Paper — GreenFirst’s primary customer for wood by-products — significantly worsens the challenge of managing these residual materials in Ontario. This marks the fourth pulp and paper mill to close in the province over the past two years. The two remaining pulp and paper mills in Western Ontario cannot, on their own, absorb the full volume of chips and biomass generated by sawmill operations across the province. These tough times have been exacerbated by tariffs and resulting economic uncertainty. …Effective October 6, 2025, the Company will reduce sawmill operations at its Kapuskasing, Hearst, and Cochrane facilities for the equivalent of one week. The curtailment at the Kapuskasing sawmill could extend beyond this period.

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Ottawa says it will ‘keep working’ with northern Ontario paper mill to resume its operations

The Canadian Press
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada East

Ottawa says it will keep working to help save a northern Ontario paper mill that cited a lack of immediate federal support as it announced this week it was forced to idle operations. Industry Minister Melanie Joly’s office says it had “come to the table” with federal supports for Kap Paper in Kapuskasing, Ont., which directly employs about 420 people and supports 2,500 jobs in the region. It says the federal government has been working directly with the struggling company, citing support offered through the Strategic Innovation Fund and targeted programs. Kap Paper said on Monday that it had received $50 million in loans from the Ontario government and had approached Ottawa for funding, but despite “initial positive responses,” there was no immediate solution to keep the paper mill open. …Joly’s office says it will keep working with the company on options to resume its operations.

Related Coverage in CBC News: Kapuskasing paper mill idling, but company and union saying little else

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New Zealand timber industry welcomes 10% tariff as a ‘bit of relief’

Radio New Zealand
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, International

NEW ZEALAND — News that US President Trump imposed a tariff of 10 percent on imported timber has come as a relief to industry, which expected a higher figure. Mark Ross, chief executive of the Wood Processors and Manufacturers Association, said it was a relief as they thought it would be higher. “We’ve been working through the essential impact of a tariff on our products since March this year so it wasn’t a shock because we were, at one point, expecting a 50% tariff. “So 10% is a bit of relief. It is still going to have a financial impact on the wood processing industry in New Zealand. …Ross said they were working with exporters to work out how to handle the extra costs. …Ross said the United States was New Zealand’s third-largest export market and continued to grow.

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Trump’s tariffs on imported wood products will inflate costs, impact truck safety

By Noi Mahoney
FreightWaves
September 30, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States

The Trump administration on Monday announced tariffs on imported wood products, targeting softwood lumber, timber, kitchen cabinets, vanities and upholstered furniture. …Trump’s proclamation said wood product imports were weakening the US economy, resulting in a persistent threat to the US supply chains and harming the domestic wood industry. “Because of the state of the United States wood industry, the US may be unable to meet demands for wood products that are crucial to the national defense and critical infrastructure,” the proclamation said. …Critics of the tariffs have voiced concern that the new duties will inflate costs for American consumers and builders. Former US Rep. Matt Cartwright, (D-Pennsylvania), said safety will suffer as a result of the new tariff on imports of trucks. …“A lot of these companies are already on shoestring budgets, and unfortunately the first thing that gets cut when costs go up is safety,” Cartwright said.

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Wood industry seeks solutions under US tariff pressure

Voice of Vietnam
October 1, 2025
Category: Business & Politics
Region: International

US President Donald Trump has signed an order imposing tariffs of 10%-50% on a range of wood and furniture products, piling pressure on Vietnam’s exports. Starting October 14, 2025, imported softwood and sawn timber will face a 10% duty, while kitchen cabinets, bathroom cabinets and upholstered furniture will be levied at 25%. From January 1, 2026, the rates will rise to 30% for upholstered items and 50% for kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Experts warn the new policy could pose major challenges to the Vietnamese wood sector. In 2024, exports totaled US$16.25 billion. Over the past eight months of this year, shipments reached US$11.1 billion, up about 6.5% year-on-year, a modest yet encouraging result. The US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and the EU remained the top five markets, accounting for over 80% of total export value. …beyond the tariffs, Vietnamese exporters are also facing a Section 232 investigation by the US into plywood and decorative wood.

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Finance & Economics

U.S. lumber tariffs could add $8,900 to cost of building a home: USB Group

Seeking Alpha
September 30, 2025
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: Canada, United States

The Trump administration’s latest tariffs on housing materials could raise the average cost of building a single-family home by nearly $9,000, according to a report Tuesday from UBS. Research analyst John Lovallo said the new levies include “an incremental 10% Section 232 tariff on softwood timber and lumber imports, as well as 25% levies on kitchen cabinets, vanities and upholstered wood products.” UBS estimates the lumber tariff will add about $720 per home, while cabinet and vanity tariffs could tack on another $280. Upholstered wood products were not included in the calculation because they are generally purchased by homeowners rather than builders. “As a result, we now estimate the total tariff impact on the cost to construct an average home at approximately $8.9K,” Lovallo wrote. …“Importantly, we continue to believe this cost impact will be spread throughout the entire housing value chain, with the builders perhaps best positioned to push back on suppliers,” he said.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Industry Leaders Highlight Common Goals of North American Lumber Industry

By The Softwood Lumber Board
You Tube
August 5, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: Canada, United States

To underscore the importance of this work, the Softwood Lumber Board is spotlighting industry leaders, programs, and partners who are advancing market growth. This month, Brad Thorlakson, Executive Chairman of Tolko Industries, and George Emmerson, Board Chairman of Sierra Pacific Industries, highlight how producers throughout North America share a common passion for the sustainability and growth of our industry.

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The Softwood Lumber Board’s Impact—Now and in the Years Ahead

The Softwood Lumber Board
September 30, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States

The September monthly update from the Softwood Lumber Board includes these headlines and more:

  • The SLB Generated 438 MM BF of Incremental Lumber Demand in Q2: Q2 Report highlights strategy to drive long-term demand for lumber through education, code advancements, project support, and compelling content—efforts that will protect, expand, and diversify markets.
  • The SLB’s Strategic Plan to Grow Light-Frame by +1.4 BBF Annually:  new strategic plan sets a bold target: 2.9 BBF in new annual lumber demand by 2035.
  • Industry Leaders Highlight Common Goals of North American Lumber Industry: This month, Brad Thorlakson, Executive Chairman of Tolko Industries, and George Emmerson, Board Chairman of Sierra Pacific Industries, highlight how producers throughout North America share a common passion for the sustainability and growth of our industry.
  • The SLB Backs Global Framework to Increase Lumber Demand: Built by Nature’s Principles for Responsible Timber Construction is a first-of-its-kind global framework to ensure building with wood benefits climate, nature, and people.

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Clemson institute works with industry on new markets for South Carolina timber

By Jonathan Veit
Clemson University News
September 30, 2025
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: US East

CLEMSON, S.C. — With South Carolina’s forestry and forest products industries facing significant headwinds, Clemson University’s Wood Utilization + Design Institute (WU+D) convened industry, government and academic leaders Sept. 24 at the Madren Conference Center to explore new products and markets for the state’s abundant timber. The meeting took place amid a series of high-profile mill closures, including those of International Paper in Georgetown, the WestRock plant in Charleston, International Paper in Savannah, and the Containerboard Mill in Riceboro, which have reduced market capacity and disrupted the wood supply chain. …The open house showcased how WU+D and its partners hope to transform wood side-streams, which are by-products from pulp mills and sawmills once considered waste, into valuable materials such as lignin-based asphalt binders, advanced wood pulp adjuvants for agriculture, multifunctional bio-based coatings for mass timber and high-performance oriented strand board.

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Forestry

B.C. Timber Sales change

Letter by Joe Karthein, Save What’s Left Society
Castanet
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada West

Re. Change at B.C. Timber Sales (Castanet, Sept, 23) The recent article on new parameters for B.C. Timber Sales highlights optimism from wood manufacturers about a more predictable fibre supply. What is being presented as good news for industry but very bad news for forests, watersheds and the public. In reality, the BCTS Task Force report means more logging, more subsidies and less accountability. The most troubling recommendation is the first, to move B.C. Timber Sales to “arm’s length” from government. That is a recipe for secrecy and deregulation. BCTS already approves its own cutblocks with minimal oversight. Turning it into a Crown corporation—or worse, a privatized entity—would strip away what little public accountability remains. …The task force boasts BCTS is “100% SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified.” But the Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a discredited “greenwashing” scheme, criticized internationally for allowing destructive practices. Real sustainability requires independent science, not marketing spin.

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B.C. forest industry dismantling Integrity of the hydrological Cycle

By Eli Pivnick and Janet Parkins
Castnet
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada West

Do you remember the hydrological cycle that you learned about in school? Rain and snow fall from the sky. Tree leaves and branches slow the fall of rain. In the spring, snow slowly melts, the melt slowed because trees shade the snow and cool the air. Some of the rain and melted snow infiltrate deep into the ground, aided by the presence of tree roots, to become part of the ground water that flows downhill, slowed by tree roots. …Transpiration from tree leaves, and evaporation from the land, lakes and ocean return the water to the sky and the cycle starts over again. But wait. Remove a major part of the trees from the cycle and what happens? Rain and snow land directly on the ground. Less rain infiltrates the soil and, with no tree roots, what ground water there is flows downhill more quickly.

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Domtar, Government of Canada support efforts by Nature Conservancy of Canada to conserve ecologically significant lands in central Newfoundland

Domtar
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

GANDER, Newfoundland — The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is announcing a bold campaign to protect more than 1,800 hectares of boreal forest, freshwater shoreline and wetlands in central Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the largest land donation NCC has received during its 54-year history working in Atlantic Canada. Domtar has agreed to donate land to NCC, thus allowing NCC to conserve four large parcels of forested lands and waters along the Southwest Gander River and Gander Lake near the communities of Glenwood and Appleton. The land donation project is significant as it enables better wildlife movement through connected conservation lands. Less than three per cent of the Central Newfoundland ecoregion currently falls under conservation status. …”This initiative reflects our commitment to community, sustainability and collaboration… that safeguard biodiversity — which is embedded in our 2030 sustainability strategy. We are honored to play a role,” said Luc Thériault, President, Domtar Wood Products.

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Montana logging project on track to clear legal challenge

By Monique Merrill
Courthouse News Service
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: US West

A coalition of conservation groups’ attempt to stop a forest project in Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest fell flat on Tuesday when a magistrate judge recommended the court toss their claims. In her findings and recommendations, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen DeSoto noted inconsistencies in the conservation groups’ arguments across different filings, leading to many of their claims being waived. “Therefore, defendants argue, plaintiffs have conceded these issues,” DeSoto wrote. “Defendants further point out that several of plaintiffs’ arguments are raised for the first time on reply.” The groups challenged the planned Mud Creek Vegetation Management Project, claiming it violates multiple federal conservation acts by failing to provide exact details of where logging and burning will take place, as well as what effects it will have on the environment. The project will include logging, thinning, controlled burns and road construction on 48,000 acres of federal forest. It is intended to mitigate wildfire risk.

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7th national conference on forests slated for November in Iran

Tehran Times
September 30, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

TEHRAN – The 7th national conference on the country’s forests is scheduled to be held from November 5-6. Titled ‘Maintaining sole ownership and integrated management of natural resources with an emphasis on social forestry in Zagros’, the event will be held in the southwestern Lorestan province, IRIB reported. The Iranian Forestry Association, in cooperation with the Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization, has organized the event. The conference is centered around forestry and forest ecology, law and politics; forestry and forest management, technical and engineering subjects; forest genetics and breeding, economic and social issues of forests; climate change in forests, and the application of new technologies in forest management. Zagros forests, mostly located in Lorestan, are among the most important natural resources of Iran, as they constitute 40 percent of the country’s forests, and play an important role in the production of a large part of the country’s freshwater.

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Major breakthrough made in grey squirrel fertility control ambition

The Forestry Journal
October 1, 2025
Category: Forestry
Region: International

A breakthrough in the creation of an oral contraceptive for wildlife has been made by British researchers – in a significant step towards ethical grey squirrel management. Scientists at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) have achieved infertility in rats through free feeding of an oral immunocontraceptive, and say initial studies show the formula has also succeeded in attaining a reaction in grey squirrels. Funded by the UK Squirrel Accord (UKSA), the research will develop a vaccine-based contraceptive and species-specific feeder to reduce grey squirrel numbers for the protection of UK red squirrels, trees and woodland ecosystems. …Fertility control is used as a safe and non-lethal option to tackle wildlife problems. …This contraceptive affects an animal’s immune system to prevent it creating the sex hormones and causes infertility in both males and females. Developing a formula that can survive the body’s digestive processes and make it into the bloodstream is a real challenge.

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Forest Fires

275 homes, cottages under evacuation order as N.S. wildfire burns near Lake George

By Meig Campbell
CBC News
September 30, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: Canada East

Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources says more evacuations are possible as a fire near Lake George in the Annapolis Valley continues to burn out of control. Residents of … Aylesford Lake’s southwest end have been told to prepare to evacuate. The fire in Kings County, which broke out Sunday, is estimated to be 150 hectares. It had been pegged at 300 hectares Monday night but officials at a briefing Tuesday afternoon said that was the result of an overestimation due to dense smoke conditions. Jim Rudderham, DNR’s director of fleet and forest protection, told reporters the cause of the fire has not been determined but it’s presumed human activity is responsible since there has been no lightning in the area. “It’s frustrating for us and for everybody when this happens,” Rudderham said. No buildings have been damaged but 275 civic addresses have been evacuated and 56 others are under an evacuation alert. Some of those addresses are cottages.

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Labor Mountain Fire near Cle Elum consumes 35,000 acres, more fire support on its way

By Stella Sun
KOMO News
September 29, 2025
Category: Forest Fires
Region: US West

@DirtyFreehub

CLE ELUM, Wash. — The Labor Mountain Fire continues to grow near US-96 Blewett Pass, forcing Level 3 “get out now” evacuation orders in and around the area. The fire, which began Sept. 1 from lightning, has forced a 30-mile closure of US-97 between mileposts 149 and 178, affecting the popular recreation area of Blewett Pass. A dozen trailheads, recreation residences, Camp Wahoo, the Teanaway Community Forest, and a historic guard station are at risk. These areas remain under evacuation orders… Marilyn Davis, the Labor Mountain Fire public information officer, said the fire has exceeded 35,000 acres as of Monday, Sept. 29. Just four days prior, on Sept. 25, the fire was only 17,000 acres. The Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest is known for its rugged terrain, “is considered the most rugged of any national forest in the country,” according to the Labor Mountain Inciweb fire update webpage.

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