Lumber is currently showing bearish momentum (i.e., steadily falling) after strong growth in the second half of 2020. In related news: US construction spending was up 3.8% in 2020, residential spending is on the rise and single-family homes are not as large as they used to be. Companies making news include: Weston Forest (acquired); Katerra (saved); Pinnacle/Tolko (begins pellet production); Paper Excellence (Port Alberni machine fire); UPM/Domtar (Plymouth agreement); and Ponderay Newsprint (the end is near).
In other news: biochar use is proposed to save Minnesota’s tamaracks; California classifies treated wood waste as hazardous; and Pittsburg is one of three cities to receive an urban forest grant; Meanwhile: BC’s forestry watchdog calls for old-growth review and Brazil’s environmental crime investigators fail to get the job done.
Finally, the species of wood used in Pharaonic coffins speaks to the economics of the day.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
No one was hurt after a fire erupted Monday morning, Jan. 4, 2021, in one of the paper machines at Paper Excellence Canada in Port Alberni. “We had a paper fire on the No. 4 paper machine in the dryer section,” Paper Excellence Canada Alberni division general manager Marc Bodin confirmed… no one was hurt in the incident. …“When a fire happens the fans are immediately shut off to limit oxygen getting to the flames. That creates a lot more smoke and cuts down the flames, he added. …Bodin said preliminary checks indicate damage was not extensive. “It looks like there was minimal damage to the machine itself.” …Bodin said he doesn’t anticipate Monday’s fire affecting the Alberni plant’s overall production. “We’re not expecting any significant down time or loss of production as a result,” he said.
UPM and the US-based pulp and paper producer Domtar have signed an agreement for UPM to acquire the total annual kraft lignin production of Domtar’s Plymouth Mill in North Carolina as of January 2021. This step enables UPM to expand its role in the growing lignin business and different application segments. Following the agreement, UPM will increase its supply of kraft lignin by more than 20.000 metric tonnes annually. …”It enables us to expand our lignin business in the growing biochemicals market before the start-up of our Biorefinery in Leuna, Germany,” says Juuso Konttinen, VP, UPM Biochemicals. …Kraft lignin products such as UPM BioPiva are used as a renewable alternative to fossil-based products in a growing range of applications, such as lignin-based phenolic resins. 
The U.S. Census Bureau announced the following value put in place construction statistics. …Construction spending during November 2020 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,459.4 billion, 0.9 percent (±0.8 percent) above the revised October estimate of $1,446.9 billion. The November figure is 3.8 percent (±1.3 percent) above the November 2019 estimate of $1,405.5 billion. During the first eleven months of this year, construction spending amounted to $1,314.1 billion, 4.4 percent (±1.0 percent) above the $1,258.8 billion for the same period in 2019.
In a rare move, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals published two opinions about subjects that are hardly ever discussed in the court’s published National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decisions. …For the first time since its 1988 decision in Sierra Club v. U.S. Forest Service (9th Cir. 1988), the Ninth Circuit has published a new decision that applies the hard look doctrine in a case about impacts to an old-growth redwood forest. …In a separately published decision, Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt, the Ninth Circuit examined indirect “downstream” carbon emissions associated with the construction of a new oil extraction project in Alaska (e.g., emissions from transporting and storing oil). …The Bernhardt decision will provide important guidance for structuring future NEPA analyses of indirect carbon emissions for oil extraction facilities.