Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment has launched the Sustainable Forest Supply Chain Collaborative, a new interdisciplinary initiative connecting research, teaching, and Extension to strengthen Virginia’s forest sector from working forests to wood products.
Roseburg Forest Products restarted construction on its $450 million Dillard MDF plant in Oregon on March 4, 2026, after pausing the project in early 2025 amid economic uncertainty and state policy concerns. The facility is expected to employ more than 140 workers when operations begin in late 2028.
A malfunctioning belt sander generated sparks that ignited the sawdust collection system at Holmes Custom Moulding in Holmes County, Ohio, injuring six workers with burn wounds and blowing a wall off the building’s foundation. The incident is a stark reminder of the combustible dust risks present in nearly every woodworking and moulding operation.
Louisiana is advancing a bill to expand its wood pellet manufacturing industry, but a growing faction of state lawmakers is simultaneously pushing to restrict underground carbon storage — the very infrastructure the bioenergy sector says it needs to remain viable. The resulting standoff reveals a deep divide over how Louisiana balances resource extraction, climate policy, and economic development.
The Milwaukee mass timber project known as The Edison — billed as the tallest of its kind in the United States — has stalled after tariffs and inflation drove costs $25 million over budget. Its general contractor filed for foreclosure in March 2026, and the developer has gone silent.
The BLM’s Oregon logging plan proposes to quadruple timber harvest on 2.5 million acres of O&C Lands — targeting 1 billion board feet annually, a level not seen since before the 1990s conservation restrictions. For Oregon’s forest industry, the EIS process that follows will define how much of that supply actually reaches the market.
One year after Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency, California has approved more than 300 wildfire safety projects covering nearly 57,000 acres — all within 300 days. The fast-track program has slashed project approval times from a year or more down to as little as 30 days, while maintaining environmental safeguards. For the forestry sector, it marks a significant shift in how quickly large-scale fire-risk reduction work can actually get done on the ground.
Weyerhaeuser’s response to pulp mill closures highlights how changing fiber markets, biocarbon production, and engineered wood investments are reshaping North American forestry and timber supply.
Tree species diversity is increasingly recognized as a practical forestry strategy to reduce drought impacts and wildfire severity across North American forests.
New forest perception dataset SilvaScenes enables tree instance segmentation and species classification from under-canopy images, advancing AI for forestry applications.