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With the increased interest rates and market uncertainty, demand slowed for building materials – including lumber. The reduced number of housing starts has opened up maintenance windows. Interfor will use this pause to return to curtailed production around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Source: https://vancouversun.com/business/local-business/interfor-lumber-production-cut

These logs might be a little punky but they’re free. The city of Grand Rapids, MI will have its first log giveaway on November 5th and 6th.
Source: https://www.woodtv.com/news/grand-rapids/looking-for-lumber-gr-giving-away-free-logs/

Wood is arguably one of the oldest – if not the oldest building materials. Now with new technology, wood buildings can be assembled like legos. And, because the timbers glued together are so thick, they are incredibly fire-resistant – more than steel. The most recent revision of the International Building Code allows for skyscrapers of wood. Look for the new green building boom.

Source: https://www.axios.com/2022/04/26/wooden-skyscrapers-mass-timber

2020 to a large extent, ended predictable lumber sales volumes and prices. This year is no different. Prior to the pandemic, going into the winter months generally heralded lower prices and a slower business cycle as construction slowed during the winter months. Hurricane devastation may turn that around. Check it out. https://www.lesprom.com/en/news/North_American_lumber_prices_drop_due_to_autumn_slowdown_104956/

The Forest Service is the caretaker of our National Forests, many of which abut private timberland. Unfortunately, policies over decades and a lack of funding have created an environment where there’s a lot of fuel on the forest floor and not enough mitigation. Case in point – the community of Grizzly Flats. It was wiped out in the Caldor Fire and the Forest Service has not adequately responded to charges of mismanagement.
BLUF: If your land is close to the Federal Forest, you might want to make your own fire breaks and thin around your property. It could be the difference.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/caldor-fire-california-us-forest-service-60-minutes-transcript-2022-10-02/

In Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection is developing a program to increase the use of Alaskan wood by allowing local sawmill operators to self-certify their lumber. This would only be used in projects such as 1 or 2-family residential construction. The problem for Alaskan mills is that they say that they can’t afford to be a member of an American Lumber Standards Committee-certified organization. These mill memberships educate and certify that the lumber is graded according to national rules for strength, usually through a grade stamp. The grade stamp certifies that the wood is strong enough for the use case, and building inspectors will fail a building if the builder can’t prove that the lumber is strong enough to withstand the stresses of loadbearing. Similarly, lending institutions don’t want to finance construction materials if they can’t be sure of the quality.
The state is in the preliminary stages and is holding a stakeholder meeting on September 23rd, 2022, and expects the process to take 1-1.5 years to complete the regulations.
Source: https://www.frontiersman.com/news/state-explores-ways-to-certify-alaska-wood-for-lumber-in-home-and-building-construction/article_f1fb4bd0-3892-11ed-9247-8f377b9a290a.html/?utm_medium=internal&utm_source=readerShare&utm_campaign=bButton

We’re seeing a general cooling trend as the Fed raises rates. Specialty lumber remains higher as there is a much lower supply than commodity lumber.
Source https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/lumber-prices-us-mortgage-rates-6-percent-freight-railroad-strike-2022-9?op=1

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