Eight US senators joined a campaign to tout the virtues of US community newspapers as the US Department of Commerce prepares to announce its countervailing duty decision on Canadian newsprint. The implication of a duty is “a big deal”, according to the Newspaper Association representing 320 daily and weekly newspaper members.

In softwood news, the Canadian government is seeking a Chapter 19 dispute panel to “order the Commerce Department to reverse course” and, a WTO ruling that rejects the US use of “zeroing” in its anti-dumping duty calculation, which serves to [unlawfully] increase the duties. 

In other news: the UK plans to create a “northern forest” by planting 50 million trees, whereas planting trees in Ireland for carbon credits is being opposed because, once planted, the land “can never again be brought back to support food production”. Closer to home, Ontario researchers believe climate change will impact the “boreal forest most“; and Virginia’s cap-and-trade plan is being criticized for not covering emissions from biomass power plants.

Finally, the UK will have the world’s first wood chip acetylation plant—which will guarantee its wood panels for 50 years in outdoor use, and the world’s first “fire and wood roller coaster“; neither of which will surprise David Bengston, given his USDA blog titled “the revolutionary role of wood in our future“.

— Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor