Daily edition
September 14, 2026
Prepared from public sources. Links lead to original material.
What matters this morning
- South Carolina opens bids tomorrow on an approximately 8,100-ton Sand Hills State Forest sale in Darlington County: about 7,900 tons of pine and 200 tons of hardwood across roughly 79 acres.
- Maine’s $60 million Natural Resources Disaster Relief Assistance Program remains open through November 6 and explicitly covers standing-timber and harvested-timber losses from qualifying 2023–24 severe-weather events.
- Quebec’s reopened Programme Innovation Bois closes its current project call September 18 for wood-processing innovation, forest biomass and low-quality wood utilization, and higher-value products.
- Oregon’s September state-forest timber-sale bid-opening window runs September 14–18, putting another set of state timber results into the market this week.
- Natural Resources Canada’s current forest-product price page provides a single weekly source for North American softwood lumber and panels plus monthly pulp pricing and exchange rates.
Market Opportunities
Southeast — South Carolina
Sand Hills sale offers about 8,100 tons with all-weather operability
The South Carolina Forestry Commission will open bids September 15 at 10 a.m. on sale SHSF-5367-ADV-TS-27 in Darlington County. The prospectus estimates roughly 7,900 tons of pine and 200 tons of hardwood on about 79 acres, with a 12-month operating period and all-weather logging.
Bids are structured as one blended price per ton for pine, one for hardwood and one for chip products. The successful buyer must provide a $5,000 performance bond and $25,000 advance; the sale calls for a clearcut of all merchantable forest products.
Government / Funding / Trade
Northeast — Maine
$60 million disaster program includes timber losses and forester costs
Maine’s Natural Resources Disaster Relief Assistance Program is accepting applications through November 6. The state says forestry businesses and other eligible producers may seek assistance for qualifying 2023–24 severe-weather losses, including standing timber and harvested timber.
For timber claims, applicants who pass the initial eligibility review must hire a licensed forester to complete additional documentation. Paid invoices for that forester are themselves eligible for reimbursement, an important detail for landowners deciding whether a claim is worth developing.
Canada — Quebec
Quebec wood-innovation funding closes Friday
Quebec has reopened Programme Innovation Bois, with the current call for projects due September 18. Eligible lanes include investment-oriented innovation, forest biomass and lower-quality wood utilization, and projects intended to accelerate value-added production.
For mills and wood-product companies, the deadline is the immediate issue: businesses with a project already defined have only days left in this intake. A separate study-oriented innovation stream is expected to remain continuously open in winter 2027, subject to available funding.
Forestry & Timber
Pacific Northwest — Oregon
Oregon enters its September state-timber bid week
Oregon Department of Forestry’s September bid-opening window runs September 14–18. ODF sells nearly all state-forest timber through competitive bidding and publishes monthly sale schedules and subsequent results.
The useful signal this week will be the spread between appraised values and winning bids across individual sales. With western mill demand uneven, the results can help show where procurement competition remains strongest by operating area and species mix.
New Publications, Data & Tools
Canada’s weekly forest-product price page consolidates lumber, panels and pulp
Natural Resources Canada’s current-price page combines weekly North American softwood lumber and panel pricing with monthly pulp prices in the United States, Europe and China and exchange-rate data for Canada’s major trading partners.
It is less granular than a paid market service, but useful as a consistent public benchmark—particularly for readers who want one government-maintained place to check broad lumber, panel and pulp direction without mixing data from several sources.
Opportunities worth watching
- South Carolina’s September 15 Sand Hills bid result should give a clean per-ton read on an all-weather pine-dominant tract with chip material included.
- Maine forestry businesses with documented 2023–24 weather losses have until November 6 to develop NRDRAP claims; licensed-forester documentation is required for timber claims.
- Oregon’s September 14–18 sale results should be watched for bidder depth and premiums as western procurement remains uneven.
Special Opportunity
A few spots remain in the next Forest Business School Essentials cohort
The Forest Business School's six-month Essentials program begins October 7, 2026. The program is free to accepted participants through partner funding and is built for mid-career working-landscape professionals and small business owners in forestry, logging, wood products, land management, and related fields. Nearly weekly one-hour evening video sessions combine assigned reading/listening with peer discussion and practical application — no grades, papers, or busywork.
Interested in applying? Email Steve Bick directly at steve@northeastforests.com. · Learn more at forestenterprise.org →
FEATURED BOOK
After Wood: Routes to Retirement
A practical retirement-planning guide for loggers, foresters, sawmill operators, and other forest-products small-business owners, built around the financial realities of equipment-heavy and seasonal careers.
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