Daily edition
September 18, 2026
Prepared from public sources. Links lead to original material.
What matters this morning
- Irving Forest Products will nearly double its Ashland, Maine sawmill from 130 to 250 million board feet of annual capacity, backed by a large New Markets Tax Credit financing package.
- The first major components for Irving Pulp & Paper's $1.5-billion NextGen modernization have reached Saint John; the project is designed to lift pulp output by more than 70%.
- Ontario is putting more than $2.5 million into three Northwestern Ontario mill and biomass projects, including upgrades expected to create demand for more than 130,000 tonnes of forest biomass annually.
- South Carolina has opened a 7,370-ton pine sale on 174 acres at Sand Hills State Forest, with bids due September 29.
- British Columbia now forecasts average Crown stumpage of C$13.55/m³ this fiscal year, 11% below its February budget assumption.
Mills / Capacity / Procurement
Northeast — Maine
Ashland sawmill expansion adds 120 MMBF of annual capacity
Irving Forest Products is modernizing its Ashland sawmill in Nashville Plantation, increasing annual dimensional-lumber capacity from 130 million to 250 million board feet. The company says the project will create and retain the equivalent of 220 permanent full-time jobs and support foresters, loggers and other upstream workers in Aroostook County.
The financing is unusual enough to matter on its own: federal New Markets Tax Credits and Maine's New Markets Capital Investment Program provide $112.9 million of tax-credit allocations, generating about $44 million in federal and state tax credits. For the regional wood basket, the bigger operational question is how an additional 120 MMBF of capacity changes spruce-fir procurement and logging demand.
Pulp, Paper & Biomass
Canada — New Brunswick
First NextGen equipment reaches Saint John pulp mill
The first barge carrying major components for Irving Pulp & Paper's Project NextGen reached Saint John this week. The $1.5-billion modernization includes a new recovery boiler, steam turbine and green-energy generator and is backed in part by a $660-million Canada Infrastructure Bank loan.
Irving says the project will make the mill energy self-sufficient, eliminate heavy-fuel-oil combustion and increase pulp output by more than 70%. That scale of output growth makes the construction milestone relevant well beyond the mill fence: it points toward materially higher long-run fibre demand in the New Brunswick supply system.
Canada — Ontario
Ontario mill upgrades target 130,000 tonnes of additional biomass use
Ontario is investing more than $2.5 million through its Forest Biomass Program in three Northwestern Ontario projects. More than $2.4 million goes to Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper for boiler and chemical-plant upgrades expected to raise kraft output 11% and create a market for more than 130,000 tonnes of forest biomass annually.
AUX Energy receives $92,500 to plan a biomass-powered generator at Fort Frances, while Weyerhaeuser receives $32,650 for a production-line upgrade study. Taken together, these are small public investments against a potentially meaningful increase in demand for low-value fibre and mill residuals.
Market Opportunities
Southeast — South Carolina
Sand Hills offers 7,370 tons of pine
South Carolina Forestry Commission has opened a Sand Hills State Forest sale in Chesterfield County covering 174 acres and approximately 7,370 tons of pine. Bids open September 29 at 10 a.m.; the bid is one blended price per ton for all pine products.
The sale follows the roughly 8,100-ton Sand Hills offering that reached bid day earlier this week, giving buyers another near-term state-land pine opportunity from the same operating area.
Markets & Pricing
Canada — British Columbia
B.C. cuts expected Crown stumpage to C$13.55/m³
British Columbia's first-quarter fiscal update now assumes average Crown stumpage of C$13.55 per cubic metre this year, 11% below the C$15.24 assumed in February's budget. Forecast forest revenue falls to C$472 million, with the province attributing much of the change to operating costs and softwood-lumber trade duties.
The noteworthy contrast is that the province simultaneously raised its benchmark SPF 2x4 lumber-price assumption to US$497/MBF while lowering expected stumpage. Harvest volume is forecast at 29 million cubic metres annually through the three-year plan.
Under the Radar
Upper Midwest — Michigan
Michigan closes the border to untreated out-of-state firewood in 2027
Michigan announced a new quarantine that will prohibit untreated firewood originating outside the state beginning in 2027. The rule is aimed at reducing movement of invasive insects and plant diseases in firewood.
For firewood dealers, campwood suppliers and cross-border haulers, this is a supply-chain rule rather than simply a forest-health notice: sourcing, treatment documentation and distribution routes will need to conform before next year's operating season.
Other Significant Developments
FBS business lens — capital allocation
Ashland shows what financing structure can do to project economics
The Ashland expansion is also a useful capital-allocation case. Seven community-development entities are participating in a structure that turns $112.9 million of tax-credit allocations into roughly $44 million of federal and state tax credits for a rural manufacturing project.
The lesson for smaller forest-products firms is not that this exact structure scales down neatly. It is that the financing stack can be part of the operating strategy: tax credits, grants, loan guarantees and conventional capital can change which modernization projects clear the return threshold.
Opportunities worth watching
- Ashland's additional 120 MMBF of nameplate capacity: watch procurement changes and whether northern Maine logging capacity expands with it.
- Thunder Bay's proposed 130,000-ton biomass market: the important next question is which fibre streams and haul radii prove economic.
- South Carolina's September 29 Sand Hills sale: the result will provide another current pine bid point from the state's northeastern wood basket.
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
Wet Woods: Flux, Flex and Change in Our Forestry
Loggers, foresters, and mill operators adapting to climate change, volatile markets, and other pressures in the Northeast — told through the people doing the work.
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