Daily edition
September 21, 2026
Prepared from public sources. Links lead to original material.
By the numbers
U.S. on-highway diesel: $6.285/gal for the week of September 14, up 31.8¢ from $5.967 one week earlier. EIA →
November lumber: $537/MBF at Friday's close, down $41.50 — 7.2% — from September 11. CME-linked historical data →
Watch: EIA's next weekly diesel release is due September 22.
Under the Radar
NATIONAL — EQUIPMENT / MAINTENANCE
Base-oil shortage is pushing another cost line higher
A shortage of Group III base oils used in synthetic lubricants is beginning to reach U.S. retail and service channels. Reporting last week put retail motor-oil prices up 24.2% between February and August, with some oil-change prices already moving $5 to $7 higher.
For forestry and forest-products businesses, this is smaller than diesel but harder to avoid: loaders, skidders, trucks, pickups and mill mobile equipment all consume lubricants. A prolonged shortage turns a routine maintenance input into another place where purchasing discipline and inventory visibility matter.
Publications & Tools
NATIONAL — FOREST MANAGEMENT
Free platform combines wildfire, drought and pest risk for land managers
American Forests has launched its Forest Innovation Platform, a free mapping and decision-support tool intended to bring wildfire, drought, pest and other forest-risk information together across private, state, Tribal, federal and NGO lands.
The useful part is not another map by itself; it is the attempt to put multiple risk layers into one operating view. For consulting foresters, land managers and businesses evaluating treatment needs, a common platform can reduce the time spent assembling separate datasets before deciding where field work deserves attention.
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.
Thursday Deep Dive returns each Thursday
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