Daily edition
October 4, 2026
Prepared from public sources. Links lead to original material.
By the numbers
U.S. on-highway diesel: $6.382/gal for September 28, down 14.7 cents from one week earlier. EIA
Madison’s Lumber Prices Index: $505/MBF for the week ending October 2, unchanged from the prior week and down $20/MBF from one month earlier. Madison’s Lumber Reporter
WEST — IDAHO / FEDERAL TIMBER PIPELINE
$12.4 million Idaho GNA package is expected to support more than 100 future timber sales
Idaho and the U.S. Forest Service have signed five new Good Neighbor Authority agreements backed by $12.4 million in federal funding. The money covers timber-sale preparation and implementation along with fuels work, road improvements, salvage, reforestation, thinning and other restoration activity.
The most important business signal is the pipeline. One agreement creates a 20-year statewide framework covering every national forest in Idaho, and the agencies say the package is expected to support more than 100 future GNA timber sales plus dozens of additional restoration projects. That turns the announcement from a one-time grant into a longer-term source of sale preparation and federal-volume movement.
Action Detector
MIDWEST — WISCONSIN / TIMBER BIDS
Burnett County timber bids close Tuesday by mail and Wednesday in person
Burnett County Forest will open its October timber-sale bids Wednesday, October 7 after 9:30 a.m. in Siren. Mailed bids must arrive by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 6; hand-delivered bids are due by 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The offering uses two-year contracts expiring November 1, 2028 unless a tract says otherwise, and Burnett County has temporarily moved to a 4-inch minimum utilization standard for all species. Each bid requires a $200 deposit, with a 10% performance bond required from successful bidders.
SOUTH — FLORIDA / LANDOWNER COST SHARE
Florida southern-pine-beetle prevention applications close Friday
Florida’s 2026 Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program remains open through October 9 for non-industrial private forest landowners in 44 northern Florida counties. The program supports practices intended to reduce stand vulnerability before an outbreak rather than paying only after damage occurs.
With recent southern-pine-beetle activity in neighboring states, the deadline matters for landowners considering thinning and other preventive work. Florida says southern pine beetle activity has remained relatively low in the state in recent years, but the program is explicitly aimed at keeping stands less susceptible to future losses.
MIDWEST — MICHIGAN / WORKING FOREST
Michigan advances a 152,000-acre working-forest easement tied to 128 forest-products manufacturers
Michigan DNR is working with Lyme Great Lakes Timberlands on what would be the state’s largest Forest Legacy conservation easement, covering about 152,000 acres across the central and southern Upper Peninsula. The land would remain privately owned and managed as working forest while the easement prevents subdivision and secures public access.
DNR says the property generates an estimated $9.7 million in economic impact, supports about 143 local jobs and supplies timber to 128 forest-products manufacturers in the Upper Peninsula. The state has secured a Forest Legacy Program grant and is still assembling matching funds. A first property tour is scheduled for October 8, with RSVPs due October 6.
Under the Radar
NATIONAL — FOREST PRODUCTS LAB / ADVANCED WOOD
FPL tests a lower-temperature route to densified wood above 220 MPa bending strength
New Forest Products Laboratory research reports a low-temperature oxygen-delignification process designed to make densified structural wood with lower chemical and environmental burdens than conventional delignification approaches. The work used about 20% lignin removal before pressing.
In the study, densified basswood reached roughly double its original density, a bending modulus of rupture above 220 MPa and Brinell hardness above 80 MPa. The authors also report substantially lower life-cycle environmental impacts than metals even when high metal recycling rates are assumed. The commercial question is whether the process can move from technically scalable chemistry to economical continuous manufacturing.
FOREST BUSINESS SCHOOL RESOURCE
Forest-products tax credits in one searchable sourcebook
The National Forest Products Tax Credit Sourcebook brings federal and state tax-credit opportunities together for mills, logging companies, wood-energy businesses and other forest-products operations. The searchable site also includes the complete 2026 PDF.
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