ESFPA E-News

Happy Thanksgiving From ESFPA

As we head into Thanksgiving, we want to take a moment to thank our members for the dedication, expertise, and stewardship you bring to New York’s forest products community. Your work sustains local jobs, supports healthy forests, and strengthens communities that rely on this industry.

This season reminds us how fortunate we are to work alongside people who care deeply about the future of our forests. We hope you find time to slow down, share good moments with those close to you, and reflect on the many things we all have to be grateful for.

Wishing you a safe, warm, and thankful Thanksgiving!

Extended Producer Responsibility

We continue to meet with several industry stakeholders on the EPR legislation for New York and what may happen for the 2026 legislative session.  Increasingly it looks like "affordability" is going to drive much of the legislative agenda in Alany, and EPR will not be immune.

A number of recent developments are playing into our hands on the affordability front. The Center for Sustainable Materials Management several weeks ago released Phase 2 of the New York Needs Assessment, which unsurprisingly points to a lot of success in paper and paper packaging recycling. It also notes a large cost associated to households on shifting materials management. AF&PA also has summarized much of this as well as some of the Business Council recent cost analysis work on a summary document of how well paper has done in materials management. You can find the AF&PA Fact Sheet here. 

These are all good materials as we prepare for the 2026 Legislative Session. EPR will be on the agenda in 2026, and we will be working to once again keep paper out of the proposals or to stop the proposals all together. If you have questions as we prepare for 2026, please let us know.

Latest on EUDR

The European Union Deforestation Rule (EUDR) seems to be on-again-off again like U.S. trade policies, but seriously there does seem to be some emerging consensus that the delay through 2026 will be reinstated. Our friends at NAFO have been monitoring this closely. Here are some of the key elements included in NAFOs latest update:

• 12-month postponement for all operators: A one-year delay for all operators and traders until December 30, 2026, with an additional six-month extension for micro and small operators. This replaces the Commission’s proposed grace period for large companies, offering instead a single, clear extension applicable across the board.
• Commission simplification review: The Commission is tasked with conducting a targeted simplification review by April 30, 2026, focusing on reducing administrative burdens and proposing legislative amendments where necessary.
• Approval of the Commission’s proposed simplifications (neither of which apply to US operators):
  • Streamlined due-diligence responsibilities: Only the operator first placing the product on the EU market would be required to submit a due-diligence statement. Downstream operators and traders would no longer file their own statements – the first downstream operator would simply pass on the original reference number.
  • Simplified obligations for micro and small primary operators: These operators could fulfil their duty via a one-off simplified declaration rather than full due diligence.

The Council’s recommendations will now be considered by the European Parliament, where we understand there are several amendments being offered. We expect the Parliament to vote as soon as this week, likely on Thanksgiving. Hopefully they give us something to be thankful for!

Mass Timber

We came out of the Fall Forestry Roundtable with a lot of enthusiasm for doing something with Mas Timber in New York. Over the past couple of weeks there have been several developments.  Eamon Carey, one of our RoundTable Panelists, has been working with several legislators on a follow up meeting for a mass timber discussion.  Assemblymember Didi Barrett has agreed to host a meeting most likely in December. Assemblymember Barret has also introduced a Mass Timber Pilot program bill for affordable housing (A. 9255) which would provide incentives for housing built from mass timber. This legislation needs a Senate co-sponsor but is a start for conversation and action.

The Northern Forest Center has also commissioned a Mass Timber market paper for the Northern Forest states.  The paper focuses on how to enhance mass timber supply chains across the region.  The paper should be available in a few weeks and will be invaluable to future discussions. We look forward to carrying these discussions forward as we close out the year and enter into 2026.

EPA Releases New 'WOTUS' Rule

On Monday, the EPA and the Army Corp. of Engineers released a pre-publication of a Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. This rule will have a 45-day comment period. The rule narrows the government's jurisdictional reach over private property by bringing the rule in line with the U.S. Supreme Court case of 2023 in Sackett v. EPA. A fact sheet on the proposed rule can be found here. 

The ongoing regulatory ping pong game over the definition of regulated waters has swung back as the proposed rule would reverse the Biden administration’s definition of waters of the US, and would exclude certain features such as ditches, converted cropland, waste treatment systems, and groundwater from being considered waters of the US. The proposal would require tributary streams to have a direct or predictable connection to navigable waterways to be considered federal waters and would not consider ephemeral streams as protected waters because they are not relatively permanent.