Who’s at the Table When Hardwood Is Discussed? | Crossroads Strategies Initiative
To better understand the broader narrative surrounding the hardwood industry, the Crossroads Strategies initiative, with support from its PR firm, Seven Letter, tracks trending stories reaching audiences beyond our industry each week. The value is not only knowing what’s being said. It’s asking who is hearing it, what they’ve been told, and what part of the hardwood story may be missing.
The top news stories for the week of August 25-31, 2026, based on reach were as follows:
“Certain Hardwood Plywood Products From China: Final Determinations of No Shipments”- Federal Register (1.34M reach)
“Trump’s Tariffs on Canadian Plywood and Laminated Wood Panels Just Went Into Effect—What Does It Mean for the AEC Industry?”- The Architect’s Newspaper (185.27K reach)
“Canada Strikes Back with Targeted Tariff Measures”- Head Topics (160.80K reach)
The “reach” of these stories can be a bit misleading and warrants clarification. This figure does not include “likes,” “clicks,” or even the number of times it was shared. It’s a rough estimate of the available audience for each publication. For example, the Federal Register has an estimated potential reach of roughly 1.34M people.
Unlike the other two on this list, the Federal Register is a little different than your run-of-the-mill publication. It’s the federal government’s official record of federal rules, proposed rules, notices, and other government documents. Its readers include policymakers, businesses regulated by federal agencies, and people participating in or applying for grants. In other words, this publication is for people who need to know what federal agencies are doing.
The notice “Certain Hardwood Plywood Products From China” concerns the Department of Commerce’s review of Hai Hien Bamboo Wood Joint Stock Company, a Vietnamese producer/exporter, and whether it shipped merchandise covered by existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders involving Chinese-origin inputs during the periods under review. Commerce ultimately determined that the company had no shipments subject to those orders. For the Federal Register audience, hardwood appears primarily as a regulated commodity. Furthermore, the government continues to audit Chinese imports to ensure they don’t violate trade orders.
Move from the Federal Register to The Architect’s Newspaper, and the same industry suddenly looks very different. According to the publication’s “about” page, “The Architect’s Newspaper (AN) has shaped architecture culture over 20 years. Our print editions are trusted sources for architects, designers, and built-environment professionals. Each issue collects breaking industry developments and offers insightful commentary, criticism, case studies, and reviews.”
The main takeaways from “Trump’s Tariffs on Canadian Plywood and Laminated Wood Panels Just Went Into Effect” are the fact that the U.S. has placed tariffs on Canadian plywood and laminated veneer lumber as of August 22. Richard Branch, Chief Economist for the American Institute of Architects tells AN that these tariffs make it “difficult for developers and architecture firm leaders to plan future projects with confidence.” Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, plans to implement counter-tariffs starting September 8, and by October 1, the U.S. Secretary of commerce will have an “update on imports of hardwood timber and lumber.”
What story about the hardwood industry is reaching this audience?
a. Specifying hardwood is subject to unpredictable costs and sourcing complications.
b. Tariffs could make some U.S.-produced hardwood products more competitive, but they can also interrupt a North American supply chain that doesn’t stop at the Canadian border.
What’s largely missing from this story is how interconnected the U.S. and Canadian hardwood industries actually are. For an association like NHLA, a tariff that creates an opportunity for one member can impose a cost, a lost market, or a supply-chain issue for another.
The third story reaches an even broader audience. Head Topics, a news aggregator, carried Yahoo Finance Canada’s “Canada Strikes Back with Targeted Tariff Measures.” This particular publication “is a global access point for local news” and features news from 36 different countries/regions. Compared with the other two publications, Head Topics is broader and includes the general public who want soundbites of breaking news relevant to their corner of the globe.
For the average Canadian news consumer, this article explains that their country is imposing a 25% tariff on U.S. wood products and a 50% tariff on plywood and veneer panels.
In this story, hardwood isn’t really presented as an industry at all. It’s one item on a much longer list of products caught in a U.S.-Canada trade dispute. Furthermore, a Canadian reader encounters hardwood as a trade issue and a potential cost, rather than a renewable material, an employer, a forest product, a design choice, or part of an interconnected North American manufacturing economy.
Now, imagine putting the audiences for these stories around the same table.
The policymaker arrives talking about trade compliance. The architect wants to know what a tariff means for material costs and availability. The Canadian reader wants to understand why American hardwood has suddenly become more expensive.
For NHLA members, then, the question isn’t simply, “What are people saying about us?” It’s, “Who isn’t at the table when the hardwood story is being told?”
And that is where Crossroads Strategies and Seven Letter join the conversation.
Their work is intended to keep hardwood-industry priorities in front of policymakers and advocate for constituents in the hardwood industry. So, when architects and designers research material costs and availability, North American hardwood is at the top of their list.
And when the average news consumer reads about the North American hardwood industry, they don’t associate it with trade issues, but a job opportunity, a sustainable product that is sourced across North America, and a design choice they can feel good about choosing.
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