PotlatchDeltic (PCH) Risk Factors

Our TRS enables us to engage in non-REIT qualifying business activities, such as our wood products manufacturing operations and certain real estate investments. However, no more than 20% of the value of our REIT gross assets may be represented by securities of our TRS under the REIT rules. We must comply with the 20% limit on a quarterly basis. We believe our TRS's securities comprise a higher percentage of our REIT's gross assets than most other REITs, which may limit our ability to grow our TRS. Our high degree of leverage to volatile lumber prices, coupled with limits on the amount of dividends our REIT can receive from our TRS, also means our TRS can accumulate significant amounts of cash. Cash accumulated and retained by our TRS increases the value of our TRS's securities and IRS rules may limit our ability to sufficiently rebalance the TRS's assets. The limitations on our ability to reduce the value of our TRS means we have a higher risk than other REITs that we will not comply with the 20% gross assets limit and fail to retain our REIT qualification in the future. While we intend to monitor the value of our investments in the stock and securities of our TRS to ensure compliance with the 20% gross assets limitation, we cannot provide assurance that we will always be able to comply with the limitation so as to maintain REIT status. Furthermore, our use of our TRS may cause the market to value our common shares differently than the shares of other REITs, which may not use taxable REIT subsidiaries at all, or as extensively as we use them.

REITs are generally intended to be passive entities and can thus only engage in those activities permitted by the IRC, which for us generally include owning and managing a timberland portfolio, growing timber and selling standing timber. Accordingly, the manufacture and sale of wood products, certain types of timberland sales, sale of developed real estate and the harvest and sale of logs are conducted through our taxable REIT subsidiary, the net income of which is subject to corporate-level tax, because such activities generate non-qualifying REIT income and could constitute "prohibited transactions" if such activities were engaged in directly by the REIT. In general, prohibited transactions are defined by the IRC to be sales or other dispositions of property held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business. By conducting our business in this manner, we believe we will satisfy the REIT requirements and thus avoid the 100% tax that could be imposed if a REIT were to conduct a prohibited transaction. We may not always be successful, however, in limiting such activities to our TRS. Therefore, we could be subject to the 100% prohibited transactions tax if such instances were to occur, which could adversely affect our cash flow and impair our ability to pay quarterly dividends.

We are subject to a wide range of general and industry-specific laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, including those governing: - silvicultural activities, including use of pesticides and herbicides, harvesting, and road building,- endangered and at-risk species,- stormwater and surface water management,- air emissions,- the cleanup of contaminated sites,- health and safety matters, and - building codes. We have incurred, and we expect to continue to incur, significant capital, operating and other expenditures to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations. We also have incurred and could incur in the future substantial costs, such as civil or criminal fines, sanctions and enforcement actions (including orders limiting our operations or requiring installation of pollution control equipment or other remedial actions), cleanup and closure costs, and third-party claims for property damage and personal injury as a result of violations of, or liabilities under, environmental laws and regulations on properties we currently own or have owned in the past. Because environmental regulations are constantly evolving, we will continue to incur costs to maintain compliance with those laws and our compliance costs could increase materially. In addition, air emissions, stormwater, and surface water management regulations may present liabilities and are subject to change. Future compliance with existing and new laws, regulations, environmental permits, and other requirements may disrupt our business operations, increase potential liabilities, and require significant expenditures. As the owner and operator of land, we have been and may be in the future liable under environmental laws for cleanup, closure and other damages resulting from the presence and release of hazardous substances on or from our properties or operations we currently own or have owned and operated in the past. In addition, we lease some of our properties to third-party operators for the purpose of exploring, extracting, developing and producing oil and gas in exchange for fees and royalty payments. These operations may create risk of environmental liabilities for any unlawful discharge of oil, gas or other chemicals into the air, soil or water. Generally, these third-party operators indemnify us against any such liability, and we require that they maintain liability insurance during the term of our lease with them. However, if for any reason an unlawful discharge occurs and our third-party operators are not able to honor their indemnity obligation, or if the required liability insurance was not in effect, then it is possible that we could be held responsible for costs associated with environmental liability caused by such third-party operators. The amount and timing of environmental expenditures is difficult to predict, and in some cases, our liability may exceed forecasted amounts or the value of the property itself. The discovery of additional contamination or the imposition of additional cleanup obligations at our current or previously owned sites or third-party sites may result in significant additional costs. For example, we have agreed to voluntarily participate as a non-federal sponsor in connection with one of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) sediment contamination remediation projects in a reservoir downstream of one of our former properties that we sold to a third party in 2002. Additional information regarding this matter is included in Note 18: Commitments and Contingencies in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements contained in this report and incorporated herein by reference. Similarly, threatened and endangered species restrictions apply to activities that would adversely impact a protected species or significantly degrade its habitat. A number of species on our timberlands have been, and in the future may be, protected under these laws. If current or future regulations, including increased mandates for biodiversity, increased wildlife habitats, additional species on our lands classified as endangered, or the enforcement of endangered species regulations become more restrictive, the amount of our timberlands subject to harvest restrictions could increase.

Because commodity products have few distinguishing properties from producer to producer, competition for these products is based primarily on price, which is determined by supply relative to demand, and competition from substitute products. Prices for our products are affected by many factors outside of our control, and we have no influence over the timing and extent of price changes, which often are volatile. Our profitability with respect to these products depends, in part, on managing our costs, particularly raw material and energy costs, which represent significant components of our operating costs. These costs can fluctuate based upon factors beyond our control including, but not limited to, changes in demand, supply chain disruptions, and inflation or deflation, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows. Furthermore, inflation has increased and may continue to increase our operational costs, especially for fuel, energy and repair and maintenance costs. In addition to negatively impacting demand for our products, higher and prolonged levels of inflation could negatively impact our costs and we likely will not be able to fully pass the increased costs to customers. The markets for our wood products are highly competitive and companies that have substantially greater financial resources than we do compete with us in each of our lines of business. In addition, our Wood Products facilities are capital intensive, which leads to high fixed costs and generally results in continued production as long as prices are sufficient to cover variable costs. These conditions have contributed to substantial price competition, particularly during periods of reduced demand. Some of our wood products competitors may currently be lower-cost producers than we are or may benefit from weak currencies relative to the U.S. dollar and, accordingly, these competitors may be less adversely affected than we are by price decreases. Wood products also are subject to significant competition from a variety of substitute products, including non-wood and engineered wood products. To the extent there is a significant increase in competitive pressure from substitute products or other domestic or foreign suppliers, our business could be adversely affected.

A variety of factors affect prices and demand for timber including changes in availability at the local, national and international level, all of which can vary by region, timber type (sawlogs or pulpwood logs) and species. On a local level, supplies can fluctuate depending upon factors such as changes in weather conditions and harvest strategies of local timberland owners, as well as occasionally high timber salvage efforts due to events such as unusual pest infestations or fires. Our timberlands are primarily located in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. As a result, we may be susceptible to adverse economic and other developments in these regions, including industry slowdowns, mill closures and curtailments, business layoffs or downsizing, relocations of businesses, changes in demographics, increases in real estate and other taxes and increased regulation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on us. Further, as the demand for paper nationwide continues to decline, closures and curtailment of pulp mills have adversely affected the demand and pricing for pulpwood and wood chips in certain regions in which we operate. Also, demand in other parts of the world may affect timber prices in the markets in which we compete. For example, although we do not sell into overseas markets, overseas demand can indirectly impact pricing and supply in North American timber and lumber markets. In the U.S. South, most timberlands are privately owned. Historically, increases in timber prices have often resulted in substantial increases in harvesting on private timberlands, including lands not previously made available for commercial logging operations, causing a short-term increase in supply that has tended to moderate price increases. Decreases in log prices have often resulted in lower harvest levels, causing short-term decreases in supply that have tended to moderate price decreases. In the South, timber growth rates have exceeded harvests during the past decade. This condition has led to an oversupply of harvestable timber in the region, which has kept timber prices at relatively low levels. In Idaho, a greater proportion of timberland is government owned as compared to the southern states where we operate. For more than 20 years, environmental concerns and other factors have limited timber sales by federal agencies, which historically had been major suppliers of timber to the U.S. forest products industry, particularly in the West. Any reversal of policy that substantially increases timber sales from government owned land, including opening federal lands to thinning and additional harvesting to reduce fire risks, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows.

Any of our manufacturing facilities or machines could unexpectedly cease to operate due to a number of events, some of which have occurred in the past, including unscheduled maintenance outages, prolonged power failures, equipment failures, raw material shortages, equipment and maintenance part shortages, cyber-events, labor difficulties or labor availability due to quarantine requirements for those exposed to flu or other viruses, disruptions in the transportation infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, railroad tracks and tunnels, fire such as the fire at our Ola, Arkansas sawmill in June 2021, ice storms, floods, windstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes or other catastrophes, terrorism or threats of terrorism, governmental regulations and other operational problems. We cannot predict the duration of any such downtime or extent of facility damage. Downtime and facility damage have prevented us and could prevent us in the future from meeting customer demand for our products and/or require us to make unplanned expenditures. If one of our machines or facilities were to incur significant downtime, our ability to meet our production targets and satisfy customer demand could be impaired, resulting in lower sales and income. Although some risks are not insurable and some coverage is limited, we purchase insurance on our manufacturing facilities for damages and business interruption losses resulting from events such as fires, floods, windstorms, earthquakes and catastrophic equipment failure. For example, our Ola, Arkansas sawmill was damaged by fire in June 2021, and we had adequate property and business interruption insurance, subject to a $2.0 million deductible, to cover this event. However, such insurance may not be sufficient or may be cost prohibitive to obtain to cover all our damages and losses in the future.

We have a qualified defined benefit pension plan covering certain of our current and former employees which, at December 31, 2023, was 88.4% funded. Future actions involving our qualified and unqualified defined benefit and other postretirement plans, such as annuity buyouts and lump-sum payouts could cause us to incur significant pension and postretirement settlement and curtailment charges and may require cash contributions to maintain a legally required funded status. The measurement of the pension benefit obligation, determination of pension plan net periodic costs and the requirements for funding our pension plans are based on a number of actuarial assumptions, including the expected rate of return on plan assets and the discount rate applied to the pension obligation. Changes in plan asset returns and long-term interest rates could increase our costs under our defined benefit pension plans and may significantly affect future contribution requirements. It is unknown what the actual investment return on our pension assets will be in future years and what interest rates may be at any given point in time. We cannot therefore provide any assurance of what our actual pension plan costs will be in the future, or if we will be required under applicable law to make future material plan contributions. For additional information regarding this matter, see Note 15: Savings Plans, Pension Plans and Other Postretirement Employee Benefits in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.

Climate change represents an urgent global challenge that has the potential to cause significant disruptions to our business and results of operations, cash flows and profitability. We are committed to do our part to mitigate climate change, and we believe that working forests are part of the solution. Scientific research indicates that emissions of greenhouse gases continue to alter the composition of the global atmosphere in ways that are affecting and are expected to continue affecting the global climate. Over the past several years, changing weather patterns and climatic conditions due to natural and man-made causes have added to the unpredictability and frequency of natural disasters, such as wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, hailstorms, snow and ice storms, the spread of disease, and insect infestations. Global temperature increases can result in significant regional differences in weather patterns that affect tree growth. Further, changes in precipitation resulting in droughts have made and could in the future make wildfires more frequent or more severe. Any of these natural disasters could affect our timberlands, timber growth rates, productivity of our timberlands, or our harvest operations or cause variations in the cost and supply of raw materials. Additionally, the need to rebuild or the desire to move away from certain areas following a natural disaster could affect the housing market, which may or may not be in the markets where we sell our wood products. We anticipate increases in legal and reporting requirements at the state, federal and international level regarding climate change and energy access, security and competitiveness to address emission of carbon dioxide, renewable energy and fuel standards, and the monetization of carbon capture, storage and sequestration. In addition, new disclosure requirements related to GHG emissions and climate change, including the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, any final rules approved by the SEC, and state laws requiring climate disclosure, may negatively impact our business by diverting resources, increasing our compliance costs and harming our reputation. For example, in September 2023, California passed the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act, requiring increased climate-related reporting by companies to which these laws apply. New, or changes in, environmental safety laws, regulations or rules could also lead to increased costs of compliance, including remediation of any discovered issues, and changes to our operations, which may be significant. Any failures to comply could result in significant expenses, delays, or fines. Future laws and regulations could also limit harvest levels for commercial timberland operators, which could in turn adversely affect our timberland operations as well as potentially lead to significant increases in capital investments and the cost of energy, wood fiber and other raw materials for our Wood Products facilities. Any one or more of these developments, as well as other unforeseeable governmental responses to climate change, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, cash flows and profitability. Likewise, while we undertake continuous improvements to our manufacturing facilities to meet or exceed future applicable legal requirements, there can be no assurance that our commitments will be successful, that regulation in the future will not have a negative competitive impact or that economic returns will reflect our capital investments. Failure to successfully manage new or pending regulatory and legal matters and resolve such matters without significant liability or damage to our reputation may materially adversely impact our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Legal Matters