Region Archives: United States

A destructive insect capable of devastating timber harvests is at “epidemic” level in Alabama, with the state’s forest management agency saying the problem is the worst it’s been in more than 20 years. The Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) has issued an alert about the Southern pine beetle. The AFC said it has identified almost 5,000 trouble spots, with an average of 191 trees killed at each spot. “Unfortunately, this is the highest number of beetle spots we’ve experienced in the state in the last 23 years, State Forester Rick Oates said. “The agency has conducted aerial surveys in 51 counties so far, with more counties anticipated over the next couple weeks. Both Mississippi and Georgia are also counting numerous spots. So, it looks as if this is an especially active pine beetle year not just here in Alabama, but across the Southeast.”

Charles Tarver

Western North Carolina — The U.S. Forest Service’s Brushy Mountain logging project is cutting down a rare old growth forest near Highlands. The logging is demolishing the habitats of rare green salamanders and endangered bats. It is also introducing harmful exotic species and creating sources of erosion and sedimentation into beloved brook trout streams. And it is ignoring overwhelming public opposition to this project on public lands. The Forest Service’s decision to log this old growth forest also defies science and common sense. The stated purpose of the Brushy Mountain Timber Sale is to establish a wildlife opening in the forest. Multiple alternative sites nearby could provide the same wildlife opening benefits and entirely avoid destroying a unique old growth forest… Sadly, the Forest Service’s new proposed National Old Growth Amendment will allow even more old growth logging projects like Brushy Mountain, because of loopholes in the amendment that allow continued liquidation of old growth.

Ethan Tapper is a wild man on stage. The leader of the 10-member Burlington punk band The Bubs screams into the microphone and plays furiously on electric guitar while his band mates cavort happily around him in front of delirious crowds of hundreds of music fans. The chaos of the stage contrasts starkly with Tapper’s other life. The former Chittenden County forester left that post in June to focus on Bear Island, the 175-acre forest he manages in Bolton. …Tapper spends much of his time communing with trees and the serene life that thrives around them. Every now and then, Tapper’s dichotomous worlds collide. The Bubs release a new album, “Make a Mess” with a concert on Aug. 23 in Winooski. Less than three weeks later, Tapper launches his first book, a treatise on tough TLC for trees titled “How to Love a Forest,” on Sept. 10 at Burlington City Hall.

Greenville, S.C. —A new conservation easement on the Gillette tract will protect 2,100 feet of the Nottoway River frontage in southeastern Virginia, supported by a grant from the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund (EFCF). Managed by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), this easement will preserve water quality, scenic beauty, and wildlife habitats, and reinforce protection for the river and its tributaries. The Nottoway River, a Scenic River and Blueway Trail flowing into the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound Estuary, will benefit from this effort, ensuring its ecological and scenic value for future generations. Brandi Colander, Chief Sustainability Officer at Enviva, said, “We are delighted to be a part of this significant milestone for environmental preservation and to assist with the conservation of another important easement along the Nottoway River.” Eligible for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the easement supports the river’s exceptional attributes and safeguards its environment.

An invasive insect with an insatiable appetite can cause serious problems for a favorite native moth that likes the same food source—even though the two are never in direct competition for a meal, according to new research, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, from University of Wisconsin–Madison ecologists. Since the early 2000s, spongy moth caterpillars, an import from Europe, have flexed their gustatory muscle in Wisconsin by stripping entire stands of trees of their leaves during late spring and early summer in remarkably destructive feeding binges. …Because the spongy moth caterpillar ends its leaf-eating spree relatively early in the aspen tree’s growing season, the defoliated trees produce a second flush of leaves to capture enough energy to survive (if not necessarily thrive) through the winter and into the next growth year. … “By mid-summer, they produced an entirely new set of leaves that had, on average, an eight-times higher concentration of defense chemicals.”

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The benefit of Michigan’s 20 million acres of forests can be seen through a variety of lenses. Michigan forests play a key role in offsetting greenhouse gas emissions through carbon storage, provide wildlife habitats and increase biodiversity, offer ample recreational opportunities to the state’s population and visitors, and supply timber resources and other forestry products — which contributed to over $26 billion to Michigan’s economy in 2022… Research from a team of Michigan State University scientists shows there’s another benefit people derive from forests, but they might not recognize it: filtering and supplying clean drinking water. …“Generally speaking, most people understood that where there are forests, there’s cleaner and more abundant water,” Emily Huff, an associate professor in the Department of Forestry said. “However, they didn’t make the functional link that conserving forests results in cleaner drinking water.”