Region Archives: US East

Pat Strauch

Ken Laustsen

Mike Dann

The School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine will present Patrick “Pat” Strauch, Ken Laustsen and Mike Dann with Distinguished Alumni Awards in Nutting Hall on Oct. 14 …The award recognizes graduates of the school’s programs who have made significant contributions to the forest resource professions and society. Typically, one alum is recognized each year, but public presentations of the award were canceled in 2020 and 2021. Strauch ’81, ’90G, the 2022 honoree, is currently the executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, where he leads a diverse membership involving all aspects of the industry. …Laustsen ’74, the 2021 honoree, worked as Maine’s Forest Biometrician for the Maine Forest Service for more than 20 years until he retired in 2021. …Dann ’68, the 2020 honoree, has represented the forestry profession on numerous advisory boards, including the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, the Maine Forest Service, the Maine Forest Products Council and the Forest Resources Association. 

David Vail

Jym St. Pierre

Two decades ago, Henry David Thoreau’s iconic Maine woods were in trouble. Are Maine’s forests and forest economy on a more sustainable path today? This look-back is our first take at an answer. In 2001 we highlighted three major threats: Massive land sales and speculative real estate development, unsustainable timber harvesting, and loss of backcountry wildness. A landscape scale overview shows progress toward sustainability, but also reveals deficiencies and emerging challenges. After the sale of millions of acres, forest industry land divestment is largely complete, though today the share of foreign-owned land in Maine’s northern counties is the highest in the U.S. …In the late 20th century, large areas were clearcut in response to a massive spruce budworm outbreak. In 2019, less than 7 percent of logged acres were clearcut, commercially important spruce-fir stands are rebounding and 10 million acres have been green certified. …There has been progress on forest conservation. 

Asa Hutchinson

MONTICELLO — What was promoted as a ribbon cutting for the new Arkansas Center for Forest Business was actually a log breaking outside the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s Chamberlin Forest Resource complex. Gov. Asa Hutchinson broke off an end of a round log that revealed a large sticker for the new center during a dedication ceremony Thursday morning. The center is part of UAM’s College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources — the only forestry school in the state — and was created by the state legislature last year, with $841,000 in state funding going toward the center July 1. “The governor and the state legislature have provided us funding, so we will be hiring additional people — technical experts in forest business to promote the growth of the forest industry in the state of Arkansas, and do it in a sustainable manner,” said Matthew Pelkki, UAM’s forestry chair.

The Alabama Forestry Commission says wildfire risks are higher starting today because of winds expected from Hurricane Ian and urges caution in any outdoor burning. “Alabama will be seeing lower than normal relative humidity and stronger winds across the state, meaning conditions are favorable for wildfires to start easily, spread rapidly and be difficult to control,” forestry said in a statement. “Because Alabama is already experiencing dry conditions heading into the event, this critical weather behavior will elevate fire danger for the state.” Hurricane Ian, now a Category 4, is expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast later today. Alabama is on the “dry side” of Ian’s expected path and gray skies, but no rain, are expected for much of the state through the weekend.

When the state held the first modern moose hunt in 1980, it was common to see the huge animals in northern and western Maine. Expansive clearcuts — created by the forestry industry to eradicate trees infected by the spruce budworm infestation — enabled hunters to observe moose from long distances. …More than four decades later, moose can be difficult to spot. As a result, moose hunters must be willing to adapt their tactics by taking into account changes to moose habitat and weather to improve their chances of harvesting an animal. Maine still is home to an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 moose. …The changes in moose habitat began in 1989 when harvest limitations were placed on commercial logging operations under the Maine Forestry Practices Act. It reduced the size and scope of cutting, prohibited clearcuts of more than 20 acres.

Hurricane Ian is slated to build significant momentum in the coming days as it crosses the western side of Cuba and barrels towards the west coast of Florida. By mid-week, Ian will likely become a Category 4 hurricane packing sustained winds between 130 and 156 mph, which are capable of causing catastrophic damage in combination with flooding rains and storm surge. The silver lining is that Ian is forecast to lose strength quickly before approaching the Florida panhandle as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane. While diminished, a storm of this strength can still cause widespread devastation not only to coastal communities, but also to valuable timberland holdings across the region. This particular wood basin has experienced a great deal of supply- and demand-side pressures over the last five years, and Ian could further impact those challenges in the near term.

NORTH CAROLINA — In 2015, Apple teamed up with an environment group to buy 3,600 acres of forestland bordering the Green Swamp in Brunswick County, NC. The purchase, funded by Apple, was the smaller component in a deal that also included the group buying 32,000 acres of forest in Maine. Apple said the purchase was part of its broader environmental push to assist in maintaining the nation’s working forests while managing them in a sustainable way. The goal was to keep the forests in production, using the timber as packaging…, with a long-term plan of rehabilitating the pocosin forest and eventually turning it over to a third party for management. …The “Brunswick Forest,” is being managed under the “Sustainable Forestry Initiative.” That work has included planting 185,000 trees across 300 acres, including Atlantic white cedar that provides a home for the rare Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly.

University of North Carolina Wilmington’s efforts to sustainably manage and preserve its natural areas and to replace lost trees due to storms and construction have earned UNCW the Arbor Day Foundation’s “Tree Campus Higher Education University” certification. “UNCW actively maintains our natural areas for the benefit of our students, faculty and staff as well as the community,” said Roger Shew, senior lecturer in Earth and Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences, who applied for the designation on behalf of the UNCW Sustainability Program. “The natural areas serve as outdoor classrooms for students and educators, recreational areas for walkers and bikers, and habitats for wildlife.” …The Tree Campus Higher Education program “celebrates the unique role that anchor institutions play within their community forest,” according to the foundation. UNCW is one of 27 institutions to join the program in the past year; overall, more than 400 universities nationwide are participants.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University has received $12 million of a $35 million project led by the American Forest Foundation and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities to help family forest owners practice climate-smart forestry in Indiana and eight other states throughout the eastern half of the U.S. The project’s other partners are The Nature Conservancy, the Center for Heirs Property Preservation, and Women Owning Woodlands. The project could sequester an estimated 4.9 million tons of atmospheric carbon—a greenhouse gas that affects climate—over a 20-30-year period. “Our digital forestry group has been working on various tools and thinking about how to apply these tools to real-life problems,” said Songlin Fei, who directs Purdue’s Integrated Digital Forestry Initiative. “This is an opportunity to apply our expertise to solving part of the climate-change puzzle.”

NEWRY – The Maine Forest Products Council awarded A&A Brochu Logging with the organization’s Outstanding Logger Award at its 62nd Annual Meeting on Sept. 19. The award, presented by MFPC Board Member Chris Fife, recognized the company for exemplary on-the-ground performance while conducting early commercial thinning, its commitment to the well-being of its employees, the community and Maine’s logging profession. …A&A Brochu has nine crews cutting for landowners across Maine. A&A Brochu trucking has grown to over 60 trucks with 25 dedicated to hauling logs to mills in Maine. “For their professionalism, safety and important contributions to the Maine forest products industry, it was my pleasure to present the Maine Forest Products Council’s 2022 Outstanding Logger of the Year Award to A&A Brochu Logging,” said Board Member Chris Fife.

The logging industry plays a critical role in the Northwoods economy, and a new bipartisan bill in Washington would recognize October 12 as National Loggers Day. The goal of the resolution, introduced by Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Republican Susan Collins of Maine, is to highlight the many contributions and economic benefits of the logging industry in the country. Baldwin said in announcing the resolution, “I’m proud to…spotlight the importance of logging businesses and workers who keep our forests healthy and support our Made in America forest products supply chain.” She added, “Wisconsin’s logging economy provides good-paying jobs and revenue for rural communities and the National Park System. Healthy forest management also provides public recreational opportunities that make the Wisconsin way of life a national treasure.” …This resolution is supported by the American Loggers Council and Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association.

Harvard Forest scientists study tree rings to track extreme climate events —which are growing more common — over centuries. Four teams of researchers, led by Harvard Forest ecologists, searched for a patch of ancient trees deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania this summer as part of a project to study how climate changes affected trees over the centuries.  The project goal is to find and core the oldest trees in the Northeast. Studying the color and size of their rings offers scientists a glimpse into the past, allowing them to see how trees and forests responded to extreme climate events, like droughts or late-spring frosts in the past. …They presented evidence that droughts and harsh spring frosts from 250 years ago affected different forests across hundreds of miles in the Southeast. The disturbances abruptly killed some trees but accelerated the growth of others.

Greenville, SC and Bethesda, MD – The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund (the Fund) today announced the recipients of its 2022 grants. The projects funded this year will help conserve more than 3,000 acres and protect ecologically sensitive bottomland hardwood forests in the Virginia-North Carolina coastal plains. Including those announced today, the Fund has awarded 29 projects totaling more than $3,100,000 in grants over the past seven years. An estimated 33,000 acres will be protected when these projects reach completion. The forests conserved as a part of the Fund help clean drinking water, purify the air, buffer structures from storms, and provide habitat for many species of wildlife, while at the same time, providing jobs and economic opportunity for rural families and private landowners.

The lawns are dead. Trees that should be green have turned brittle and brown. And highway signs caution drivers not to flick cigarettes out the window. These conditions have become the norm of summer and its high fire risk in the western US. But this is not California. This is New Jersey.  Data from the U.S. Drought Monitor show that roughly two-thirds of the United States is facing unusually dry conditions ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought. …With climate change, the destruction is in the details. The Northeast is now primed for more frequent droughts that will harm agriculture, intermittently reduce drinking-water supplies, and increase wildfire risk. The East will not emerge unscathed from the infernos that are quickly becoming a hallmark of western summers. …Because of climate change, small risks will become larger risks. And somehow, we’re going to have to prepare for them all.

Environmentalists warn that hundreds of thousands of acres of forest are being torn down each year in the U.S. southeast to make wood pellets to fuel European power plants in a deluded bid to fight climate change. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and other groups say logging in woodlands stretching from Texas to Virginia is ravaging a biodiversity hotspot, including century-old hardwood trees that will take decades to replace. More than two dozen pellet mills operate across the so-called North American Coastal Plain, which has already lost some 70 percent of its historic vegetation thanks in part to a $11 billion global industry that is set to grow to $20.5 billion by 2030. The European Union this week voted to phase out the multibillion dollar subsidies that make wood pellet fuels economically viable, but environmentalists say it is too little, too late.

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s College of Forest Resources is partnering with the Mississippi Forestry Association to create the George M. Hopper CFR/MFA Student Development Endowment Fund in honor of the retired dean. The Mississippi Forestry Foundation is a nonprofit organization started by the MFA, which aims to promote and execute programs in the state to advance forestry and natural resources. The organization recently presented a check for $50,000 to create the George M. Hopper CFR/MFA Student Development Endowment Fund. …Hopper, the longest serving dean in the college’s nearly 70-year history, made student success a cornerstone of his tenure. While his leadership resulted in accomplishments across all aspects of the university’s land-grant mission, he made it clear that students always came first. During his time as dean and director of MSU’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center, he saw student enrollment double, along with a 75% increase in degrees awarded and a 20% increase in scholarship funding.