Region Archives: US East

NEW YORK — LILYSILK, the world’s leading silk brand with a mission to inspire people to live spectacular, sustainable lives, is proud to announce its Thanksgiving Tree Planting Initiative, an endeavor aimed at showing gratitude to our planet. In collaboration with leading reforestation non-profit One Tree Planted, LILYSILK will plant 20,000 trees across regions worldwide heavily impacted by deforestation and wildfires. This initiative follows LILYSILK’s successful reforestation project in Pontal do Paranapanema, São Paulo State, Brazil, where earlier this year, 500 hectares of land were rejuvenated through the planting of 15,000 trees. This year alone, LILYSILK has planted 35,000 trees, benefiting the environment and local communities worldwide.

In some of the starkest language they’ve used since the deadly 2016 wildfire season, Southern Area Coordination Center officials are warning East Tennessee and Western North Carolina counties about the extreme fire risk this week. The ongoing drought combined with high winds could spell disaster but rain has come as predicted and that’s making a difference. Counties all along the Tennessee-North Carolina state line continue to be under a red flag warning until noon Nov. 21, meaning the region has an increased risk of fire danger. A high wind warning is in effect until 4 p.m. Still, in addition to ongoing burn bans, officials are warning residents and visitors to stay alert and be prepared to move quickly if a fire starts up. The Southern Area Coordination Center listed the Tennessee mountains as having “significant fire potential” with gusts predicted to blow up to 90 mph.

GREENVILLE, S.C – The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announces a Request for Proposals for a new Impact Investing Program, which is intentionally aimed at generating positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The program will focus on two areas: Community Revitalization: Investments in forest industry-related activities that contribute to the revitalization of forest-reliant communities, particularly in disadvantaged areas; and Forest Revitalization: Forest thinning and reforestation activities that contribute to the health and resilience of America’s forest assets. The program seeks to deploy up to $5 million in 2024 through impact investments in companies, funds, or projects that advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable benefits for the health and vitality of our nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities. “Our Impact Investing Program will allow the Endowment to do more for America’s working forests while also growing our financial resources,” said Pete Madden, the Endowment’s President, and CEO.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania — A research team led by a Penn State ecologist has received a $1 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to integrate satellite data into predictive modeling to anticipate change in recruitment, the process by which new trees emerge, within forests across the eastern United States. In partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Bureau of Forests, the researchers will use information generated by NASA Earth-monitoring satellites to help the bureau make decisions related to seeding and planting, coping with the migration of tree species, and habitat and wildlife management. Tong Qiu, assistant professor in the Penn State Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, will lead the project. …“This information will provide a cost-effective way for DCNR foresters to plant seedlings or saplings of selective species in areas where natural regeneration is limited,” he said. 

BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA — The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention (SFLR) Network recently hosted its 10th Anniversary SFLR Landowners’ Conference in Brunswick, Georgia, said Kandi Williams, SFLR program coordinator for the University of Arkansas. …”The conference highlighted some of the remarkable accomplishments of the network, which is comprised of eight Black-led organizations that work with African American forest owners,” Williams said. “As part of the celebration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that through the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service will invest $150 million to assist underserved forest landowners participating in emerging voluntary climate markets. “These markets have the potential to provide significant economic opportunities to improve forest health,” Williams said.

Anne Gobi

SHELBURNE — With many multi-generational family farms harvesting timber but only 2% of the wood harvested being used in the local economy, Massachusetts has a long way to go to bolster the timber industry, according to local business representatives and state officials. The topic of how the state can help the local timber industry arose this week during the Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts’ board meeting. The conversation focused on the many ways Massachusetts regulations negatively impact the local industry and instead prompt harvesters to send the timber to Canada for processing. …Jay Healy, of Hall Tavern Farm in Charlemont, said much of the timber gets sent Canada for processing because there is more infrastructure for the industry. He said there are more incentives in Canada for timber companies, which leaves Massachusetts unable to compete on a larger scale. 

LANSING — An invasive insect increasingly threatens one of the most important trees in Michigan and elsewhere in the Great Lakes region for storing the carbon that causes global warming. Researchers have found that eastern hemlocks felled by the invasive woolly adelgid could emit 4.5 tons of carbon across almost two and a half football fields. …Eastern hemlocks take between 250 and 300 years to reach maturity, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. They thrive in the shade and live for 800 years or more, which is why the insect infestation is worrisome. Once the hemlock woolly adelgid kills an eastern hemlock, the tree no longer removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, said Peter Quinby, the founding executive director of Ancient Forest Exploration and Research. As a tree decomposes, the dead wood releases that carbon back into the atmosphere.

Nate Nibbelink

Nate Nibbelink, associate dean for research and professor in the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, has been named interim dean of the school, effective Jan. 1, 2024. “Dr. Nibbelink has built an impressive record of teaching, research and service during his tenure of more than 18 years in Warnell,” said S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “During the ongoing national search for the Warnell School’s next dean, I am confident that he will provide excellent leadership for the school and support for faculty, staff and students as interim dean.” Nibbelink’s research focuses on creating spatial analysis tools to support natural resource management decision-making.

A dozen skilled loggers are about to join Maine’s half-billion-dollar logging industry after graduating from a five-month training program. As in the program’s previous years, the majority of students have jobs waiting, since demand for both drivers and logging operators continues to exceed supply. In the Northeast, logging provides rural jobs and revenue for local and state governments as well as state and national forests. … “Our intent with this program is to combine generational wisdom,” Will Cole, president of the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, told graduates at the ceremony. …The program was launched in 2017 by three Maine community colleges, Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (which recently changed its name to Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast) and industry partners. …demand for additional logging and forest trucking operators in Maine is projected to remain high for the foreseeable future.

Alabama’s forest products industry is growing. Our state boasts more than 23 million acres of forests, which enables Alabamians to produce $12.5 billion in forest products every year. That makes forest products manufacturing one of the top industries in our state. …While pulp and paper, lumber, and other solid wood products have been a mainstay for decades, a newer industry is opening up markets for Alabama’s timber industry— sustainably sourced wood pellets… used as a source of biomass energy, with applications in both residential heating, industrial processes, and even electric generation. …Crowded timber stands can stress trees and promote disease and pest infestations, including attacks from the southern pine beetle, which can ravage pine stands. By providing additional markets, the wood pellet industry enables loggers to thin out some of these crowded timber stands that might not otherwise be harvested.

Jonathan Myers

ST. LOUIS — A large study involving 43 research plots in the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) Network — including a swath of trees at Tyson Research Center has helped clarify the power of underground fungi to shape forests. From the tropics to the far north, fungi in the soil seem to directly determine the number and types of trees that can thrive in a given area, said Jonathan Myers, an associate professor of biology. The study was published in Communications Biology. Many trees depend on a special partnership with mycorrhizal fungi that grow around their roots. The fungi provide the tree with nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients, and the tree gives the fungi carbon in the form of sugar and lipids for energy. “It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement,” Myers said. The results from this study suggest that fungi are more than casual acquaintances with their tree companions: the fungi drive diversity — or lack thereof.

…Before I retired from teaching, I had to take continuing education courses to maintain my teaching license. The best course I ever took required a Sunday-Friday stay at a Vermont Fish & Wildlife camp …As a group teachers tend to lean left politically, so the first few days of the course most of my colleagues complained about the mantra. By the end of the week, they were repeating it. They understood the price of not logging is a lack of forest diversity that leads to a lack of wildlife diversity. I always thought it ironic that such a progressive collection of people who championed diversity in their classrooms and in society had been so opposed to the same concept in our forests. …Unless you want old growth forests with high canopies, very little undergrowth, and the limited variety of critters that rely on it, we need more logging in our forests.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — HudsonAlpha announced last week that it received $383,268 in funding from Gov. Kay Ivey that will go toward the institution’s Timber project. HudsonAlpha is working to incorporate genetic technology into the Alabama timber industry to provide quality control for companies growing and purchasing timber. Currently, the industry relies on trees planted 25 years ago, meaning planters won’t know with certainty that the trees have the qualities they desire until harvest. The project, short for Turning Information into Meaningful Benefits and Economic Returns, will allow the $27 billion industry to determine the exact tree specifications much earlier in their lifetime by deploying and testing a HudsonAlpha-developed sequencing and analysis tool called Khufu. …Timber will apply genetic testing to optimize pine seedlings for growth conditions and improve overall yield. Working with HudsonAlpha Wiregrass will be an extensive group of industry partners, including SmartLam North America, Great Southern Wood Preserving and Rex Lumber.