Region Archives: US East

OLD TOWN — Larry and Barbara Beauregard have been named the 2024 Outstanding Tree Farmers of the Year by the Maine Tree Farm Program. The couple has owned their 117-acre woodlot since 1981 and have been active tree farmers since 2005. …They frequently host events at Beauregard Woodlands in collaboration with the Maine Forest Service, Maine Woodland Owners, Maine Tree Farm Program, UM School of Forest Resources, Maine Audubon, and Hirundo Wildlife Refuge. …Larry Beauregard is a strong promoter of sustainable forestry practices as they apply to small woodland owners. He has done several interviews on the subject, resulting in published articles and a TV program. He has also written several newsletter articles describing his family’s woodland experiences. …With the help of their consulting forester, Dave Wardrop, the Beauregard’s have had three commercial harvests designed to improve forest health. 

Jingjing Liang

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ­— While most scientific research fields maintain open-access data policies, access to forestry data remains limited. “The utmost hurdle for the global community to conduct forestry and forest ecology studies, at a global scale especially, is lack of data. This has been a prominent problem for decades,” said Jingjing Liang, associate professor of quantitative forest ecology at Purdue University. Now, Liang and Rajesh Kalyanam, a senior research scientist at Purdue’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, have launched a project to create the world’s largest metaverse in forestry research. They will grow this metaverse from Science-i, a web-based collaborative platform Liang founded in 2016. …Political and economic factors contribute to current restrictions on forest inventory data. Forests often encompass military reservations, making them matters of national security. Many nations are reluctant to share their data because doing so could potentially affect negotiations in the international carbon market.

A survey released by the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast shows the “Grinch” storm on Dec. 18 has caused ongoing trucking and harvesting disruptions in Maine as well as large financial losses. The survey included responses from more than 50 logging and forest trucking companies ranging in size from one employee to nearly 100. Their estimated losses so far have topped $51,000 per company, with the total losses exceeding $2.6 million. The PLC says that based on a multiplier effect used in studying Maine’s logging industry, the impact of the storm on the companies has resulted in a total loss to the state’s economy of more than $5.5 million. A quarter of member logging companies in Maine responded to the survey.

The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) is beginning an innovative project in the Camel’s Hump Management Unit, as outlined in the 2021 Long-Range Management Plan. This project …is designed to demonstrate an important approach in increasing forest resilience to climate change and invasive pests. Collaborating with the University of Vermont (UVM) and the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, this project is part of a series of forest adaptation experiments being implemented across the Northeast. Tony D’Amato, Professor and Director of the Forestry Program in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at UVM, is a lead researcher on the project. “This project aims to address the dominance of poor quality American beech suffering from beech bark disease and use forest management tools such as timber harvests to allow other species to thrive,” said Oliver Pierson, FPR’s Director of Forests.

A $1 million grant aims to address “tree inequity” in Savannah while removing barriers to green careers for a dozen local residents. Through the Savannah Tree Foundation’s Canopy Corps, the funding will support three annual paid apprenticeships over a four-year period designed to introduce female and minority candidates to an urban-forestry industry now dominated by white men, said STF Executive Director Zoe Rinker. The program also will target candidates from U.S. Census tracts designated by the federal government as disadvantaged. The grant was awarded by the Georgia Forestry Commission as part of its Trees Across Georgia program, an outgrowth of funding from the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

A Tucson man was ordered to pay $180,000 to cover the costs of putting out an April 2023 wildfire on Mt. Lemmon caused when he fired a shotgun loaded with incendiary rounds at a homemade target. Michael J. Sobcynski, 64, was ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Forest Service, as well as a $330 fine, after he pleaded guilty in late December to firing incendiary ammunition and causing trees, brush and grass to burn without a permit. During a hearing last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Ambri ordered Sobcynski to pay restitution and the fine for causing the wildfire. Sobcynski will pay $200 in monthly increments for the foreseeable future. Sobcynski told Special Agent Brent Robinson with the Forest Service he “unknowingly” loaded his shotgun with incendiary rounds that he “just randomly grabbed from his ammunition stash.”.

A committee of a dozen scientists assembled by the state issued a report Wednesday on how to manage Massachusetts forests to address climate change. The commonwealth owns about 17% of the forests in the state. The report also suggested ways to incentivize private landowners to steward forests to address global warming. The report is designed to help Massachusetts meet a statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit of net zero by 2050. Net zero means the amount of carbon emissions are equal to the quantity of carbon that is removed from the atmosphere and stored every year. Forests naturally remove carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and then store it. The state also announced this week $50 million to support forest conservation. The funding is intended to help Massachusetts meet its goal of conserving 40% of natural and working lands, including property used for growing food or harvesting wood, by 2050.

The Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources’ Outreach Program recently received the 2023 Family Forest Education Comprehensive Program Award. The award is given by the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs and the National Woodland Owners Association and are presented to a comprehensive program that exhibits excellence in education programming benefiting family forest owners across the U.S. Programs nominated address critical family forest ownership issues using a wide range of educational approaches. …The Outreach Program works with more than 45 agencies and organizations annually to educate and provide valuable resources for family forest owners in Georgia and beyond.

BOSTON — As part of the Healey-Driscoll Administration’s “Forests as Climate Solutions” Initiative, today the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) released the Climate Forestry Committee’s report containing its recommendations regarding enhanced climate-oriented forest management practices for Massachusetts, based on the latest climate science. The 12-member Committee of scientific experts emphasized the importance of keeping forests intact by enlarging forest reserves, increasing permanent conservation efforts, and reducing the conversion of forests to other uses. Noting the critical role forests play in mitigating dangerous climate change, the Committee urged the state to sharpen its land management focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation. EEA is allocating $50 million to support the state’s mandated emissions reduction requirements, including conserving 40 percent of the Commonwealth’s natural and working lands by 2050. EEA will invest this funding in forest conservation and incentives that encourage municipal and private landowners to adopt climate-oriented management approaches.

Clemson University’s Office of the Provost is launching a national search for the dean of the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences. This search follows the recent announcement that the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences (CAFLS) and the University’s Division of Public Service and Agriculture (PSA) will merge into one administrative and academic unit. The integration of PSA and CAFLS will optimize the work of both areas and support the University’s strategic vision, Clemson Elevate, and its land-grant mission to provide world-class teaching, research and public service to the state. The Parker Executive Search firm is leading the confidential search process. A position description and additional details are posted on Interfolio, along with a link for internal and external candidates to apply.

RAYMOND, Miss. — Mississippi’s 2023 timber harvest is expected to set a record for the 21st century. “We are on pace to exceed 36 million tons of timber harvested, which would be the highest level we have experienced this century, surpassing the previous high set in 2005 prior to the Great Recession,” said Eric McConnell, an associate professor of forest business at Mississippi State University. The increased harvest helped Mississippi’s forestry industry remain in third place among the state’s agricultural commodities, with an estimated production value of $1.5 billion. That is a 9.6% increase from 2022. …Timber’s value of production is estimated based on monthly severance taxes collected by the Mississippi Department of Revenue. Final figures will be available in early 2024. Homebuilding drives the consumption and production of softwood lumber and is one of the main economic indicators of the forestry industry.

In a new analysis of data spanning more than three decades in the eastern US, a team of scientists found a concerning trend—an increasing number of wildfires across a large swath of America. “We have a rising incidence of wildfires across several regions of the U.S., not only in the West,” said Victoria Donovan, lead author of the study. “We’re allocating the majority of resources to fire suppression in the western part of the country, but we have evidence that other areas are going to need resources, too.” The study, “Increasing Large Wildfire in the Eastern United States,” was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Their findings indicated increasing wildfire risk across the southern and eastern portions of what’s known as the Eastern Temperate Forests, an area that roughly bisects the country from Michigan in the north to the eastern half of Texas in the south.

Tom Gerow 

The Rensselaer-based Empire State Forest Products Association announced the latest winner of it’s Neil B. Gutchess Award, which recognizes lifelong personal contributions to the forests and wood products industry in New York State. “Some notable recipients of the Gutchess Award include State Senator Betty Little and Mel Bowman of Bowman & Sons Lumber,” said Gabriella Ferrera, director of member services and communication for the association, on Wednesday. One of the latest recipients is Tom Gerow of Newfield, who recently announced his retirement after 35 years of working as a forester and mill manager for Wagner Lumber.

WEST END, North Carolina — Jesse Wimberley, 65, gathers groups across eight North Carolina counties to starve future wildfires by lighting leaf litter ablaze. …Prescribed burn associations are proving key to conservationists’ efforts to restore a longleaf pine range forming the backbone of forest ecology in the American Southeast. Volunteer teams, many working private land are filling service and knowledge gaps one blaze at a time. …The longleaf pine ecosystem spans just 3% of the 140,000 square miles (360,000 square kilometers) it encompassed before industrialization and urbanization. But some pockets remain, from Virginia to Texas to Florida.  Private landowners are central to the coalition’s latest restoration effort. They hold roughly 86% of forested land in the South, according to America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative. …As the severity and frequency of storms, droughts and wildfires increase, longleaf pines could become even more important for ecological resilience.