Region Archives: US East

WLY, Minnesota – Dry, tall grass crunches underneath the boots of more than a dozen students, who are dressed in firefighting gear. The Wildland Fire Control and Management class at Minnesota North College’s Vermilion campus is setting fire to a five-acre field outside of Ely. It’s the second prescribed burn the class has performed this spring. …While dry conditions and dead, diseased trees are putting some of the state’s most treasured lands at risk, officials say a nationwide shortage of wildland firefighters could mean fewer resources dedicated to Minnesota to put them out. …The Forest Service acknowledges it’s struggling to hire firefighters all over the country. In early April, the agency said it had only signed on 76% of its total goal of crews for the summer.

KENTUCKY—After decades of challenging fire seasons, the Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky is beginning to see a decline wildfire incidents. This can be attributed to the Daniel Boone National Forest Law Enforcement and Investigations team’s proactive, interagency approach to reducing human-caused wildfire. Over 98% of wildfires in Kentucky are human-caused and nearly 60% can be directly attributed to arson. …In 2016, the forest law enforcement team began conducting interagency fire investigation training with the Kentucky Division of Forestry and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources resulting in a skilled law enforcement team. …Eight years later, Daniel Boone National Forest law enforcement officers serve as trusted resources for incident reports and are supported in their wildfire investigations in communities where they were previously opposed. As communities engage with law enforcement … human-caused wildfires continue to decline, are being successfully prosecuted in court and restitution funds are returning to impacted areas.  

CRAWFORD COUNTY, Michigan — In March, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said Norman Kasubowski ran two timber harvesting companies. Kasubowski was charged with embezzlement for intentionally underreporting harvests and lying to land owners to avoid paying them what their timber was worth. …It’s been almost a decade since Kasubowski came to Edith Nelson’s property. They had an agreement to do a select cut of the 160 acres. In 2017, Kasubowski started harvesting timber and told her some of the costs were more than he expected. So they agreed to a trade: he could harvest some cedar trees to cover the extra costs. Edith said he took the cedars and the other trees behind. When Kasubowski didn’t pay Edith what she was really owed or remove the trees, she and others took legal action. After an investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, Kasubowski took a plea deal for embezzlement.

The Agency of Natural Resources Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) announced that Thomson Timber Harvesting and Trucking was fined $32,550 for violating the Vermont Wetland Rules and failing to follow Acceptable Management Practices (AMPs) for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont. …AMPs for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont are designed to protect water quality and ensure that loggers are in compliance. …Agency staff observed several discharges caused by the failure to properly install stream crossings, construct waterbars, smooth ruts, and seed and mulch exposed soils. Agency staff also observed alterations to wetland and vernal pool habitat and hydrology from excessive brush and rutting. Thompson Timber completed remediation of the sites in the summer of 2021 with the help of Agency oversight.

In related coverage: Logger Matt McAllister has seen nearly everything that can go wrong.

With Hurricane Preparedness Week kicking off today, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers are preparing for hurricane season with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment that will help them determine how extensively forests are damaged during individual hurricanes. …Getting an accurate assessment for how much timber is damaged by hurricanes is essential for environmental management decisions, salvaging logging operations, tree farms’ insurance estimates and climate change studies, but so far, it’s been a vexing puzzle. …These data help them know which areas were most affected and need help immediately, as well as which would benefit from specialized action at a later time – such as where to do salvage logging operations. …Additional data are collected with ground-based lidar scanners attached to all-terrain vehicles and a backpack apparatus to make high-resolution 3D maps of the forest.

Loggers said their operating conditions have never been more difficult, with recent storms, heavy rain and mild conditions over the last 18 months. A recent survey found that 50 Maine harvesters and haulers lost at least $2.6 million in income from the Dec. 18 storm. And Dana Doran, director of Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, said most Maine loggers worked just four weeks this winter. “Most of them had to shut down by the last week of February for the winter, so it’s just been a rollercoaster of a ride for all of them, starting with that Dec. 18 storm, but really going back to the winter of 2022-2023, because we never had frozen ground then, either,” he said. Doran compared the last 18 months to mud season, where the ground was too soft and saturated, and loggers couldn’t access the land they needed to harvest. When snow did fall this winter, it melted quickly.

Exhibit space sales for the 38th Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Exposition (Forest Products EXPO 2025), presented by the Southern Forest Products Association, are scheduled to open Tuesday, May 14. The three-day biennial tradeshow, to be held August 6-8, 2025, will return to the Music City Center in Nashville and provide attendees with solutions for nearly every stage of manufacturing. Sponsored and conducted by SFPA every two years since 1950, EXPO includes many of the biggest names in the forestry industry. Exhibitors display everything from sawmill machinery to materials handling equipment, attracting key representatives from the nation’s largest wood and wood products manufacturers. From raw material handling to crane operations; metal detection and scanning technologies; log optimization, drying, grading, sorting, packaging, and distribution, customers new and old will be waiting to explore these solutions with you face to face.

Wisconsin — The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has detected the presence of emerald ash borer (EAB) for the first time in Washburn and Taylor counties. Burnett is now the only county without a detection since EAB was first discovered in Wisconsin in 2008. DNR staff members collected larvae samples in the town of Springbrook and the city of Medford. A USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service identifier confirmed these larvae as EAB. The detections will not result in regulatory changes because EAB was federally deregulated on Jan. 14, 2021, and Wisconsin rescinded its statewide quarantine effective July 1, 2023. EAB will continue to spread in northern Wisconsin, significantly impacting the state’s ash resource. This is a good time to review the DNR’s updated EAB webpage for information and resources on this invasive species and the EAB Silviculture Guidelines to understand ash management options.

NORTH CAROLINA — Conservation groups argue flaws in the 2023 Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan will put endangered forest bats at risk, according to a recent lawsuit filed against the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests in western North Carolina provide habitat for four critically endangered bats: the northern long-eared bat, the Indiana bat, the Virginia big-eared bat, and the gray bat. The lawsuit argues that the Forest Service consulted with Fish and Wildlife Services because these bats were likely to be impacted by the Forest Plan. But that consultation was flawed and in violation of the Endangered Species Act. “The Act required the best scientific data available to inform the consultation. Instead, the Forest Service gave information it knew was inaccurate and incomplete,” according to the lawsuit. …The Forest Service now faces three lawsuits related to the Forest Plan.

Longleaf pine conservation is considered a key part of climate resilience for Florida and the Southeast. But when it comes to climate change, longleaf pines are not out of the woods. …The longleaf is an emblem of the Southeast, historically spanning close to 92 million acres from Virginia down through north and central Florida and eastern Texas. …But the legacy of the longleaf pine is also one of mutilation and mismanagement, as loggers axed millions of acres of trees to build the nation’s buildings, boats and bridges in the nineteenth century. Today, less than five percent of their original acreage remains. …Still, the biggest threat to the longleaf pine is dwindling opportunities for prescribed fire. …The longleaf pine is a tree built for and by fire. …Despite the odds, the future of the longleaf pine is a hopeful one — at least according to Steve Jack, executive director of east Texas’ Boggy Slough Conservation Area.

ESCANABA, Michigan — In recent years, the number of sawmills and pulp and paper mills in the United States has been rapidly diminishing. Shutdowns have hurt not only domestic loggers who provide timber for production, but also workers in other fields connected by the ripple effect — like packaging manufacturing and printing — when their employers have gone out of business or been forced to make cutbacks. …“When one mill closes, whether it’s in Wisconsin or Michigan or whatever, people think, ‘well, that’s terrible for that community, but at least it’s an isolated event,’” said American Loggers Council Executive Director Scott Dane. Except that it isn’t. Speaking at the recent Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association meeting, Dane continued to say that mills have been shutting down around the nation and that “we are experiencing challenges that we haven’t experienced in decades.”

Collaboration is critical to ensure the sustainability of our planet. People and organizations are seeking solutions that ensure our forests, through responsible management, make positive contributions to the long-term health of people and the planet. The 2024 Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Annual Conference, taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 4-7, embraces this potential under the theme “Forests for the Future: Nature and Community Grown Solutions.” Join us in celebrating how far we’ve come in promoting sustainable forestry while setting a vision for creating an even better tomorrow through proactive forest stewardship today. From forestry professionals and government policymakers to Indigenous communities, conservationists, and researchers, everyone has a role to play in the future of our forests. …The agenda aligns with the top priorities of state forestry agencies, such as climate resiliency, biodiversity conservation, community engagement, and more.

If you know of a particularly large tree, it might be notable statewide. The Maine Forest Service keeps a registry of champion large trees across the state, and accepts resident nominations. The program was started in 1967 under then-state forester Austin Wilkins and currently lists more than 140 trees across 138 species. Every few years, an updated publication lists all the registry’s trees; the most recent is from 2020 and a new version should be released later this year. The registry is also an opportunity for public involvement and connection to trees, coordinator Jan Ames Santerre said. “Trees just capture people’s imagination when they attain large size,” she said. Pine, spruce, walnut, maple, oak, elm, birch and other large trees are well-represented, but the program also includes some plants that most often grow as shrubs, like shadbush and juniper.

Throughout the Southeast, foresters and activists are coming together to restore America’s longleaf pine forests. The Nature Conservancy reports that longleaf pines once dominated the coastal plain, covering more than 90 million acres. Now there are just 5.2 million acres. In Mississippi, more than two million longleaf pine seedlings have been planted in the past several years, according to the Natural Forest Foundation. This state-wide replanting has restored about 4,000 acres of natural habitat, stretching across the DeSoto, Bienville and Homochitto National Forests. Greene County timber company owner Dillon McInnis is part of the movement to restore the longleaf species to Mississippi’s landscape.

A management project in Hoosier National Forest is moving forward after forestry officials found the proposed logging and controlled burns would have no significant impact on Lake Monroe, a drinking water source for more than 145,000 people. The U.S. Forestry Service’s Houston South management plan would allow about 4,300 acres of pine and hardwood trees to be harvested, as well as a prescribed fire regimen on 13,500 acres over about a decade, a move that some fear will cause sediment to move into the lake. Chris Thornton, district ranger of the Hoosier National Forest, said the Houston South plan would take measures to stop soil erosion from reaching the watershed. …The USFS says the management plan will revitalize forest health by reducing stressors. …The Indiana Forest Alliance, Monroe County Board of Commissioners, Hoosier Environmental Council and Friends of Lake Monroe filed a lawsuit in January 2023 claiming the project would degrade Lake Monroe’s water quality.

RALEIGH – The North Carolina Forestry Association (NCFA) has teamed up with the North Carolina Future Farmers of America Association (NC FFA) to create North Carolina’s first-ever high school forestry course with an industry-aligned credential: AN53 Natural Resources II-Forestry. Both organizations have collaborated with ForestryWorks to create the course, which will be implemented in high schools for the 2024-2025 school year. In North Carolina, there is a steady need for skilled forestry professionals due to ongoing forest management needs, forest products manufacturing, and conservation efforts. However, recent statistics show us that the overall forest workforce in the U.S. is aging, with 59% of the total forestry and logging labor force between the ages of 35-64 and only 12% between the ages of 16-24

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn today announced the start of aerial spraying of state woodlands to combat spongy moth (Lymantria dispar dispar, formerly known as the gypsy moth) populations poised for spring outbreaks in many sections of Pennsylvania. “Suppression efforts are underway as the caterpillars emerged and begun feeding,” Dunn said. “Aerial suppression is needed to keep this invasive pest in check and protect our native forests from defoliation, with oaks being one of its favorite host. Keeping our forests healthy is of paramount importance, to protect all of the values our forests provide, including recreation, habitat, timber, clean air and clean water.” …In addition to DCNR’s spray program, the Pennsylvania Game Commission will also be conducting an aerial spray program in 2024 on approximately 124,000 acres of State Game Lands.