Region Archives: US East

Business & Politics

Maine State Forester Patty Cormier Elected President of the National Association of State Foresters

Maine Dept of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry
September 27, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Patty Cormier

AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) announced that Patty Cormier, Maine State Forester, has been elected President of the National Association of State Foresters (NASF). Cormier’s election marks a significant milestone, as she becomes the first Maine State Forester to hold this prestigious position since Austin Wilkins 59 years ago. Cormier will serve a one-year term as NASF President, continuing her long-standing commitment to sustainable forestry and forest management. …Cormier has served as Maine State Forester since 2019 and has over 20 years of experience as a Forester with the Maine Forest Service. Before working with the Maine Forest Service, she worked as a Landowner Assistance Forester for Georgia Pacific Corporation. …The NASF is a non-profit organization representing forestry agency directors from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and eight U.S. territories.

Read More

Suzano completes the acquisition of two U.S. industrial facilities from Pactiv Evergreen

Suzano
October 1, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Suzano, the world’s largest pulp producer, today completes the acquisition of two industrial assets from Pactiv Evergreen in Arkansas and North Carolina, United States. All conditions for completing the agreement announced in July have been fulfilled. The acquisition of the mills in Pine Bluff and Waynesville, that manufacture liquid packaging board and cupstock, adds approximately 420,000 metric tonnes annually of integrated paperboard to Suzano’s production capacity. The Brazilian company will now become a major supplier of papers used to produce Liquid Packaging Board in North America. …The long-term deal signed by the companies establishes that Suzano will provide liquid packaging board for Pactiv Evergreen’s converting mills in North America under a long-term commercial agreement. The transaction is valued at US$110 million, subject to customary price adjustments, and does not materially impact Suzano’s financial leverage or debt levels.

Read More

Cargo Carriers Fear Port Strike Will Paralyze Half of US Trade

By Brendan Murray
BNN Bloomberg
September 27, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

The world’s top container carrier is urging customers to move US cargo through East and Gulf Coast ports before the planned start on Tuesday of a dockworker strike. MSC Mediterranean Shipping said the talks “may not be resolved” by the Sept. 30 deadline, resulting in closures at terminals starting Oct. 1. That would delay the shipping of containers — both imports and exports — on trucks and railroads through ports from Boston to Houston. …The Geneva-based company said that it will continue to accept requests for dry cargo services while reserving the right to “not accept new refrigerated bookings.” Hapag-Lloyd cautioned that industrial action would will raise freight rates. …Oxford Economics estimated that a strike would cost the US economy $4.5 billion to $7.5 billion a week. …But the fallout of even a short strike would be costly for many retailers, manufacturers and other importers trying to ensure timely shipments.

In related coverage:

Read More

Helene lashes the South with wind and sheets of rain. Millions are without power

The Associated Press
September 27, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

CRAWFORDVILLE, Florida — Emergency crews rushed Friday to rescue people trapped in flooded homes after Helene roared ashore as a powerful Category 4 hurricane in Florida, generating a massive storm surge and knocking out power to millions of customers in several states. At least six people were reported dead. The storm made landfall late Thursday in a sparsely populated region with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph in the rural Big Bend area, home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways where Florida’s Panhandle and peninsula meet. But the damage extended hundreds of miles to the north, with flooding as far away as North Carolina. One Georgia county was almost entirely without power. …One local news station showed a home that was overturned, and many communities established curfews. …DO NOT TRY TO TREAD FLOODWATERS YOURSELF,” the sheriff’s office warned in a Facebook post. Authorities said the water could contain live wires, sewage, sharp objects and other debris.

Read More

Longshoremen from Maine to Texas appear likely to go on strike, seaport CEO says

By Russ Bynum
The Associated Press
September 24, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

SAVANNAH, Georgia — The chief executive over Georgia’s two booming seaports said Tuesday that a strike next week by dockworkers across the U.S. East and Gulf coasts appears likely, though he’s hopeful the resulting shutdown would last only a few days. …U.S. ports from Maine to Texas are preparing for a potential shutdown in a week, when the union representing 45,000 dockworkers in that region has threatened to strike starting Oct. 1. That’s when the contract expires between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports. Negotiations on a new contract halted in June. A strike would shut down 36 ports that handle roughly half the nations’ cargo from ships. …There hasn’t been a national longshoremen’s strike in the U.S. since 1977. …A prolonged strike would almost certainly hurt the U.S. economy.

In related coverage:

Read More

Drax fined for starting on Longview biomass fuel plant without proper permits

By Henry Brannan
The Columbian
September 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

PORT OF LONGVIEW, Washington — Drax Group was fined $34,000 in June for starting construction on a $250 million biomass fuel plant in Longview before securing the proper permits. The 48-acre plant is set to begin operations in late 2025. …The penalty came from the Southwest Clean Air Agency, a regional environmental regulator. It found out about the violation from a public tip that passed along a social media post showing construction at the site. …At that time, a final permit for the project had not been issued, Papish said. Instead, the project had secured only a draft permit that was in a 30-day public comment period. Inspectors also saw foundations for equipment that wasn’t on the permit application, leading the agency to withdraw the project’s draft permit. …Drax promptly halted any construction activities occurring at the facility.”

Read More

$10M Biochar plant opens in Waverly, Virginia

By Beth Jojack
Virginia Business
September 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

WAVERLY, Virginia — Restoration Bioproducts’ executives and employees gathered with state and local officials Wednesday to celebrate the opening of the company’s Sussex County biochar production facility. Through a thermal decomposition process known as pyrolysis, the facility heats waste wood to high temperatures in an environment without oxygen to transform the material into syngas — a combustible gas that can be used for fuel —  and biochar, a charcoal-like substance commonly used to improve soil health, as an animal food additive, and as an odor absorber. …Restoration Bioproducts, which has its headquarters in Lynchburg, has hired a manager and seven employees to work at the Waverly plant, which cost nearly $10 million to build. …As production ramps up, more employees will be hired. “That’ll move us up to about 15 jobs,” Raines said. 

Read More

International Paper Makes Leadership Announcement

By International Paper
PR Newswire
September 10, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Andy Silvernail

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — International Paper announced that its board of directors elected Andy Silvernail as Chairman of the International Paper Board of Directors in addition to his role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective October 1, 2024. Mark Sutton, who has continued to serve in the role of Chairman of the Board since retiring as CEO in May, will retire from the Board on September 30, 2024. International Paper Lead Director Chris Connor said, “I’d like to thank Mark for his many years of service to IP and for his leadership as Chairman and CEO. …We are pleased that Andy is taking on the role of Chairman of the Board. In just four months with IP, he is off to a terrific start and has the team aligned on implementing our strategy.”

Read More

Housing slowdown hits loggers hard

By Dee DePass
Associated Press in he Post Bulletin
September 10, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

BAUDETTE, Minn. — Like their father before them, brothers Dale and Wayne (Gib) Erickson harvest timber. The trees they cut down eventually become wood chips or crates, and their Baudette-based company has provided jobs for 20 workers. But the sagging housing market is starting to echo in the North Woods, and the Ericksons’ business is down 20 percent this year as a result. …With too much inventory sitting in stockyards, deliveries have stalled and prices have plunged. “I’d say our lumber sales are down about 20 percent,” he said. Most of Minnesota’s 300 logging firms are being hurt to some degree. …”It’s probably the worst market that we have seen for loggers for 25 or 35 years,” said Wayne Brandt, executive vice president of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association, a trade association.

Read More

Domtar Named Business Recycler Of The Year By Tennessee Recycling Coalition

The Greeneville Sun
September 1, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Troy Wilson & Jan Martin

KINGSPORT — Domtar’s Kingsport Mill has received the 2024 Business Recycler of the Year award from the Tennessee Recycling Coalition (TRC), the company announced in a news release. The recognition was announced in Gatlinburg on Aug. 23 during the organization’s annual Tennessee Sustainability Conference. Given to businesses that practice outstanding leadership in recycling and waste prevention, this year’s award honored Domtar’s Kingsport Mill for Project Smoky — the two-year conversion of the facility’s uncoated freesheet paper machine into the company’s first 100 percent-recycled containerboard facility. The mill, which resumed operations in January 2023, is home to the second-largest recycled containerboard machine in North America and is the largest recycled manufacturer in the state of Tennessee, according to the news release.

Read More

The company formerly known as Lumber Liquidators is going out of business

By Jordan Valinsky
CNN Business
September 4, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

NEW YORK — LL Flooring, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business after the bankrupt company failed to find a buyer to rescue the 30-year-old retailer. As a result, LL Flooring will liquidate. Sales at its remaining 200 stores will begin on September 6, setting in motion an “orderly wind-down of operations” that will be completed in about 12 weeks. Roughly 2,000 workers will lose their jobs. LL Flooring started out as Lumber Liquidators about three decades ago as a company that bought and sold excess inventory. The company expanded, and currently sells about 500 varieties of hard-surface floors. LL Flooring had more than 400 locations at its peak in 2018. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 just three weeks ago, started closing 94 locations and began searching for a buyer. …However, in a new statement, the company said those “discussions have not resulted in an offer.

Read More

Does President Kamala Harris have a Soft Spot for Canada?

By Ray Rivers
The Burlington Gazette
August 28, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Kamala Harris lived in Montreal and attended school there for 5 years in the late seventies. And her Canadian connection was pretty well hidden at the recent Democratic National Convention. …As a US senator during the Trump years Harris, had voted against the renewed NAFTA (USMCA), in part because she felt it had failed to sufficiently address climate change. USMCA is set for renewal in 2026. One could speculate that were both she and Mr. Trudeau to win their upcoming elections, there could be some serious cooperation with regard to global warming initiatives. But while current polling slightly favours Harris, Mr. Trudeau’s party is polling in the toilet. …The Biden/ Harris government has recently nearly doubled import duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports into the US. A president Harris is unlikely to backtrack on that decision. …In the end it would be naive to think that a president Harris would show a ‘soft spot’ for Canada.

Read More

Finance & Economics

July Southern Pine Lumber Exports Report

By Eric Gee, Executive Director
The Southern Forest Products Association
September 23, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

Exports of Southern Pine lumber (treated and untreated) continue to outpace 2023, up 15% through July, but were down 25% over June 2024 and down 12% over the same month a year ago, according to July data from the USDA. This is the second straight month Southern Pine exports were down after reaching a three-year high of 59.7 Mbf in May and marks a five-month low. Softwood imports, meanwhile, were down 1% in July over 2023 and down 5% over June. By dollar value, Southern Pine exports between January and July 2024 are running 4% ahead of the same period in 2023 at $130.2 million, with Mexico leading the way at $38.5 million, followed by the Dominican Republic at $31 million, and India at $10 million. Treated lumber exports, meanwhile, are nearly flat over the year at $81 million led by Jamaica with $13.7 million, the Leeward-Windward Islands at $13.1 million, and the Dominican Republic at $6.5 million.

Read More

Southern Yellow Pine traders anticipate narrow trading range through 2024

By Peter Malliris
RISI Fastmarkets
September 12, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

Southern Pine lumber has traded in a historically narrow range this year, and traders anticipate that trend to persist through the balance of 2024. A widespread perception that price volatility will remain minimal through the fourth quarter has governed conservative trading strategies throughout the distribution pipeline this summer. …Many note that demand in the South could strengthen as the fall building season approaches and cooler weather allows builders to expand job site activity to lengthier workdays. …However, few traders anticipate demand gaining any appreciable ground on supplies in the months ahead, even if consumption shows a seasonal hike. …The Southern Pine Composite is on pace through August to post the lowest annual average since 2015. 

Read More

Wood, Paper & Green Building

Dean MacKeith helped to introduce mass timber to state

By Jeff Della Rosa
Talk Business & Politics
September 18, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Peter MacKeith

Mass timber products have become significant to many large construction projects in Northwest Arkansas thanks in part to the advocacy of Peter MacKeith, dean of the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. MacKeith became a fast advocate for these products when he joined the UA more than 10 years ago. The advocacy has led to multiple large-scale mass timber projects on campus, timber executive gifts to the UA and piqued the interest of Bentonville retailer Walmart enough to use mass timber products to construct its new home office. …Many drivers led MacKeith to introduce mass timber products to Arkansas. One was the state’s robust timber commodity … forests cover 56.6% of the state’s land. …MacKeith said the UA has invested $250 million in projects that use mass timber products. 

Read More

Topping-Out Ceremony Held for Anthony Timberlands Center Project

By Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design
University of Arkansas
September 18, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

An applied research facility centered on Arkansas timber and wood products that will offer U of Arkansas students hands-on experience with innovative design and construction materials is another step closer to becoming reality. The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation marked a milestone in the construction process on Sept. 17 with a “topping out” ceremony. More than 120 people gathered at the site of the future center to celebrate this construction industry tradition, which, for this building and its cascading roof plane, recognizes the positioning of the highest point of the structure. Attendees also signed the wooden structural beam that will be the last piece to be installed in the overall structure next month. The Anthony Timberlands Center is part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the state’s only school of architecture and design.

Read More

5 key factors to consider when constructing a mass timber project

Dallas Business Journal
September 11, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Mass timber is transforming the construction industry with its combination of sustainability, aesthetic appeal and structural performance. The global mass timber construction market is projected to grow from $857 million in 2021 to $1.5 billion by 2031, reflecting its increasing adoption and impact. Mass timber encompasses engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timber (CLT), glue-laminated timber (glulam) and nail-laminated timber (NLT), which are crafted to offer exceptional load-bearing capacity and structural integrity. Its rise in popularity is driven by its eco-friendly qualities, including lower carbon emissions and energy efficiency, as well as its distinctive visual appeal. Mass timber also offers design versatility, fast construction, biophilic and wellness advantages, and community and societal benefits. Taking full advantage of mass timber’s benefits requires careful consideration throughout the construction lifecycle.

Read More

Power of plants: researchers develop biomass-based polymer that can absorb and release carbon dioxide

By Bill Wellock
Florida State University News
August 26, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Drs. Hoyong Chung and Arijit Ghorai

A new, biomass-based material developed by engineering researchers can be used to repeatedly capture and release carbon dioxide. The material is primarily made from lignin, an organic molecule that is a main component of wood and other plants, and it can take up carbon dioxide (CO2) from concentrated sources or directly from the air. The research was published by Advanced Materials… One gram of the material developed by Chung’s team captured 47 milligrams — about 5% of the weight of the original material — of CO2 from a concentrated source and 26 milligrams from exposure to ambient air. The absorbed CO2 can be permanently sequestered, or it can be released for use in various applications, such as manufacturing, agriculture and others.

Read More

Is wood the new concrete? Massachusetts architects are rethinking their building materials for the future.

By Ivy Scott
The Boston Globe
August 28, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

When builders complete the final touches on the Sustainable Engineering Laboratories at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, students and faculty will see a sleek building in the heart of the school’s STEM campus. “We explored 62 different structural systems, with varying criteria of cost and efficacy,” said Mark Oldham, a principal architect at Payette, which designed the building. The architects at Payette are among a handful of designers in the United States who are honing in on a green building strategy known as embodied, or upfront, carbon reduction …This year, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center held its first statewide embodied carbon reduction challenge, awarding Payette a grand prize in June for its design of the UMass research building.

Read More

This city is developing the world’s tallest timber tower, again

By Neil Lewis
CNN Style
August 29, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — The US city of Milwaukee is already home to the world’s tallest timber tower. But another, even taller, wooden skyscraper could be added to its skyline, designed by Vancouver-based studio Michael Green Architects (MGA). The firm recently released plans for the development, which includes a 55-story tower made principally from mass timber. If built, it would usurp the current world title holder. …According to MGA, construction will cost an estimated $700 million. The plan is currently going through the city’s approval process, during which it is expected to evolve. …The city of Milwaukee has been particularly forward-thinking, said Green, encouraging development within the city center while also being willing to experiment with new materials. The proposed tower will still use concrete foundations and steel components to make up the elevator cores, but he estimates wood will make up about 90% of the building material.

Read More

Forestry

Georgia Senate Forestry Committee Plans Key Discussion on Sustainability Practices

By Bella Cruz
Hoodline
September 24, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

As Georgia’s Senate continues its exploration of how best to push the state’s forestry into the future, a second meeting by the Senate Advancing Forest Innovation in Georgia Study Committee has been scheduled. Set for Monday, September 30, at 10:00 a.m., President Pro Tempore John F. Kennedy (R–Macon) is slated to chair this pivotal discussion on supporting sustainable practices in forestry and related industries. …The committee, focusing on public policy to foster investment into facilities that utilize Georgia-grown products to manufacture sustainable components and energy, first convened on a date not specified. Their task is to advance forest innovation through legislation, research, and partnerships that bolster the sector’s eco-friendly and economic potential. 

Read More

‘Still suffering’: Residents in Florida’s new hurricane alley brace for Helene impact

By Ana Goñi-Lessan, James Call and Jeff Burlew
The Tallahassee Democrat
September 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

FLORIDA — Everyone is gun shy in Taylor County, Florida. …After Hurricane Idalia, then Hurricane Debby, Florida residents aren’t taking any chances, he said. …Tropical Cyclone Nine in the Gulf of Mexico, soon-to-be Helene, shows Florida’s Big Bend as a likely destination for a Thursday landfall of a possible Category 3 hurricane. It’s still too early to pinpoint the exact location of landfall, but the storm could land in Taylor County again – making it the third time the area has been hit by a hurricane in a little over a year. …Michelle Curtis has worked in the forestry industry for more than 50 years, and said the region is still reeling from the one – two punch Idalia and Debby delivered. The two storms created about a combined $500 million in agricultural losses, according to a University of Florida. 

Read More

To grow Minnesota’s future forests, an effort to collect seeds takes root

By Dan Kraker
Minnesota Public Radio News
September 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

At the University of Minnesota Cloquet Forestry Center, Nick LaBonte scanned the branches for bunches of cones hiding among the needles. …LaBonte was not seeking the cones themselves, but rather the precious cargo they protect inside — tiny seeds. …It was all part of a tree seed collection workshop — one of three hosted across the state by the University of Minnesota Extension, to train about 100 people in how to find and collect tree seeds. The sessions are part of a larger effort aimed at addressing a crucial shortfall in the state’s reforestation efforts — there aren’t enough seeds, nor the people to collect them, to grow the trees needed in a changing climate. Minnesota boasts about 17 million acres of forest. But those forests are changing. They’re stressed by disease, insects, drought and warming temperatures. Seed supply is a key ingredient for land managers to be able to maintain productive forests.

Read More

Inaction is not an option for a healthy Hoosier National Forest

By Chris Thornton, district ranger for the Hoosier National Forest
The Herald Times
September 22, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

INDIANA — Managing public lands is a balancing act. There are laws, policies, executive orders, local economies, visitor needs, climate change predictions, effects to threatened and endangered species, the protection of cultural resources and sensitive natural areas, tribal consultation, public input, and the latest science to consider when making decisions. …First, it must be noted that our forests are not pristine, nor are they static. Habitat loss and degradation have resulted in major bird declines, including ruffed grouse, American woodcock and a variety of songbirds. We need to reestablish a diversity of forest habitats, from young to old, with a variety of plant species and structural complexity to meet the needs of native wildlife. …We also need to consider the mix of tree species the forest needs on the landscape in the future, as some species are predicted to be more successful than others given our changing climate.

Read More

Environmental groups file third lawsuit opposing Hoosier National Forest project

By Carol Kugler
The Herald-Times
September 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

For the third time, a lawsuit has been filed against the U.S. Forest Service in an attempt to stop a management project planned for a portion of the Hoosier National Forest. The Monroe County Board of Commissioners, Indiana Forest Alliance, Hoosier Environmental Council and Friends of Lake Monroe filed the suit on Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Indiana. The suit lists three defendants: the U.S. Forest Service; Michael Chaveas, forest supervisor; and Christopher Thornton, district ranger. It’s the latest in a years-long string of court actions attempting to stop the plan — known as the Houston South Vegetation Management and Restoration Project — that would include logging trees, controlled burns and spraying pesticides over about a decade on portions of 13,500 acres. …The plaintiffs state implementing the plan would adversely affect the water quality of Lake Monroe, which provides drinking water for more than 145,000 people.

Read More

Southern pine beetle outbreak poses threat to Alabama forests, economy

By Shanteya Hudson
MSN
September 3, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Alabama’s economy is heavily supported by its forestry industry – but is facing a new challenge, with a widespread outbreak of the southern pine beetle. This native pest is known for its ability to rapidly destroy pine trees. The Alabama Forestry Commission reports that it has already affected numerous counties, particularly in the northern half of the state. Drew Metzler, forest health coordinator at the commission, said the outbreak this year is the most widespread Alabama has seen since 2001. …But these beetles aren’t just impacting Alabama. Metzler said neighboring states, such as Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina, are also experiencing outbreaks. … Metzlers said the beetles aren’t just making their way through forests, but onto private land as well. He said to combat the southern pine beetle outbreak, it’s important to consider preventive measures.

Read More

Ashfield event in Ashfield to explore ‘Forests as Climate Solutions’

By Madison Schofield
The Greenfield Recorder
September 3, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

ASHFIELD, Massachusetts — The town Energy Committee, Citizen’s Climate Lobby and the First Congregational Church of Ashfield are inviting the community to talk about trees, why they are important and what can be done to protect them. “Forests as Climate Solutions: Proforestation, Land Conservation and Climate Smart Forestry Practices,” a presentation with climate scientists and forestry specialists, is set for Saturday, September 14. …The talk will include four experts. William Moomaw, professor emeritus at Tufts University’s Fletcher School will detail how forests are good for the environment. Dicken Crane, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts board chair, will discuss how forests can be safely cut to support other human endeavors. Sally Loomis, Hilltown Land Trust executive director, will share different options for landowners. And Mary Wigmore of Wigmore Forest Resource Management will speak about forestry and landscaping methods.

Read More

Welcome seeds of compromise in Mount Washington forestry project debate

By the Editorial Team
The Berkshire Eagle
September 4, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Pittsfield, Massachusetts — a forestry management plan in South County has attracted criticism from local residents and environmental activists. At issue is the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s forest cutting plan at the so-called “Cattle Barn Lot” in Mount Washington. …DCR has outlined a 275-acre project area where the agency hopes to …”produce immediate and maximize long-term income, enhance wildlife habitat, improve recreational opportunities, protect soil and water quality, or produce forest specialty products.”  …We’re heartened to see state officials and local stakeholders confronting their disagreements in a healthy way to find a path of compromise for this project. In a corner of the commonwealth that often feels overlooked by the powers that be in Boston, it was refreshing to see several Healey administration environmental and forestry leaders make the trip to South County and hear residents’ concerns. 

Read More

Wildlife foundation to restore and expand Mississippi forest

By Dakota Smith
Woodworking Industry News
August 29, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced $2.5 million in grants to improve, restore, and expand important forest and wetland habitats in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. The projects supported by the grants will enhance and restore private and public land through the installation of water management infrastructure, landowner technical assistance, tree establishment, and wetland reconstruction. The grants will also increase the capacity of a bottomland hardwood nursery to supply seedlings for other projects in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Collectively, more than 4.2 million bottomland hardwood seedlings will be planted, and 3,900 acres of existing hardwood forest will be restored with wildlife-friendly forest treatments.

Read More

U.S. files complaint against logger, logging company for timber trespass on Monongahela National Forest

The Dominion Post
August 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

WEST VIRGINIA — The US Attorney’s office has filed a civil lawsuit against a Randolph County logger and logging company for trespassing and cutting down approximately 10 acres of timber on the Monongahela National Forest near Slaty Fork, Pocahontas County. According to the complaint, John R. Fox and Fox Logging submitted paperwork to timber 319 acres of private property that borders the Monongahela National Forest in Pocahontas County. Fox allegedly began logging in 2015 and continued until at least 2019. During that time, the logging operation is alleged to have encroached on nearly 10 acres of the forest, resulting in the timbering of more than 45,500 cubic feet of mature hardwood and pine saw timber valued at nearly $28,000. …The government is seeking $80,189 in monetary damages, as well as compensatory and punitive damages. Trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 20, 2025.

Read More

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Forests are more resilient to change than we thought

By Rodielon Putol
Earth.com
September 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Researchers have uncovered data suggesting that the risks posed to forests by climate change and human pollution may not be as dire as previously thought. These results offer hope that forests, with their complex plant-soil interactions, may possess greater resilience in the face of environmental stressors than initially anticipated… The research marks the first time the combined impact of rising temperatures and increased nitrogen levels – driven by climate change and fossil fuel emissions – has been thoroughly examined… Traditionally, conservation efforts have focused on mitigating single stressors like rising temperatures or nutrient pollution. However, this study highlights the importance of addressing the complex interactions between multiple factors, such as soil warming and nitrogen levels, to enhance forest resilience.

Read More

Why biomass energy matters for Georgia

By Tim Echols, Georgia Public Service Commissioner
The Albany Herald
September 23, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Tim Echols

Woody Biomass energy is something Georgia is blessed with. It allows us to use homegrown wood residuals that would otherwise be burned or landfilled to provide additional reliable power for Georgia. We may pay a little more, but the benefits for our electric system and our state are worth it. Recently, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved three biomass contracts at paper and pulp mills in south Georgia. These contracts are somewhat more expensive than coal or gas but represent only a tiny fraction of our total generation, yet they’re very important to our state. …Opponents of this measure are concerned with burning wood, but according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, we are growing 48% more timber-volume than we are harvesting. The trees we are planting now grow faster due to improved genetics, too. And using every part of every tree helps ensure healthy and sustainable forests that sequester CO2— benefiting our air quality. 

Read More

Georgia Power looks to International Papar’s Port Wentworth facility for energy from burning biomass

By John Deem
Savannah Now
September 19, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Georgia Power plans to tap one of the Savannah area’s industrial stalwarts for enough energy to serve the equivalent of more than 3,000 homes for a decade. State regulators approved the utility’s request to buy additional electricity generated by the burning of so-called biomass, including from International Paper’s Port Wentworth Mill. International Paper will supply Georgia Power with 4.6 megawatts of power for a period of 10 years. …International Paper says it generates 70% of power used at its mills by burning “bark and biomass residuals” rather than fossil fuels like natural gas and oil. The deal with Georgia Power will “allow us to make additional energy with upgrades to existing equipment at the (Port Wentworth) mill,” International Paper spokeswoman Kristie Inman said. …The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has embraced that notion in its reporting on greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s largest polluters by discounting biomass-related carbon releases. 

Read More

Proposed $1.35 Billion Investment in Southeast Louisiana Would Establish the World’s Largest Carbon Negative Renewable Natural Gas / Ultra-Green Hydrogen Facility

By Woodland Biofuels Inc.
Cision Newswire
September 17, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

RESERVE, Louisiana — Woodland Biofuels announced a planned $1.35 billion investment at the Port of South Louisiana to establish the world’s largest carbon negative renewable natural gas plant / hydrogen facility. Phase 1 is the largest carbon negative renewable natural gas facility globally. Phase 2 is the world’s largest carbon negative hydrogen plant. The Toronto-based company will utilize waste biomass to produce sustainable biofuel used in transportation, heating and electricity generation. In Phase 1 the company expects to create approximately 500 construction jobs and 110 permanent jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates that the project will result in 259 indirect new jobs for a total of 869 jobs, 369 of which are permanent. The new facility will be located at the Globalplex multimodal facility at the Port of South Louisiana. The company expects to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide annually and store it safely underground. …Commercial operations for the first phase are projected to start in 2028.

Read More

State regulators approve Georgia Power’s pricey biomass energy plan

By Meris Lutz
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 17, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

GEORGIA — State regulators on the Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved a Georgia Power plan to source more energy from burning wood known as “biomass,” despite criticism from consumer advocates about its relatively hefty price tag. An independent evaluator found the trio of contracts for which the monopoly utility was seeking approval would cost customers two to three times more than other sources of energy. The biomass proposal had been opposed by environmental and consumer advocates, who said it would cost Georgia Power customers billions of extra dollars on top of already-approved rate hikes. …In hearings about the biomass proposal over the past few weeks, regulators acknowledged the high cost for Georgia Power customers, but said they were motivated by a desire to give an economic boost to rural parts of the state that rely on the timber industry. The vote Tuesday was 4-1 in favor.

Read More

The Rise and Fall of Enviva, a Green-Energy Superstar

By Ryan Dezember
The Wall Street Journal
September 10, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

EPES, Alabama —When Enviva began construction here on the world’s largest wood-pellet plant, it had contracts worth more than $20 billion to supply overseas power plants with an alternative to coal. The company’s shares were near an all-time high. That was two years ago. The Epes facility is still under construction, but Enviva is in bankruptcy court. Demand hasn’t been an issue. …Enviva’s problem is that it promised buyers more pellets than it could make, and for cheaper than it ended up costing to produce them. …Power producers from Germany to Japan are counting on shipments from Enviva to keep their customers’ lights on, as well as to meet renewable-energy mandates. Enviva has continued to operate while it sheds debt and reworks long-term deals with customers. …The plant in Epes is scheduled to open next year. Another plant, planned for Bond, Miss., is on hold. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

Read More

America’s Rural South Is Paying the Price for Europe’s Energy

By Adam Mahoney
Capital B
September 12, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

For years across the rural South, the forests that communities have called home for hundreds of years have been significantly depleted. In the name of “clean energy,” more than a million acres of the nation’s forests, primarily in the South and Northeast, have been cleared by private energy companies, stripped down, and reduced to wood chips. At power plants in the community, the pellets are smoothed into uniform wood pellets and sold to power plants primarily in Europe… Treva Gear doesn’t want the forest in her town of Adel, Georgia, to be the next place “sacrificed” for someone else’s energy needs… Gear and others say it is another example of America’s Black communities being exploited by global trade.

Read More

Georgia Power wants to burn wood for fuel, but environmentalists say no. Who decides?

By Kala Hunter
The Ledger-Enquirer
August 29, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Georgia Power will make a case Thursday to the Public Service Commission to add more biomass to the state’s energy portfolio. The energy provider… generates 19,000 megawatts of energy, according to the Energy Information Agency. A sliver of that is the existing biomass plants that generate 350 megawatts that Georgia Power calls renewable. They want to add 80 MW in the form of three plants that would begin operation in the next two to five years as part of its 2022 Integrated Resource Plan. The plan requires approval from the five-member body of the Public Service Commission, but there are critics of the plan. The Georgia Forestry Commission said that biomass and bioenergy “remains a key part of Georgia’s long-term strategy and a key element for our economy’s evolution.” Georgia is second in the nation for biomass generation, trailing only California. …Critiques say biomass is not renewable.

Read More

Health & Safety

Death of Springfield, New Hampshire lumber mill worker under investigation

By John Lipman
New Hampshire Valley News
October 30, 2024
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

SPRINGFIELD, New Hampshire — Safety officials are investigating the circumstances involving a 51-year-old man who was found deceased after he had been pinned under a dump bed in the early morning hours last Friday at a lumber mill in Springfield. The man, whose identity has not been released, was an employee of Durgin and Crowell Lumber. Emergency responders were dispatched to the business at 3:14 a.m. on Friday for a report of a “CPR in progress” at the mill’s facility on Fisher Corner Road. …A state police spokesman determined “there was no criminal aspect” and the incident “appears to be an industrial accident. …OSHA officials have visited Durgin and Crowell and opened an inspection to determine if the incident involved any violations of workplace safety standards, a Department of Labor spokesman in Boston said. Durbin and Crowell Lumber, an eastern White Pine sawmill, was founded in 1976.

Read More

Craven County, North Carolina Weyerhaeuser mill fined after deadly forklift accident

By Merit Morgan
WITN News
September 19, 2024
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

CRAVEN COUNTY, North Carolina – A Weyerhaeuser sawmill facility in the East has been fined after a man died following a forklift accident. The N.C. Department of Labor’s inspection of the facility began on March 18th, following the deadly accident on March 17th where Craven County Emergency Services Director Stanley Kite said the employee was pronounced dead at the scene and then transferred to CarolinaEast Medical Center in New Bern. The Labor Department cited Weyerhaeuser with three alleged serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina with a total penalty of $48,393. The maximum penalty for each serious violation is $16,131. The company has 15 working days to request an informal conference with the Labor Department, to file a notice of contest, or to pay the penalty.

Read More