Region Archives: US East

Business & Politics

Fire destroys control room at Sebasticook Lumber in St. Albans, Maine

WABI News
August 26, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

ST. ALBANS, Maine – A fire destroyed a building at a hardwood sawmill in St. Albans Saturday morning. Multiple departments responded to Sebasticook Lumber on Hartland Road where the debarker control room was on fire. The St. Albans Fire Department tells TV5 that the fire threatened the rest of the mill before it was put out. They say there were no injuries. There is no official cause on what started the fire though it is possible to be electrical. [per Sebasticook Lumber’s Facebook Page: we had a fire at the mill which had the potential to be devastating, however someone reported the fire at 6:12 AM and the first fire fighter was on site by 6:18 AM. Because of their prompt response and professionalism the damage was contained to one area. We anticipate having our mill back up and running within a week.]

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International Paper Names Tom Hamic To New Leadership Role

By International Paper
PR Newswire
August 26, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Tom Hamic

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — International Paper announced its Board of Directors elected Tom Hamic to a newly created role: Executive Vice President and President of North American Packaging Solutions, reporting to CEO Andy Silvernail. Effective September 1, Hamic will be responsible for leading the company’s Container and Containerboard businesses in North America. …Hamic joined the company in 1991 and has served in a variety of sales, marketing, finance, strategic planning and leadership roles in the United States and Europe. Most recently, Tom served as senior vice president and general manager, North American Container and Chief Commercial Officer.

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Domtar names Tracy Altenbaumer new manager of company’s Ashdown, Arkansas, mill

Texarkana Gazette
August 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Tracy Altenbaumer

ASHDOWN, Arkansas — Domtar Corp. has named a new manager of the company’s Ashdown Mill. Tracy Altenbaumer was named the new manager on Thursday. Altenbaumer succeeds J.C. Allaire, who recently was promoted to vice president of manufacturing. Altenbaumer will lead all aspects of the Ashdown Mill’s operations in his new role, according to Domtar. …Tracy brings 37 years of experience to the role, having begun his career at the mill as a co-op in the summer of 1987. “He has held positions of increasing responsibility across all aspects of the mill’s operations including as a process engineer; woodyard superintendent, nine years as pulp mill superintendent, 10 years as the mill’s power and recovery manager, and five years as the mill’s operations manager,” Allaire said.

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Interfor Announces Indefinite Curtailment of Lumber Manufacturing Facilities in Georgia and South Carolina

By Interfor Corporation
Globe Newswire
August 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

BURNABY, BC — Interfor announced that it will indefinitely curtail operations at its sawmills in Meldrim, Georgia and Summerville, South Carolina. These curtailments are in response to persistently weak lumber market conditions. Log deliveries will be curtailed immediately, followed by an orderly wind-down of operations, which is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2024. Both sawmills produce kiln-dried Southern Yellow Pine dimensional lumber and have a combined annual capacity of 330 million board feet. These indefinite curtailments will impact approximately 180 employees across both facilities. Interfor expects to mitigate some of the impact on affected employees. The expected impact of these curtailments on production volume for the remainder of 2024 was included in Interfor’s press release dated August 8, 2024. However, the indefinite nature of these curtailments means the impact on lumber production is likely to extend beyond 2024.

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Georgia lawmakers looking to boost struggling timber industry

By Dave Williams
Capital Beat
August 16, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

John kennedy

ATLANTA – Georgia’s forestry industry is a victim of its own success. Advanced genetics leading to fast-growing trees and a favorable climate have combined to make Georgia the No.-1 forestry state in the nation. …But with pulp and paper mills going out of business in large numbers due to intense foreign competition, demand for timber is on the decline. As a result, prices for wood are down to levels not seen since the 1970s. Those are the dynamics behind a push to find new markets for Georgia’s oversupply of wood in innovative clean energy industries ranging from cleaner aviation fuel to mass-timber building construction to electric-vehicle batteries. …The Senate Advancing Forest Innovation in Georgia Study Committee was formed this year to look for ways the state can encourage investment in sustainable forest products that will generate demand in the future. …One of those options is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), another is mass timber construction.

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Taking stock after Suzano’ purchase or Arkansas’ Pine Bluff Paper Mill

By Kyle Massey
Arkansas Business
August 19, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

ARKANSAS — Brazilian pulp and paper giant Suzano has a vision for the mill it is acquiring in Pine Bluff, but precisely what that is poses “the $64,000 question,” Arkansas forestry expert Matthew Pelkki says. It’s really an $80,000-a-year question to many of the 800 or so workers at the Pactiv Evergreen plant in economically distressed Pine Bluff. Suzano announced last month that it paid $110 million for the 68-year-old Arkansas facility and a similar one in North Carolina. …Suzano says it plans to continue operating with the current Pine Bluff team. Pelkki, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, said he has no reason to doubt that, but foresees other options for Suzano that could have major implications for timber jobs in the region. The company could invest in modernizing the mills, or fit them into the vertically integrated approach it has perfected in South America. [to access the full story an Arkansas Business subscription is required]

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International Paper’s Senior VP Tom Plath to leave company at end of year

By International Paper
PR Newswire
August 13, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

Thomas Plath

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — International Paper announced today that Tom Plath, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Affairs, will leave the company at the end of the year. During his 33-year career with IP, Plath has served in a number of roles in HR, operations, marketing and general management. He was named an officer in 2013 and was elected senior vice president in 2017. His role was expanded in 2023 to SVP, human resources and corporate affairs, with responsibilities for human resources, aviation, real estate, communications, sustainability and government relations. Plath… will serve in an advisory capacity through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. A replacement has not yet been appointed.

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Green Timber Consulting Foresters acquires Grossman Forestry Company

Green Timber Consulting Foresters Inc.
August 13, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: United States, US East

PELKIE, Michigan — Green Timber Consulting Foresters and Grossman Forestry Company announced the merger of the two companies. Justin Miller, President of Green Timber and Gerald Grossman, President of Grossman Forestry have signed a memorandum of understanding to combine their two companies via the sale of Grossman Forestry to Green Timber with an anticipated closing date of January 1, 2025. Grossman Forestry has been serving landowners in the eastern Upper Peninsula & northern Lower Peninsula since 1991, while Green Timber has been tending to forests of the western Upper Peninsula & northern Wisconsin since 2001. Together, the two companies will manage over 550,000 acres in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula. The collective staff of 17 professional foresters has over 200 years of experience in forest management, timber harvest administration, GIS, forest inventory, forest modeling and analysis, and certification auditing.

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Finance & Economics

Rayonier reports Q2, 2024 net income of $1.9 million

Rayonier Inc.
August 23, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

WILDLIGHT, Florida — Rayonier reported second quarter net income attributable to Rayonier of $1.9 million, or $0.01 per share, on revenues of $173.6 million. This compares to net income attributable to Rayonier of $19.0 million, or $0.13 per share, on revenues of $208.9 million in the prior year quarter. The second quarter results included $1.1 million of net costs associated with legal settlements1 and $0.7 million of costs related to disposition initiatives. Excluding these items and adjusting for pro forma net income adjustments attributable to noncontrolling interests, second quarter pro forma net income was $3.7 million, or $0.02 per share. This compares to pro forma net income of $7.8 million, or $0.05 per share, in the prior year period.

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Russian invasion of Ukraine could have lasting impacts on global forest products markets

By Joey Pitchf
North Carolina State University
August 9, 2024
Category: Finance & Economics
Region: United States, US East

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine stretches into its third year, international trade has felt the effects as sanctions on Russian exports have expanded. Now researchers have found that the invasion may not only have significant short-term impacts on the global timber markets but may leave lasting effects on the global economy and the environment. These findings in a new study which projects the impact of sanctions on Russia and military disruption in Ukraine on the global wood product markets. …Rajan Parajuli, associate professor at North Carolina State University and author of the study, said that the immediate impacts of the invasion could be severe. …“In the short term, which we define as within ten years of the end of the invasion, our model predicts an increase in price up to 3% for things like industrial roundwood and finished wood products,” he said.

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Wood, Paper & Green Building

Researchers test limits with 3D-printed concrete made from wood pulp: ‘The opportunities are unlimited’

By Jon Turi
The Cool Down
August 28, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science have been testing a plant-based additive to concrete that is 3D-printable and could improve structural strength. The material is called cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), and initial studies have shown that just 0.3% of it in a cement mixture results in a smooth flow for printing with fewer air bubbles, improving structural strength, as Interesting Engineering reported. “The improvements we saw on both printability and mechanical measures suggest that incorporating cellulose nanofibrils in commercial printable materials could lead to more resilient and eco-friendly construction practices sooner rather than later,” according to Osman E. Ozbulut, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, per the report. The use of 3D printing in building construction continues to be explored, as it can frequently rely on recycled materials, is more time- and cost-effective than traditional methods, and allows for highly customizable designs.

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New Unifi offerings add to push for recycled polyethylene terephthalate end uses

By Antoinette Smith
Plastics Recycling Update
August 28, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

U.S. recycled PET end markets have shifted focus from textiles to food packaging in recent years. But North Carolina-based Unifi is working on building end uses for recycled plastics in fashion and other fabric applications, the CEO said in a recent interview. CEO Eddie Ingle said there’s an energy at Unifi to create cotton-like fabrics from recycled PET with the touch and feel of cotton viscose, also known as rayon blends. Viscose is the most used artificial cellulosic fiber, derived mostly from wood pulp, according to the Textile Exchange, of which Unifi is a member. Unifi’s most recent product launches include its ThermaLoop insulation line, made from 100% recycled content, with at least half of that from end-of-life textiles. Available in several forms – padding, fiber similar to goose down and fiberball – ThermoLoop is designed for use in home goods, and in outdoor gear such as sleeping bags and winter coats. 

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Timberlab reaches full capacity at Greenville location

By Dakota Smith
Woodworking Network
August 27, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Timberlab, a nationwide provider of mass timber systems, has reached full capacity at its facilities in Greenville, South Carolina. Since spring 2023, the 75,000-square foot engineering and fabrication plant has supported nearly a half-million square feet of sustainable development east of the Mississippi River. Timberlab at full capacity, with two state-of-the-art CNC (computer numerical control) machines, can produce annually 1 million square feet of mass timber fabrications. “Now that we’re at full capacity, Timberlab is equipped to exponentially drive the adoption of this environment-forward building platform from coast to coast,” said Chris Evans, president of Timberlab. …The International Code Council in 2019 approved a set of proposals allowing mass timber construction in buildings up to eighteen stories tall.

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Trex Celebrates Steel Topping Out at New Facility in Little Rock

By Trex Company
Arkansas Economic Development Commission
August 22, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas – Trex Company, the world’s largest manufacturer of high-performance, low-maintenance, eco-friendly composite decking and railing, and a leading brand of outdoor living products, commemorated the topping out of the flagship building at its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Little Rock, Arkansas. The multi-faceted production campus is intended to increase capacity and the company’s ability to meet long-term demand for its industry-leading products.  “We continue to experience broad-based demand driven by strong consumer interest in outdoor living. This new campus will enable us to provide our customers with significantly better access to Trex products while strengthening our position for future growth,” said Bryan H. Fairbanks, President and CEO of Trex Company. …“We are honored to celebrate this milestone with Trex, a company whose focus on sustainability and environmental stewardship complements the efforts of the City of Little Rock and Pulaski County,” said Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. 

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Timber! Portland Museum of Art to host conference on an innovative forest product

By Renee Cordes
Mainbiz
August 26, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

The Portland Museum of Art is promoting itself as the perfect host for a conference this fall on an innovative type of forest product. “An art museum is an ideal host for a mass timber conference because art has a unique power to unite people around complex and forward-thinking ideas,” the museum said in its announcement the conference this November. “By bringing diverse perspectives together in a cultural setting, the Portland Museum of Art is helping to shape the future of architecture and construction.” The “Mass Timber Maine Conference” is scheduled for Nov. 13-15, with 350 people expected to attend … while planning has been underway for a year, research began three years ago. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded the museum $300,000 for its planned $100 million expansion, which incorporates the use of large, prefabricated wooden building elements more commonly known as mass timber. 

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Researchers Aim to Support Hardwood Industry with Formation of Wood Utilization Team

By Wendy Mayer
Purdue University
August 22, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

Researchers from Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources are teaming up with partners across the state to stimulate, expand and support the utilization of hardwood lumber by creating the Indiana Wood Utilization Team (IWUT). Goals for the project are to increase forest health and resilience, competitiveness of the wood products industry and economic development in rural areas of the state. The Indiana Wood Utilization Team will aim to create and implement a strategic plan to increase awareness of the benefits of using forest resources in the state, after gathering input from an industry advisory board and a series of roundtable discussions across the state. The plan will include specific action items on forestland ownership, supply chain, manufacturing, marketing, policy and regulations and public perception. The IWUT team also will design, develop and implement a statewide promotional and educational campaign for the general public to increase awareness and utilization of wood products.

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Mass Timber Construction: Improving forest land use in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

By Jennifer Donovan
UPWord
August 21, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

MICHIGAN — Mass timber construction promises many economic benefits to Upper Peninsula, Michigan (U.P.): improving the use of the region’s vast forests while creating jobs for residents, environmental protection, and economic growth for the timber, wood products and construction industries. …Across Michigan, seven mass timber buildings are under construction or have recently been built, and 55 are in the pipeline, says Sandra Lupien, director of masstimber@MSU, a Michigan State University program that conducts education, research, outreach and curriculum development for mass timber construction. …Two Michigan universities are working with the state’s Department of Natural Resources to develop mass timber construction technologies and promote mass timber construction. In the U.P., Michigan Technological University (MTU) is exploring the production of mass timber materials, using hardwood such as red maple and cross-laminated technology (CLT). Michigan State University (MSU) is working with softwoods such as pine and focusing on education and outreach.

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Updated Energy Code Compliance Guide Available From APA – The Engineered Wood Association

APA – The Engineered Wood Association
August 21, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

APA – The Engineered Wood Association (APA) recently updated The Performance Path to Energy Code Compliance publication. This free guide assists builders in evaluating the energy efficiency of a whole home as a system, enabling them to specify cost-effective assemblies utilizing wood structural panels, eliminating the need for continuous insulation in the Northern climate zone while still complying with IECC requirements. Updates incorporate changes made in the newly released 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Download this free guide now from APA’s website. APA’s guide also incorporates energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) and ductless heat pumps, simulated performance solutions reflecting the new code, and updated energy modeling for the new code and the U.S. Energy Department reference home. Builders and designers will find guidance on how they can easily meet energy and structural requirements with greater flexibility by using the performance path since traditional, code-compliant construction methods remain acceptable.

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Southern Forest Products Association – From the Executive Director: August 2024

By Eric Gee, Executive Director
Southern Forest Products Association
August 13, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

SFPA is excited to welcome Tolko Industries to its community of Southern Pine lumber manufacturing members! This brings the Association’s lumber manufacturer roster to 15 and will further help our efforts to promote Southern Pine lumber as the premier building material. Tolko’s decision to join SFPA reflects its support for SFPA and the Southern Pine lumber industry. …Our Associate Member roster is expanding too. …Exhibit space reservations for EXPO 2025 are outpacing the previous show – having more than 78% of the floor plan under contract or pending as of August 12 – and there are still prime spaces available and waiting for you! …The American Wood Council (AWC) Life Cycle Survey is live, and SFPA is proud to coordinate with its Lumber Manufacturer members to engage in this important project to meet the growing transparency demands and position wood – and Southern Pine – as the premier building material.

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InventWood Raises $8 Million and Appoints Tyler Huggins as CEO as It Prepares For Early 2025 Commercial Launch

By InventWood Inc.
PR Newswire
August 8, 2024
Category: Wood, Paper & Green Building
Region: United States, US East

FREDERICK, Md. — InventWood, transforming undervalued wood into high-performance climate-resilient Superwood building products that are stronger and lighter than steel, announced $8 million in new funding and the appointment of Tyler Huggins, Ph.D. as its new Chief Executive Officer. The company is planning its commercial launch in early 2025 with two key priorities: establishing its scaled supply chain to ensure the health and longevity of our forests, and … profitably producing up to one million square feet of product annually. InventWood’s proprietary technology stack transforms wood’s intrinsic nano-cellulose structure into climate-resilient Superwood products that offer unrivaled fire, insect and rot resistance with bulletproof hardness, while maintaining highly desirable wood aesthetics. With superior strength at low cost, InventWood is on a mission to displace some of our dirtiest industrial materials like steel and concrete, evolving our built environment from a carbon source to a carbon sink, all while improving the health and resilience of our forests. 

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Forestry

MSU researchers contribute to study revealing salamanders are surprisingly abundant in eastern North American forests

By Emilie Lorditch
MSU Today
August 28, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Michigan State University researchers contributed to a recent amphibian-focused study that shed light on the ecological importance of red-backed salamanders. Scientists knew that red-backed salamanders were abundant in eastern North America, but a recent study found their densities and biomass were much higher than expected. The study marks the first time that the densities and biomass for this common, but rarely seen, species were calculated across the extent of its range… The incredible magnitude of red-backed salamander presence in the eastern North American captured in this study suggests that red-backed salamanders, and likely amphibians in general, play a more prevalent role in terrestrial temperate ecosystems than previously suspected… Unfortunately, just as scientists are beginning to understand the true magnitude of salamanders’ hidden biodiversity and ecological importance, a new wildlife disease that is particularly hard on salamanders is a looming threat and a serious concern for scientists and wildlife managers.

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Review the Department of Natural Resources’s Draft State Forest Management Plan

By Dan Heckman
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
August 23, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Michigan’s nearly 4 million acres of state forest land has something for everyone [and] the management of these forests has an impact on you. To ensure the long-term, sustainable management and health of the state forest the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has drafted a new State Forest Management Plan to serve as a guide for the next 10 years. This draft plan was collaboratively developed by DNR forestry, wildlife, fisheries and recreation planning staff. …The state forest was established in 1903 by the Michigan Forestry Commission. …Since that time… the state forest has grown to nearly 4 million acres. The management of Michigan’s state forest has evolved over time as well. …“With broad public review and thoughtful input to ensure a comprehensive State Forest Management Plan, we will continue that progress into the next 10 years and beyond,” said Dan Heckman, planning and modeling specialist with the DNR’s Forest Resources Division.

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Lumber Shorts Newsletter

The Southern Forest Products Association
August 27, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

In the August newsletter from the Southern Forest Products Association you’ll find these headlines and more:

  • Sustainability in the Southern Pine lumber industry is paramount, which is why more trees are planted than harvested each year. So why is Southern Pine so sustainable? SFPA has all the answers you need. 
  • Southern Pine lumber shipments in June totaled 1.531 billion board feet (Bbf), 19% below May’s revised shipments of 1.887 Bbf. Exports of Southern Pine lumber (treated and untreated) are running 20% ahead of 2023 through the first half of 2024. They were up 16% in the second quarter of 2024 over the prior quarter and up 22% over the same period in 2023. 
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a plan August 7 for implementing a new label program to boost clean American manufacturing by helping federal purchasers and other buyers find and buy cleaner, more climate-friendly construction materials and products. However, wood is not included in that list.

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Southern pine beetles at ‘epidemic’ level in Alabama forests

By Lawrence Specker
AL.com
August 24, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

A destructive insect capable of devastating timber harvests is at “epidemic” level in Alabama, with the state’s forest management agency saying the problem is the worst it’s been in more than 20 years. The Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) has issued an alert about the Southern pine beetle. The AFC said it has identified almost 5,000 trouble spots, with an average of 191 trees killed at each spot. “Unfortunately, this is the highest number of beetle spots we’ve experienced in the state in the last 23 years, State Forester Rick Oates said. “The agency has conducted aerial surveys in 51 counties so far, with more counties anticipated over the next couple weeks. Both Mississippi and Georgia are also counting numerous spots. So, it looks as if this is an especially active pine beetle year not just here in Alabama, but across the Southeast.”

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Brushy Mountain logging project near Highlands will damage habitat, cause erosion

By Charles M. Tarver, professional forester
Asheville Citizen Times
August 25, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Charles Tarver

Western North Carolina — The U.S. Forest Service’s Brushy Mountain logging project is cutting down a rare old growth forest near Highlands. The logging is demolishing the habitats of rare green salamanders and endangered bats. It is also introducing harmful exotic species and creating sources of erosion and sedimentation into beloved brook trout streams. And it is ignoring overwhelming public opposition to this project on public lands. The Forest Service’s decision to log this old growth forest also defies science and common sense. The stated purpose of the Brushy Mountain Timber Sale is to establish a wildlife opening in the forest. Multiple alternative sites nearby could provide the same wildlife opening benefits and entirely avoid destroying a unique old growth forest… Sadly, the Forest Service’s new proposed National Old Growth Amendment will allow even more old growth logging projects like Brushy Mountain, because of loopholes in the amendment that allow continued liquidation of old growth.

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‘It would seem totally incongruous’: This Vermonter is punk musician, forester and author

By Brent Hallenbeck
Burlington Free Press
August 22, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Ethan Tapper is a wild man on stage. The leader of the 10-member Burlington punk band The Bubs screams into the microphone and plays furiously on electric guitar while his band mates cavort happily around him in front of delirious crowds of hundreds of music fans. The chaos of the stage contrasts starkly with Tapper’s other life. The former Chittenden County forester left that post in June to focus on Bear Island, the 175-acre forest he manages in Bolton. …Tapper spends much of his time communing with trees and the serene life that thrives around them. Every now and then, Tapper’s dichotomous worlds collide. The Bubs release a new album, “Make a Mess” with a concert on Aug. 23 in Winooski. Less than three weeks later, Tapper launches his first book, a treatise on tough TLC for trees titled “How to Love a Forest,” on Sept. 10 at Burlington City Hall.

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Gillette Tract Preserved: Ensures Long-Term Protection of Nottoway River’s Scenic and Ecological Riches

The US Endowment for Forestry and Communities
August 22, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Greenville, S.C. —A new conservation easement on the Gillette tract will protect 2,100 feet of the Nottoway River frontage in southeastern Virginia, supported by a grant from the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund (EFCF). Managed by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF), this easement will preserve water quality, scenic beauty, and wildlife habitats, and reinforce protection for the river and its tributaries. The Nottoway River, a Scenic River and Blueway Trail flowing into the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound Estuary, will benefit from this effort, ensuring its ecological and scenic value for future generations. Brandi Colander, Chief Sustainability Officer at Enviva, said, “We are delighted to be a part of this significant milestone for environmental preservation and to assist with the conservation of another important easement along the Nottoway River.” Eligible for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the easement supports the river’s exceptional attributes and safeguards its environment.

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Trees stripped by invasive caterpillars muster defenses that can harm native insects, research shows

By Chris Barncard, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phys.Org
August 20, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

An invasive insect with an insatiable appetite can cause serious problems for a favorite native moth that likes the same food source—even though the two are never in direct competition for a meal, according to new research, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, from University of Wisconsin–Madison ecologists. Since the early 2000s, spongy moth caterpillars, an import from Europe, have flexed their gustatory muscle in Wisconsin by stripping entire stands of trees of their leaves during late spring and early summer in remarkably destructive feeding binges. …Because the spongy moth caterpillar ends its leaf-eating spree relatively early in the aspen tree’s growing season, the defoliated trees produce a second flush of leaves to capture enough energy to survive (if not necessarily thrive) through the winter and into the next growth year. … “By mid-summer, they produced an entirely new set of leaves that had, on average, an eight-times higher concentration of defense chemicals.”

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Michigan State University researchers build connection between forests and drinking water

By Jack Falinski
Michigan State University
August 21, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The benefit of Michigan’s 20 million acres of forests can be seen through a variety of lenses. Michigan forests play a key role in offsetting greenhouse gas emissions through carbon storage, provide wildlife habitats and increase biodiversity, offer ample recreational opportunities to the state’s population and visitors, and supply timber resources and other forestry products — which contributed to over $26 billion to Michigan’s economy in 2022… Research from a team of Michigan State University scientists shows there’s another benefit people derive from forests, but they might not recognize it: filtering and supplying clean drinking water. …“Generally speaking, most people understood that where there are forests, there’s cleaner and more abundant water,” Emily Huff, an associate professor in the Department of Forestry said. “However, they didn’t make the functional link that conserving forests results in cleaner drinking water.”

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NY State announces fourth round of ‘Regenerate NY’ Forestry Cost Share Grants

New York Governor’s Office
August 17, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar today announced $500,000 in funding is now available for the fourth round of the State’s ‘Regenerate NY’ Forestry Cost Share Grant Program. The grant program assists private landowners with growing the next generation of resilient forests to mitigate climate change, provide wildlife habitat, protect air and water quality, and supply a critical renewable resource. Funded projects will enhance efforts made through Governor Kathy Hochul’s ambitious 25 Million Trees Initiative to restore and sustain New York’s natural landscapes. …Interim Commissioner Maharw said, “This support gives private landowners the opportunity to foster biodiverse forests on their lands and increase the ecosystem benefits forests provide, including the absorption and storage of carbon. Private landowners may apply for grant awards ranging from a minimum of $10,000 to a maximum of $100,000.

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This tiny device could reforest the entire planet

By AsapSCIENCE
You Tube
July 27, 2023
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

This device corkscrews itself into the ground like a seed, and could just change the face of our planet! They are a newly created autonomous aerial seed that have some really cool and weird implications.

From the research paper: Aerial seeding can quickly cover large and physically inaccessible areas to improve soil quality and scavenge residual nitrogen in agriculture, and for postfire reforestation and wildland restoration. However, it suffers from low germination rates… Inspired by Erodium seeds, we designed and fabricated self-drilling seed carriers, turning wood veneer into highly stiff and hygromorphic bending or coiling actuators with an extremely large bending curvature, 45 times larger than the values in the literature. Our three-tailed carrier has an 80% drilling success rate on flat land… Our carriers can carry biofertilizers and plant seeds as large as those of whitebark pine. 

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How Maine is unique in fighting emerald ash borer

By Elizabeth Walztoni
The Bangor Daily News
August 13, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

MAINE — The larvae of long, green beetles are winding their way under the bark of Maine’s brown ash trees in northern and southern pockets of the state. Known as emerald ash borers, the insects have decimated ash trees in the Great Lakes already. They likely will do the same here one day, local researchers said. But for 20 years, Maine has been preparing with a focus on protecting Wabanaki traditions and including Indigenous knowledge, an approach setting it apart from other states. Maine has also had more time to prepare: emerald ash borers were found in Michigan in 2002 and spread steadily eastward. They weren’t found here until 2018. …Joining together as the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik, university researchers, state and federal forestry agencies, conservation groups, tribes and basketmakers planned their approach. They join Western and Indigenous approaches to science, research and decision-making.

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To hug or to cut? A new generation of foresters says do both.

By Richard Mertens
The Christian Science Monitor
August 9, 2024
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Jeremy Turner and Laura French

…Jeremy Turner and his wife, Laura French, are professional foresters. They live on 330 acres in southwestern New Hampshire, land that long ago was cleared for a hilltop farm, and then abandoned. …Since they moved here 15 years ago, they have tried to harvest trees in a way that encourages the ecological diversity and complexity one might find in a much older forest. This includes not just trees but all forms of life, including plants and animals above the ground and below. …This approach is part of a growing trend in American forestry. Like Mr. Turner and Ms. French, more and more landowners, foresters, and overseers of public lands are trying to manage forests with the aim of promoting the values of ecology, a branch of biology that’s the study of the vital connections among plants and animals in a given place, and not simply the economics of harvesting timber.

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Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Companies are selling the carbon stored in Louisiana trees. Can it save the climate?

By Halle Parker
WWNO – New Orleans Public Radio
August 21, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Louisiana — Cakey Worthington is the vice president of carbon management for Aurora Sustainable Lands… The company now owns about 100,000 acres of land in the Atchafalaya Basin. Instead of harvesting the trees on its land, Aurora plans to sell other companies the carbon dioxide stored inside them. …Aurora sold more than $100 million worth of carbon credits by the end of 2023. …Globally, the industry has taken off … But in the South, the carbon credit industry is still nascent, just beginning to pick up steam.  …Much of Aurora’s land was bought from a traditional timber company, for example. The company can then sell even more carbon stored in the trees by comparing it to a kind of alternate reality— also known as a counterfactual scenario—formed through projections. The company didn’t share how it designs its carbon credit program.

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How ‘green’ electricity from wood harms the planet — and people

By Melba Newsome
Nature Portfolio
August 20, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

The Enviva Biomass plant, which opened in Hamlet, North Carolina in 2019, is part of a global expansion in the use of wood — or solid biomass — to generate electricity. Pellet companies advertise their products as a renewable-energy source that lowers carbon emissions, and the European Union agrees, which has spurred many countries, including the United Kingdom, Belgium and Denmark, to embrace this form of energy. …But opposition is building on many fronts. An expanding body of research shows that burning solid biomass to generate electricity often emits huge amounts of carbon — even more than burning coal does. …In Hamlet, 45% of the population identifies as Black, and in the tiny community closest to the mill, about 90% of people are Black, says Debra David, a local resident and activist. She calls the Enviva operation a clear case of environmental racism — layering environmental burdens on an already vulnerable population.

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Burlington’s wood-fired power generator is on track to lose $8 million this year, and environmental activists say enough is enough.

By Kevin McCallum
Seven Days Vermont
August 14, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

For years a growing chorus of scientists and environmental activists in Vermont has argued that while trees are a renewable resource, burning wood to generate electricity is inefficient and bad for the climate. Now they’re focusing on another inconvenient truth about biomass energy — its high cost. Critics of Burlington’s Joseph C. McNeil Generating Station are asking regulators to take note of the 40-year-old power plant’s deepening financial losses before signing off on the city’s plans to operate it for another 20 years. McNeil is on track to lose $8 million this year, according to testimony submitted to the Public Utility Commission last month. McNeil has operated in the red in all but two of the past nine years. …Biomass energy plants in neighboring states have closed in recent years as public opposition to them increased, the cost of other renewable energy options dropped and the public subsidies on which they depend evaporated.

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Drax reports it exceeded emission limits in Louisiana

By Larry Adams
The Woodworking Network
August 13, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

British energy giant Drax Global has disclosed to the state of Louisiana that its wood pellet production facilities emit hazardous air pollutants above their permitted limits. Drax is a key provider for British utilities and one of the renewable energy industry’s largest players, earning $1.53 billion in profits last year. It operates seven wood pellet production facilities across four states and paid out $2.5 million in fines for violating air emissions limits in Mississippi in 2020 and $3.2 million pollution-related settlements in Louisiana in 2022. According to ABC News, following pressure from lawsuits brought by environmental advocacy groups, the company installed pollution controls in 2021 in production facilities in Mississippi and Louisiana. However, internal testing in August 2023 and about six months later informed the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality that both facilities should be considered a “major source” of hazardous air pollutant emissions.

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Health & Safety

Brown researcher awarded grant to evaluate the environmental impacts of wood pellet production

Brown University, School of Public Health
August 19, 2024
Category: Health & Safety
Region: United States, US East

As the global demand for clean energy alternatives surges, the wood pellet industry, often touted as a sustainable fuel option, is projected to nearly double in size by 2026. In the United States, the industry’s growth is most pronounced in the rural South, where 91 wood pellet manufacturing plants are situated, constituting 75% of U.S. production. …But this growing industry is facing scrutiny over its environmental, health and social impacts. …Erica Walker, RGSS Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, and her team of researchers have received a $5.8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for their investigations into the emissions from wood pellet plants in Mississippi. This work represents the first study of wood pellet emissions on human health in the United States. …Over the next five years, the team will be launching a study quantifying the health impacts of wood pellet manufacturing.

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Forest History & Archives

This light station guided lumber across Lake Michigan after the Great Chicago Fire

By Lindsay Moore
Michigan Live
August 28, 2024
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US East

WHITEHALL, MI — Almost 150 years ago, White River Light Station became a guiding beacon connecting West Michigan to Chicago − first for lumber and then for tourists. The historic light station sits on the channel connecting White Lake to Lake Michigan. The light station was decommissioned in 1960 and is now a museum run by Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association. Visitors can climb the 38-foot tower and look out over Lake Michigan. The channel was dug in 1870 for the purpose of moving lumber from White Lake sawmills across Lake Michigan to Midwest cities. The goal to move Michigan lumber became all the more pertinent after The Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The light station was completed in December 1875 and lit for the first time in May 1876. Its light guided lumber schooners from the sawmills on White Lake, a tributary of the White River and adjacent to the pine forests, to the big lake.

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East Texas’ Biggest Labor Disputes: The Lumber Wars of 1911–1912

By Michael Garcia
KETK.com
August 12, 2024
Category: Forest History & Archives
Region: United States, US East

TYLER, Texas – Did you know that the Piney Woods of East Texas and Louisiana were once the site of some of the most violent labor struggles in the region’s history? …For two years the Piney Woods of Louisiana and East Texas were rife with a series of strikes that would come to be known as the Louisiana and Texas Lumber War of 1911–1912. This “war” was fought by sawmill workers organized as the Brotherhood of Timber Workers against lumber companies like the Kirby Lumber Company owned by Kirbyville namesake John Henry Kirby and the Long-Bell Lumber Company. According to a journal article from Louisiana History… Kirby was a leading figure in the South Lumber Operators Association. …The outcome was a tremendous moral victory for the workers, and the entire trial background and proceedings contributed to a great radical push in Louisiana at the end of the year, but the final result was the union’s demise as a viable force in the Louisiana-Texas piney woods.

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