[South Carolina] Companies across the state are testing wood chips as a readily available form of biomass. Now the University of South Carolina plans to power up its $20 million wood gasifier in June, producing electricity and steam for hot water and heating, using biomass. “Biomass” is a broad term referring to anything that grows naturally: plant or animal matter. Converting biomaterial into fuel – beyond simply burning it – requires new technology. Southern states are spearheading this new technology, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

On Monday, August 16, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, affectionately known to some of my friends (since dubya’s successful coup) as the Fish and Wildlife Scurvey, announced that it plans to revise the recovery plan and survey protocol for the endangered Indiana Bat, Myotis sodalis. The Fish and Wildlife Service seeks public comments on this proposal no later than July 16, 2007.

Click here to view the proposed revisions to the recovery plan

Click here to view the draft survey protocol and addresses for submitting comments

Wildlife Management Workshop: Ecology, Management and ID of Migratory & Resident Birds
May 2, 2007 – Hill Demonstration Forest in Bahama, NC, sponsored by NC State University Forestry & Environmental Outreach Program, https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/feop/wildlife/BH83mailer.pdf

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

April 17-19, Natchez, MS, CFE credits, https://www.cfr.msstate.edu/mssaf/meeting.html

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

Judge orders the White House to assess the policy’s impact on wildlife, the environment
[Washington, DC] A federal judge on Friday overturned Bush administration regulations for national forests that critics said expedited logging and energy exploration, weakened wildlife protection and shut the public out of forest planning. U.S. Northern District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton, based in San Francisco, found that because U.S. Forest Service officials had not conducted required environmental impact reviews of their new policies, nor allowed public comment on “clearly controversial” changes, they should be invalidated.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

Increased atmospheric CO2 stimulates soils to release, not store, CO2
[Maryland] Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center report the results of a six-year experiment in which doubling the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in a scrub oak ecosystem caused a reduction in carbon storage in the soil. During the course of their study, Smithsonian scientists found that the amount of carbon in the ecosystem as a whole increased. However, they also saw a consistent loss in soil carbon under high CO2 conditions. The CO2 loss from soils offset about 52 percent of the additional carbon that had accumulated in the plants above ground and in the roots.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Florida] The housing downturn is leaving one part of the construction industry remarkably unscathed: makers of so-called green building materials. Purveyors of such building components as foam insulation and faux wood shingles are continuing to see gangbuster sales, almost as though the housing boom that ended a year ago were still at full tilt. Materials are considered “green,” in industry parlance, when they generally help reduce energy use more than conventional materials or are manufactured in a way that has less of an impact on the environment. Nationally, green homes are projected to increase to between 5 percent and 10 percent of U.S. housing starts by 2010.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Oregon] Some consumers go out of their way to buy organic milk or cage-free eggs – and they’re willing to pay extra for the added effort and expense it takes to produce them – but Scott Ferguson and Barry Sims of Trout Mountain Forestry have found that getting a premium for “sustainable” lumber is a lot harder…. not because nobody wants the lumber, but because it’s so hard to reach the right customers. To get more FSC-certified wood into the hands of green builders, Trout Mountain Forestry is partnering with …small woodland owners in Oregon. Their goal is to accrue, mill and market … certified logs. Traveling into uncharted territory may present Trout Mountain and company with challenges, as well as opportunities, but it’s a necessary step for small woodland owners, said John Belton, one of the land owners cooperating with Trout Mountain.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Washington, DC] Now some lawmakers want to crack down on illegal logging around the world. Led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the group is seeking support for a bill to ban U.S. imports of wood products derived from illegally harvested timber. Much like the movie “Blood Diamond,” which portrays diamonds as fueling a brutal civil war in West Africa, lawmakers hope to make U.S. consumers more aware of where their new bedroom dresser or hardwood floor comes from. As much as 30 percent of U.S. hardwood imports are from suspicious or illegal sources… Illegal logging costs U.S. companies as much as $1 billion a year in lost exports and reduced prices for timber products.

The 2007 Harriette Simpson Arnow Conference on Appalachian Literature and Culture
(April 13-14 at Somerset Community Collegein Somerset, KY) will feature a panel discussion
on the issue of mountaintop removal. The panel will include authors and activists Erik Reece,
Anne Shelby, Gurney Norman,and Father John Rausch.

The theme of this year’s Arnow Conference is
“Weeping for the Cumberlands:Environmentalism in Text and Context.”

For more information, contact Jef Harris at (606) 451-6793 or jeff.harris@kctcs.edu

[Arkansas] University of Arkansas researchers are using cutting-edge spatial technologies to study the aftermath of an insect infestation that has devastated red oak populations in Arkansas and Missouri. By combining this research with field work, they seek patterns that might help explain what trees are vulnerable to infestation, thus helping forestry professionals determine future forest management practices. The red oak borer, a middle-sized, nocturnal brown “long-horned” beetle, lived in relative obscurity in red oak trees in the Ozark Mountains until 1999, when forestry professionals and researchers began noticing oaks dying in droves.

April 12, Columbia, SC, sponsored by South Carolina Association of Consulting Foresters and South Carolina Exotic Plant Pest Council, Category 1 SAF CFE and South Carolina pesticide recertification credits, contact Pat Straka, at 864-647-4889 or pastraka@earthlink.net

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org