[Kentucky] A 2003 Virginia Tech University study showed that landowners lose more than $4 million to dodgy loggers in the poor but hardwood-rich Appalachian states. South Carolina forestry experts estimate that about $10 million is lost in that state alone. Regional experts estimate the amount lost nationally is more than $160 million. But because timber theft is rarely reported, those numbers are likely low. Tree theft is a growing problem in large part because few rogue loggers are caught and even fewer are prosecuted.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

The Forest Guild created this online resource center to help define and promote ecological forestry. The ecological forestry resource center provides web-based access to the tools foresters and affiliated professionals need to practice sound management and is intended to serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas and practices. The resource center brings together scientific research, management tools, networks of other ecological organizations, and the shared professional wisdom of Guild foresters. The resource center is intended to be an online “field manual” for ecological forestry, with chapters dedicated to the overall philosophy, values, and practice; as well as guides on specific ecoregions across the country.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

The timberland picture in the U. S. has changed dramatically during the past decade and clearly will continue to do so. The objective of this site is to monitor those changes and to think through their implications. Are the changes good or bad and who gets to determine what good is? As timberland shifts from industrial ownership to TIMOs, what are the implications? As TIMOs dispose of land, what are the implications?

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Oregon] Owners of some timberlands surrounding the Portland area have done their best to go green… But until this year, most of those timber owners …lacked an outlet to consumers willing to spend more for wood harvested under strict environmental standards. The struggle to build a connection between supply and demand for environmental lumber is emblematic of the obstacles facing the green building industry. The FSC-certified lumber market has had a boost from national and regional green building programs… The transformation of trees from eco-friendly forests into eco-friendly home improvement products requires extensive tracking and participation from every element of the lumber supply chain to meet the stewardship council standards. Timberland owners, sawmills, lumberyards and builder-developers must all be involved. Closing gaps in the system is the key to making it all work.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

[California] Plan-It Hardware and Friedman’s Home Improvement have announced the introduction of the new Green It Yourself campaign in the three Friedman’s stores in Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Ukiah. The company selected hundreds of products that offer the greenest option in many hardware categories including paints, lawn-and-garden, housewares and cleaners, plumbing, and lighting. Selecting green and sustainable products has become easier thanks to a growing number of independent third-party certification organizations whose expertise Plan-It Hardware respects. The Forest Stewardship Council (www.fsc.org) approves lumber and wood products coming from sustainably managed forests.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Colorado] Aspen Skiing Co. is removing all Kimberly-Clark products from its resorts, hotels and restaurants because of Kimberly-Clark’s sustainable forestry practices, the company said in a letter to Greenpeace. In the letter, the company said it was switching to other paper tissue suppliers, “whose operations are more environmentally sound.” “Businesses and the public alike are making the right decision to use products from companies that are not destroying our last remaining forests,” said Greenpeace spokeswoman Ginger Cassady in a prepared statement.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

Forestland Evaluation and Site Assessment (FLESA) provides communities with the tools to assess their forest resources, identify local values and goals, and better integrate natural resources into economic development strategies and planning in relation to the larger landscape.

[Arkansas] “For years and years people didn’t — and some people still don’t — realize the value of cedar on their land,” Mark Starnes told Ozark Woodland Owners Association members recently at Ozarka College in Melbourne. A specialty market exists in which some particularly good trees may be sold by the tree for high prices, Starnes said. An example of specialty cedar use is decorative fencing. Cedar is also used for logs for log homes. Various lengths of logs are used for such homes, so a log does not have to be particularly long to be used in that market.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Louisiana] The Louisiana Mississippi Watershed Project (LMWP) — a cooperative effort of the Forest Service, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Louisiana Forestry Association — is aimed at restoring some of the hardwood forests in the delta region. The project, made possible by a federal grant administered by the Forest Service, is very similar in purpose to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), but is structured differently. Like CREP, the goal is to re-plant neglected or marginal farmland with native flora. Unlike CREP, where farmers can plant native grasses or pine trees, the LMWP only plants native hardwood trees.

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www.southernsustainableforests.org

[Virginia] Timber remains by far the highest-value agricultural natural resource harvested in Virginia, according to a new Department of Forestry report. Raw timber is harvested annually in Virginia at a value of about $928 million. That compares with an annual value of $732 million in poultry and eggs and $386 million in field crops. The report said the forestry industry employed more people than any manufacturing sector, though it has lost jobs over the past five years. Virginia’s forests also annually store 4.68 million tons of carbon and remove 17.16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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

[Virginia] Timber remains by far the highest-value agricultural natural resource harvested in Virginia, according to a new Department of Forestry report. Raw timber is harvested annually in Virginia at a value of about $928 million. That compares with an annual value of $732 million in poultry and eggs and $386 million in field crops. The report said the forestry industry employed more people than any manufacturing sector, though it has lost jobs over the past five years. Virginia’s forests also annually store 4.68 million tons of carbon and remove 17.16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

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

A CD-ROM version of the popular book Forest Plants of the Southeast and Their Wildlife Uses co-authored by Southern Research Station scientist James H. Miller and Karl V. Miller of the University of Georgia is now available. This CD-ROM version of the award- winning book is designed as a reference and educational resource for a wide-ranging audience. The CD ($50) and book ($36) are available from the Southern Weed Science Society

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