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News archives

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Biomass study shows forest can handle harvest
Cutting small trees and brush for energy can be done without harming Minnesota’s northern forests, but the cost to do the work may be more than the profit. That’s the finding of the first comprehensive study of the environmental effects and economics of cutting woody biomass. Researchers looke... Continued...

Study: Removing biomass does no harm and prevents fires (MN)
Things are changing in the woods. In the past, loggers would cut down trees, and take the trunks to the sawmills and pulp mills, and leave the tree tops and branches on the ground to rot and feed the soil, to support the next generation of trees. About a year and a half ago, the Iron Range citie... Continued...

Minnesota Study Finds Potential Benefits from Forest Biomass
Harvesting biomass - the shrubs, small trees and branches in a forest - can reduce fire prevention and management costs, offer work for loggers and provide "fuel" for renewable energy, according to new research performed in Minnesota. Don Arnosti, forest program director for the Institute for Agr... Continued...

100 Years of Experimental Forests (U.S.)
Since humans first set foot on American soil about 15,000 years ago, forest management has been a way of life. These Asian immigrants brought with them a vast knowledge of ways to manipulate forests (including the use of fire) and make them a source of food, shelter, medicine, bedding, tools, weapon... Continued...

SAFE for Bears and Landowners (MS)
On June 23, Mississippi landowners can earn incentives by enrolling eligible cropland in a new program called SAFE designed to restore habitat for the federally protected black bear. Back in January, Mississippi was granted funding to restore 7,950 acres of black bear habitat through the State A... Continued...

Dead trees are dangerous trees (CO)
The stacks of firewood piled at Gold Park Campground used to be tall, ready-to fall lodgepole pine trees towering over campers. Walk around the campground, nestled against Homestake Creek, and it still looks nice, but you can see the blue-marked stumps where trees used to be. The forest was espec... Continued...

Leases to allow capture and use of methane from coal mines (CO)
Methane gas that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere from local coal mines might now be captured through newly created lease terms. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management drafted these stipulations, as part of their oil and gas lease sale, to allow for the capture and use of m... Continued...

California's Redwood highway
If you want perspective to smack you up the side of the head, go to the redwoods. No, smack isn't the right word. The trees that seem to rocket out of sight don't offer a rude awakening, but a gentle, beautiful reminder. Life is shorter than you imagine. Mountains may be forever. But redwoods are... Continued...

Timber auction latest sign of slowdown (MN)
Record high fuel prices and the long-term shutdown of the Ainsworth plant near Cook have significantly reduced demand for timber stumpage in northern St. Louis County. The Department of Natural Resources’ timber auction in Orr earlier this month was just the latest sign of uncertainty in the tro... Continued...

Court gives feds 'road map' for future logging (OR)
A federal appeals court has upheld the U.S. Forest Service's authority to decide whether a tree is likely to die soon after a forest fire. But it ordered the agency to take a closer look at whether they should log at all after fires in small roadless areas -- parts of forests that have never been lo... Continued...

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Seal of Approval (U.S.)
Blaine Puller did not submit to forest certification willingly. In 1993, he was the forest manager for the Kane Hardwood division of Collins Pine Company, overseeing 127,000 acres of hardwood forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. After seventeen years of working for the company, he was not happy to h... Continued...

Wilderness area picked for study on climate (AL)
A federally protected forest in West Alabama eventually could help scientists document and predict the ecological effects of climate change across the continent. If approved by Congress, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) project will place 20 data collection centers at various sp... Continued...

Researchers confirm age of "Methuselah" tree (Israel)
Israeli researchers who grew a sapling from a date seed found at the ancient fortress Masada said on Thursday the seed was about 2,000 years old and may help restore a species of biblical trees. Carbon dating confirmed that the seed -- named Methuselah after the oldest person in the bible -- was ... Continued...

More Oregonians are buying small woodlands, discovering it's hard work
When yoga instructor Olaf Kalfas and his wife, Nina, bought a wooded homestead in Jackson County two years ago, he had no idea how to use a chain saw. Kalfas, 41, certainly didn't consider himself a forester. Now you can find him most days in a four-wheeler, Stihl saw strapped to the back, drivi... Continued...

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Nature laid waste: The destruction of Africa
It was long shrouded in mystery, called "the Dark Continent" by Europeans in awe of its massive size and impenetrable depths. Then its wondrous natural riches were revealed to the world. Now a third image of Africa and its environment is being laid before us – one of destruction on a vast and distur... Continued...

Green Garden Furniture Goes Mainstream - New Ratings Just Released (U.S.)
As Americans begin gearing up for the warm summer months they will discover an increase in environmentally-friendly garden furniture in many familiar stores. According to a National Wildlife Federation survey of major outdoor furniture retailers, consumers can expect to find a wider variety of style... Continued...

Hemlock Beetle Battle (TN)
While the sap-sucking woolly adelgid is laying waste to eastern and Carolina hemlocks in the forests of Southern Appalachia at an alarming pace, scientists at the Lindsay Young Beneficial Insects Laboratory at the University of Tennessee are working just as furiously to produce predator bugs that ca... Continued...

Alabama plant to begin producing ethanol from waste wood
In a cavernous, abandoned lumber mill in the Black Belt, a small team of engineers and technicians is assembling a demonstration plant that, as early as this month, will start turning wood scraps into ethanol. The plant would be one of the first in the country to use a technology called gasifica... Continued...

From beetles to bucks (CO)
Citizens here are turning dead lodgepole pines into pencils and pens, log homes, furniture, pellet fuel and more - hoping to make a buck and avert a potential disaster. Residents fret that millions of beetle- kill pines in the nearby hills and mountains could explode into a fire that destroys the... Continued...

Bill sells Superior National Forest land to Polymet (MN)
Legislation in the U.S. House would sell 6,700 acres in the Superior National Forest to the Polymet copper company without an environmental assessment or public input. The federal land is precisely where the company hopes to mine for copper, nickel, platinum and palladium as early as next year. ... Continued...