Stateforesters

The President's FY13 budget was released this week with funding requests for NASF priority programs. The budget also proposes a new Landscape Scale Restoration line item that formalizes current competitive processes, consolidates the State Fire Assistance program into one budget line item under Wildland Fire Management, and consolidates the Forest Health program into two line items (i.e. Federal Lands and Cooperative Lands) under State and Private Forestry.

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A forester's perspective: In "The Lorax," when the Once-ler cut the first truffula tree and the Lorax appeared from the stump to "speak for the trees," Mr. Once-ler argued: "I chopped just one tree." A better response would have been to present a plan to replace that tree and to know the ecological impact of different harvesting methods. 

Beetle infestation remains a serious threat in Wyoming, and state and national say new levels of cooperation show promise in helping get a handle on the tree-killing insects.

As Idaho's new state forester, David Groeschl's management encompasses the full life cycle of the state's trees - protecting them from flames across 6 million acres of state and private forest lands, addressing diseases that infect them, and occasionally harvesting them.

Dead, red lodgepole pine needles in beetle-infested forests will ignite three times faster than green, living needles according to a recent study that set out to document the flammability of lodgepole pine needles during different stages of pine-beetle attack.

An estimated 5.6 million trees that once shaded homes, streets and parks in communities across Texas now are dead as a result of last year's unrelenting drought. The finding comes from a study conducted by Texas Forest Service urban foresters, who spent the last month surveying tree mortality in cities and towns across the state.

The commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has selected of Forrest Boe as director of the DNR's Forestry Division. Most recently he served as the deputy director of the Parks and Trails Division. Boe succeeds Dave Epperly, who held the post since 2005.

The U.S. Forest Service released its long-awaited strategy last week for replacing its wildfire-fighting fleet of aging heavy air tankers with ones that are newer, faster and more cost-effective. Timing for the transition however is still unclear.

NASF and the Intertribal Timber Council (ITC) recently sent a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to urge the Forest Service to make every effort to improve coordination between states, tribes and the National Forest System. State foresters and tribal leaders have been working closely on forest management issues under a Joint Coordination Committee established for the purpose of facilitating and encouraging communication and cooperation.

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Speaking out against the illegal loggers laying waste to the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth can cost you your life in the "wild west" of Brazil's Amazon forest.

A University of Montana professor wants to connect Montana's depressed timber industry and supply of beetle-kill trees to Haiti's need for raw materials and housing. A campaign, Wood for Haiti, is getting closer to making that goal a reality.

Discovery Channel's program Daily Planet recently featured a story on the experiment the West Virginia Division of Forestry is participating in to explore how unmanned aircraft could help fight wildfires (segment starts at 01:45 min mark).

A recent look at how Montana's logging industry has changed over the years, on the landscape and in the economy. The lessons there are reflected in many other states in the West and across the country.

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell announced recently the selection of agency veteran Daniel Jiron as the new regional forester for the Rocky Mountain Region.

Arkansas State Forester John Shannon has resigned his post as state forester effective close of business Friday, February 10 after a legislative audit concluded the Arkansas Forestry Commission improperly borrowed funds to prop up its strained budget. Mr. Shannon was currently serving as NASF president, and his leadership will be missed by the association and his peers.

When the price of heating oil surged a few years ago, Maine residents turned to wood pellets. At the time, the state had just one pellet-producing plant. Today, there are four with plans on the table to build more. Local loggers provide the wood, Mainers manufacture the pellets and unlike foreign oil, the energy these pellets produce fuels Maine's economy through a more than $11 million federal stimulus program.

"We always throw the rocks at the Forest Service, but to me, we should really be throwing those rocks at Congress to fund it." Barry Noon, a wildlife ecologist at Colorado State University, commenting on the agency's new planning rule. (from E&E Land Letter - subscription required)

The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) officially marked the conclusion of the International Year of Forests on February 9 at UN headquarters in New York.

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The Alabama Tree Recovery Campaign is distributing 30,000 trees in 16 communities in the first phase of an effort to reforest the state's communities damaged in the April 2011 tornados. This large-scale, multi-year initiative was launched jointly in June of last year by the Alabama Forestry Commission and the Arbor Day Foundation.

USDA Natural Resources and Environment Under Secretary Harris Sherman was joined by local schoolchildren and dignitaries for a tree planting next to the USDA's Washington DC headquarters this week in commemoration of Tu B'Shevat, "The New Year of the Trees."