Maryland at Risk for Losing Millions of Trees and Dollars
January 16, 2007 — The Maryland Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources will continue to cut down ash trees in parks and forests this week in Prince George’s County as a strategy to stop an outbreak of the invasive emerald ash borer Read more…
Forestry Has Potential to Raise Landowners' Incomes
January 19, 2007 — Did you know that almost 20 percent of all manufacturing firms located in North Carolina use forest products in their manufacturing process? Did you know that North Carolina leads the nation in the value of furniture shipments? Did you know that the forest products industry ranks second as an industrial employer in North Carolina? Did you know that almost $22 million worth of forest products were sold from Robeson County forests last year, with 80 percent of this coming from privately owned forest? Read more…
Senior Forester Attends Appalachian Society of American Foresters Conference
January 26, 2007 — Senior forester, Bradley J. Rawlings, attended the 2007 winter conference of the Appalachian Society of American Foresters (APSAF) held in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Read more…
Owen Named as State Forester
January 30, 2007 — Wib Owen has been named as the new director for the N.C. Division of Forest Resources and will begin his duties Feb. 1 Read more…
Johanns Unveils 2007 Farm Bill Proposals
January 31, 2007 — Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today unveiled the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2007 farm bill proposals. The more than 65 proposals correspond to the 2002 farm bill titles with additional special focus areas, including specialty crops, beginning farmers and ranchers, and socially disadvantaged producers Read more…
New Informational Brochure Available
February 16, 2007 — Rawlings Consulting Forestry announces a new, full color, photo quality, informational brochure listing the most frequently requested forestry services, five of which are highlighted on the interior of the brochure. The back panel of the brochure emphasizes the free, noncommercial forestry outreach services we provide including North Carolina's largest online publications library. Read more…
Rawlings Consulting Forestry Sponsors Winter Edition of NCWoodlands Review
February 19, 2007 — Rawlings Consulting Forestry is providing full sponsorship for the 2007 Winter Edition of NCWoodlands Review, the official newsletter of NCWoodlands. NCWoodlands is an independent grassroots non-profit organization that provides its members with a voice on national, state, and local issues affecting North Carolina’s private woodlands. Read more…
Study Calls for New Approach to Combat Invasive Species
February 21, 2007 — A Nature Conservancy study to be released today examines the disastrous toll that non-native insects and plant diseases are taking on U.S. forests, and calls for a significant change of approach in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s efforts to prevent new invasions Read more…
Dangerous Wildfire Conditions Persist In North Carolina
February 23, 2007 — Officials with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources are discouraging people from burning yard vegetation because dry, windy conditions have increased the potential for dangerous wildfires. Read more…
Hamilton Joins NCWoodlands as Policy Advisor
March 1, 2007 — NCWoodlands is pleased to announce that Rick Hamilton has been named Policy Advisor by its board of directors. Hamilton recently retired as leader of NC State University’s Extension Forestry Department after a 30 year career with the Cooperative Extension Service. Read more…
Carolina Raptor Center & UNC Charlotte: Eagle Tracking Project
March 11, 2007 — The UNC Charlotte Center for Applied Geographic Information Science (CAGIS) has recently undertaken a project with Carolina Raptor Center (CRC) to develop a web based application to track the location of two bald eagles released last spring. The web site allows researchers and the general public to view the current location and migration paths of the eagles. Read more…
Canadian Company Invents Underwater Logging Machine
March 15, 2007 — Deep beneath the inky waters of British Columbia's largest hydro reservoirs lurks a startling sight: vast submerged plains filled with silent forests of Douglas fir, hemlock and lodgepole pine. Drowned beneath as much as 250 metres of frigid water, the trees have for decades sat in a deathly blackness, cloaked against rot and mould by the cold, oxygen-poor waters. Mysterious and largely unknown, the forests are nonetheless a potentially lucrative resource Read more…
Employee Jacob (Jake) Harley Rawlings Featured In Painting By Artist Susan Brabeau
March 19, 2007 — Professional artist Susan Brabeau has completed a painting titled "Coloring with Jake" featuring Rawlings Consulting Forestry employee Jacob (Jake) Harley Rawlings at 10 weeks of age. The 18 inch by 24 inch original art work features a blonde haired, pig-tailed child lying on the floor while coloring in a book with the assistance of Jake, who finds chewing on the crayons more entertaining. Read more…
Natural Resource Protection Cooperative Agreement Act Passes in the House
March 20, 2007 — Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 658, the Natural Resource Protection Cooperative Agreement Act, by an overwhelming margin of 390-10. The Nature Conservancy applauds this legislation, spearheaded by Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV). The measure additionally received the strong support of Natural Resources Committee for National Parks and Forests, Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), and Ranking Member Robert Bishop (R-UT). Read more…
World's First Tree Reconstructed
April 18, 2007 — Earth's oldest known tree stood nearly 30 feet tall and looked like a modern palm, a new reconstruction shows. Workers uncovered hundreds of upright stumps of the 385 million-year-old tree more than a century ago, after a flash flood in Gilboa, New York uncovered them, but little else was known about the tree's appearance. Then, in 2004, scientists unearthed a 400-pound fossilized top-or crown-of the same genus a few miles away. The following summer, the same team discovered fragments of a 28-foot trunk. Piecing together stump, trunk and crown now reveals what the full tree looked like for the first time Read more…
State Trust Fund Awards $12.3 Million For Significant Natural Heritage Sites
April 25, 2007 — Trustees with the N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund have awarded $12.3 million to help the state preserve more than 6,800 acres of some of North Carolina’s most culturally and ecologically significant land. Read more…
Parts Of Western North Carolina Now Enduring Severe Drought
April 26, 2007 — State and federal officials say a lack of significant rainfall in recent months has thrust the westernmost parts of North Carolina into severe drought. At the recommendation of state drought officials, experts with the U.S. Drought Monitor announced Thursday that Clay, Graham, Cherokee and parts of Swain and Macon counties are in a severe hydrological drought. Most of the rest of western North Carolina continues to experience a moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions, said Woody Yonts, chairman of the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council, the body of state experts who made this week’s recommendation. Read more…
Society of American Foresters Releases “The State of America’s Forests” Report
May 1, 2007 — The Society of American Foresters has published the most comprehensive, definitive report of facts and data about US forestlands. This report is available online at www.safnet.org and is a free resource to the public. “We believe one of our responsibilities as a professional society is to make credible forestry information available to the public in an understandable and readable format,” says Michael Goergen, Executive Vice-President of the Society of American Foresters. “We all have a responsibility for the future of our forests.” The report states that the United States ranks fourth on the list of most forest-rich countries, Read more…
Burned Timber = Burned Cash
May 12, 2007 — Tax revenue to help fund government, schools and public services in Ware and Charlton counties is going up in smoke as wildfires destroy timber worth millions of dollars. "It's going to have a long-term economic impact," Ware County Manager Gail Boyd said. "There is going to be a lot less timber here to sell in the next 10 to 15 years. So it's definitely going to have an effect on our tax base." Ware and neighboring Charlton County are among the most heavily forested counties in Southeast Georgia. Read more…
Bald Eagle Numbers Soaring
May 14, 2007 — The Fish and Wildlife Service today announced results showing the largest population of breeding bald eagles in the U.S. since World War II. Bald eagles in the lower 48 states have climbed from an all-time low of 417 nesting pairs in 1963 to an estimated new high of 9,789 breeding pairs today Read more…
Forestry Officials Say the "New Kudzu" Has Hit SC
May 16, 2007 — South Carolina Forestry Commission researchers are warning all South Carolinians of an invasive plant species thought to pose a greater threat to the American Southeast than kudzu. The species is called Cogongrass, and scientists say the plant is not good for South Carolina. Laurie Reid, a forest insect and disease scientist working out of the SCFC's Columbia office said, "There seems to be no redeeming qualities to this plant ecologically." Cogongrass is known to spread aggressively, choking out virtually all other plant species Read more…
USDA Provides Nearly $35 Million to Fund Wetlands Reserve Program Special Projects
May 16, 2007 — Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner today announced that 11 states will receive nearly $35 million in fiscal year 2007 to fund 12 special projects designed to protect threatened and endangered species and enhance wildlife habitat on wetlands. Read more…
Billions in forest damage caused by campers transporting insect-infested firewood
May 24, 2007 — Foresters across the country have a message for campers: leave the firewood at home. That's because officials say transporting firewood to the campsite lets tree-killing insects into the woods, contributing to billions of dollars in damage and needless work each year. Officials are instead advising campers to get firewood at or near their destinations. Read more…
Teamwork holds wildfires in check
May 25, 2007 — The N.C. Forest Service, along with more than a dozen fire departments and emergency management crews, battled a smoldering wildfire in Pender County that started Wednesday, then headed off a woods fire in Brunswick County. The forest service's CL-215 Superscooper plane plus three Dromader planes were diverted from Pender County's estimated 650-acre wildfire in Holly Shelter Game Land for a few hours starting about 1 p.m. to tackle the Brunswick County burn Read more…
Firefighters Challenged By Pender County Blaze
May 25, 2007 — The Pender County wildfire is still getting the better of firefighters. The state forestry department has been strategizing tonight about how best to attack the fire now. State officials say this is the biggest fire they've been asked to help fight in the area for more than ten years. The state is developing a plan of attack. One challenge: equipment has gotten stuck in the muck. Firefighters are directing their attention to getting firefighting equipment back up in operation and continuing to battle the blaze. Read more…
Burning ban back in effect
May 25, 2007 — An outdoor burning ban was reinstated Friday for Brunswick County, a day after firefighters brought a potentially destructive fire under control in Winnabow. Meanwhile, in Pender County, two teenagers were charged with starting the 584-acre fire that continued to burn Friday in the Holly Shelter Game Land in Hampstead. Read more…
For Some Investors, Money Grows on Trees
May 27, 2007 — WHEN a tree falls in a forest, chances are that it can be heard all the way to Wall Street, and throughout other financial circles as well. Once the exclusive province of businesses and individual landowners, timberland is being held increasingly by big institutions — from pension funds and university endowments to private funds and real estate investment trusts — that are looking for new ways to diversify their investments. According to industry estimates, Read more…
Blue Licks residents report slippery elm bark theft
May 28, 2007 — Thieves allegedly filling a demand for a natural home remedy have struck local woodlands. Slippery elm bark was stripped from about 100 trees on at least two Blue Licks properties, recently. Read more…
In Tennessee, Goats Eat the ‘Vine That Ate the South’
June 5, 2007 — Summer is settling onto Missionary Ridge overlooking this southeast Tennessee city. Swallows glide on the warm breeze rustling the hackberry trees, kudzu vines sprout along the hillside and the goats are back at work. Chattanooga’s goats have become unofficial city mascots since the Public Works Department decided last year to let them roam a city-owned section of the ridge to nibble the kudzu Read more…
Family Forestry
June 14, 2007 — There is a crisis brewing in America’s vast forest lands, but it has little to do with the health of the woods: the acreage is essentially the same as it was a century ago, and there is over 30 percent more wood volume per acre than in 1952. At stake are large tracts of private forest that are at risk of falling into mismanagement, subdivision or being sold for development. “It’s a ticking time bomb” said Brett J. Butler, a research forester with the United States Forest Service Family Forest Research Center Read more…
Maples falling victim to backwoods thieves
June 14, 2007 — The crime occurred far back in the woods, off a dead-end gravel road where no one would hear the fatal cut or see the victim fall. It wouldn't be discovered until Mason County Sheriff's Deputy Ted Drogmun came upon a path in the underbrush while patrolling the forest Read more…
Prison power plant fires up next month (Wood Powered)
June 15, 2007 — The wood-fired power plant that will eliminate nearly all of Northern Nevada Correctional Center's utility bills should go on line in July. NNCC Facilities Manager Dave Long said the plant, which will provide both heat and electric power to the prison, is 95 percent complete Read more…
Pulp supplies could be hit as timber strike moves closer in Canada
June 15, 2007 — Looming strike action in the Canadian timber industry could disrupt supplies to the North American pulp and paper industry this summer. Loggers and sawmill workers in the Canadian province of British Columbia are preparing for a possible strike after talks broke down with between their union and the biggest employers' group. Read more…
First cellulosic ethanol plant to open
July 3, 2007 — The race is on to try to open the first large-scale cellulosic ethanol plant. Range Fuels on Monday is expected to announce that it has received a permit to build an ethanol production plant in rural Georgia that uses wood chips as its feedstock. It plans to break ground on the plant this summer. Read more…
Public Hearings Scheduled On Draft Jordan Lake Nutrient Control Strategy
July 3, 2007 — Three hearings are scheduled in July to collect public comments on the proposed water supply nutrient strategy for communities in the B. Everett Jordan Reservoir watershed. The hearings will be held at the following times and locations…. Read more…
Hart closes $450m Blue Ridge deal
July 17, 2007 — Billionaire Graeme Hart has further expanded his paper and packaging empire, paying US$338 million ($449 million) to buy North Carolina-based Blue Ridge Paper Products. Read more…
Employee Jacob (Jake) Harley Rawlings Promoted
July 17, 2007 — Rawlings Consulting Forestry is pleased to announce the promotion of Jacob (Jake) Harley Rawlings to the full position of Small Game Inventory Specialist. Read more…
Super scooper firefighter plane heads for retirement
July 26, 2007 — The sound of the Canadair CL-215 air tanker was music to Cathy Wallace's ears. She watched in April from U.S. 17 in Hampstead as wildfire threatened her Buckshot Road home. Hearing the hum of the plane's engines overhead put her mind at ease because she knew with the tanker dumping water on the fire, it would soon be contained. "The plane meant the nightmare I was living would be over soon," Wallace said. "I was able to relax a little bit just knowing the plane was doing its job." Read more…
Preliminary State Data from 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-associated Recreation Survey Available
August 9, 2007 — According to preliminary state-by-state data from the new 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, Montanans were on average most likely to hunt, Alaskans and Minnesotans were most likely to fish; and residents of Maine are most likely to observe, photograph or feed wildlife, during 2006. In terms of total numbers, Texas led the nation with 1.1 million residents hunting at some point during the year, while Florida led in total fishing participation with 2.8 million anglers. California saw 6.2 million of its residents observe wildlife in 2006. Read more…
Bladen County Lumber Company Fire
August 18, 2007 — Investigators are working to figure how much money was lost after a Thursday night fire in Bladen County. The fire started around 6 p.m. on Thursday Read more…
Logging machines worth thousands destroyed by arson
August 22, 2007 — Four members of a logging crew are out of work this week because someone burned two tractors in Croatan National Forest. The tractors belonged to Jack Temple of Temple Point Road outside Havelock. Temple, an independent logger, said he couldn’t put his crew back to work until he could get more equipment. He said his crew had been working off Catfish Lake Road on Ives Field Road for about seven weeks thinning a plantation of trees. Around 10 a.m. Sunday, a passing driver saw flames coming from the area and called fire officials. Read more…
Japan eyes chopsticks for biofuel
August 23, 2007 — Japan will try to turn the millions of wooden chopsticks that go discarded each year into biofuel to ease the country's energy shortage, officials said Wednesday. Read more…
Tree health vulnerable during drought
September 4, 2007 — Sounds of crickets and wildlife and the mountain view off Lake Chatuge served as a relaxing release for the volunteers at the United Methodist Missions Center at the end of a long work day. Situated in the town of Hayesville in Western North Carolina, the missions center welcomed volunteers in the summer to devote their time and labor with help from staff members like Brittany Johnson, a junior in biomedical engineering. But as volunteers from years past returned to the center, they noticed something different — Lake Chatuge was slowly getting more shallow as the summer drought took its toll. As water restrictions tighten and water levels drop farther, the green colors of the maples, oaks and beeches the volunteers at the center enjoyed over the summer will fade to brown before changing to their fiery oranges and yellows, according to associate professor of forestry Robert Bardon. Read more…
First-ever tree ordinance approved by planning board (Wrightsville Beach)
September 6, 2007 — The planning board voted to approve the first-ever tree ordinance for Wrightsville Beach on Tuesday. The board voted 5-1, with Clayton Holmes in opposition and Bill Blair absent due to illness. The ordinance will now go to the board of aldermen for review with the recommended changes on Sept. 27. In the ordinance, live oaks and eastern red cedars are protected at 8 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH) and higher. “(The ordinance is designed) to protect these larger trees Read more…
County fights burning offenders
September 7, 2007 — Cabarrus County officials say some people are disregarding a statewide burning ban that's been in effect for the past two weeks. The fire marshal is emphasizing enforcement and penalties on people who continue to burn. Fire officials say all the elements are in place to fuel wildfires, so open fires are banned and all burning permits are void. Read more…
Croatan National Forest looks green, but it is awfully dry
September 9, 2007 — Croatan National Forest may still look green but “it is so dry the ditches are all dry, the swamps are all dry, and the crops are burning up in the fields,” said Johnny Morris, a forest technician. Read more…
Tembec pulls lumber off market
September 17, 2007 — Amid diving lumber prices and a soaring loonie, Tembec Inc. yesterday pulled all of its lumber out of the North American marketplace, saying the "market is too low" to do business. The move, say industry analysts, points to lumber-industry turmoil, the crises in Canada's forestry sector and the promise of sawmill closings soon. Read more…
Brunswick County brush fire erupts days after burning ban lift
September 25, 2007 — Just days after the state lifted its burning ban a brush fire swept through about 50 acres of forest in Brunswick County. Investigators say the fire started Read more…
U.S. 70 project might help with wetland area (Claridge Nursery)
September 27, 2007 — A piece of the planned U.S. 70 bypass around Goldsboro would cut through Claridge State Nursery, where millions of tree seedlings are produced each year. But the "credits" that N.C. Department of Transportation needs to make up for the road's environmental impact might actually improve tree growing there, a state hydrologist says. N.C. Division of Forest Resources hydrologist Bill Swartley says the bypass will be tied to a $2.5- to $3-million project that will re-hydrate wetlands and restore more than 10,000 linear feet of a stream called "The Canal." Read more…
Neighbor charged in timber theft
October 3, 2007 — A Rosewood area man is accused of cutting down $250,000 worth of a neighbor's trees and selling some of the timber, authorities say. Don Twiggs, 54, Howell Road, Goldsboro, is charged with obtaining property by false pretenses, Wayne County Sheriff's Capt. Tom Effler said. Twiggs first came in contact with William Cotton, also of the Rosewood area, to ask if he could buy the timber, Effler said. When Cotton told Twiggs he had plans to sell the timber to someone else, Twiggs found another method of getting it — cutting down the trees on the 47-acre property himself Read more…
Easley calls drought unprecedented, bans burning
October 15, 2007 — The state has reinstated an open burning ban, amid a call by Gov. Mike Easley for North Carolinians to stop watering their lawns and washing their cars to fight a prolonged drought. The ban, which went into effect at 1 p.m. Monday, will be in effect until further notice, according to the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. All burning permits are also canceled. Dry weather conditions and depleted water resources statewide have forced the state to initiate a ban for the second time this year. Read more…
South Carolina Tree Farmer Johney Haralson Named 2007 Southern Regional Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year
October 17, 2007 — The American Tree Farm SystemÒ (ATFS), a program of the American Forest Foundation, has named Johney Haralson of Bamberg County, S.C. as the 2007 Southern Regional Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year. Haralson received the award during the National Tree Farmer Convention held in Madison, Wis. This annual ATFS award recognizes outstanding sustainable forest management on privately owned forestland. Read more…
College of Natural Resources Open House 2007
October 20, 2007 — Opportunities as Big as the Great Outdoors! The CNR Open House will follow the NC State Open House scheduled from 9am to 1pm. Join us if you are interested in learning more about any of the following exciting academic and career opportunities… Forest Management Environmental Forensics Wood Chemistry Wildlife Sport Management Tourism Paper Science & Engineering Professional Golf Management Environmental Technology Fisheries Geographic Information Science and so much more! Read more…
NC Forestry Officials Say Burn Ban Still In Place Despite Rain
October 26, 2007 — Today North Carolina Forestry Officials want you to know that there is "still" a burn ban in place in the state. Read more…
Through Genetics, Tapping a Tree’s Potential as a Source of Energy
November 20, 2007 — It might be true that “only God can make a tree,” as the poet Joyce Kilmer wrote. But genetic engineers can fundamentally redesign them. Aiming to turn trees into new energy sources, scientists are using a controversial genetic engineering process to change the composition of the wood. A major goal is to reduce the amount of lignin, a chemical compound that interferes with efforts to turn the tree’s cellulose into biofuels like ethanol. Read more…
Lari’s Established and Beginning to Save the Hemlocks
November 26, 2007 — Entomologists, or bug doctors, have used biocontrols for 100 years to control invasive pests across the world. According to Dr. Richard McDonald—entomologist, sole proprietor of Symbiont Pest Management, regular contributor to the High Country Press’s series on the hemlock wooly adelgid and former biocontrol administrator of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture—the history of biocontrols shows that if entomologists introduce an insect in an area to control invasive pests and then find it in increasing numbers for three consecutive years, then the biocontrol is established. Read more…
This old pine records climate
December 3, 2007 — Graduate student Jason Ortegren's research project features a 459-year-old window that looks back on the past not through glass, but through wood. Living wood. As part of his research at UNCG, Ortegren and geography professor Paul Knapp have discovered what might be the oldest living longleaf pine in North America, which is to say the oldest in the world. Read more…
Student Discovers World’s Oldest Known Living Longleaf Pine Tree
December 5, 2007 — To the untrained eye, it may not look like the most impressive tree in the forest, but at 459 years old or older, a Longleaf Pine tree discovered by a graduate student in the geography department could offer scientists a trove of information about centuries of drought cycles. Read more…
Prototype biomass harvester devours small trees, underbrush
December 20, 2007 — The prototype of a new machine to harvest forest underbrush for use as fuel had its first public demonstration Wednesday in woods east of New Bern. About 50 people in hard hats watched as the machine gobbled trees in the forest off County Line Road. Those watching the one-of-a-kind bush eater represented the gamut of public and private forest-related industries and service in North Carolina. The big red processor, pushed by a tractor on treads, uses carbide teeth Read more…