Are the timber wars over in Canada? That seems to be the gist of this story today from the Montreal Gazette. According to the article, the Canadian timber industry has brokered a deal with leading environmental groups, including Greenpeace, that may allow both parties to move forward without conflict. The deal goes like this: Canada’s timber companies promise to stop … Read More

Biomass plants are being built or planned around the U.S., and they provide a valuable economic and environmental outlet for the wood waste that is left behind from forestry. Biomass has received plenty of key endorsements from officials on the federal level as well as from many states — political leaders who are looking for cleaner energy sources than coal. … Read More

The mountain pine beetle infestation that has hit Western forests has been devastating.  The beetle has killed millions of acres of trees in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington and is the worst infestation in nearly 30 years. Just this week, a U.S. regional forester told the U.S. House Agriculture Committee that some national forests in Colorado and … Read More

What gets lost sometimes in the debate over forest management is the importance of fire in the health of our forests. Just in the last couple days, two articles were published that illuminate this point very clearly. First off, great news out of the Sierra Nevada region of California: a state agency is working toward a plan to thin forests … Read More

A month ago, we wrote about how things seem to be turning around economically for the timber industry. Of course, there are still many challenges, but now that we’re starting to recover from the recession, timber prices and demand are going up. And now there are more postive signs. West Fraser Timber Co., one of Canada’s largest timber firms, just … Read More

Last week we wrote about the radical manuever by state officials in Massachusetts to more than quadruple the amount of state forestland that is off-limits to harvest. Now we are hearing about the consequences of that decision. The Boston Globe just wrote a compelling story about the plight of Massachusetts loggers now that the new policy has been approved. The … Read More

Massachusetts and Oregon both made major decisions this week on how much of their state-owned forests should be open to harvest. What unfolded is an interesting tale of the contrasting perspectives that different states — and different regions of the country — have on the timber industry. The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation announced a plan that will quadruple … Read More

The current economic state of logging communities across the West varies depending on several factors, but the poor economy certainly isn’t doing any favors. Recently news has come out about two logging communities on the West Coast: the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and Mackenzie, British Columbia. What is clear from this Los Angeles Times story on a possible timber … Read More

This has been a good week for biomass.  First, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski voiced his support for biomass in a speech at University of Oregon. And then a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced the American Renewable Biomass Heating Act, which would create a 30 percent tax credit for industrial-scale biomass heaters. According to BusinessGreen, here is what Charlie Niebling, … Read More

Earlier this month, Michael T. Goergen Jr. with the Society of American Foresters wrote a well-argued op-ed in the Seattle Times supporting the idea that Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) wood products should be included as part of U.S. green building standards. And today, the Times ran a response from one of the environmental advocates on the other side of the … Read More