One Voice blog
More thinning on the way in federal forestsFebruary 3rd, 2012 by One Voice Moderator
Just days after announcing new management rules for federal forests, the U.S. Forest Service said it was undergoing an ambitious series of 20 forest management and thinning projects around the country. The two Washington projects are in the Colville National Forest and the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. What's notable, according to KPLU Radio, is that the Forest Service is devoting millions to existing public-private partnerships that emphasize cooperation, rather than projects that have yet to get off the ground or that don't have a wide variety of stakeholders. (Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack) announced a new round of ...
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New forest laws debated on federal, state levelJanuary 27th, 2012 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Forest Service just unveiled new management rules for federal forestland that its says will allow for faster approval of forest plans and preserve jobs in timber communities. The Forest Service also hopes that the rules - with their focus on multiple uses for the forests and cooperation between various interest groups - will hold up to lawsuits. Vilsack, who has pledged to break through the logjam of political conflict over forest management, said the new regulation's emphasis on science and multiple uses should allow it to stand up to likely court challenges from environmental groups or ...
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Biomass surges in WashingtonJanuary 20th, 2012 by One Voice Moderator
It's been a good week for biomass in Washington. Biomass plants in Port Angeles and Longview received positive news, and a state lawmaker introduced a bill that would ensure the financial stability of biomass plants in the future. The good news began when a plant in Port Angeles planned by Nippon Paper Industries USA won an appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board. The victory is significant because it helps pave the way for the plant, already under construction, to operate upon completion in 2013. The victory also marks another failure for a large coalition of environmental groups -- Protect the ...
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Mount St. Helens guides federal timber projectsJanuary 13th, 2012 by One Voice Moderator
A series of pilot projects on federal timberland, led by retired professors from University of Washington and Oregon State University, is now taking some lessons from Mount St. Helens. The projects, which we wrote about last year, could be an important step toward bridging the gap between the concerns of timber companies and environmental groups. The latest U.S. Bureau of Land Management project involves a stand of 110-year-old Douglas firs near Myrtle Creek in Roseburg, Ore. About 60 percent of the trees would be sold for harvest, with the other 40 percent left untouched. Steven Lydick, a field ...
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SFI scores victories and momentumJanuary 6th, 2012 by One Voice Moderator
Last we checked on the Sustainable Forestry Initiative-Forest Stewardship Council (SFI-FSC) debate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had just chosen domestic wood as a preferred material for new construction, and the Forest Service said it would promote not just the LEED building standard but also Green Globes and the National Green Building Standard, both of which recognize SFI. The victories continue (as one can see in this SFI graphic), the latest being in Maine. Gov. Paul LePage recently signed an executive order that said new state buildings must use only green building standards that give ...
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Waiting on Congress to actDecember 22nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
If there was ever a time for the timber industry to be closely watching Congress, it is now. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would have massive importance on two issues of paramount concern to the industry: the Ninth Circuit decision on logging roads and the end of federal payments to timber-dependent counties in Oregon and Washington. Early word is encouraging on one of the issues and much less certain on the other. President Obama just signed an omnibus spending bill that includes a one-year delay in the implementation of the Ninth Circuit decision. The delay ...
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U.S. and Canada joust over timber futureDecember 16th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. and Canada haven't been exactly buddy-buddy in recent years when it comes the lumber market. Certainly the economic downturn hasn't helped matters, since there has been less market share to go around. But there could be some brighter days ahead.
Both countries are likely to extend their softwood lumber trade agreement from 2013 until 2015, according to U.S. and Canadian media. Of course, this doesn't mean that either country is happy. The U.S., rightfully so, has repeatedly accused the Canada government of violating the agreement by providing new subsidies to its timber, while Canada Post a Comment
December 12th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Supreme Court today signaled it may hear a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case that claims logging roads should be treated as industrial sites. The Ninth Circuit decision (which we last wrote about here) said that every stream culvert and drainage ditch on hundreds of thousands of miles of logging roads should require a permit. This would require not just hundreds of thousands of permits, taking a decade for the U.S. Forest Service to approve, but it would open the timber industry to thousands of lawsuits from environmental groups. The Supreme Court today ...
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The rise of ‘Chain-saw Environmentalism’December 2nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
As momentum builds across the West for an increased timber harvest to better manage forests, a new term has emerged: "chain-saw environmentalism." The Salt Lake Tribune, in an in-depth story, says the movement is picking up steam nationally, as well as locally in an attempt to save aspen groves in Colorado. Too late to head off a wave of climate-fueled beetles that have altered the evergreen landscape for generations — if not forever — foresters still believe they can rejuvenate this resort town’s namesake. They say the white bark and fluttering yellow heart-shaped leaves that announce fall ...
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More timber harvest on the way?November 23rd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Sometimes it just takes time for elected officials to come around, and in the Northwest, federal and state leaders are beginning to understand the importance of working forests. Now it remains to be seen whether this will translate into more harvest of state and federal timberland -- in order to improve the health of those forests and revitalize rural economies -- but there are promising signs. As we wrote about earlier this month (here and here), political momentum appears to be building. Now the Oregonian editorial board has responded to Oregon Gov. John ...
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November 18th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
If there was a theme at the Washington Forest Protection Association's annual meeting in Olympia this week, it was that innovative solutions will be a critical part of the timber industry's future. Public money is scarce and the old timber battles are over. That the old rules no longer apply was evident with the presence on stage of Martha Kongsgaard, whose husband Peter Goldman (director of the Washington Forest Law Center) has been a thorn in the side of the timber industry for years. Kongsgaard is the chair of the Puget Sound Partnership, a state organization ...
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Timber resurgence gets political supportNovember 11th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
It's been heartening to see support recently from Northwest elected officials for revitalizing rural economies and rebuilding the timber industry after environmental lawsuits and the spotted owl. As we wrote about in September, one of the most pressing issues is the loss of federal payments to timber-dependent counties in Oregon and Washington. Some county governments, like Skamania County in Southwest Washington, are in so much danger that they may have to cut their budgets in half or shut down completely. Just this week the Lane County Board of Commissioners in Eugene, Ore., voted to support U.S. Rep. ...
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Oregon governor makes a bold moveNovember 4th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber spoke to his state's Board of Forestry this week and had some bold ideas that you don't often hear from governors, especially on timber issues. His proposal is relevant not just for Oregon but every Western state. (Kitzhaber told the board) to step back from the "politically driven seesaw management" of the state's timberland and adopt a balanced approach that can be extended to the much larger federal forests as well. Kitzhaber, in a rare appearance by a governor before the board, said current management practices put state, federal and private forests in isolated silos, when ...
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Another biomass study is refutedOctober 28th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
This week Oregon State University released a study that claims using woody biomass for electricity isn't carbon neutral. But like the Manomet study out of Massachusetts last year, the OSU study is not standing up well to scrutiny. So much so that some critics of the study are from Oregon State University itself. Paul Barnum, executive director of the (Oregon State) forest research institute, said Oregon's dry eastern forests have "unnaturally high levels of biomass" that can be used to generate electricity and heat. "If we don't actively manage these forests, we run the risk of catastrophic ...
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Reframing the message on working forestsOctober 21st, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Larry Selzer is the CEO of The Conservation Fund, a Washington, D.C-based group that doesn't give environmental groups a bad name. He is also a two-term board member of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and he gave the keynote address at the recent SFI Annual Conference. Selzer is a living example of how environmentalism and forestry are not mutually exclusive. The Conservation Group owns and manages 100,000 acres of working forests, keeping them from being converted into subdivisions and shopping malls. But Selzer is well aware that he has some misperceptions to overcome. "I've spent my share of time explaining ...
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Forest decline can be fought with smart policiesOctober 7th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The New York Times recently painted a bleak picture of the future of our world's forests. Driven by population growth, climate change and the continued emission of greenhouse gases, the world's forests are being decimated by massive wildfires, drought, deforestation and beetles. The Times certainly did its research. The primary story is accompanied by an 8-minute video and blog post about the Arizona wildfire situation, as well as a follow-up Q & A with the lead reporter on the project. What's most frustrating out of the article is how much research has ...
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Pacific NW biomass receives massive boost from the USDASeptember 30th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The Pacific Northwest biomass industry received a huge boost this week when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $136 million in biofuels grants, including $40 million each to University of Washington and Washington State University to develop fuel from woody biomass. The $80 million in grants for Washington state came just a few months after the creation of Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest, a coalition of aviation companies and other stakeholders committed to turning biomass into jet fuel. It's no coincidence that much of the $80 million will be spent on jet fuel projects. From the Seattle ...
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Will Congress help timber-dependent counties?September 22nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
There's a financial crisis afoot across the Pacific Northwest, but unfortunately a lot of people probably don't know about it because it affects many of our rural counties. For years the federal government has given a share of the federal timber harvest to timber-dependent counties in Washington and Oregon as a way to make up for the loss of revenue from a timber industry hit hard by lawsuits and the spotted owl. But those timber payments are set to end Sept. 30. This will imperil the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of people across the Northwest. Skamania ...
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The good news and the bittersweet newsSeptember 15th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The news sounds great: West Coast log and lumber exports went up by 79 and 83 percent in the first six months of this year, according to the U.S. Forest Service. But as this Oregonian story points out, reaction to the news isn't that simple. Yes, China's building boom means big business for West Coast lumber producers, but forestry advocates point out that increased exports are bad news for Pacific Northwest lumber mills. Foreign log buyers are willing to pay $650 per thousand board feet, while Northwest mills struggle to pay $500 to ...
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Who uses our national forests?September 9th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
When we hike or fish on federal forestland, we see the people around us, but it's hard to tell in any comprehensive way how that forestland is being used or who's using the land. But the U.S. Forest Service recently released a survey that shows how many people are visiting our country's national forests and the demographics of those visitors. Here is a press release about the survey results, and you can go here to crunch the numbers for yourself. The results are fascinating and come to conclusions that most people wouldn't expect. Did you know, for ...
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Dealing with federal courts and endangered speciesSeptember 2nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
With newspapers cutting their budgets every year, the Capital Press performs an increasingly valuable service of covering agriculture, including forestry, across the West. The Oregon-based paper recently interviewed William Ruckelshaus, the first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (which we wrote about here), and now the paper has weighed in on similar issues with its take on the Endangered Species Act. According to the Capital Press editorial, the ESA is in serious need of reform. While it is well-intentioned, it has met with limited success in achieving its goal of protecting major species on ...
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Fighting for biomass and working togetherAugust 26th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
We wrote back in July about a tax exemption for woody biomass that is being threatened in Washington state. Despite an immense need for renewable energy, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) recommended that the 2009 tax exemption be allowed to expire in 2013. Just recently a citizen committee called the Citizen Commission for the Performance Measurement of Tax Preferences took up the issue and will hold a hearing Sept. 23 and then make a recommendation to the Legislature. The commission took testimony last week, and timber and paper companies came by to make their case, according ...
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Northwest lawmakers step up for forestsAugust 19th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The Pacific Northwest congressional delegation is obviously not happy with the status quo when it comes to federal forest management and environmental regulations, and that is very good to see. Just in the past week, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said there should be "big changes" in forest management, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) proposed a revamped Western Oregon forest plan, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) criticized the EPA's recent behavior and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) "perplexed" environmentalists with several proposals supported by the timber industry. Rep. McMorris Rodgers told the Capital Press that ...
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Timber successes gain local and federal attentionAugust 10th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
In the middle of a very tough week for the U.S. economy, it's nice to read about a success story, especially one in the timber industry. Teevin Bros., a timber shipping company in Rainier, Wash., is doing gangbusters business, according to the Longview Daily News. One of the biggest reasons for success is owner Shawn Teevin, according to his employees. This year, the Rainier-based business added 30 acres and 30 additional workers to its log yard operation. It now employs 100 workers. The company is shipping 250 to 300 log truck loads of timber a day ...
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Rediscovering the NW timber harvestAugust 5th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Two opinion pieces this week from Oregon writers, one in the Wall Street Journal and one in the Oregonian, provide a valuable perspective on the importance of the timber industry to Northwest communities. James L. Huffman, dean emeritus of Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, writes in the Journal that the spotted owl recovery plan released in June by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service won't work. Instead, it's just another chapter in 20 years of bad decisions over the owl. In the early 1990s, when the spotted-owl controversy reached its peak, ...
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Public recoils from court decision on logging roadsJuly 28th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
We wrote earlier this month about a recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that threw out 35 years of legal precedent and federal environmental policy by claiming for the first time that logging roads should be treated as if they were industrial sites. We also described the legislation that was introduced in Congress to overturn the decision. Local, state and federal officials have now had a couple weeks to consider the legislation -- and the news is not good for the environmental groups that so desperately want logging roads to be treated like ...
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Biomass exemption threatened in Washington stateJuly 22nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Even seemingly obscure legislative committees can have huge consequences for the timber industry, and no one should assume that the summer months will necessarily be quiet. In Washington state, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) came out this week with a preliminary report that recommends allowing an exemption on sales and use tax for woody biomass, otherwise known as hog fuel, to expire in 2013. The end of this exemption would obviously have huge ramifications on the timber industry. Biomass generation is a critical factor in ensuring the survival of the industry, which is still so important ...
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Viability of U.S. timber industry threatened by legal decisionJuly 15th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Sometimes what may seem like a narrow court case can have far-ranging consequences. A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, originally made last year and affirmed in May, would threaten the viability of the timber industry in the West if allowed to stand. The decision upended 35 years of legal precedent and federal environmental policy by claiming for the first time that logging roads should be treated as if they were textile factories or industrial parking lots. In fact, if the decision is allowed to take effect, each drainage pipe or stormwater ditch on logging roads ...
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Newspapers weigh in on spotted owlJuly 8th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The release last week of the final spotted owl recovery plan continues to reverberate. Newspaper editorial boards are beginning to weigh in, and the word is mixed at best. The Oregonian says the feds' plan to kill some of the more aggressive barred owls with shotguns is not the greatest idea, but there may not be any other option. Of course, there's no choice but to keep trying to save the spotted owl. The Endangered Species Act, thankfully, doesn't allow Americans to get frustrated and walk away from trying to preserve a species. And ...
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Spotted owl plan finally arrivesJuly 1st, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The release this week of the final spotted owl recovery plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came after months of delays, though at least it's finally here. Both environmental groups and timber companies are still examining the final plan, but the initial reaction is not good. Tom Partin, the president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland, said the new plan is essentially a land grab that will do nothing to protect the spotted owl from its more aggressive cousin, the barred owl. “The spotted owl will not recover unless decisive action is taken to ...
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Fraud by Canada’s Sino-Forest?June 24th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The big story in forestry circles this week -- by a large margin -- is the ongoing saga of Sino-Forest Corp., a Toronto-listed company that buys and sell timber in China. The company has attracted billions of dollars in investment over the last several years and says it has acquired hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests since 2007. But recent revelations raise an enormously loaded question: is Sino-Forest the victim of malicious or ill-informed press coverage or is the company the perpetrator of the "biggest theft in human history?" The saga started on June 2 when a ...
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Wildlife can be hard for forest owners to bearJune 17th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Wildlife is something that all forest owners have to deal with, for better or worse. Yes, animals are beautiful to see, but they can also harm your trees. The Capital Press and Coos Bay World both did stories in the last week on the struggle of forest owners to control the damage of black bears in Washington and Oregon. In search of sap, the bears tear off bark at ground level, killing or heavily damaging trees. Ken Miller, a forest owner near Olympia, told the Capital Press that bears have damaged half his trees and that one-fifth of the damaged ...
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Reeling from a preventable forest fireJune 10th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona has now burned through 639 square miles of forest -- adding 114 square miles just in the last day and is now headed across the state line to New Mexico. It's the second-worst fire in Arizona state history. More disturbing: the massive fire may not have been nearly so large if the state's forests had been managed responsibly. State and local officials across Arizona say that inaction by the U.S. Forest Service to properly thin federal forestland is contributing to the wide scale of the Wallow fire. And it's not just the ...
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Restoring the legacy of our forestsJune 3rd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Mike Dubrasich, an Oregon forester and head of the Western Institute for Study of the Environment, gave a speech recently about federal forest policy and posted the text of the speech online. Dubrasich's arguments resonate not just in Oregon but across the West. He says that federal officials have drastically underharvested federal forestland in Oregon, and that this has led to unhealthy and overstuffed forests that have been decimated by forest fires instead of harvested responsibly. During the 1980’s the Feds cut around 4 billion board feet per year, still only half of their ...
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Soaring through the air on biomassMay 25th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
The state of Massachusetts, in essentially ending any biomass industry in the state, has the unfortunate distinction of being the only government to ban a valuable source of renewable energy just when our country needs it the most. And to make things worse, the state's decision was based on phony information. Bob Cleaves, the head of the Biomass Power Association, said this week that the decision by Massachusetts sends a troubling message to developers and investors. Never mind the fact that by displacing biomass, Massachusetts has inadvertently become the largest supporter of baseload coal and natural ...
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Working together for a shared futureMay 20th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
Coos County on the Oregon Coast has a long history in the timber business. Back in the early 1900s, it was particularly dangerous and hard to live as a lumberman, as this recent story from the Coos Bay World points out. Nowadays the toughest challenge for Coos County is how to keep its economy going while the timber industry changes. The news this week that a nearby lumber mill would lay off 50 people caused the World's editorial board to take a look at what the county needs to do the maintain its economic future. The paper's ...
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Biomass succeeds in D.C. and NorthwestMay 13th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The announcement in January that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was putting off a decision on biomass plant emissions for three years was great news for the biomass industry, but the debate will surely rage on. The EPA says it will finalize the three-year deferral on July 1 and it's taking public comments on the decision in the meantime. The EPA has shown that it plans to move forward with the three-year deferral and has even started taking nominations for a scientific panel that will study biomass emissions over the three-year period. Though that hasn't stopped the Natural Resources ...
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Cutting for ChinaMay 6th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The Coos Bay World just published a great look at what the increased demand from China for timber means in a local timber community. Loggers in the Oregon coastal town are coming out of retirement and scores of longshoremen are arriving to help load the ships. Coos County has a pretty good customer in China at the moment. The country's seemingly insatiable appetite for timber is stirring a bit of a frenzy here as log trucks roar down roads and ships cruise overseas with Oregon Coast payloads. "We gathered our stuff up and got out of hibernation," says Dennis Cole, ...
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More comments on spotted owl plan, but is it enough?April 29th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
After months of delay, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week made a big move on the new spotted owl recovery plan, but it's a move that few people expected. It was just two months ago that the feds planned to release a final plan, without any further chance for public comment or changes. No one, from timber companies to environmental groups, was happy with the plan, and yet it appeared the federal government was still going to ram it through. Then last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made the surprise announcement that it was ...
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Making Wash. state government betterApril 22nd, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
We wrote earlier this month about a misguided campaign in Washington to raise forest practice fees on timber companies. State Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark and environmental groups are trying to convince legislators to pour millions of dollars in increased fees into the state's already bloated forest practices program. In a year when our Legislature faces a $5 billion deficit, and all signs point to increasing deficits in the future, and when even Gov. Chris Gregoire has advocated for a fundamental streamlining of government operations, environmental groups have the gall to ask for an increase in an inefficient and badly ...
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Banking on biomass and “Wood First”April 15th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this week announced $30 million in federal biomass projects, just two weeks after he said the U.S. government would promote and research the use of wood as a green building material. The departments of Agriculture and Energy will devote $30 million to the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, which will pay for 5-10 projects over the next 3-4 years. The research projects will cover not just woody biomass but also feedstock, biofuels and other farm waste. "These projects will help to reduce America's dependence on imported oil by accelerating the development ...
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Wash. timber permit program needs reform, not increased feesApril 8th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
Peter Goldmark, Washington's Commissioner of Public Lands, this week came out in favor of pouring millions of dollars in increased fees into the state’s forest practices program, rather than reforming a program that keeps expanding despite a declining demand for its services. In a Washington state legislative session that demands innovative solutions and government reform, Goldmark is ignoring the problems in the Department of Natural Resources bureaucracy that he oversees and is instead pushing to raise fees on a timber industry that already devotes more than $100 million a year to environmental stewardship and is in 91 percent compliance ...
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Timber groups praise USDA decision on woodMarch 31st, 2011 by Ashley Bach
It's long been known that wood is one of the greenest building materials in the world, and that wood was green before "green building" was even a buzzword. Now the U.S. government officially agrees. This week U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the federal government will promote and research the use of wood as a green building material, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forestry Service will preferentially select wood in new building construction. According to Vilsack: "Wood has a vital role to play in meeting the growing demand for green building materials... (the) USDA has made ...
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Seattle Times strikes out on biomassMarch 25th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
The Seattle Times dropped the ball in its front-page story this week on the biomass industry. As the story points out, Washington is one of the country's leading producers of biomass power, with a dozen plants operating and four more in the works. So taking a look at the state of the industry is a legitimate news story. Unfortunately, the Times allowed the views of environmental groups to take control of its story, shifting it from a fair-minded look at the industry to a polemic that inaccurately portrays the industry as struggling, when in fact biomass is ...
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The dark side of green policyMarch 17th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
While it is very popular nowadays for everything to be green and environmentally sustainable, as it should be, the federal policies pursued for the sake of a so-called "green" standard can have negative consequences.
Niger Innis, the spokesman for the Congress on Racial Equality, delves into these questions this week in a three-part series, "Green Injustice," in the Washington Examiner.
In the series (Part I, Part II and Part III), Innis describes how large corporations, environmental groups and the Obama administation hurt poor people and poor countries in their quest for "green" products and policies.
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March 11th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
The East Oregonian Co., which owns seven small newspapers in the Northwest, started a series of articles this week called "Fate of Our Forest." The stories examine the changing face of the timber industry in Oregon and Washington, and we appreciate the coverage. Unfortunately, the newspaper company has already had its share of inaccuracies and distortions in the series. Here are a couple examples: One of the company's papers, The Chinook Observer in Pacific County, Wash., took a look this week at the changing face of land ownership in the county, including the timber companies that are among the county's ...
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Old hands contribute to timber industry’s futureMarch 4th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
Jerry Franklin, a retired professor of ecosystem science at University of Washington, and Norm Johnson, a retired professor of forestry resources at Oregon State University, are veterans of the timber wars of the last few decades. They even helped write the Northwest Forest Plan, which is still in effect today. And now, in Roseburg and Medford, Ore., Franklin and Johnson are helping lead pilot projects on federal land that might be a significant step toward timber solutions that address the needs of not just timber companies but rural communities and environmental groups. It's a tricky proposition, but if anyone has ...
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New spotted owl plan is rushed and off-target, forestry groups sayFebruary 25th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
Forestry groups representing timber companies across the territory of the spotted owl recently sent a joint letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service saying that the new owl recovery plan is coming out too soon and without the best science to back it up. The new plan is expected to be released any day now, and the federal government says it will be final, even though there are still several months before a court-ordered deadline of June 1. The letter was signed by the National Alliance of Forest Owners, American Forest Resource Council, California Forestry Association, Washington ...
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The promise of biomass over coalFebruary 18th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
The Seattle Times recently ran a laughable op-ed from an anti-biomass activist, full of wild and unsubstantiated claims about the industry. Duff Badgley tries, for instance, to claim that there won't be enough woody debris to supply the biomass plants that are being built in Washington, when in fact the University of Washington just completed a study of the six counties most likely to host biomass plants and found there would be plenty of debris to supply the plants. Badgley also criticized Peter Goldmark, the state commissioner of public lands, for his proposal to use biomass to ...
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Taking a shotgun approach to a thorny problemFebruary 11th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
The federal government just does not seem like it knows what it wants to do about the spotted owl. First, the Bureau of Land Management pulled out of a timber sale in Southern Oregon because it said the sale could not meet new logging restrictions designed to protect the spotted owl. This did not go over well with timber companies. "If (Interior Secretary Ken Salazar) is sincere about trying to get timber going again for counties and local businesses down there, they've got to take on things with big problems," said Scott Horngren, an attorney for the American Forest Resource Council, ...
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Three-year EPA delay is a big statementFebruary 3rd, 2011 by Ashley Bach
While biomass projects have recently made the news in Mason County and Thurston County in Washington state, the burgeoning biomass industry is also continuing to resonate on a national scale. The Boston Globe recently ran dueling op-eds, in favor and in opposition to biomass, and both pieces use as a jumping off point the EPA's recent decision to put off any potential biomass restrictions for three years. Writing in opposition to biomass are Mary Booth and Richard Wiles, advocates from environmental groups, and in support is Bob Cleaves, president of the Biomass Power ...
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Beetles burrow in to crowded forestsJanuary 28th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
One of the most dangerous biproducts of not actively managing forests is the infestation of the bark beetle. This tiny, 5-millimeter insect loves to "attack evergreen trees, burrowing in, eating away, eventually leaving the tree a red-needled husk of itself," according to Idaho's Times-News. And when forests aren't actively managed -- because of federal forest policy or other restrictions -- the beetles have a very easy time spreading from tree to tree. And that's when epidemics start. The beetles are spreading rapidly in many Western states. Just take three as an example: From the Chadron Record: The U.S. Forest Service ...
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Baby steps vs. real reformJanuary 20th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
Earlier this month, we wrote about Hal Salwasser, the dean of the School of Forestry at Oregon State University. Salwasser described in an Oregonian article how our federal forestland is suffering from neglect and no longer offers any economic or social value. With a new spotted owl plan still being formulated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the question of whether we should be thinning and selectively harvesting our federal forests in the West is especially pertinent. Salwasser mentioned pilot projects in Western Oregon that are bringing timber companies, environmental groups and the federal government together to ...
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Huge victory for biomassJanuary 14th, 2011 by Ashley Bach
It was just last month that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was putting off a decision on biomass plant emissions from this month until April 2012. This alone was a nice win for the burgeoning biomass industry, whose existence has been threatened by the proposed new rules. Under the proposed rules, biomass plant emissions would have been treated just like emissions from traditional, non-renewable sources, such as coal. Still, the future of the biomass industry was uncertain -- but now, the EPA has made a stunning turnaround. This week the EPA announced it would ...
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Turning back to our federal forestsJanuary 7th, 2011 by One Voice Moderator
It's frustrating -- especially with a new and flawed spotted owl plan under consideration -- to think about the failed dreams and wasted potential of our forestland. So many lives and communities have been ruined by onerous harvest limitations that don't have any connection to science or reality. Hal Salwasser, the dean of the College of Forestry at Oregon State University, understands this. In an extensive piece in the Oregonian, he describes how federal forest policy has created forests that are failing on all levels: suspectible to forest fires and beetles and also of no economic or social value. Instead, ...
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The shy and scared spotted owlDecember 23rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
No one seems to be happy with the new draft spotted owl plan released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We have outlined why the plan is bad policy, and the federal government received innumerable comments from interested parties before the public comment period ended last week. But it's not just timber companies and timber communities that are criticizing the plan for its bad science and false assumptions. Several prominent environmental groups, including the American Ornithologists' Union, Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society and the Geos Institute, reviewed the plan and say it's full of ...
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Delving into the impact of the spotted owlDecember 17th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The same week that the public comment period ended on the new federal spotted owl plan, The News-Review in Roseburg, Ore., did a seven-part series on the impact of the listing of the spotted owl 20 years ago. The series is illuminating, describing everything from death threats and lost jobs to how the city of Roseburg and Douglas County have tried to keep themselves going in recent years with new businesses and new ideas. Unfortunately the News-Review this week just started a subscription-only model for its website, so the stories can't be read in their entirety for free. But the series is ...
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Big news on biomass and green buildingDecember 10th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Big news was announced on two issues that we have been following closely: the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to limit the biomass industry, and the ongoing battle over what forest certification systems the U.S. Green Building Council should use. Both issues have high stakes for the timber industry. If the EPA's proposed rule passes, it could stop the burgeoning biomass industry dead in its tracks. And as green building becomes more popular, it's critical that the U.S. Green Building Council take into account all reputable forest certification systems. The news was very positive out of Washington, D.C., this week on the EPA ...
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Port Blakely leads the wayDecember 3rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
As the debate continues over the proposed new federal spotted owl plan, the Oregonian takes an in-depth look this week at a unique arrangement between a timber company and the federal government over protecting the owl. The headline alone for the story indicates this isn't going to be a typical tale of timber companies and environmentalists duking it out: "In a timber wars turnabout, Washington tree farm improves habitat for spotted owl." Port Blakely Companies, which is based in Seattle but has operations around the world, is doing the "timber wars turnabout" in question. On 45,000 acres in ...
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Easing regulations in WashingtonNovember 23rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The Washington Forest Protection Association, the trade association for the state's private forest owners, had its annual meeting last week, and the conversation veered from green building and the EPA biomass rule to development rights and conservation easements. But the buzzword was regulations, or rather, the desire for fewer regulations and a more predictable permitting process for forest landowners. "We need to look at the regulatory web and look at how we can collapse it," Jim Warjone, the chairman of Port Blakely Companies, told the crowd of 150 people. "Predictability is critical," he added. The onus is on state lawmakers and ...
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More time to have say on spotted owl planNovember 16th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
As we wrote here and here, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is getting close to issuing a revised spotted owl plan and is taking public comment on the proposed plan. That 60-day comment period would have ended about now, but the feds just announced that the comment period is being extended another month, until Dec. 15th. This is good news. The revised spotted owl plan has a lot of problems, as we outlined here, and more time will mean a few more weeks for the federal government to receive feedback ...
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What is the EPA up to?November 11th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued guidelines for how states should interpret its new rules for greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier this year those proposed new rules were announced and if passed, they would have killed the burgeoning biomass industry because they treated biomass plants just like coal and other fossil fuels. The new guidelines released this week at least have promise. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is saying some nice things: Secretary Vilsack said: “EPA’s release today of guidance to the states on greenhouse gas permitting takes a meaningful step forward in recognizing the potential role ...
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LEED: “A new and unloved standard”November 1st, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Green Building Council is now in the midst of voting (Oct. 25-Nov. 23) on new rules that could potentially let other forest certifications into the LEED green building standard. But it appears that no one is happy with what the building council is considering. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and some environmental groups aren't happy because they want a system where only FSC is allowed. And the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and other forest certifications aren't happy because they feel the LEED standard would still be much too strict. The New York Times called the proposed changes to ...
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EPA standing in the wayOctober 20th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The Oregonian's opinion pages have been burning up this year with compelling debate on working forests, federal and state timber policy and the future of the timber industry. This month is no different. Earlier this month, the Oregonian editorial board wrote about the promise of biomass for the state's economy and how it could all be threatened by a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule change that would treat biomass just like coal and fossil fuels. There remains great promise here for biomass energy. Our forests need it -- the pileup of woody debris is tinder for catastrophic fire, which ...
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Leaning toward FSC in CanadaOctober 5th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
There is more important news to come out of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) annual conference in Vancouver, B.C., last month. Monte Paulson, from the Canadian website The Tyee, (who we just wrote about) did another piece out of the conference that sheds a lot of light on how forest certification factored into the historic Canadian boreal forest agreement that was announced last spring. We wrote in May about how it was troubling that the agreement between timber companies and environmental groups ended up with the competing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as the certification ...
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SFI takes VancouverSeptember 25th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
There's been a lot of attention lately on the EPA's proposed biomass rules and the new proposed spotted owl plan, but one issue that is also still going strong is the fight to get the U.S. Green Building Council to consider other forest product certifications. Right now the USGBC only considers the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for the popular LEED green building standard. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the world's largest forest certification program, held its annual conference in Vancouver, B.C., this week. And SFI President Kathy Abusow made some great points to attendees about why the U.S. Green Building ...
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EPA rule has high stakesSeptember 19th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The Oregonian had a good story recently about how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed changes in its greenhouse gas emissions rules could threaten the burgeoning biomass industry. The EPA's "tailoring rule" is something we've written about several times before, and the Oregonian does a solid job of outlining why the stakes are so high. Biomass, or using vegetation for fuel, has basked in a green glow in recent years, winning subsidies, bipartisan political support and a renewable energy designation in Oregon and nationwide that groups it with nonpolluting solar, wave and wind power. Oregon backers ...
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Draft spotted owl plan releasedSeptember 11th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
As we wrote last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was expected to release a revised spotted owl plan very soon, and just this week, it did. One of the key points to make is the 181-page revised plan is a draft, and the government is taking comments for the next 60 days. Here is where you can send your comments: Emailed comments can be sent to: NSORPComments@fws.gov. Written comments should be submitted to: Field Supervisor, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office, 2600 SE 98th Avenue, Ste. 100, Portland, OR ...
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Spotted owl: the next chapterSeptember 3rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
In June we wrote about the 20th anniversary of the spotted owl's listing as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (see our posts here and here). The owl's listing decimated the Northwest timber industry, and yet today, the spotted owl is actually worse off than it was 20 years ago. What happened is a larger, more efficient species called the barred owl migrated to the Pacific Northwest from the East and is now squeezing out the spotted owl population. Both the timber industry and environmental groups agree the spotted owl is worse off, and ...
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Strong viewpoints out of OregonAugust 27th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Two op-eds were published recently in the Oregonian that bring up some important issues about the future of the timber industry. The two pieces discuss Oregon, but they may as well be talking about any state with an active timber industry. The first opinion piece is from Marvin Brown, the Oregon State Forester and Chair of the the Sustainable Forestry Initiative; Clint Bentz, Chair of the American Forest Foundation's Board and a family forest landowner who resides in Scio, Ore.; David Ford, Executive Director of Oregon Small Woodlands Association and a family forest landowner who ...
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The EPA ThreatAugust 20th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still considering whether to pull its exemption for biomass plants when it comes to obtaining greenhouse-gas emissions permits. These proposed changes to what’s called the “Tailoring Rule” are critical to the future of the timber industry and many rural communities across the country. If the EPA's proposed changes go into effect, biomass plants would no longer be considered carbon-neutral by the federal government, and it would make it more difficult for the plants to pencil out financially. Fortunately, the EPA hasn't made its final decision just yet. It's taking public comment on the ...
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The Biochar MomentAugust 13th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Is biochar the world's most promising solution to climate change? That seems to be the news coming out of a multiyear study published in Nature Communication this week. From WalesOnline: A substance invented thousands of years ago by Amazonian Indians could hold the key to defeating man-made global warming, Welsh scientists believe. Here's the headline from The New Republic, not usually a supporter of anything that might help the timber industry: Yes, Biochar Really Might Be That Magical The gist of the study is that biochar could offset up to 12 percent of the world's current greenhouse-gas emissions. It ...
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Why the federal biomass rule mattersAugust 5th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now considering whether to pull its exemption for biomass plants when it comes to obtaining greenhouse-gas emissions permits. These proposed changes to what's called the "Tailoring Rule" would mean that biomass plants would no longer be considered carbon-neutral by the EPA, and it would make it more difficult for the plants to pencil out financially. The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) just petitioned the EPA to stop any changes to the Tailoring Rule. Here is what NAFO President David Tenny had to say: EPA’s reversal...was a significant step backward for renewable energy ...
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Opinion of timber on the riseJuly 30th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
As we recently wrote, the timber industry has been in the green business for decades, and people in Washington state are noticing. According to a new poll, 76 percent of likely voters in Washington say that the forest products industry is green.
On top of that, Washington residents think very highly of the state's timber industry, and their opinion has become more favorable over the last 20 years. According to the poll, 52 percent of likely voters approve of the actions of timber companies; 30 ...
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Biomass finds support in the NWJuly 20th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
While a biomass operation was recently announced in Port Townsend, Wash., a new poll shows that public support for biomass plants in Washington state is high. According to Moore Information, 57 percent of likely voters in Washington support the generation of power from biomass gathered from sustainably managed forests.
The support goes all the way to 70 percent once voters are informed that two-thirds of all potentially available biomass renewable energy comes from forests, more than twice all agricultural and other sources of biomass combined.
The poll results ...
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Timber: the original green industryJuly 16th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
It feels like all we hear about these days is green. Green business, green cars, green energy, green building. It's the hot new thing, and also a very real part of our economic future, as the world responds to the threat of climate change. And yet, as a new Washington state report shows, the timber industry has been green for decades, long before it was cool. In Washington, 10 percent of timber industry jobs are green, as opposed to just three percent of all jobs statewide. (The state's definition of green jobs is where "workers are helping to increase ...
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Shattering misperceptions of biomassJuly 14th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Biomass plants are being built across the country, as more and more people discover the environmental benefits of burning woody biomass for energy. But it's also clear that the biomass industry must respond strongly to threats that have appeared on the national stage in recent weeks. First there is the state-sponsored Massachusetts study, which we wrote about here, here and here, that was misreported by the media but also had misleading statements of its own that could potentially hurt the industry. Second, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently pulled its exemption for biomass plants when it ...
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Wrangling over the future of Oregon timberJuly 9th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
As we wrote last week, the 20th anniversary of the spotted owl's listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act has brought up some interesting results. The Northwest timber industy has been decimated, and yet the spotted owl is actually in worse shape than it was 20 years ago. In a guest column this week in the Oregonian, Thomas Partin, president of the American Forest Resource Council in Portland, said that the spotted owl listing "exposed the personal, largely hidden agendas of those who have advocated for the owl over the years." Scientists whose research funding ...
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California makes exciting progressJuly 7th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
We first wrote in May about a historic plan in California, developed with timber companies, environmental groups and government officials, that would give a boost to the state's timber industry by allowing some thinning to protect from forest fires. The Sierra Nevada Forest and Community Initiative is even bigger than that. It would put parties normally at odds on the same page for the first time, creating a shared future for California's forests that would allow for both working forests and environmental protection. The initiative would produce not just thinning to protect from wildfires but also biomass ...
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Protecting the future of forestsJuly 1st, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Comments on the latest draft of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system are being taken until 5 p.m. Pacific time July 4th, so if you have time between now and then, please leave a comment here. As we've discussed before, the updates to the LEED rating system will have a profound impact on the timber industry's future. If the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) allows the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to continue its monopoly on LEED-certified building, then the timber industry may cease to exist as we know it. On the other hand, the USGBC ...
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What spotted owl?June 29th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
It was 20 years ago -- June 26, 1990 -- that the spotted owl was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The Oregonian has taken an in-depth look at what that decision has meant for the timber industry and the spotted owl itself. The results, especially for the industry, are not pretty, and environmental groups might have a few things they'd rather forget too. As this graphic shows, the owl listing ended up cutting Oregon's total timber harvest in half. And the Northwest timber industry was decimated. Here is a description from Jonathan ...
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Fight the FSC monopolyJune 25th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The debate over forest certification is one of the most important stories for today's timber industry. As we've followed closely the last few months, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is in the process of updating its widely accepted LEED green building standard. As it is now, LEED only accepts forest products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and many environmental groups are lobbying to keep it that way. On the other side of the debate, many foresters, elected officials and timber industry leaders say that other certification systems should be accepted by the USGBC. Among these systems ...
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New York Times backtracks on biomassJune 23rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The biomass news just keeps coming. It's been more than a week now since a fundamentally flawed study was released in Massachusetts, and in the days since, the study has been soundly refuted by the Biomass Power Association and the National Alliance of Forest Owners, and one of the report's authors, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, even backtracked from public perceptions of the report. Then, over the weekend, the New York Times weighed in with a very misleading and skewed story on biomass. While the story does include arguments in favor of biomass, it spends much more ...
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Biomass study cracking under pressureJune 17th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
One of the authors of a fundamentally flawed biomass study released last week now says that the study's conclusions were reported incorrectly in the press. Most media outlets reported that the Massachusetts study showed that biomass plants are worse for the environment, or "dirtier," than coal, but actually that "couldn’t be farther from the truth,” said Al Sample, president of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, which helped research the report. Sample spoke to reporters a day after the report was released and had already created a virtual firestorm in the media. Here is an excerpt from Biomass ...
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The truth about biomassJune 15th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
A piece of news came out late last week that would seem to have a significant impact on the biomass industry that is fast growing across the country: a state-sponsored study out of Massachusetts said that biomass plants released more greenhouse gases over time than coal. Could this be possible? Biomass operators, as well as federal and state governments, have said that biomass is renewable because it uses wood waste that would otherwise be discarded. And that the trees that are cut down would usually be replanted anyway so that the carbon used up by burning the waste would ...
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"Designer" trees pop up in the SouthJune 11th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Could genetically altered trees be on the horizon? According to the Associated Press, the Southern paper industry is planning the country's first ever large-scale planting of "designer" trees. The Australian eucalyptus trees, which usually only grow in very warm climates, have been genetically altered to survive freezing temperatures, according to the AP story. Three large paper companies started a biotech firm, ArborGen, in South Carolina and plan to plant 250,000 of the trees across 300 acres in Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana. No one has ever done anything like this, even while ...
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Timber forecast: cautiously optimisticJune 8th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
These are promising economic times for the timber industry, but it's important to note how low timber sales have been the last few years, and that the latest numbers, while encouraging, are not yet reason to jump up for joy. That sentiment is on full display in some recent media coverage of the industry. The Kitsap Sun in Washington notes that the market is up for power poles because of the high demand for alternative energy sources, which in turn is driven by generous government subsidies. The market for saw logs is also improving, according to the story, ...
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SFI remains a market leaderJune 4th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The debate over forest certification requires constant vigilance, and we are happy that the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is going strong. SFI is an independent wood-products certification that provides another valuable choice in the green building marketplace, and as many of you know, there is a passionate debate right now over what wood certifications should be included in the LEED green building standard. SFI this week released a progress report, called "Power of Partnerships," that includes some encouraging numbers on SFI's impact in the marketplace. Most important, SFI is still the largest wood certifier in the world, with 193 ...
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Keeping out illegal woodJune 2nd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
It's always difficult to be part of the proud U.S. timber industry and see substandard or questionable wood flood the market from overseas. Not to say that all foreign wood is bad, but there is certainly a strong market, unfortunately, for wood that does not pass the strict legal and environmental standards of American timber. Voice of America, a news service owned by the U.S. government, just took a look at the illegal logging trade around the world, as well as efforts by U.S. officials to limit illegal wood imports here. The numbers are sobering. In some countries, ...
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Biomass on NPRMay 26th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The national media is starting to pay attention to the biomass phenomenon. Dozens of plants are being built across the country and the federal government is offering generous subsidies, but as this NPR story today notes, local opposition has also popped up in some cities. The NPR story focuses much of its attention on two proposed biomass plants in Shelton, Wash., and toward the end of the story, it quotes a forest ecologist for what would seem to be a neutral take on the carbon impact of biomass plants. And yet the ecologist, Steve Hamburg, works for ...
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A troubling development in CanadaMay 24th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
More details have emerged about the historic deal reached in Canada between the forest industry and environmental groups, an agreement that we wrote about earlier this month. Just to recap, Canada’s timber companies, including members of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), have promised to severely limit logging on 173 million acres of boreal forest, a massive area that crosses into three provinces. In exchange, environmental groups, such as Greenpeace and Forest Ethics, will give their stamp of approval to the industry’s practices and cease all marketing against Canadian wood products. As the Globe and ...
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Montana comes togetherMay 19th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
We try to highlight partnerships wherever we can on the One Voice blog because in the end, it's inspiring to see all the stakeholders come together for a common solution. Of course that solution usually isn't perfect, but it's often better than deadlock. The news out of Montana this week is that a coalition made up of the Wilderness Society, lumbermen, economic development officials and the U.S. Forest Service has come together to apply for $90 million in federal funds to restore, harvest and thin forests, whack weeds and fix streams, trails and wildlife habitat. It sounds like the coalition ...
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SFI pushes for LEED statusMay 17th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is still considering changes to its LEED building standard that could allow wood products certified by other groups besides the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). As we've written about before, this is an issue of huge importance for the timber industry. If some environmental groups are successful in maintaining the FSC monopoly on USGBC standards, then the timber industry as we know it will cease to exist. The latest news in the debate over the LEED building standard is that the USGBC has issued a third draft of its new rules that ...
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Timber wars may be over — in CanadaMay 14th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 all logging on 173 million acres of boreal forest, a massive area that crosses into three provinces, in exchange for environmental groups giving their stamp of approval to the industry's practices and to cease all marketing against ...
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Biomass opponents fill in the blanksMay 12th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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. But biomass plants have also been seeing some opposition on the local level, from environmental activists who are concerned that the plants may produce as much air pollution as coal and other traditional energy sources. There doesn't seem to ...
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Fighting the pine beetleMay 6th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 Wyoming may have to be closed because all the dead trees have become a safety hazard. About 100,000 trees are falling a day in the two states' national forests, said forester Rick Cables. Then here's what the Wyoming ...
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Respecting the fireMay 4th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 to protect them from catastrophic fires. Even better news: the agency, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, is working closely with timber, environmental, biomass and government officals to make sure all the stakeholders are involved. And thinning forests will lead ...
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Timber is rising in the NWApril 29th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 reported its first profit in two years, and its CEO, Hank Ketcham, said the prognosis is good for the forestry business, according to a Canadian Press story: North American lumber prices were up 31 per cent ...
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The pain of being a New England loggerApril 27th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 forestry industry there is small -- 28th out of 50 states -- but the state's decision was drastic and it will have a devastating impact on anyone who makes their living on forestry. Just the numbers alone tell ...
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A tale of two statesApril 23rd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 the amount of public forestland in which cutting down trees is banned. That means 200,000 of the 308,000 acres of state forests will be designated as a reserve. Some environmental groups praised the move, while forestry groups were strongly opposed. Here ...
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Timber towns are bouncing backApril 19th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 deal in Tongass is that even when logging jobs may be on the verge of returning, issues about the environment and past timber practices can still bubble to the surface. Part of the Tongass forest, which the Times calls the ...
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Biomass gains support in Oregon and Capitol HillApril 16th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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, chair of the Biomass Thermal Energy Council, had to say about the legislation: "It supports biomass thermal with the same incentive that already exists for every other renewable energy technology, including solar thermal ...
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Another attempt to push out the timber communityApril 13th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
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 debate. The opinion piece from Denis Hayes, one of the organizers of the first Earth Day and now the president of Seattle's Bullitt Foundation, essentially accuses Goergen of lying when he wrote that the competing ...
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Wall Street Journal doesn't know "green"April 12th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The Wall Street Journal today wrote about the financial problems plaguing Sustainable Northwest, a Portland lumberyard that carries mostly Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood. Two things, in particular, jumped out from the story.
First, the WSJ reporter, Jim Carlton, fell for the idea from some environmental groups that FSC-certified wood is the only wood that can be called "green" or "sustainable." Of course this isn't true. There are several other reputable and respected standards out there, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which is the most widely used standard in the U.S.
Second, the Post a Comment
April 9th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The battle by some environmental groups to eradicate the timber industry continues this week with the news that a North Carolina group called the Dogwood Alliance is taking the unusual step of pressuring Kentucky Fried Chicken to stop using Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) paper products and use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) products instead. First off, we should note that while this campaign is comical on the surface, it should be taken seriously. The Dogwood Alliance seems to be focusing on KFCs in the South, but it's really pressuring Yum! Brands, which owns not ...
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Protecting the forest economyApril 6th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
Michael T. Goergen Jr. with the Society of American Foresters had a nice op-ed in the Seattle Times over the weekend. He makes the point that the U.S. Green Building Council, for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, should allow wood certified by other groups besides the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) because it would support all the products that come from well-managed forests in Washington. From the op-ed: There are important economic reasons for LEED to open the standard. Forest Stewardship Council-certified lumber is not as prevalent in the U.S. as ...
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Environmental groups side with FSCApril 2nd, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
The SFI vs. FSC forest certification debate continues, with news that many environmental groups have signed on in support of the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) effort to cut the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) out of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standard. According to a post at Treehugger, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and other groups signed a letter that says SFI engages in "greenwashing." Here is part of the letter: The Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Canadian Standards Association's Sustainable Forest Management certification, and other industry-based forest certification programs engage in greenwash precisely because they certify as ...
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Seeing the signsMarch 30th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
It's impossible to predict, but there are signs that the timber industry is at the beginning of an upsurge after taking a hit during the economic downturn. The Portland Business Journal recently wrote about new projections released by the Western Wood Products Association. Demand for lumber in the U.S. is expected to go up by 6 percent this year, bringing to an end two straight years of declines of more than 20 percent, according to the story. And there is more reason to be optimistic: The Portland-based trade group said demand this year will grow to 32.9 billion ...
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Making forests pencil outMarch 26th, 2010 by One Voice Moderator
It's hard not to get excited about biomass. The wood waste from timber harvesting used to be burned off on-site, which was no use to anyone. But now that same wood waste is a critical and sustainable source of energy. It seems like not a day goes by without news of another exciting biomass initiative. The Chinook Observer on Washington's Long Beach Peninsula just wrote about Weyerhaeuser's biomass production at its largest timber harvest site, near Toutle. The Observer story also notes that Washington is the country's biggest producer of woody biomass. Here's one passage that helps illuminate ...
