[ Mississippi ] Roseburg Forest Products Co. took ownership of seven former Georgia-Pacific Corp. industrial wood products mills including the plant in Louisville , expanding Roseburg ‘s operations into the southeastern United States . The purchase, originally announced in September, makes Roseburg one of the largest providers of composite panels in the U.S. The transaction value was not disclosed. The mills are located at Louisville , Eupora, Oxford and Taylorsville, Miss. ; Russellville and Holly Hill, S.C.; and Vienna , Ga. Together, the operations employ approximately 870 people. They make particleboard and, in the case of Holly Hill, Oxford and Eupora, related products such as medium density fiberboard, thermally fused melamine and cut-to-size panels. Customers include furniture and cabinet manufacturers, panel laminators, mobile home manufacturers and retail home centers. [ Roseburg operates Forest Stewardship Council certified facilities in Oregon and California ]

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes www.southernsustainableforests.org

[ Virginia ] Spread throughout the thick of the Great Dismal Swamp, the western mountains and, really, almost every county in the state, biologists say there are more black bears in Virginia now than at any time since before the Civil War. The increase goes back to decades-old, fundamental changes in the state’s landscape and its rules on hunting black bears, said Dave Steffen, forest and wildlife program manager with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Virginia bears were nearly decimated by 1900, and widespread logging had stripped the prime habitat. It wasn’t until deforested mountains were turned into protected national forestland and the Shenandoah National Park was created in 1936 that the forests, and bears, began to come back.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week announced the selection of Abigail Kimbell as the 16th chief of the Forest Service. Kimbell succeeds Dale Bosworth, who is retiring on Feb. 2 after 41 years with the Forest Service. Kimbell currently serves as regional forester for the Northern Region in Missoula , Mont. , which includes northern Idaho and North Dakota . Before becoming regional forester, Kimbell served in the Washington Office as associate deputy chief for the National Forest System, with responsibility for assisting in the development of the Healthy Forest Restoration.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

Sil Greene – Business League member and AV volunteer came into our office yesterday to recover data from a very aged and dying computer that crashed. Afterwards, he helped us update it with new software and hardware! Thanks Sil!

Sil Greene’s business – Out the Window Services – does PC repair, user training, and home and office networking. If you need computer assistance contact him at 919-272-4321 or sil.outthewindow@gmail.com. He is currently serving Ashe and Watauga counties.

Sil also plays mandolin in the band Southern Exposure which is a solar powered Bluegrass band in Boone, NC.

Check out ASU-SES to which he also volunteers his time, www.asuses.net.

[ Canada ] …these are Canada ‘s first and only genetically modified trees to be grown outdoors. While some scientists believe that they represent the future of our forests — and a forest-product industry that accounted for nearly 60 per cent of our $55.1-billion trade balance in 2005 — others fear the fallout from experimenting with “frankenpines.” These environmentalists say trees with novel traits could spell the end of tree biodiversity and threaten the larger ecosystem. Mr. Seguin freely admits that it will never be possible to guarantee that GM trees won’t cross-pollinate. Instead, he advocates creating genes that will not harm natural forests. University of Toronto ‘s Malcolm Campbell says the work Mr. Seguin and others are doing is crucial, that the cost of dismissing genetic engineering is too high. “We have to decide what level of risk is acceptable [in genetic engineering].”

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes www.southernsustainableforests.org

[ North Carolina ] The old stone house doesn’t look like a high-tech headquarters, but the banner on the door advertises the home of the western office of the N.C. Biotechnology Center…Within the region’s treasure trove of native plants, center director Cheryl McMurry and others see opportunities for new research and new jobs. “Natural products are the most likely avenue for success in this region. We have a rich biodiversity in this area and a whole culture of herbal medicines.” While biotech often conjures images of cloning or genetic manipulation, local experts see more promise in cultivating, rather than tampering with the plants already growing wild in this area. “Natural biotechnology is unique,” said Greg Cumberford, vice president of strategic initiatives at Gaia Herbs Inc. and a founding member of the N.C. Natural Products Association. “It presents a honoring and reverence for what nature has already given us, rather than manipulating nature.” “Over the long term, we can provide products that people know are properly labeled, well analyzed and safe and natural. That’s going to be an interesting economic posture for WNC, that we can brand nationally.”

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

Mount Hood Forest watchdogs worry that a federal study could lead to more logging.
[ Oregon ] The U.S. Forest Service is studying how close its management practices at six sites, including the 1.1-million- acre acre Mount Hood National Forest and two other public forests in Oregon, come to meeting independent ‘green’ certification standards. The Forest Service says the goal of its study isn’t to have the public forests green-certified. Instead, the Forest Service says it wants to know how closely its current forest management practices come to meeting the green standards. While millions of predominantly private acres have been voluntarily certified since the early 1990s by the Forest Stewardship Council and its rival, the Sustainable Forest Initiative, the 192 million acres of national forestland remain a virtually untapped ‘green’ market. But enviros worry that the assessment … could ultimately open public forests to more logging under the guise of environmental friendliness.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes www.southernsustainableforests.org

[ Michigan ] It has long been recognised that burning forests release more than carbon, as the cocktail of chemicals absorbed by the trees as they grow is set free as they are consumed by fire. But new research at the University of Michigan suggests that the role of forest fires has been underplayed when estimating the levels of toxic mercury levels, with wildfires responsible for about a quarter of the mercury released into the atmosphere in the US . The study has implications for forest management and global mercury pollution and was published in the January edition of science journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

It’s not just the timber industry pressuring the US Green Building Council (USGBC) to award a new LEED credit for its greenwash self-certification scheme, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) label. Manufacturers of resilient flooring are seeking LEED recognition for their trade association’ s new certification system, FloorScore. Welcome to the label game. For manufacturers the object of the game is the marketing edge conferred by a label “certifying” that products meet a selective industry standard of sustainability. For consumers the challenge is sorting the green from the greenwash among the bewildering array of eco-labels. The first thing you need to know to play the label game is that not all labels are alike.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org

The management philosophy advocated by many public agencies today has become known as “ecosystem management.” Under this philosophy, maintenance of ecosystem structure and functions becomes the primary goal, while production of commodities and services is viewed as a useful byproduct. However, any effort to assure sustainability and health of American forests can be expected to succeed only if private ownerships, which comprise the majority of forest land, are included. Following this reasoning, it becomes immediately obvious that for realistic application of ecological principles to forest management on private ownerships, the owners ‘ goals and management objectives must be kept in the forefront. This publication is aimed at natural resource professionals who prepare forest management plans for private landowners. However, the ecological concepts presented apply to all ownerships.

From the US Forest Service Northeast Region

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
www.southernsustainableforests.org