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[Tennessee] State environmentalists are excited about what Gov. Phil Bredesen calls “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” — the chance to preserve almost 200 square miles of forestland on the Upper Cumberland Plateau. Bredesen, … said his state budget request for next fiscal year will include money to help preserve about 124,000 acres of property …currently owned by…

A potential increase in the minimum wage is primarily seen as an urban issue, but data presented here illustrates that an increase in the minimum wage is every bit as important to rural workers as it is to those who live and work in major metropolitan areas of the nation. News notes are courtesy of…

Support to enhance certification of family forestlands [Minnesota] Forest certification continues to grow in the United States with nearly 150 million acres now certified. However, most of the certified land in the country is in large public and private ownerships. Only about 4 million of the 250 million acres of family forestland in the U.S.…

Imagine a world in which farmers and ranchers were paid to generate … ecosystem services such as water filtration, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat. Imagine a world in which carbon and water-quality credits traded on a commodities exchange alongside oat and wheat futures. Sound crazy? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn’t think so. In…

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[Tennessee] International Paper (NYSE: IP) has completed the sale of 13 lumber mills to West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. for approximately $325 million. The sale was announced in November 2006. The transaction includes lumber mills in Citronelle, Maplesville and Opelika, Ala.; Leola, Ark.; McDavid and Whitehouse, Fla.; Augusta and Folkston, Ga.; Armour and Seaboard, N.C.;…

Statement by Appalachian Voices Executive Director Mary Anne Hitt In electing to permit a new 800-megawatt coal-burning power plant at Duke Energy’s Cliffside facility, the NC Utilities Commission has missed an opportunity to take the state in the right direction. While rightly denying Duke’s massive initial 1,600-megawatt proposal, the NCUC’s decision amounts to a half…

This book, authored and collected by leading international authorities in the field of forestry, is the first comprehensive, practical treatment of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR). As an approach to conservation, FLR provides a complementary framework to sustainable forest management and the ecosystem approach in landscapes in cases where forest loss has caused a decline in…

Check it out. Twenty new species of sharks and rays have been discovered in Indonesia in a five-year survey of catches at local fish markets, Australian researchers said Wednesday. This picture is of a “Jimbaran Shovelnose Ray.”

While conservation easements were initially used to address the most commonly perceived threat – land development – there is now a rising interest in creating easements to promote a range of ecological, recreational, and economic values. This report is about working forest conservation easements (WFCEs) in the Northeast and how they can be designed to…