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A really touching story from the Observer The Bryants, as much as anyone, are the faces of environmentalism in Charlotte. Now they are leaving, selling their Myers Park home and settling onto 170 acres of woods and cornfields along the Pee Dee River on the far eastern side of Stanly County. Ron and Nancy are…

Over at Grist, Lisa Renstrom and Bob Perkowitz’s ask “Why won’t America’s environmentalists accept positive developments?” The conversion of Robertson, Luntz, and Wal-Mart and the leadership of the Sierra Club are beyond the cognitive dissonance resolution capabilities of some environmentalists. All these people getting in touch with reality is more progress than some progressives can…

In what will be seen as a HUGE victory for local citizens, the leaders of Blowing Rock, NC came out opposing “the globe” logging project in their backyard. Their backyard on the Blue Ridge, coincidentally, happens to be the Pisgah National Forest. From the Charlotte Observer: Blowing Rock’s Town Council on Thursday unanimously opposed a…

NC Attorney General Roy Cooper has made quite a name for himself in pushing for better air quality in our state –even suing the Tennessee Valley Authority in an effort to decrease out-of-state air pollution that North Carolinians have to breathe. The Charlotte Observer recently asked the telegenic Cooper about his future political ambitions. Cooper…

[Switzerland] The World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body on Tuesday overturned an earlier panel report saying that the United States failed to comply with international free trade rules in its calculation of tariffs on lumber imports. A WTO appeals panel in April rejected a challenge brought by Canada that the U.S. artificially inflated its antidumping margins,…

Existing and Potential Incentives for Practicing Sustainable Forestry on Non-industrial Private Forest Lands The purpose of this study is to identify existing and potential incentives for practicing sustainable forestry on non-industrial private forest lands in the U.S. The study findings and conclusions yielded nine recommendations: 1- Increase funding and availability of one-on-one technical assistance from…

Understanding the Intentions & Proposed Changes The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)’s certification standards include requirements regarding the use of pesticides in forest management activities. FSC’s pesticides policy aims to provide consistent, international guidance for the implementation of these requirements. In a nutshell, the policy can be interpreted as giving forest managers guidance to: 1) First,…

[ California ] Global warming not only threatens to increase the number of fires, scientists and top state officials said Thursday. It will further damage the state’s most efficient weapon against the climate phenomenon: trees, they said. With projections by the California Climate Action Team that temperatures could jump by 10 degrees by the end…

The Forest Products Annual Market Reviews provide general and statistical information on the forest products markets in the UNECE Region of Europe, North America and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Reviews begin with general overviews of forest products markets in the region, highlighting key issues and policies, followed by a description of the current…

A nonprofit buying North Coast forestland aims to save vital stands by taking over timber operations. Some say it’s going out on a limb. [ California ] Chris Kelly takes stock of the dark green ridges of redwood and fir stacked against a light-blue skyline. It’s there that he plans to log roughly two dozen…