<p>Community Forestry Resource Center Weekly News and Event Summary May 25, 2006</p><p>This message includes news, headlines, and information gathered during the week. </p><p>------CONTENTS:</p><p>HEADLINES:</p><p>Foresters demand limits to ATVs on public trails (MN)</p><p>Students learn fire safety lessons from Cottonville fire (WI)</p><p>Rare American chestnut trees discovered (GA)</p><p>Forest Service helps tecate cypress after fire (CA)</p><p>Local company makes hardwood alternative (WA)</p><p>Home on the range: A corridor for wildlife</p><p>Pulp friction</p><p>Himalayas deforestation could lead to plant, animal loss</p><p>OTHER HEADLINES ON http://www.forestrycenter.org/News/News.cfm * Illegal birch bark stripping has become a problem (MN) * Caterpillars threaten Vermont maple trees * Biologist files suit targeting logging roads (AK) * Outlook is dire for oak disease (CA) * Scientists claim new monkey species found (Brazil)</p><p>------EVENTS:</p><p>Forest Products Mill Tour June 2, 2006, Trempealeau, WI</p><p>Well-Managed Forests for Community Well-Being June 2-3, 2006, Palisade, MN</p><p>Little Grass on the Prairie: Prairie Plant Identification and Habitat June 10, 2006, Baraboo, WI Master Woodland Steward Course June 22-25, 2006, Ashland, WI</p><p>Game of Logging June 24-25, 2006, Duvall, WA</p><p>Advances in Threat Assessment and their Application to Forest and Rangeland Management July 18-20, 2006, Boulder, CO</p><p>Kiln Drying Short Course August 14-17, 2006, St. Paul, MN</p><p>For more event listings visit: http://www.forestrycenter.org/Calendar/Cal.cfm</p><p>------INFORMATION:</p><p>The Roots of Forestry </p><p>Commentary: Market-based Certification Systems</p><p>For more documents and information visit: http://www.forestrycenter.org/Search/search.cfm</p><p>------PUBLICATIONS:</p><p>Report: Innovations in Family Forest Certification: What's Happening & What's Needed</p><p>Bioenergy Production</p><p>Balancing Ecology and Economics: A Start-up Guide for Forest Owner Cooperation</p><p>------HEADLINES:</p><p>Foresters demand limits to ATVs on public trails (MN)</p><p>Professional foresters in Minnesota have called for public lands to be off-limits to ATVs except on specific trails that are posted open. Members of the Society of American Foresters Minnesota chapter approved the new position on ATVs through a mail-in ballot in recent months. The group recently released the results. The foresters say ATVs cause erosion and damage vegetation on public lands, noting huge growth in the number of registered ATVs and more use on county, state and federal forests. http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14654007.htm OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87932 </p><p>------</p><p>Students learn fire safety lessons from Cottonville fire (WI)</p><p>A year and a half ago, Sterling Strathe started a program to teach kids about wildfires, but he wasn’t surprised when six months later, he got a real-life example. And five months ago, some students at UWSP got involved, taking on his program as a class project. Their semester project included teaching these kids what DNR officials wish their parents would have known a year ago like which housing materials burn quickly. http://www.wsaw.com/news/headlines/2754206.html OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87913 </p><p>------</p><p>Rare American chestnut trees discovered (GA)</p><p>A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs. The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees. http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10492 OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87906 </p><p>------</p><p>Forest Service helps tecate cypress after fire (CA)</p><p>The tecate cypress, a remnant Ice Age tree that grows only in a few places in Southern California and Mexico, needs fire in order to regenerate. The fire's heat coaxes open the tree's cones, eventually allowing tiny seeds to spill out. And fire is what the cypresses got in the Santa Ana Mountains in February: Nearly 11,000 acres on slopes leading down toward Orange County were scorched after wind kicked up smoldering embers from an earlier fire – one that had been set by the Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1141835.php OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87936 </p><p>------Local company makes hardwood alternative (WA)</p><p>Randy Stribling wouldn't dream of making furniture out of endangered teak or Brazilian rosewood - but he doesn't mind if it looks like it. The longtime Bellingham woodworker recently tested a new product called Alowood, developed by the Whatcom County-based company Chemco. The wood has the grain, color and strength of the hands-off hardwoods, but it's made from soft, farmed trees that grow like weeds. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20060520/NEWS05/605200342/1018 OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87933 </p><p>------</p><p>Home on the range: A corridor for wildlife</p><p>Dr. Paul Paquet is part of a collaborative group of researchers, conservationists, government officials and others hoping to improve things. They want to create a sustainable environment for wildlife from the Yukon to Yellowstone, even as people move ever deeper into the Rocky Mountains of the United States and Canada. Their goal is a landscape in which animals can thrive, roaming and reproducing widely and avoiding the genetic perils of small populations trapped in shrinking habitats. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/science/earth/23corr.html?_r=1&oref=slogin OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87938 </p><p>------</p><p>Pulp friction</p><p>When President Néstor Kirchner of Argentina traveled earlier this month to Gualeguaychu to lead a protest of 100,000 people against neighboring Uruguay building two giant pulp paper mills, it was only the latest shot in an increasingly bitter dispute between the two Latin American states. What is being called the "pulp war" is sucking in Spanish and Finnish multinational companies, igniting passionate debate about global environmental standards, and leading to accusations of widescale environmental destruction on the back of potential financing by the World Bank. http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1141835.php OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87937 </p><p>------</p><p>Himalayas deforestation could lead to plant, animal loss In a new study, to be released in an upcoming edition of the journal Biodiversity and Conservation, an international team of researchers concluded that forest cover on the Indian side of the mountain range will fall from 84.9 percent in 2000 to 52.8 percent by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce unchecked development, land clearing for farming or the collection of wood for fuel. http://news.inq7.net/world/index.php?index=1&story_id=76373 OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/headlines.cfm?refid=87940 </p><p>------EVENTS</p><p>Forest Products Mill Tour June 2, 2006, Trempealeau, WI</p><p>The Kickapoo Woods Cooperative invites the public to tour the Hawkeye Forest Products facility. Participants in the tour will see the sorting yard, dry kilns, planing facility, and the mill in operation. We will look at a log in the yard, estimate its value, and send it through the mill and see what it yields. This facility has focused on niche marketing of high value products, and half of the logs they harvest are walnut or cherry. </p><p>Contact Lila Marmel at 608-624-5269 or [email protected] or see http://www.forestrycenter.org/calendar.cfm?refid=87942 </p><p>------</p><p>Well-Managed Forests for Community Well-Being June 2-3, 2006, Palisade, MN</p><p>This workshop will highlight the local efforts of Aitkin County, MN, to connect good forestry with a healthy local economy and high quality of life. Presentations will share experiences in education and outreach, engaging private woodland owners in forest stewardship, and making use of forest certification as an economic development opportunity. Workshop sponsored by the Forest Guild and open to anyone interested.</p><p>Contact Katie Fernholz at 651-762-4007 or [email protected] or see http://www.forestrycenter.org/calendar.cfm?refID=78800&categoryID</p><p>------</p><p>Little Grass on the Prairie: Prairie Plant Identification and Habitat June 10, 2006, Baraboo, WI</p><p>Join the Woodland School for a morning on the prairie. We will help you build a toolbox of tips and tricks that will help you to distinguish even the most similar prairie flowers and grasses. As we walk around several prairie restorations, we will look at plants of different life stages, from seedling to adult, and we will discuss the soil and water conditions that favor certain types of grassland communities.</p><p>Contact Jeannine Richards at 608-355-0279 ext. 5# or [email protected] or see http://www.thewoodlandschool.org/courses.htm </p><p>------</p><p>Master Woodland Steward Course June 22-25, 2006, Ashland, WI</p><p>This will be an intensive four-day course featuring a combination of classroom sessions and field exercises. In addition to the formal work, there will be opportunities to meet and get to know other woodland owners and learn about how they are managing their land. The course is conducted by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point Forestry Outreach Program in cooperation with Northland College and the Living Forest Cooperative, a coop of private landowners. </p><p>Contact John O'Reilly at 320-655-3901 or [email protected] or see http://www.forestrycenter.org/calendar.cfm?refid=87925 </p><p>------</p><p>Game of Logging June 24-25, 2006, Duvall, WA</p><p>Northwest Certified Forestry invites you to attend The Game of Logging, Soren Eriksson's world famous course on safe, efficient, and precise tree removal. Based around the concept of open face felling, this two day weekend course will change your approach to working in the woods. Because The Game of Logging's approach to felling is so unique, the course is appropriate for a wide range of skill levels, from professional fellers to chainsaw rookies. </p><p>Contact Ian Hanna at 360-379-9421 or [email protected] or see http://www.nnrg.org/news/documents/GOL06.pdf </p><p>------</p><p>Advances in Threat Assessment and their Application to Forest and Rangeland Management July 18-20, 2006, Boulder, CO</p><p>This conference is designed to encourage meaningful exchange among those developing new knowledge and tools for threat assessment and those responsible for managing forests and rangelands. Scientists and educators, policymakers, property owners, land managers, and students are among those invited to attend. Contact John Pye at 919-549-4013 or [email protected] or see www.forestencyclopedia.net/encyclopedia/threats</p><p>------</p><p>Kiln Drying Short Course August 14-17, 2006, St. Paul, MN</p><p>This course is designed to provide basic training in the kiln drying of lumber. Conventional drying of hardwood species will be emphasized, however, other equipment and procedures will be discussed. Instruction will be provided by way of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on kiln drying experience with ample time reserved for group discussion as well as individual consultation.</p><p>Contact Harlan Petersen at 612-624-3407 or [email protected] or see http://www.cnr.umn.edu/bp/extension/shortcourses/kdsc.php</p><p>------INFORMATION</p><p>The Roots of Forestry </p><p>The archives of the Society of American Foresters’ five periodical journals, Journal of Forestry, Forest Science, and the Northern, Southern, and Western Journals of Applied Forestry, are available online. Publications from 1902 to 1999 are searchable with this tool. SAF members can access all articles for free. Non-members can search and read abstracts for free and full text is available for purchase.</p><p>For more information see http://www.safnet.org/periodicals/roots.cfm </p><p>------</p><p>Commentary: Market-based Certification Systems</p><p>One goal of certification has always been to provide customers with a choice – to, in fact, offer them the opportunity to direct their purchases toward products that have the least negative impact on the environment. However, the complaint commonly heard from companies that have put the effort and expense into becoming certified is “our customers are not requesting certified.” So the question arises, is this perceived lack of customer demand a result of a general lack of interest or awareness, as discussed above, or due to some other cause?</p><p>Read more at http://www.dovetailinc.org/DovetailComm0506.html </p><p>------PUBLICATIONS</p><p>Report: Innovations in Family Forest Certification: What's Happening & What's Needed</p><p>This report provides information about recent research related to the certification of family forestlands in the United States, efforts being made by the ATFS and FSC programs to improve access to certification for small ownerships, and some key barriers and areas where continued effort is needed. </p><p>Available at http://www.dovetailinc.org/DovetailFForest0506.html OR http://www.forestrycenter.org/library.cfm?refID=87915 </p><p>------</p><p>Bioenergy Production</p><p>This commentary from the National Woodland Owners Association discusses the role of family forest owners in the growing market for woody biomass as an energy source. </p><p>Available at http://www.forestrycenter.org/library.cfm?refid=87945 </p><p>------</p><p>Balancing Ecology and Economics: A Start-up Guide for Forest Owner Cooperation</p><p>The 160-page guide is intended to show how private landowners, working together, can improve the ecological conditions of their lands while improving their own economic well-being and that of the communities in which their forest land is located.</p><p>Intended primarily for landowners and resource managers, the guide provides essential information on all aspects of establishing a forest owner cooperative, including: forest management, marketing, business planning, co-op governance, cooperative structures, non-timber forest products, sustainable certification, developing member education programs, and more.</p><p>For more information about Sustainable Forestry Cooperatives, or to order a copy of Balancing Ecology and Economics: A Start-Up Guide for Forest Owner Cooperation, please visit: http://www.forestrycenter.org</p><p>------</p><p>NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information, go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this newsletter for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ----END-----</p>