(Not) Counting Trees

Loggers are the critical link between forests and wood markets. They are also key actors in implementing sustainable forestry. Their actions drive a multi-billion dollar industry that is the backbone of local communities across Wisconsin. The economic downturn has been tough on markets and mills. At the same time, costs continue to rise for equipment, stumpage, and just about everything else. Loggers across the state and nation have felt this trend. Wisconsin’s logging sector entered the recession under considerable strain.

Last week, Alanna Koshollek (Aldo Leopold Foundation) and I attended the Environmental Evaluators Network (EEN) Forum in Washington, DC. The format was novel in that topics were determined on the day of the event as opposed to in advance (called an "unconference"). 

Assuming all the paperwork sorts out, I’ll begin a one-year special assignment with the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) focused on the agency’s natural resource, bioenergy, and climate change portfolios beginning July 17.

Sara Bredesen, in a recent article in the Country Today "Economy deals death blow to Living Forest Co-op," reports that the Living Forest Cooperative based in NW Wisconsin voted to dissolve earlier this year.

Link may incur cost if you view too many Country Today articles.

[UPDATED June 7] Several years ago, we developed a website that showed timber harvest effects at photo points, entitled Timber Harvesting: A Virtual Visit to the Harvest Site. The last set of photos were taken 2.5 years after the harvest.

From the Tree [to the Web] of Life...sent to me by Bethany

Late last week, I was interviewed by Aaron Joyce, News Director at WRCO in Richland Center (click logo for more on station). He was one of 600 residents in SW Wisconsin to receive a questionnaire about bioenergy and land use.

Click here to download/listen to the full interview (mp3, 3.1 MB, 3m 15s).

Click here for a link to an 11-minute crash course in social networks by Nickolas Christakis at Harvard Univeristy as part of its Harvard Thinks Big series.

Christakis is a professor of sociology, medical sociology, and medicine at Harvard Univeristy and Medical School.

David Kittredge at UMass sent me the video link.

NewPage halts biorefinery plans for Wisconsin Rapids mill | Wausau Daily Herald | wausaudailyherald.com

The Wisconsin Council on Forestry sent letters to the Wisconsin's congressional delegation in support of pending federal legislation entitled, the Silviculture Exemption Consistency Act (HR2541 and SB1369), which would continue the existing policy that forestry operations are non-point source pollution and that forestry best management practices are an appropriate policy tool for protecting water qualit