(Not) Counting Trees

As noted previously, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Higher Education met yesterday. A sprained ankle prevented me providing oral testimony, but I did submit some thoughts in writing (pdf).

Lack of state funding threatens rural student enrollment at UW-Madison - The Country Today: Guest Opinions

Next week, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry, and Higher Education will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill 161. This bill reflects the work of the Le

A portion of our current political discourse centers on government, its failings, and how it should be different. For anyone seriously interested in understanding government bureaucracy, why it is, how it works, and how to think about change, I would recommend spending time with James Q. Wilson's classic, Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It (Basic Books, 1989, ISBN 978-0-465-00785-1).

Made an error in my description of woodlands and landowners owning 10 or more acres on my recent post: Extent of Woodland Leasing in Wisconsin: Insights from a recent landowner survey. This has been corrected. My apologies.

THIS POSITION IS FILLED (FEB. 24, 2012).

APPLICATIONS NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED
Effective Feb. 2, 2012

The Assembly version of the proposed changes to the MFL is AB402, and has been assigned to the Assembly Forestry Committee. You can track its progress here or by RSS.

Key Findings

• Leasing occurs on 7-9% of private woodlands.
• 6.0% of landowners not enrolled in the Managed Forest Law (MFL) in a 2010 survey reported leasing land for activities such as hunting.
• Larger parcels are leased more frequently reflecting greater economic motivations for landownership.
• Demographically, those who lease have slightly higher educational attainment, but are otherwise similar.

Introduction

Satellite technology enables rapid, accurate mapping of forest harvest in upper Midwest (Nov. 9, 2011):

Research from our department written up as UW press release...meant to post sooner

For the last several months, I've been involved with the Driftless Forest Network, a consortium of forestry interests in the Driftless Area seeking to harness peer-to-peer models to influence land management and to build outreach capacity among resource managers and others.