Category: Forest Products Industry related
Source: Missoulian U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., added several measures to help the state’s forestry industry to the 2012 farm bill on Thursday. They include a measure providing $100 million to the U.S. Forest Service for combating bark beetle outbreaks and permanent reauthorization of the stewardship contracting system that permits logs-for-restoration work like the Southwest […]
Source: CBS Denver CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As crews continue to face off against a fast-moving wildfire in northern Colorado, some in the timber industry say the area’s fire danger has been heightened by U.S. Forest Service policies and an economy that discourages them from harvesting millions of acres of dead trees that stand ready to […]
Source: Missoulian Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos The mountain pine beetle epidemic worrying Montana’s timber industry has literally turned explosive in Canada. Extra-dry sawdust from milling beetle-killed logs is the prime suspect in two fatal British Columbia sawmill explosions this year. Mills there now face whopping insurance rate increases, prompting at least one […]
Source: The Daily Sentinel Picture compliments of : Big Sky Country Photos It appears that bark beetles are attacking more than just the trees. Research conducted outside Steamboat Springs has found that the beetles that have decimated pine and spruce forests throughout the western United States have also inadvertently contributed to the air quality problems […]
Source: Cowboys and Indians By Jason Blevins As pine beetles continue to ravage the West and the construction market continues to stall, entrepreneurs and environmentalists struggle to give new life to dead wood. The sky was the limit in 2007. Home prices were skyrocketing. Little more than a signature harvested big loans. Everyone was spending. […]
Source: Missoulian Paul Bunyan wouldn’t have known what to make of Gordon Ash’s little logging crew in the Pioneer Mountains last week. Instead of axes or saws, the U.S. Forest Service team went after trees with sticks of high explosive. “You’d calculate the proper amount of explosive, and then fix that on the tree with […]
Source: Los Angles Times Fire Suppression Policy Has Led to an Overabundance of Trees Ronald Reagan once justified logging with “a tree is a tree; how many more do you need to look at?” Besides, he warned, “trees cause more pollution than automobiles.” We cringed at his biases. Yet due to forces none foresaw, Reagan’s gaffes […]
Terrorists who want to strike fear in the hearts of Americans would do well to set wildfires in Montana, al-Qaida advises in the most recent issue of its English-language magazine, Inspire. “It is difficult to choose a better place other than in the valleys of Montana where the population increases rapidly,” Inspire’s “AQ Chef” columnist […]
Source: Missoulian BILLINGS – The U.S. Forest Service is attempting to grow whitebark pine that are resistant to blister rust as part of an effort to prevent the high-elevation tree from dying out in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Workers have created a 15-acre nursery in the mountains south of Bozeman where seedlings resistant to blister […]
Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Source: Billings Gazette By: Brett French Pine Beetle Infestation Eases From the air, the view of Montana’s forests is improving, with indications that the state’s mountain pine beetle infestation is abating. “Conditions are improving,” said Gregg DeNitto, a Forest Service pathologist and leader of the Forest Service’s Forest […]
If you missed it, here is a pretty cool interview with Governor Brian Schweitzer on the Late Show with David Letterman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=983bhGKa4H4
Source: North Idaho Business Journal By: Mike Patrick There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the last 400,000 years. “That’s not in dispute,” says Dr. Jay O’Laughlin. “What is in dispute is the role of carbon dioxide emissions in affecting global warming.” No, the good doctor isn’t going to go there. […]
Source: NY Times The evolution of mountain pine beetles to produce two generations of beetle per year instead of one has probably been a factor in the unparalleled damage that insects have caused in pine forests in the western United States and Canada over the last decade, according to a new study. The findings, published online in The American […]
Source: Missoulian Steve Gage used to worry about his firefighters getting burned. Now the Type I incident commander wonders if they’ll be clubbed to death before they ever reach a forest fire. The threat comes from the tiny mountain pine beetle, only not in the way most people think. Beetle-killed trees have undermined decades of […]
Source: Craig Rawlings, Forest Business Network Forestry… 1. Produces products that are both safe and sturdy With proper design and maintenance, wood products are some of the most durable and safe on the market. Resistant in instances of high humidity, tough to break, and minimally processed, wood surpasses many other raw materials as the safest […]