Category: All News
Source: Missoulian Photo Compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos LUBRECHT EXPERIMENTAL FOREST – Somewhere between the clearcut practices of 30 years ago and today’s debate over the proper size of wood chips, forest sustainability and management has absorbed some major changes. “We’ve had to work on regaining trust,” Montana State University extension forestry professor Peter […]
Photo compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Question The 19 million acres of national forest in Montana are about the size of what eastern seaboard state? Answer South Carolina
Source: Helena Independent Record By Julie Altemus This week marks the first “Montana Forest Products Industry Week.” The third week of October was set aside by the 62nd Montana Legislature in conjunction with the National Forest Products Week dedicated by Congress 51 years ago, to observe the importance of forests and their products. Congress recognized […]
Source: Missoulian Chemical war. Biological war. Scorched earth. Having watched mountain pine beetles blitz the Continental Divide forests east of here for the past decade, leaving practically no mature pines living near the state’s capital, western Montanans are primed for a fight. “In Helena and Butte, they’ll have a whole generation that won’t know what (Montana) […]
Photo compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Question: Montana is 550 miles across (east to west). Is that greater than, less than, or equal to the distance from Chicago to New York City? Answer: About equal to, as the crow flies
Source: Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences – University of Florida A breakthrough in pine tree breeding will lead to forests better adapted to climate change and bioenergy use, University of Florida researchers report. The improved forests will stem from a genetic technique the researchers have developed that can create new tree varieties in half the […]
Source – Rapid City Journal Battle lines in the war against the mountain pine beetle are shifting north in the Black Hills, as hordes of the burrowing bugs emerge from dying pine trees to infect whole new sections of forest. The spread of the beetle, which has already been estimated by U.S. Forest Service specialists […]
Picture from: Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Question: The paddlefish, found in the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Montana, is found in what one other place in the world? Answer: The Yangtze in China
By Rob Chaney of the Missoulian After several years of contractions and downturns, what remains of Montana’s timber industry may find a sustainable level of work. “All the mills have their log prices in line with what the lumber prices are,” said Craig Rawlings, publisher of Smallwood News and owner of Timber Buy-Sell.com. “They’ve curtailed, tightened […]
Source: Missioulian Photo compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Nearly everyone – environmental groups, timber companies, private landowners and public lands agencies – would agree that land management decisions are best made outside the courtroom. Years of bitter legal disputes have demonstrated that the vast majority of problems are best solved out of court, so […]
Source: Missoulian Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Calling wood a “green building material” seems redundant. Nevertheless, the U.S. Forest Service has published a study arguing the American building industry has overlooked that fact. Its authors want more recognition of how wood takes less energy to fabricate, releases less carbon into the atmosphere and […]
Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Question- From 70 Fahrenheit below zero to 117 Fahrenheit above, Montana has the greatest temperature range of any state with 187 degrees Fahrenheit. Which state comes in second? Answer- North Dakota. With a range of 181 degrees Fahrenheit, Alaska is third with a 180 degrees Fahrenheit.
Source: Duluth News Tribune Federal Forest Resource Coalition Pushes Feds for More Timber A group of timber industry leaders from across the country announced Thursday that they have formed a new lobbying group and opened a Washington office. The new Federal Forest Resource Coalition plans to press for increased timber sales on national forests. Howard […]
Source: Montana Restoration Picture compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Four groups have filed a lawsuit on a forest project near Seeley Lake, which has local supporters of forest restoration and collaboration, which aims to reduce these types of forest conflicts, scratching their heads. According to Anne Dahl, President of the Swan Ecosystem Center, The […]
Source: Missoulian A lawsuit challenging a timber sale north of Seeley Lake shows either the U.S. Forest Service can’t follow the law or some environmental groups can’t agree to work together. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan, Montana Ecosystem Defense Council and Native Ecosystems Council all sued the Forest […]