treesource

Forest Journalism for a Sustainable Future

Oct. 24 forum explores how to live with fire in hotter, drier climate

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Heat, low humidity and high winds sent the Lolo Peak fire on a spectacular run late on Aug. 18, filling the sky to the south of Missoula, Montana. Photo: Kelly Henkel

Treesource, a new online magazine promoting “forest journalism for a sustainable future,” will host a public forum in Missoula Oct. 24 on living with fire and the record-setting 2017 wildfire season.

Treesource president David Atkins said the publication fills a much-needed niche of providing in-depth reporting on forest issues, including wildlife, drinking water, carbon, wood products and a sustainable economy.

The new Montana-based online magazine recently received 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, officially designating it a tax exempt nonprofit publication.  It has been live for about 6 months.

“We’ll provide the nuanced narratives so often missing in daily, hurry-up journalism by explaining why these complex and essential ecosystems are important to our everyday lives,” Atkins said. “Treesource approaches all of our work through the lens of sustainability, that is balancing environmental, economic and social facets of a story.” [Read more…]

Winds of change? Federal judges uphold collaborative forest restoration projects

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The Colville National Forest’s A to Z forest restoration project employs a variety of tree-thinning methods across 12,000 acres. Photo: Colville National Forest

Federal judges are increasingly endorsing the methods and goals of the U.S. Forest Service’s collaborative forest management process, as evidenced by two recent U.S. District Court rulings.

Evergreen magazine’s Jim Petersen provided the analysis in a recent online article. Both cases in question involved the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, an advocacy group based in Helena, Montana, that has actively litigated Forest Service decisions for decades.

The decisions came on appeal from judges considering these cases:

  • Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Jim Peña (U.S. Forest Service Region Six) and Rodney Solomon (Colville National Forest)
  • and Alliance for the Wild Rockies v. Mary Farnsworth (Idaho Panhandle National Forest), Leanne Marten (Forest Service Region One) and Thomas Tidwell (now former-chief, U.S. Forest Service).

[Read more…]

Fire birds are back, and thriving, in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens

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Bill Haines, left, the owner of Pine Island Cranberry Company, and Jimmy Sloan, right, of N.J. Fish and Wildlife, release wild quail onto Pine Island property in Chatsworth, New Jersey. Photo: John Parke/N.J. Audubon

Fire has returned to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, and with it the fire birds that disappeared in the 1980s because of habitat loss.

New Jersey Audubon started reintroducing bobwhite quail to a Pine Island cranberry farm in 2015, toting the birds to their new home from Georgia.

The migrants built and populated nests later that year, and more reintroductions followed. Now Bill Haines, the farm’s owner, has been awarded the National Fire Bird Conservation Award from the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative. [Read more…]

Burning question: Is woody biomass the 21st century fuel?

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Processors thin small-diameter pine on the Malheur National Forest. Photo: Marcus Kauffman

For hundreds of millennia, humans have depended on wood as a basic but reliable source of fuel. Today efforts to grow that dependence in the face of an evolving energy landscape are widespread. But they’re also contentious.

The debate over biomass, an umbrella term that encompasses a range of organic materials used for energy, rests primarily on the question of “carbon neutrality.” It’s taking place at the federal level — the House Appropriations Committee voted during the summer to designate biomass “carbon neutral” — and across the states.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced in August that his administration would move to designate fuel derived from felling trees and clearing brush in forests as renewable energy. In Arizona the state’s Public Service recently ordered to research forest bioenergy as part of its power portfolio. The biomass industry’s main trade group is part of a just-hatched PR and advertising blitz planned for later in September by an umbrella renewable-energy consortium that also includes wind and solar and has dubbed itself National Clean Energy Week. [Read more…]

Pacific Northwest: Study touts jobs growth tied to cross-laminated timber

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The next few years will be pivotal for SmartLam and other CLT producers. Photo courtesy of SmartLam.

The production of cross-laminated timber, or CLT, has the potential to create significant job growth in the Pacific Northwest, according to a study published in July 2017 by Oregon BEST, a Portland-based nonprofit.

CLT is made of layers of glued 2-inch-thick dimensional wood crossing over each other at a 90-degree angle, creating a strong panel that can be used in tall buildings.

The 110-page study, “Advanced Wood Product Manufacturing Study for Cross-Laminated Timber Acceleration in Oregon and SW Washington,” was funded by $120,000 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. [Read more…]