Successful Timber Sales

The Wisconsin DNR and University of Wisconsin Extension have teamed up to produce and excellent bulletin for anyone contemplating harvesting timber. They outline an easy to follow and understand 6-step method. The bulletin in entitled Conducting a Successful Timber Sale: A Primer for Landowners.

Timber harvesting is an important tool for woodland owners: When conducted with fore-thought

and wise planning, harvesting trees allows landowners to enjoy their woodlands while keeping them healthy and meeting ownership objectives.

Landowners choose to cut trees for a variety of reasons. Decision to harvest may be based on a recommended action in a written management plan or may be based on unplanned events. For example, a violent windstorm, wildfire, or pest infestation may require harvesting to salvage timber or protect the forest from further damage. Regardless of the reason, a successful timber harvest that meets the landowner’s goals begins by working with a forester to develop a plan.

Harvesting is not a process to enter lightly. A timber harvest is a complex interaction of ecology, forest operations, business, law, taxes, marketing and negotiations. It has both short- and long-term consequences for you and your forest. 

This publication is a first step in helping landowners understand some of these consequences and how they can ensure a careful timber harvest. Readers will also learn about the timber sale process. However, don’t consider this a definitive “how-to” guide for conducting your own timber sale. Much of the process will depend on specific situations and the individuals working with.

Anyone entering the timber sale process should seek assistance from a forestry professional. These professionals are the first stop in understanding your woods, and they can recommend whether or not a landowner should consider conducting a timber sale. Numerous studies have shown that landowners who work with a forester in planning a timber harvest report greater satisfaction, greater revenue from the sale, and healthier and more valuable woods following the harvest.

By Mark Rickenbach, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology (revised by Mike Finley, WDNR, and William Klase and Kris Tiles, University of Wisconsin-Extension)

Verso Paper Mill in Luke, Maryland Closing June 30th

Verso has announced the shuttering of the 131-year-old Luke, Maryland pulp and paper mill. This paper mill reached into Pennsylvania counties throughout South Western and South-Central Pennsylvania to buy a significant percentage of its approximately 500,000 annual green tons of pulpwood and sawmill residue chips for its paper making processes. The loss of this pulpwood market will also inevitably negatively impact the ability of PA’s Tree Farmers and woodland owners in that region to sell their small diameter hardwood logs.

PFA President Rich Lewis comments, "This mill closure is going to have a very severe economic impact on those little towns in the area (Luke and Westernport, MD, Piedmont and Keyser, WV) as well as the 675 employees (and their families) that will be losing their jobs. The economic upheaval will also be felt by the many logging and trucking contractors that supplied the mill with wood fiber who will soon go out of business when the Mill closes next month.”

The Luke Mill had a forestry department of about 20 staff who were very busy not only in procuring wood fiber but also participating heavily in conservation, environmental, forestry, tree farm, logger training and other programs in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

For full details click here.

Glyphosate in the News

Given the publicity of glyphosate in the news, I thought I’d share this.

EPA Takes Next Step in Review Process for Herbicide Glyphosate, Reaffirms No Risk to Public Health 

April 30, 2019

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking an important step in the agency’s review of glyphosate. As part of this action, EPA continues to find that there are no risks to public health when glyphosate is used in accordance with its current label and that glyphosate is not a carcinogen. The agency’s scientific findings on human health risk are consistent with the conclusions of science reviews by many other countries and other federal agencies. While the agency did not identify public health risks in the 2017 human health risk assessment, the 2017 ecological assessment did identify ecological risks. To address these risks, EPA is proposing management measures to help farmers target pesticide sprays on the intended pest, protect pollinators, and reduce the problem of weeds becoming resistant to glyphosate.

“EPA has found no risks to public health from the current registered uses of glyphosate,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Today’s proposed action includes new management measures that will help farmers use glyphosate in the most effective and efficient way possible, including pollinator protections. We look forward to input from farmers and other stakeholders to ensure that the draft management measures are workable, realistic, and effective.”

“If we are going to feed 10 billion people by 2050, we are going to need all the tools at our disposal, which includes the use the glyphosate,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said. “USDA applauds EPA’s proposed registration decision as it is science-based and consistent with the findings of other regulatory authorities that glyphosate does not pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.”

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in U.S. agriculture and has been studied for decades.  Glyphosate is used on more than 100 food crops, including glyphosate-resistant corn, soybean, cotton, canola and sugar beet. Non-agricultural uses include residential areas, aquatic areas, forests, rights of way, ornamentals and turf.

Once the Federal Register notice publishes, the public will be able to submit comments on EPA’s proposed decision at www.regulations.gov in docket # EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361. Public comments will be due 60 days after the date of publication in Federal Register. EPA’s responses to the comments received on the draft ecological and human health risk assessments and the benefits assessment will be in the docket.

Find more information about glyphosate, including today’s proposed interim decision and supporting documents.

See the glyphosate draft risk assessments and supporting documents.