Category: Forest Products Industry related
Source: The Vancouver Sun Photo Compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Imagine a situation in which an activist group with certain political ambitions and close ties to a computer manufacturer engaged in a campaign of threats against specific retailers. Targeted retailers were told that they must buy computers from only a select manufacturer (the one […]
By: Peter Kolb, University of Montana Forest ecosystems are the combination of species, geology, topography, and climate tied together by physical and biotic processes specific to any one site, and most importantly occupied by trees as the dominant vegetation. A forest ecosystem may be as small as a tree branch microsite where mosses, insects, and […]
Source: Distinctly Montana More than 600,000 acres of Montana wildlands burned last summer, sparking renewed debate about public forest management. Last fall, U. S. Forest Service officials made the rounds of evening meetings to defend the decisions they made both before and during the fires, while armchair forest managers pointed to alternative strategies that might […]
By: Professor Peter Kolb, University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation Across central Europe, forests have been harvested intensively and continually for over 2000 years. Many countries there, notably Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland have developed forest management practices that maintain forest productivity, biodiversity, scenic, and recreational beauty, and that have greatly limited catastrophic […]
By: Professor Peter Kolb, University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation The bark beetle outbreak we are experiencing across the entire western portion of North America is the result of multiple ecological factors converging at the same time. Its occurrence is not a surprise for foresters across western forests as the current expansiveness of […]
After doing this for so long we sometimes forget to answer the most common questions. A common question we get is, “So, what exactly is standing timber?” Dead-standing trees refer to trees that have been killed in the forest by a naturally occurring event. The majority of dead-standing trees in Montana are a result of […]
Douglas Fir Timber Properties: Wood Strength and More Description: Douglas Fir has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any wood species. Primarily found in the western US and Canada, Douglas Fir is frequently used for structural dimension lumber and for interior finish work in upper grades. Douglas Fir clears are renowned for their strength, durability, […]
Source: Salt Lake Tribune Photo compliments of: Big Sky Country Photos Putting wood chips to work could be the West’s best hope at saving its forests. Right now, there are too few profits to persuade the too few loggers to prune trees from tens of millions of sickly acres, government foresters believe. But turning overabundant […]
Source: The New York Times WISE RIVER, Mont. — The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn. But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in part […]
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 […]
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) […]
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 […]
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 […]