Category: All News
Source: Craig Rawlings – Forest Business Network Picture: Tom Waddell What is Restoration Forestry? The term “restoration forestry” is thrown around quite a bit these days. While it’s used broadly, there doesn’t seem to be any quintessential definition for it, let alone a “map” of all it encompasses – skills needed, best practices, stackable credentials, […]
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune The Forest Reserves, now called national forests, were initially set aside from the public domain to correct the devastation that was occurring to these high-mountain watersheds. Excessive logging, devastating wildfires and unregulated livestock grazing were negatively impacting the watersheds. Over a 60- to 70-year period, it took a diligent effort […]
Source: Denver Post Fifteen years ago, the U.S. Forest Service boldly announced a goal of eradicating hazardously overgrown forests nationwide by 2015. That goal is long gone. The threat to Colorado homes in 2013, it now appears, will likely be as high as ever. Forest restoration and bush clearance have lagged even as new housing […]
Source – USDA Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the USDA’s strategy to promote the use of wood as a green building material. At an event this evening to launch the International Year of the Forest, Secretary Vilsack will lay out a three-part plan addressing the Forest Service’s and USDA’s current green building practices. “Wood has […]
Question: How many acres is the average Montana farm today? Answer: 2,714 acres
Source: Missoulian If you thought the beetle-killed forests in Montana look bad, check out the Idaho-sized hole they’ve chewed in British Columbia. Investigative reporter Andrew Nikiforuk brought some equally massive metaphors to describe the impact the insect “the size of a mouse turd” has had on Canadian ecology and politics. The combination of high-grade logging […]
Source: Missoulian What would you think if you heard your local Forest Service was proposing to improve 600 miles of forest roads in need of maintenance? What would you think if the Forest Service was proposing to include an opportunity to provide jobs to small-scale loggers to perform the road maintenance work while they could […]
Source: NPR Fire scientists are calling it “the new normal”: a time of fires so big and hot that no one can remember anything like it. One of the scientists who coined that term is Craig Allen. I drive with him to New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument, where he works for the U.S. Geological Survey. […]
Question: What percent of Montanans live in a household with at least one gun? Answer: 57%. The only states with a higher percentage are Alaska (58%); South Dakota (59%); and Wyoming (60%)
Why does our hand scraped flooring look so much better than everything else on the market? Because our hand scraped flooring is actually done by hand. Every piece is scraped with only a hand tool and good old American hard work. Just about every “hand scraped” floor a consumer sees in the market place is […]
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune Forests » Loggers say yes, but environmentalists say blazes may be just the cure for Utah stands. Kamas • As vast as Utah’s wildfire season has been already, there are legions of dead, red trees in the Uinta Mountains quietly waiting their turn to burn. It didn’t have to be […]
Source: The Meadow Lake Progress The mountain pine beetle is making its away across western Canada, said the ministry of environment. The Saskatchewan ministry of environment is partnering with Great Western Forestry to mark and remove infested trees in northwest Saskatchewan as well as the Cypress Hills area. “The mountain pine beetle represents a significant […]
Question: In what city would you find the U.S. speed skating team training at the High Altitude Sports Center, the highest sports center in the world at 5,528 feet in elevation? Answer: Butte Montana
By: SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY INITIATIVE, INC SFI Awards Grant To Support Water Quality Research The World Resources Institute (WRI), a global development and environmental think tank, will receive a grant of $35,000 USD to research how forest certification standards can help protect American lakes and rivers, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) announced today. “This grant will […]
Question: The most common collision on Montana highways occurs between two moving vehicles, but what is the second most common item collide with? Answer: Wildlife, with about 1800 collisions per year.