Increase of Timber Theft

This article, in today's New York Times, highlights an increasing problem of timber theft around the country. It highlights a landowner in Vermont who lost thirty or so of his best sugar maple trees, that were logged by his neighbor. The landowner was awarded $30,000 in a subsequent civil suit.

The article point out that many of the victims are elderly or poor and seldom get redress. Some species, such as black walnut, are so valuable that they have always been susceptible to timber theft. Experts aren't sure if the amount of theft is greater today, since many cases are never reported. With the high demand for American hardwood species around the world, land owners need to stay vigilant to protect their forests.

Woodland Owners Visit the Waynesboro Watershed

Mont Alto forest technology students led a tour of forest management and silvical activities on the Waynesboro Watershed for members of the Cumberland County Woodland Owners Association and the Waynesboro High School Envirothon team yesterday afternoon (9/22) Below is a map of the sites visited:


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At the reservoir Dave Gillen discusses the purpose of the watershed, butternut canker, the importance of hickories for biological diversity and wildlife feed, and stand dynamics in an old norway spruce plantation.

Matt Reitzel described a 20+ acre clearcut to remove some stagnant softwood plantations, the problems with invasive plants, the use of herbicides, the re-establishment of american chestnut, and hybrid loblolly pine planting.

Adam Luther described a hardwood removal cut to release oaks. The twenty acre site was then fenced to keep deer. Today the oak stand is doing very well. The acorns were falling like rain.

The deer fence is essential.

Click here to see the full set of pictures.

Greek Wildfire Catastrophe

The news all weekend has been full of the Greek wildfire story. Even the site of the birth of the Olympic games is threatened. Both the New York Times and The Washington Post have carried a story by John F. L. Ross with this quote:

Forest fires are common during Greece's hot, dry summers _ but nothing has approached the scale of the last three days. Arson is often suspected, mostly to clear land for development. No construction is allowed in Greece in areas designated as forest land, and fires are sometimes set to circumvent the law.

It shows that even in forest ecosystems prone to fire, their number and severity are strongly influenced by social considerations. The politics and economics of land ownership count a lot. This has been true every place I have worked, from Pennsylvania to Burkina Faso. The toll of human suffering from these fires is unimaginable. I hope they are put under control soon.

Here is a link to a photoset from a Greek photographer on Flickr.
Here is a link to the NASA image shown here.

Forest Inventory in Florida

Penn State Mont Alto forest technology alumnus Chris McGarvey (06) sends in this picture of himself working on a forest inventory plot in Florida. Chris writes:

"I was working with our state QA guy (Jay Frost with the USFS) who took the picture. We were chaining out to one of the subplots on an FIA permanent plot in western Washington county in the Florida panhandle. Plot center was about maybe 75 feet from a creek (tributary to the Choctahatchee Rvr) which has overspilled its banks onto the immediate floodplain (not sure why since it has been very dry state-wide here). We got about waist-deep in pretty quick moving water (was a warm day but the water was a bit chilly - photo was taken in mid March). A cottonmouth was sunning him/herself on one of our tally trees.....property was a bit remote (owned by the NW FLA water mgmt district) and required a mile or so hike to get to it. "

Thanks for the picture Chris. Be careful with the snakes!

Timber Harvesting Visit

Students from the Forest Management Practices class visited a 40 acre timber harvesting operation in Rye Township (near Marysville) yesterday. Consulting forester, and Mont Alto alumnus Michael Waldron (in the red vest in the top picture) explained the silvicultural and landowner goals for this oak stand on the side of a hill. He also described how a forester has to meet landowner goals, silvicultural standards, and loggers' needs while still earning income from the job. Good communication and a willingness to listen are critical. Thanks, Mike, for a great visit. Click here for more pictures.

Forest Damage in Europe

As we were discussing in forest management this week, forests, both natural and plantations, are very stable, safe investments. The probability of damage from fire, insects, or weather is actually quite low when you consider forests as a whole.

But when damage occurs it can be catastrophic. Here is a quote on the recent storm damage in Sweden:

"About 12 million cubic metres have been estimated to be damaged in the recent storm that swept southern Sweden 14 January. Next to the storm “Gudrun” two years ago this is the most severe storm since 1969. Much of the storm-felled trees are within areas that already have a high risk of large-scale outbreak of the European Spruce bark beetle."
Here is the link to the article: http://www.nordicforestry.org/article.asp?Data_ID_Article=2263&Data_ID_Channel=33

The damage in Germany is equally serious: "

Forestry officials said the hurricane that tore through Germany killing 11 people last week also knocked down 40 million trees. The damage was expected to cost the industry dearly." http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2323760,00.html

So, forests are usually safe, but when something bad happens it can be very bad.
Thanks to Eggers Thies (Sweden information) and David South (Germany information) for these leads