Tag Archives: forestry
Future Of Forestry Is A Growing Problem
Forests can combine a working environment with places for recreation and nature. Picture: Jon Savage by STUART GOODALL Published on the 07 August 2013 FORESTRY is a Scottish success story, supporting almost 40,000 jobs and contributing nearly £1.7 billion to the economy every year. It is also a backdrop to Scotland’s tourism industry – many iconic Scottish landscapes and images feature forests, and tourists and locals alike enjoy walking, biking or viewing wildlife in these special areas. Our forests are unique in that they can combine a working environment with places for recreation and nature. Most are actively managed and produce wood to supply the materials for our everyday lives. Our ancestors used wood for shelter, fire and hunting. While we no longer need to hunt for food, we still build with wood, and use it for fuel. This sounds wonderful, and indeed Scotland’s forest industry has bucked the economic downturn with continued investment of around £50 million a year. Increased production and expanding exports have had an annual beneficial impact of £1bn on the UK’s balance of payments. But all is not green in the forest garden. The public image of forestry is stuck in the 20th century; think forestry, and many imagine dark, impenetrable blocks of trees where nothing lives. When trees are harvested, it’s assumed they will not be replaced. These misconceptions make it harder to achieve support for new woodland creation, especially those containing a proportion of trees grown to supply future stocks of wood. If we do not overcome this, we will damage rural employment, undermine carbon reduction targets and, ironically, undermine much of the wildlife that popular perception believes is damaged by forestry. The successful reintroduction of the sea eagle has seen these majestic birds set up home in forests managed to produce wood, alongside other birds of prey and the iconic red squirrel. Long-term Wood production and availability is at a modern-day peak due to high levels of historic planting, but forestry is long-term, with planning horizons stretching 15-25 years – and investment will only continue if Scottish businesses can guarantee a supply of wood. The problem is the stark fall in softwood planting (the mainstay of the forestry sector) since the early 1990s. In more than 20 years since 1991, only 41,000 hectares (ha) has been planted, compared to 215,000ha in 1981-90 alone – an astonishing drop. Successive Scottish Governments have committed to 6,000ha of new softwood planting annually, which would provide the required confidence in future supply. Scotland is also losing large swathes of softwood forestry to windfarms, conversion to other habitats, and changes to the make-up of existing productive forests to make them more diverse and attractive to wildlife. This cannot continue. Wood availability will peak around 2025-2030, then fall steeply. This is a long-term problem with short-term consequences; reduced confidence in future raw material supply will lead to a drop in investment, job losses and reduced economic growth. We have to plant far more trees in the next decade than we are doing now, to secure the future of a successful industry, vital also for our existing forests. If forests are not managed, they do become dark and impenetrable, and unwelcoming to wildlife and people. Businesses Scotland’s wood-using businesses generate the income to pay for management; if these businesses decline, so will our forests. There are people who want to plant trees and we need to ensure Scotland’s regulatory and grants system for land allows them to do so, to achieve what all of Scotland needs – new, well-managed, multi-benefit forests that provide the wood we need for our everyday lives, while allowing people and wildlife to enjoy the woodland environment. The forestry sector is campaigning on this issue and had a productive meeting recently with forestry minister Paul Wheelhouse and enterprise minister Fergus Ewing, who recognised the significance of softwood forestry and reaffirmed the commitment to plant 10,000ha a year until 2022, with a 60:40 split in favour of productive softwoods. The ministers also delivered a clear message to the sector to keep planting, stressing that the latest reform to the Common Agricultural Policy should not lead to unnecessary and potentially damaging delays. There was also support from Mr Wheelhouse and Mr Ewing for ensuring that grants do not dissuade landowners from planting productive softwoods. This is encouraging, but it is important that it leads to real action; the future of a sector that can do great things for Scotland depends upon it. • Stuart Goodall is chief executive of Confor: promoting forestry and wood (www.confor.org.uk) More information on becoming Continue reading
Forestry And The Farm Bill
TUE JULY 23, 2013 Forestry and the Farm Bill By JULIA ALTEMUS As the U.S. House and Senate inched towards a Conference Committee on the farm bill last week, some believe the failure of Congress to pass a farm bill in 2012 (instead passing a nine-month extension), and the current stalemate, illustrates how impotent this policy has become. Some believed the extension was a gift to the taxpayer, who would have been stuck with paying for potentially exorbitantly expensive insurance, and price support subsidies, while others believed the extension eviscerated a score of important programs. With Congressional leaders, on both sides of the aisle, searching for inefficient, wasteful and outdated programs, at a time when federal budget deficits have simply become unsustainable; one thing is for sure, instead of addressing the urgent challenges our farm, food and wood fiber system faces, the farm bill has become a patchwork of programs that not only fails to support each other, but are often contradictory. Without a larger discussion about long-term goals for a system we want and can afford, this failure is no surprise. A potential solution being brought forward by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) is the replacement of permanent agricultural laws from 1938 and 1949 with the commodity title, which would allow the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, to continue as an appropriated entitlement rather than be formally reauthorized. It is still unclear when the House will agree to a conference committee and whether negotiators can produce a bill that could pass that chamber. Early indications are that the republican version of the bill will be unacceptable to nearly all democrats. Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) formally requested a conference on the farm bill last week, while she and other Senate leaders joined Administration officials in chastising the House for separating farm programs from SNAP. A group of republican House members began meeting last week to discuss the stand-alone nutrition title, and published reports indicated they were considering cuts in the neighborhood of $120 to $130 billion dollars over ten years, six times greater than the amount the original farm bill would have cut. If the Senate conferees demand a conference report that includes nutrition programs, it is unclear whether House conferees would report it back to the House, or whether it could even pass if they did. Unfortunately, many good programs funded by the farm bill are caught in the food stamp crossfire. Forest management, as well as forest research and forestry assistance, has long been within the jurisdictions of the Agriculture Committees. Although most forestry programs are permanently authorized, forestry has usually been addressed in the periodic farm bills. The 2008 farm bill contained a separate forestry title, with provisions establishing national priorities for forestry assistance. These provisions required statewide forest assessments and strategies; provided competitive funding for certain programs; created new programs for open space conservation and for emergency reforestation; and prohibited imports of illegally logged wood products. Forestry provisions were included in other titles as well—the conservation title revised the definition of conservation actions to include forestry activities for all conservation programs; the trade title required special reporting on softwood lumber imports; the energy title established two woody biomass energy programs; and the tax title included three provisions altering tax treatments for forests and landowners. These are all good provisions and are awaiting reauthorization. In addition, the 2013 House and Senate versions include several new and important forestry related provisions, with the majority originating in the House version. Provisions include codifying the Silvicultural Rule, repealing the Administrative Appeals Act, extending Stewardship Contracting, expanding forest health by including a 10,000 acre categorical exclusion for hazardous fuel reduction projects, expanding the Good Neighbor Authority, a categorical exclusion for salvage projects after a declared disaster, and a “know your customer” provision directing the U.S. Forest Service to analyze how the National Forests are meeting the needs of nearby wood consumers. The farm bill is reauthorized every five years. Assuming Congress will find a path forward and pass a bill this year, now is the time to address the many challenges facing our farm, food and wood fiber systems before the 2013 farm bill expires in 2018. We need a public policy agenda that supports a fair and sustainable system that builds resiliency and is able to withstand shocks in the market place, climate-induced events, and many other economic and environmental challenges. On behalf of the Montana Wood Products Association, I am Julia Altemus, thanks for listening. Continue reading
Biomass-To-Liquids Plant Chooses Technology
osted on July 15, 2013 by Joanna Schroeder Continue reading
