One pine beetle outbreak can affect forest carbon flux for decadesBut the precise effect of pine bark beetle plagues on the nitrogen cycle and carbon cycle is highly variable, says a research group led by the University of Idaho, who have used an ecosystem model to simulate outbreaks.
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U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Makes Climate Change a Top PriorityDeveloping countries (including China) are expected to account for more than 90% of global energy growth in the next 30 years.
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Georgia-Pacific Completes Sale of Business in ItalyToday, Georgia-Pacific has announced that it has completed the sale of the legal entity in Italy to Cartiera Lucchese (Lucart Group). A definitive agreement for the sale was announced last November and this closing concludes the sale process.
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Biomass Plant Goes OnlineWith temperatures dropping below zero, Colby’s new biomass plant goes into normal operations this week. The plant—a key part of the college’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2015—burns forestry byproducts, including wood chips, bark and treetops, which would otherwise have been left on the forest floor. During this period of peak usage, the College is expected to save $250,000 monthly at current market prices.
Biomass, which is an especially logical choice for Maine due to the existing forestry operations, offers a number of benefits.
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Research Shows Americans Still Prefer Print and Paper CommunicationsIf you prefer to read from paper instead of an electronic screen, you're not alone. According to a recent survey commissioned by Two Sides, the fast-growing non-profit organization created to promote the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper, 70 percent of Americans, including 69 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, say they prefer to read print and paper communications compared to reading off a screen.
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SAB responds to EPA's biogenic emissions frameworkThe U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) has issued a draft report response to the EPA’s Accounting Framework for Biogenic CO2 Emissions from Stationary Sources. The framework was first issued by the EPA in September.
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North American pellet grew almost triple the growth rate of European productionDuring the last two years, global wood pellet production increased from about nine million tonnes to some 15-16 million tonnes, while apparent consumption expanded from about nine million to 13 million tonnes.
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Maine executive order puts forest certification on equal footingMaine Governor Paul LePage signed an executive order directing that “any new or expanded state buildings shall incorporate green building standards that give certification credits equally to forest products grown, manufactured and certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiativ
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Texas drought kills up to half a billion trees(Reuters) - The massive drought that has dried out Texas over the past year has killed as many as half a billion trees, according to estimates from the Texas Forest Service.
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USA - USDA: New Forest Planning Rule
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National forests hold the promise of green energy
Green energy is among the myriad reasons to keep our national forests open to the “many uses” intended by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. Federally owned forests comprise 192 million acres. According to some estimates, nearly 80 percent of this total requires thinning to mitigate risk of fire.
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Buy Timber Stocks and Watch Your Money Grow on Trees(MoneyMorning, Feb 1, 2012) - Chances are you've never considered timber stocks in your investing strategy.
But if that's the case, then you've been missing out.
Timber is a long-term investment that can reward your portfolio in good times, and protect it in bad.
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Bretford Reinforces Commitment to Sustainability by Achieving CarbonNeutral® Company Certification
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Cash in on carbon: Timber firms can harvest profits from greenhouse gas initiativeCalifornia's call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 means new revenue for timber landowners willing to play the carbon-offset market.
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California cap-and-trade law spurs U.S. forest carbon projectsNow that California's carbon market has arrived, an Australian-based company that specializes in forest carbon offsets has jump started two forest projects with private landowners in the western U.S. The new company, Forest Carbon Partners, will make the projects available as carbon offsets for California polluters.
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Uncertainties cloud state's carbon offset opportunitiesANDERSON, Calif. - Forestry's recognition as a carbon-friendly industry could provide lucrative opportunities for timberland owners in the emerging world of carbon credits.
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Insights from the Field: Forests for Climate and TimberThe Carbon Canopy is a novel partnership among companies, landowners, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that seeks to leverage markets for ecosystem services to increase the area of southern U.S. forests certified as sustainably managed.
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Stacking Ecosystem Services Payments: Risks and SolutionsHealthy ecosystems provide many services to society, including water filtration, biodiversity habitat protection, and carbon sequestration.
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Carbon Canopy: A Model for Solving Problems by Protecting Rather Than Destroying Our Natural Resources A consortium of forward-thinking environmental groups led by the Dogwood Alliance, major corporations such as Staples and
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Timber industry notes drought lossesJan. 19, 2012 - According to the Texas Forestry Service, East Texas has an abundance of forestland. Individual East Texans own about 64 percent of the forestland, with Timber Investment Management Organizations, forest industry and government owning the rest.
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Wood pellet exports from the US and Canada to Europe reached a record highWood pellet exports from the US and Canada to Europe reached arecord high in the 4Q/11 thanks to increased demand in the United Kingdom, reports the North American Wood FiberReview
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Bye-bye biomass? Cheap natural gas displaces in-woods fuels at US pulp millsA mild winter in the Eastern USA plus advances in low-cost drilling fattened natural gas supplies and dragged prices to a 10-year low in early April. In fact, prices began falling last summer.
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Misleading Labels and Greenwashing: What’s A Consumer to Do?Woe is the eco-conscious consumer. Just when they think they’re buying green, something screws it all up.
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A Papermaker’s Perspective on Sustainable ForestryThere is not a single matter related to papermaking that touches each of us as personally and emotionally as forestry. Simply put, people love trees.
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Is New Green Law Creating More Green for Logging Companies?California's new Cap and Trade program has been hailed as the gold standard in environmental law for the entire world. Not only are other states looking to the law but other countries, too, are watching to judge its effects on the global economy and environment.
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Large-scale forest bio-energy creates carbon debtWhile some logging advocates continue to talk up forest biomass as a green energy source, there’s good reason it isn’t happening on a significant scale.
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Public perception puts pressure on biomassBiomass had so much promise. But now it's about to go up in smoke. Only a few years ago, energy production from biomass had one of the brightest, most promising futures in both the US and Europe.
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Standing trees better than burning ones for carbon neutralityBut a new study by researchers at Duke and Oregon State universities finds that leaving forests intact so they can continue to store carbon dioxide and keep it from re-entering the atmosphere will do more to curb climate
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U.S.-India Bilateral Cooperation on Energy and Climate Changeecalling the 2009 U.S.-India MOU on clean energy, energy efficiency, energy security and climate change, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Minister of External Affairs S.M.
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As the Earth warms, forest floors add greenhouse gases to the airHuge amounts of carbon trapped in the soils of U.S.
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Alaska's Tongass forest sparks battle over logging(REUTERS) -- Environmental advocates readied for battle in Congress this week over what they maintain is an erosion of protections for the biggest, oldest trees in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, often called the crown jewel of the U.S. forest system.
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Weyerhaeuser Establishes Procurement Preference for American Tree Farm System®-Certified WoodWeyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) today announced its preference for purchasing wood that is certified under the American Tree Farm System®. This decision aligns with the company's commitment to responsible fiber sourcing.
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1.8 billion acres of timberland sold to TIMOThe world’s largest timber investment management organisation (TIMO), Hancock Timber Resources Group, and Molpus Woodland Group, have bought a 1.88 million acre plantation from Oregon’s Forest Capital Partners.
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Tax Loopholes Block Efforts to Close Gaping U.S. DeficitWASHINGTON — As a member of the “Gang of Six,” Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho has emerged as something of a hero among advocates of bipartisanship, one of three conservative Republicans working with three Democrats to cut the deficit by closing loopholes that allow businesses and households to avoid
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British Columbia Lumber Trade Council pleased with softwood lumber decisionThe British Columbia Lumber Trade Council (BCLTC) responded today to the decision by the London Court of International Arbitration that Canada and British Columbia were not in breach of the Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA) in the pricing of British Co
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Wood-Fired Plants Generate ViolationsBLUE LAKE, Calif.—Malodorous brown smoke from a power plant enveloped this logging town on April 29, 2010, and several hundred residents fled until it passed.
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California city eyes carbon credit revenue from its trees(Reuters Point Carbon) - California's seventh-largest city may try to bolster its strained budget by maintaining its 393,000-tree urban forest and selling carbon credits to regulated greenhouse gas emitters in the state's forthcoming cap-and-tra
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Woody biomass in the USA sees drop in demandMain reason for the declining prices is the fall of natural gas prices to levels not seen in ten yearsPrices for mill and forest biomass fell in most major consuming regions of the US in the 2Q/12, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review.
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Conservation and Military Objectives Met Through Land AcquisitionJACKSONVILLE, Fla, USA, Sep 5, 2012 - Georgia Land Trust (GLT) was awarded a grant from the Department of Defense (DOD), as part of the Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative (REPI), to purchase 5,500 acres from Rayonier Forest Reso
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Consumer demand 'can influence sustainable forestry'Harvesting forestry sustainably and profitably is entirely possible, but requires consumers and businesses to pressurise governments into action.
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Brazil's Boa Vista Forest Carbon Offset Project Earns Verification from SCSSCS Global Services has verified the Brazilian Boa Vista Afforestation/Reforestation carbon offset project under the American Carbon Registry (ACR) Standard. The project sequesters greenhouse gases (GHG) by planting and managing fast-growing Acacia mangium Willd.
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Forest governance critical to global forest conservation, industry sustainabilityCOLLEGE STATION – Protecting forests and the livelihoods they support depends on the ability to develop and implement effectively policy and other initiatives with global cooperation, according to Dr.
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Forest project issued CO2 credits for California marketProject developer Finite Carbon announced Wednesday it has registered a project that has issued 200,000 offsets eligible for use in California's cap-and-trade system, bolstering the currently short supply of credits available in the forthcoming market.
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US forest climate assistance: An assessmentAlmost three years ago, the United States launched a major effort to help tropical forest nations dramatically reduce deforestation, one of the primary sources of climate pollution.
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OUTRAGEOUS: U.S. Forests Logged, Pelletized, Shipped Overseas in the Name of Renewable EnergyAt a time when scientific evidence is mounting that burning trees for electricity will actually result in increased carbon emissions
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Ford investigating using cellulose in their plastic componentsFord is investigating using cellulose in vehicle components to help further reduce the automaker’s reliance on traditional content such as fiberglass and petroleum.
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US lumber imports on the riseThe US imported much more timber in July. There was a 21% increase in imports from June to July. The largest increase came from an influx of lumber from Canada, where a large portion of US imports come from.
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Turning Forests into Carbon BanksFor decades, Lock Haven, Pa., has secured its municipal water supply from 5,200 acres of city-owned forest in northern Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Mountains. In the past, the city kept its water rates down by logging hemlock, hardwoods and other timber from the property.
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The Clinton Foundation Partners with Carbon Offsets To Alleviate PovertyCarbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP.org) today announced its partnership with the William J. Clinton Foundation, adding the Clinton Development Initiative’s (CDI) Trees of Hope project in Malawi as the fourth project to its growing portfolio of certified forestry carbon projects.
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US now largest wood pellet exporter in the worldPellet exports from the two primary pellet-producing regions on the North American continent, the U.S.
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US lumber demand strengthensUS lumber markets are finding good support from the US housing recovery. Housing starts are continually increasing and turning into real demand for timber. Saw mills in the US have been burned by predicting housing recovery in the past, and as such have held back from increasing production.
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US housing boosts lumber not logsHousing starts in the US jumped to 894,000 units in October. This was 19 percent higher than in August, and as much as 42 percent more than in October of last year.
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Are we heading back to landfills?A Canadian forester recently transplanted to the States asked what sweeping federal policies exist concerning utilization of wood biomass for energy, to which I could only answer, "None." What we do have is a schizophrenic regulatory landscape, in which about 30 states have
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North American lumber prices forecast to soar in 2013New five-year outlook shows that supply and demand conditions in wood products for the long-awaited ‘super-cycle’ are now taking hold, with the full impact still some 3+ years away!
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Rayonier selling wood products divisionOn Tuesday, real estate and timberland management company Rayonier announced it is selling one of its four operating divisions, its wood products division, to Vancouver, Canada-based International Forest Products Limited (Interfor).
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Klausner Lumber One to open $130M sawmill with 350 jobs in FloridaFlorida Governor Rick Scott announced the construction in Suwannee County of the Klausner Lumber One sawmill.
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Texas Forests provide $93 billion in environmental benefits each year
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