Forests Are Growing Faster, Ecologists Discover; Climate Change Appears to Be Driving Accelerated Growth

ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2010) — Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker's research is based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation's capital.

Parker's tree censuses have revealed that the forest is packing on weight at a much faster rate than expected. He and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute postdoctoral fellow Sean McMahon discovered that, on average, the forest is growing an additional 2 tons per acre annually. That is the equivalent of a tree with a diameter of 2 feet sprouting up over a year.

Forests and their soils store the majority of the Earth's terrestrial carbon stock. Small changes in their growth rate can have significant ramifications in weather patterns, nutrient cycles, climate change and biodiversity. Exactly how these systems will be affected remains to be studied.

Parker and McMahon's paper focuses on the drivers of the accelerated tree growth. The chief culprit appears to be climate change, more specifically, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2, higher temperatures and longer growing seasons.

Assessing how a forest is changing is no easy task. Forest ecologists know that the trees they study will most likely outlive them. One way they compensate for this is by creating a "chronosequence" -- a series of forests plots of the same type that are at different developmental stages. At SERC, Parker meticulously tracks the growth of trees in stands that range from 5 to 225 years old. This allowed Parker and McMahon to verify that there was accelerated growth in forest stands young and old. More than 90% of the stands grew two to four times faster than predicted from the baseline chronosequence.

By grouping the forest stands by age, McMahon and Parker were also able to determine that the faster growth is a recent phenomenon. If the forest stands had been growing this quickly their entire lives, they would be much larger than they are.

Parker estimates that among himself, his colleague Dawn Miller and a cadre of citizen scientists, they have taken a quarter of a million measurements over the years. Parker began his tree census work Sept. 8, 1987 -- his first day on the job. He measures all trees that are 2 centimeters or more in diameter. He also identifies the species, marks the tree's coordinates and notes if it is dead or alive.

By knowing the species and diameter, McMahon is able to calculate the biomass of a tree. He specializes in the data-analysis side of forest ecology. "Walking in the woods helps, but so does looking at the numbers," said McMahon. He analyzed Parker's tree censuses but was hungry for more data.

It was not enough to document the faster growth rate; Parker and McMahon wanted to know why it might be happening. "We made a list of reasons these forests could be growing faster and then ruled half of them out," said Parker. The ones that remained included increased temperature, a longer growing season and increased levels of atmospheric CO2.

During the past 22 years CO2 levels at SERC have risen 12%, the mean temperature has increased by nearly three-tenths of a degree and the growing season has lengthened by 7.8 days. The trees now have more CO2 and an extra week to put on weight. Parker and McMahon suggest that a combination of these three factors has caused the forest's accelerated biomass gain.

Ecosystem responses are one of the major uncertainties in predicting the effects of climate change. Parker thinks there is every reason to believe his study sites are representative of the Eastern deciduous forest, the regional ecosystem that surrounds many of the population centers on the East Coast. He and McMahon hope other forest ecologists will examine data from their own tree censuses to help determine how widespread the phenomenon is.

Funding for this research was provided by the HSBC Climate Partnership.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201171641.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily:+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

High Lumber Prices Threaten Housing Market

By LIAM PLEVEN And LESTER ALDRICH

Wall Street Journal

Bloomberg News

Wood headed for the door-manufacturing facility at Sierra Pacific Industries Inc. in Anderson, Calif. Lumber futures are up 32% this year.

 
The long-ailing U.S. housing market is facing a new headwind—a jump in the cost of lumber.

Lumber prices have climbed 32% on the futures market this year, a sudden and unexpected surge that could raise construction costs or force builders to swallow an added expense.

"That's the last thing we need right now," Stephen Melman, director of economic services at the National Association of Home Builders, said of the recent price hike.

Lumber's price rise contrasts with a decline in most other commodities, such as fossil fuels and industrial metals. Those are dragging due to fears of weaker demand amid a fragile recovery from the financial crisis. But lumber prices shot up because of a shortage of supply. When the housing market cratered, mills in the U.S. and Canada slashed production; output plummeted about 45% between 2005 and 2009, according to Random Lengths, an industry data provider.

Wholesalers shrank their own inventories and had little incentive to build them back up last year. Housing is the largest single source of demand for lumber, and new-home sales fell 7.6% in December from the prior month, to 342,000 units.  So when builders began their annual re-stocking for the spring construction season, there was little slack in the supply chain, causing a squeeze on prices. Some firms also stepped up speculative construction in the hope that an expiring federal tax credit would boost the market.

"Any increase in demand is going to allow the mills to raise their prices," said Gary Vitale, president of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association.

On Jan. 5, lumber buyers got an added incentive to lock in shipments. Canfor Corp., a major Vancouver-based lumber producer, announced a temporary but indefinite closure of one mill that took 255 million board feet out of production, on an annualized basis—equivalent to roughly half-a-percent of total output from the U.S. and Canada in 2009. The day after Canfor's announcement, lumber futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange closed up 5%. Prices kept rising that month and hit a peak for the year of $279 per thousand board feet on Feb. 4, according to Thomson Reuters. Prices settled Friday at $270.90.

Industry insiders described a buying frenzy somewhat detached from actual economic activity.  "It's a bit of a herd mentality" in which people conclude, "If someone's gonna buy, I better buy, too," said Jamie Greenough, a broker and analyst at Global Futures Corp. in Vancouver. Home builders are wrestling with the consequences. Steve Petruska, chief operating officer of Pulte Homes Inc., told investors on Feb. 9 that the nation's largest home builder is responding to the price hike by trying to hold down labor costs. He predicted the situation "isn't going to be so bad."

But the January price increase was welcome news for Weyerhaeuser, the forest-products giant, which reported a $175 million fourth-quarter net loss on Feb. 5. Tom Gideon, a high-ranking executive, told investors the firm was "pleasantly surprised."

It is difficult to gauge how much the recent price increase would affect the price of a home, because various factors affect the bottom line. At the peak price for the year in early February, the rise would have added about $1,000 to the price of a typical new home, said Henry Spelter, U.S. Forest Service economist. Mr. Melman, of the home builders' group, said the impact on a more expensive house could be greater. "Builders don't have a lot of inventory sitting around," he said. "So when the price goes up, it really does go up, and that could have an immediate impact."

The supply crunch is striking because, just a few years ago, the North American lumber industry was able to supply enough wood to start more than two million homes a year. That was nearly four times the pace of home starts in December.

The ongoing recession will keep production light, said Matt Layman, publisher of Layman's Lumber Guide in Belmont, N.C., who called this the only sustained supply-driven rally he has seen in 30 years of trading lumber. Mills lost too much money in the lean years before finally cutting shifts and idling plants, and they don't have the necessary capital to restart shuttered operations now, Mr. Layman said. The industry is also waiting to see whether lumber demand is actually rebounding, beyond the annual re-stocking. Dan Fulton, chief executive officer of Weyerhaeuser, told investors on Feb. 5 that it was "too early to tell."

The expiring tax credit may have boosted home builders' annual effort to fill their lumber stocks before the onset of spring makes building more practical. The measure was initially set to expire on Nov. 30, but it was extended and now offers first-time buyers an $8,000 tax credit if they sign by April 30 and close by June 30. If the home builders' wager on the tax credit doesn't pay off, and home sales remain tepid, lumber prices could suffer. "The sustainability of this rally is in question, because the amount of true demand is not clear," said Joshua Zaret, an analyst at Longbow Research. And Mr. Petruska, of Pulte Homes, said the company wasn't locking in prices for future delivery, a move which could backfire if prices fall again.  "Obviously, in this demand environment, that's very risky," he said.
 

Harold C. Blanchard Named 2009 Distinguished Alumnus by NC State University College of Natural Resources

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Tilla Fearn

NEWS RELEASE  - February 9, 2009
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Tilla Fearn 919.513.4644 or tilla_fearn@ncsu.edu

The College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University is pleased to announce the selection of our 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.  Harold C. “Butch” Blanchard ’63 of Whiteville, N.C. was selected in recognition of his distinguished career as a forest manager and his many contributions to his profession, his community and the college.  Blanchard accepted the honor January 29, 2010 at the NC State University Alumni Association’s “Evening of Stars” Gala in Raleigh.
Blanchard attended what was then the NC State School of Forestry on a four-year scholarship from the Continental Can Company. Later, he was awarded the George K. Slocum Scholarship. Blanchard earned five varsity letters in three track-and-field sports at NC State and was recognized as an ACC Outstanding Scholar-Athlete in 1963. Several years after graduating, Blanchard and his father, a practicing forester, began a forestry consulting business. Operating today as H.C. Blanchard and Associates, the company has provided land and timber sales, appraisals and forest management services for landowners with 275,000 wooded acres.

One of Blanchard’s many contributions to the college was serving as president of the North Carolina Forestry Foundation Board of Directors. During his term, Blanchard led a reorganization and consolidation of funds that pushed foundation assets over $1 million, helped retire the mortgage debt on the Hofmann Forest and later was instrumental in establishing active management of the forest to fund numerous undergraduate and graduate scholarships.
According to Blanchard, he “was proudest at a scholarship dinner when (he) counted 26 undergraduate and graduate scholarships funded from Hofmann Forest receipts.”  Blanchard left the board of directors in 1985 to assume the responsibility of Hofmann Forest manager, a position he held for 23 years. Under his management the forest returned more than $13 million to the college in needed support; support which played an incalculable role in the college’s growth into the national leader in natural resource education, research and service it is today. In addition to his support of the college over the years through his professional responsibilities - in 1998 Blanchard and his wife, Peggy, established the Harold E. and Gerda C. Blanchard Endowed Scholarship for young men and women who begin their studies at Southeastern Community College and continue their studies in natural resources at NC State University.

Blanchard is a member of the Society of American Foresters, the North Carolina Foresters Association, the North Carolina Society of Consulting Foresters, the National Woodlands Association and the Forest Farmers Association.

Active in his home community, Blanchard is a charter stockholder of Topsail National Bank and served on the board of Columbus National Bank where he assisted in its successful merger with successor Triangle Bank.  When not working Blanchard acts in local theater productions and had a role in "Bastard Out of Carolina" directed by Angelica Houston;  is a 12 time national sailing champion of Tanzer 16 sailboats; is a deacon, elder and sunday school teacher at Whiteville First Presbyterian Church; and played a major role in the founding of the North Carolina Museum of Forestry in Whiteville, North Carolina.

Converting Coal Plants to Biomass

New York Times
By JOHN LORINC

Converting coal plants to burn wood chips and other biomass is a cost competitive way to reduce reliance on coal, a new study suggests.

Coal-powered generating stations retrofitted to run on a mixture of coal and dried wood pellets can produce cost-competitive, emission-reduced electricity even without the advent of a cap-and-trade system, according to a new biomass life cycle analysis published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology.

For utilities under pressure to meet renewable portfolio standards, biomass should be considered along with wind, solar and small-scale hydro, says Heather MacLean, the lead researcher and an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto.

“The study results suggest that biomass utilization in coal generating stations should be considered for its potential to cost-effectively mitigate” greenhouse gases from coal-based electricity, the paper concluded.

The team tested the life-cycle emissions and costs of “co-firing” scenarios involving fuel with 10 to 20 percent wood pellet content.

Coal accounts for a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, the authors noted.

If just 10 percent co-firing were to be implemented in all coal-generating stations in the United States and Canada, “electricity generation from biomass could contribute approximately 4 percent of annual generation of the two countries,” the analysis found, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 170 million metric tons each year — or about 5 percent of emissions from the two countries’ electricity sectors.

The result emerges from the Ontario government’s campaign to phase out coal from the province’s energy portfolio by 2014. With that deadline approaching, Ontario Power Generation, the provincial utility, has been looking to partly convert some of its coal stations to biomass made from unmarketable timber from the province’s northern region, which has suffered substantial job losses in the forest sector.

Ontario Power co-sponsored the study, but Ms. MacLean says the utility didn’t direct the research, which has been peer-reviewed.

Ms. MacLean also stressed that for wood-based biomass to remain an environmentally attractive alternative to coal, the timber must be harvested according to sustainable forest management practices.

She also acknowledges that the carbon released into the atmosphere by burning biomass is not necessarily reabsorbed by new plant or tree growth at the same rate, which is called carbon debt.

While the technology isn’t especially complicated, a handful of utilities have successfully re-engineered coal plants to run on wood biomass.

Three years ago, the Public Service of New Hampshire spent $70 million to retrofit the 50 megawatt Schiller coal plant to run on wood chips, a project that generates a revenue stream from the sale of renewable energy certificates.

The large European utility Electrabel operates a Belgian generating station that turns pulverized wood chips into a biogas, which is then burned to produce power.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/converting-coal-plants-to-biomass/

The American Chestnut Foundation Needs Citizen Scientists to Test Potentially Blight-Resistant Chestnut Seeds

ASHEVILLE, N.C., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF®) has taken an unprecedented step toward the restoration of the American chestnut tree by offering a limited number of its most advanced and potentially blight-resistant seeds to both new and existing sponsor members for planting and testing. This is the very first time any of these seeds have been made widely available to members and it comes on the heels of over 26 years of intense evaluation by scientists throughout the natural range of the chestnut. Members can test these seeds for blight-resistance and American growth characteristics.

When the chestnut blight came through the eastern US in the first half of the 20th century and killed nearly four billion American chestnut trees, all seemed to be lost for this once mighty species. Since 1983, TACF has remained focused on a seemingly impossible goal: to restore the American chestnut to the eastern United States.

With this seed distribution program, TACF is one step closer to the restoration of this crucial species but there is much more to be done.

TACF President and CEO Bryan Burhans said, "TACF wants to share this milestone with our members that have worked so tirelessly to get us to this stage. For too many years we've had members call us, wanting the opportunity to plant these trees in their fields and backyards.  We now have a limited number of seeds available for testing and evaluation. By planting these chestnuts, you become a citizen scientist for TACF. It is such an exciting time to be a member."

Burhans notes, "This is just an early stage in a very long process. There is no guarantee that these seeds will have adequate resistance to the blight, although we are hopeful.  Testing by our members will help the organization evaluate resistance across a wide geographic range under diverse planting conditions."

In spring 2008, TACF, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and University of Tennessee-Knoxville, planted five hundred potentially blight-resistant chestnuts on three national forests in the southeast. After one year, the seedlings are thriving in a forest setting.  The availability of these very same seeds to both long-time TACF members as well as new sponsor members is another step in a $16 million program that includes more than 60,000 trees and encompasses six generations of breeding.

For information on becoming part of this exciting new venture, please contact TACF at (828) 281-0047 for membership particulars and benefits.

About TACF

The American Chestnut Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization headquartered in Asheville, NC.  It has nearly 6,000 members and chapters in 17 states. The demise of the American chestnut tree due to chestnut blight has been called the greatest ecological disaster of the 20th century.  TACF was established in 1983 with the sole purpose of restoring this majestic tree to its native forests in the eastern United States.  Today, TACF's research farms encompass nearly 160 acres and more than 60,000 American and Chinese chestnut trees which are part of its national breeding program.  For more information about TACF or volunteering to help restore the American chestnut, visit our website at www.acf.org

Contact:  Meghan Jordan
The American Chestnut Foundation
(828) 281-0047
meghan@acf.org

SOURCE  The American Chestnut Foundation
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-american-chestnut-foundation-needs-citizen-scientists-to-test-potentially-blight-resistant-chestnut-seeds-83599327.html

Corruption, collusion, or legal thievery

By Henry Lamb
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 

Canada Free Press

www.canadafreepress.com 

 
In 2008, the Forest Service issued a land use plan that environmental organizations didn’t like.  The Earthjustice Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of four environmental groups.  The suit took 15 months.  The bill to the federal government from Earthjustice was $279,711.40. The Western Environmental Law Center filed another lawsuit challenging the same land use plan.  They represented 15 environmental groups and sent the government a bill for $199,830.65.  These two outfits claim that seven attorneys spent more than 930 hours (working full time, that’s 116 days), at rates between $300 and $650 per hour.

That’s good work if you can get it.

Think that’s bad?  Read on.

In September of last year, the Wildearth Guardians sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asking the court to prohibit FEMA from issuing flood insurance to private citizens on 52,535 structures that may lie within the range of an endangered species.  The group could not sue individual land owners unless they could prove that the structure caused the death or “harm” to any endangered species.  This suit is designed to block the use of privately owned land, and to collect a handsome fee from the government for doing it.

The government keeps no record of these “environmental” lawsuits.  Payments, however, are made from a single budget line item called the “Judgment Fund.”  The Budd-Falen Law firm in Cheyenne, Wyoming has done a yeoman’s job in researching payments made from this fund to environmental organizations. They include:

2003	10,595 payments made	Total paid: $1, 081,328,420
2004	8,161 payments made	Total paid:  $800,450,029
2005	7,794 payments made	Total paid:  $1,074,131,007
2006	8.736 Payments made	Total Paid:  $697,968,132
2007	6,595 Payments made	Total paid: 1,062,387,142

During these five years, tax dollars have funded environmental groups to the tune of $4.7 billion dollars in attorney fees alone.  Another $1.6 million was paid between 2003 and 2005 from the Equal Access to Justice Act.  These funds come directly from the agency that loses the suit. This doesn’t begin to include all the direct grants and contracts that are awarded to dozens of environmental groups.

A closer look at the nature of these lawsuits is also instructive.  Between 2000 and 2009, the Western Watershed Project filed at least 91 lawsuits and 31 appeals.  They were awarded more than $1,150,528 for such things as failing to list certain grass species as “endangered,” and failure to waive photocopy fees for mass document requests.

During the same period, the Center for Biological Diversity filed at least 409 lawsuits and 165 appeals.  They didn’t win all the cases, of course, they just cluttered the courts and walked away with $941,332, for such things as Endangered Species Act (ESA) challenges for failure to list the killer whale, a butterfly and an earthworm as “endangered.”

These lawsuits are not confined to western environmental organizations.  The Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Wildlife Federation have filed a total of 2,034 cases.  These lawsuits are often based on alleged procedural wrong doing, rather than on substance.  An example of what the greens call “strategic litigation” is the petition entered by the Wildearth Guardians to list 206 species as endangered.

At the same time, the Center for Biological Diversity entered a petition for 225 species to be listed as endangered.  There is no earthly way the EPA can issue a finding on 431 species within the 90 days required by law. 

This is another classic example of the Cloward-Pivin strategy that seeks to demolish a system by overwhelming it.  In this case, it is an extremely profitable enterprise for environmental organizations.

It is way past time that Congress put an end to this corporate welfare.  Many of these environmental organizations boast assets and income in multiple millions, and pay their executives salaries greater than the CEOs of most for-profit corporations.  The president of the Environmental Defense Fund, for example, takes home a total of $496,000 per year.  The president of the World Wildlife Fund takes home $486,000.

These organizations represent what appears to be the worst kind of corruption or collusion, but apparently, it is legal.  To the people who pay the taxes, it looks a lot like legal thievery.  The people who believe that environmental groups can do no wrong - are wrong; flat wrong.  Environmental groups are the worst kind of corporate welfare, feeding at the government trough while doing everything possible to put brakes on economic development.  These groups then have the audacity to beg for public donations, claiming to be the only salvation for the future of the planet.  Hogwash!

Congress should immediately launch a thorough investigation of every environmental organization that has applied for legal fees or federal payments of any kind, to assure the tax payers that their money is not being frittered away just to line the pockets of those who run the wealthy green groups.

Forest wars finally end?

Ag secretary’s visit showcases alliance between environmentalists, timber companies

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (center) expresses his appreciation for being given the opportunity to tour and learn more about Arizona’s groundbreaking effort to restore forest health and protect fire-threatened communities. Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick (left) and various local and forest officials accompanied Vilsack on the tour. 

By Pete Aleshire
Payson Roundup
Payson, Arizona

February 2, 2010

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (left) gets a briefing on forest restoration by Regional Forester Corbin Newman in Christopher Creek.

The forest wars are officially over, declared a blue ribbon panel gathered to greet U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Christopher Creek Saturday as he toured a groundbreaking effort to restore forest health and protect fire-threatened communities.

“This is great work, great work,” said Vilsack of the years of effort that have forged a consensus on the need to restore forest health by reinventing the timber industry to thin millions of acres in four national forests between Williams and Alpine — including all of Rim Country.

Local officials led by Payson Mayor Kenny Evans and First District Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick triggered the rare visit by the head of a major federal agency. Vilsack, the former Iowa governor, now heads the federal agency that administers the Forest Service, which owns most of the land in Gila County.

Vilsack said the collaboration between environmentalists, Forest Service administrators, and both state and local officials will serve as a national model.

“I’m hoping to look back on this day as the official end of the forest wars,” said Todd Schulke, an analyst for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the most aggressive environmental groups in blocking logging in old growth forests. In a nod to Gila County Supervisor Tommie Martin, also on the panel, Schulke quipped, “Maybe Tommie can put up an historical marker.”

Kirkpatrick, a first-term congresswoman and former Flagstaff prosecutor and state lawmaker, pushed hard to get Vilsack to make the trip, hoping to win high-level backing for the ambitious effort and for federal funding for thinning projects to protect fire-menaced communities.

“We all know a healthy forest means a healthy economy and healthy families and we’ve all seen what wildfires can do. So this is the end of the timber wars and it’s been years and years in the making,” Kirkpatrick said.

Vilsack, who admitted he grew up in Pittsburgh, said he’d had a crash course in the importance of the nation’s forests, which get some 260 million visits annually.

“When I got this job, I realized that for far too long, the Forest Service has been a kind of stepchild and I wanted to figure out what we could do to change the dynamic.”

He said the local efforts to figure out a way to use the timber industry to restore the forest provides just such a dramatic shift.

“I’m going to tell President Obama that we really do need to figure out how to leverage this resource — as you all have figured out. We do believe you are onto something.”

The so-called Four Forests initiative involved a years-long series of studies to forge an agreement on how much wood a refocused timber industry could take out of the region’s forests. In that vast area, tree densities have risen from perhaps 50 per acre to more than 1,000 per acre after a century of grazing, logging and fire suppression.

Now, with the remaining big trees beset by debilitating thickets of saplings and forest communities menaced by the threat of monster wildfires, the formerly warring factions have agreed on ground rules that could guarantee timber companies millions of trees annually if they can build mills and biofuel plants than can make money on little trees.

Only such a reinvention of the timber industry can offset the otherwise ruinous cost of hand-thinning — a cost of more than $1,000 per acre.

“The answer’s in the economy, not the treasury,” said Martin.

Corbin Newman, regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service, said his agency has invested $2 million in this effort to “rewrite the rule book because there’s not enough money to do this the way we have in the past.”

The new approach is already on display in the form of the White Mountain Stewardship Contract, a long-term contract with a timber company that has built a mill to handle small trees.

The Forest Service has guaranteed the right to harvest 5,000 to 15,000 acres annually, in return for a focus on thinning buffers around forest communities at dramatically reduced cost.

A study that brought together forest managers, environmentalists and timber industry representatives reached remarkable agreement on the wood that could be harvested on some 2.4 million acres in the Coconino, Tonto and Apache-Sitgreaves forests.

Only about 40,000 big trees greater than 16 inches in diameter remain. Such big, fire-resistant trees were long the mainstay of the timber industry, but also vital to forest ecology. By contrast, that area now has some 850 million board feet of wood in the form of smaller diameter trees and 8 million tons of brush and wood that could be burned in energy-producing power plants, the study concluded.

That would provide more than enough wood to supply power plants and the timber industry for the next 20 years.

Researchers from Northern Arizona University’s Ecological Restoration Institute have estimated that using the timber industry to thin just half of the overgrown land in the study area would produce 13,000 jobs and forest products worth $1.1 billion.

Originally published at: http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2010/feb/02/forest_wars_finally_end/