Jonas Feinstein of the Jefferson Conservation District in CO, the Ohio Forest Resource Partnership, and the Montana Joint Forestry Team have been announced as the winners of the 2009 Two Chiefs' Partnership Award. The awards recognize exemplary employees and projects from the Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, state forestry agencies, and conservation districts who have worked collaboratively to support conservation and forest stewardship.
C2I, operator of the GreenTrees program, has teamed up with the World Resources Institute on a survey of family woodland owners throughout the southern United States. The goal of this survey is to gather information critical to the design of economic incentive programs to help family woodland owners conserve and sustainably mange their forests and participate in emerging markets for ecosystem services.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the next general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program will begin on March 14, 2011, and continue through April 15, 2011. This is the second consecutive year that USDA has offered a general CRP signup.
Foresters and land managers will meet at the Esri Forestry GIS Solutions Conference May 24–26, 2011, in Redlands, CA, to share their practical knowledge about and experiences in using geographic information systems (GIS) technology for their forest operations.
The Northeastern Loggers' Association recently honored the Hardwood Forestry Fund as the recipient of its 2010 Outstanding Management of Resources Award. The HFF has provided in excess of one million dollars to plan and manage more than 3.7 million trees and to improve more than 6,500 acres of public land that is managed for multiple uses since it was established in 1990.
Rigid conservation measures may be less effective in slowing tropical deforestation than ones that allow the sustainable harvest of forest products, a new study by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) suggests. The paper, published in the journal PLoS ONE, concluded that indigenous involvement, specifically in Latin America, could lower deforestation by up to 16 percent in sustainably managed forests.
The U.S. Forest Service has announced that it will form a Federal Advisory Committee that will provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture on the implementation of the new Planning Rule set for finalization this winter. In the coming months the Forest Service will announce its request for committee member nominations in the Federal Register.
The Forest Resource Coordinating Committee (FRCC), a federal advisory committee established under the 2008 Farm Bill, will hold their first meeting on January 20 in Washington, DC. The committee will advise the Secretary of Agriculture on priorities and issues related to non-industrial private forestry. Applications for eight vacant positions will be accepted through March 2.
John Gordon, former dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, writes in the National Review about the 9th Circuit case related to Clean Water Act rules about runoff from logging roads.
