Email from Alabama Forestry Association

AFA NEWSROOM V17N32, August 10, 2022

Gov. Ivey Announces Grant To Help Jasper Lumber Company, LLC Grow And Create Jobs

The funds from the Appalachian Regional Commission will supplement a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant awarded by the governor in March 2022 to assist Jasper Lumber Co. to boost its production and create 60 new jobs.

“I am always excited to see local companies expand and provide employment opportunities for people in their communities,” Ivey said. “I congratulate Jasper Lumber Co. and local leaders who helped make this expansion a success. I am pleased to assist through these funds from the Appalachian Regional Commission.”

ARC funds will be used to reconstruct two rail lines from the mill to the main railroad line enabling the company to transport its lumber.

Sorry! Diesel Prices Are Likely To Climb Again Soon - Behind the scenes of why fuel is so expensive in 2022

Just to start off pretty broad, the macro conditions are pretty much the same from what we saw earlier this year to what’s happening now. Obviously, we haven’t built any new refineries in the past few months. There’s still a war in Ukraine. Why is it that future prices are going down, and maybe not as quickly, but retail gasoline and diesel prices are also going down?

KINGSTON: “It’s a good question because it’s not really clear. I think part of the reason is that the news reports continue to trickle out about Russia doing relatively well in finding new buyers for its crude oil. Whereas, the International Energy Agency had predicted a couple of months ago that the loss of Russian supplies was going to be about 3 million barrels a day, which is roughly about 3% of the world market — which is a lot when you lose that much supply.

AFA Annual Meeting - September 11-13

Early Bird Registration Discount Ends 8/12

Registration for the 2022 AFA Annual Meeting is in full swing! Register register before 8/12 for Early Bird Registration pricing! Click the link below to learn more about our speakers, agenda, sponsors, and hotel information. We look forward to seeing you in September!

2022 AFA Annual Meeting

Don't forget to register for the next installment of AFA's Public Policy Series - Issues Affecting Timberland Ownership. You can register to attend as an add-on to the AFA Annual Meeting or attend independently. Check out the 2022 Public Policy Series website for more information!

Brown Spot Needle Blight Affecting Pine Trees

Since early spring, the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) has been receiving phone calls from landowners and the public regarding pine needles suddenly turning brown. Many of these calls have been coming from counties in the northwest and northeast regions of the state. The culprit of the needle discoloration is believed to be the fungal disease known as brown spot needle blight. To date the disease has been confirmed in 36 of 67 counties in Alabama.

These Prefab Cabins Are A Conscious Consumer's Dream

A few years ago, I imagined my healthy and green home—an extreme dream edition. I wrote, "If I was still practicing architecture and a client came to me with a request to do the greenest and healthiest house possible, a new build on an open site, (which of course we shouldn’t do but it is a client, right?) in a temperate to cool climate, this is what I might propose."

Among its many attributes, I would:

Build it out of solid wood
Meet the Passive House standard
Avoid plastic wherever possible
Go all-electric with heat pumps and a heat recovery ventilator
Be built on stilts to avoid the use of concrete.

We Need to Tell Our Story – At Every Opportunity

A few summers ago, I was on a whitewater kayaking trip with my kids in the Maine North Woods. For those of you unfamiliar with this amazing landscape, it is millions of acres of privately held commercial timberland (with some modest public inholdings), with very few residents and open to the public for recreation – camping (in designated sites), hunting, fishing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking and more. This area is connected by a private road network where logging trucks have the right of way, and it is understood that you’re visiting a working forest.

We were camped on a lake and spent our days “running laps” down part of the Penobscot River. The take-out (where the section of the river we were running stopped) was at a campground, and over the course of a couple of days, my kids (in high school at the time) befriended some younger kids that were camping there for the week. When one person (usually me, for some reason) has to jog back to the put-in to get the truck, there is plenty of time for kids of any age to strike up a campsite friendship – throwing a football, skipping rocks across the river, looking at bugs, catching frogs.

The Alabama Tree Farm Committee is preparing to hold its annual Silent Auction in conjunction with the 2022 AFA Annual Meeting, September 11-13, 2022. The Silent Auction has always been Tree Farm’s largest fundraiser, with proceeds going to promote Alabama’s Tree Farm program and serve Tree Farmers throughout the state. Last year’s auction and raffle raised almost $7,000.00 for our state program. The committee is seeking donations of items or funds for the purchase of bid items.

Take A Look

Domain Timber Advisors Acquires Nearly 3,400 Acres of Southeast Timberland

Domain Capital Group, LLC, a comprehensive private investment management services firm, and its subsidiary, Domain Timber Advisors, LLC, today announced the acquisition of nearly 3,400 acres of timberland in middle Georgia and south Alabama, further enhancing the company’s substantial Southeast timber portfolio.

The middle Georgia, “GFP Flint,” property includes 2,029 contiguous acres along the Flint River and Potato Creek, located about a 1.5-hour drive south of Atlanta. The vast acreage offers distinct advantages over similar properties in the region due to its proximity and more than a mile of river frontage. The site has an extensive history of timberland management and includes a mixture of young growth and mature timber, including harvest-ready loblolly pine plantations that present turnkey harvesting opportunities.

Join Us For The August Session of AFA Connect - August 18, 2022

Feral Swine Ecological Impacts and Management Strategies with Bence Carter, Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Feral swine damage to agriculture is fairly well documented and understood, while the extent of impacts to native ecosystems is not. This presentation will highlight impacts to our natural resources and discuss the “Do’s and Dont's” that are frequently overlooked in feral swine management.

US Block Confirmed As World’s Tallest Timber Building

A 25-storey tower in Milwaukee has been named as both the world’s tallest timber building and the tallest concrete-timber hybrid structure by international body the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The scheme was designed by Korb & Associates, which is based in the city – the largest in the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin.

Named Ascent, the residential-led mixed-use scheme has 259 apartments and a sixth-floor pool. At 86.6m in height, the building is only just over 1m taller than Mjøstårnet in Brumunddal, Norway, designed by Voll Arkitekter and certified by CTBUH as the world’s tallest timber building in 2019.

First Annual Workforce Development Forum - September 10, 2022

Join our ForestryWorks partners for the first annual Workforce Development Forum down in Orange Beach, AL in conjunction with the AFA Annual Meeting! Topics include: apprenticeship programs, non-traditional workforce solutions, career promotion opportunities, customized training tools and much more! Have questions -contact Stephanie Fuller at sfuller@alaforestry.org

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Is Timber the Future of Sustainable Building?

In the wake of the deadly heat wave that recently swept across Europe and destroyed more than 40 buildings, we noted that buildings are partly to blame for climate change. The built environment accounts for nearly 50 percent of all carbon emissions and faces an uphill battle towards decarbonization, especially as mass urbanization will require even more buildings to rise in densely packed cities. A major piece of the puzzle involves building materials—steel and concrete are both construction staples, but account for more than 13 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions thanks to high amounts of embedded carbon.