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Hayes D. Brown

starting time: (00:00)

Hayes D. Brown, attorney and forest owner, will moderate this news conference. Hayes' email address is hbrown@hayesbrown.com.

Click Here to View & Hear Prior News Conferences.

Kent Hanby

(00:29)
Hear Conference

Kent Hanby, before "retirement" in 2003, taught Fire Management at the Auburn University School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences. He continues to teach the Fire Management course as a part time instructor, but most forest owners know Kent as the instructor of the Certified Burn Manager's Courses which are frequently listed in AFOA's Calendar of Events (see March 17-20, Lee County). AFOA encourages landowners to use prescribed burning as a management tool, but asked Kent to talk to us about public safety issues that can arise from allowing smoke to blanket roads, cover nursing homes, etc.

Kent comments: "Smoke management, including smoke screening, is employed by prudent prescribed burners to avoid smoke intrusion into places where smoke would be a nuisance or worse. Interested land owners can find information about smoke management and smoke screening at the following web sites: www.pfmt.org/fire  (fire management tab) and http://www.gatrees.org/ForestFire/PrescribedFireGuide/smoke.html.
Land owners who want to burn should seek the assistance of an experienced person prior to starting. One thing we have been suggesting is that land owners form prescribed fire associations with their neighboring land owners to share equipment, man power and expertise.

Jennifer comments about 11/7/08 pileup in Mississippi: "I was in this mass confusion! It was like going down the interstate, and then closing your eyes and driving blind. Two other people and myself were pulled over on the side of the road, and you could hear cars coming West bound, and then hear the crash! It was a nighmare, one that I hope I am never involved in again. People were screaming, you could not see a person standing next to you that was literally only 3 feet away. I was there and heard every crash except for the 1st one. Luckily, I was not one of the cars that was hit, however, my car was only missed by 2 feet from another car that was hit from behind. I have seen and heard of these things happening before, and never knew how awful it could be, until now. I wish speedy recoveries for everyone injured, both physically and mentaly from this accident."

What To Do If You Encounter Smoke on the Highway.

Phone: (256) 825-8593
Email: hanby@charter.net (updated 6/8/12)

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Brian Murphy

(03:54)
Hear Conference

Brian Murphy is the CEO of the Quality Deer Management Association and has guided his organization from a membership base of 3,400 in 1998 to more than 50,000 today. QDMA publishes the Quality Whitetails Journal and in each issue Brian writes a "From the Director" message. We read his message in the August 2008 issue and put it aside to read again later. Now, nearly six months later, when many of us are wondering if our investment portfolio and timber prices can crash any further and whether our rights will be protected in a global surge to save the world economy, we thought it might be time for you to read Brian's message and hear him discuss his "glass half full" philosophy.

Phone: 1-800-209-3337 x 1001
Email: http://www.qdma.com/contact/

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Brig. Gen. John H. Napier, III, ret.

(06:30)
Hear Conference

John Napier is a historian and author and joins us today to tell us, appropriately, about lessons from history. In preparation for this issue of Capital Ideas - Live!, AFOA assembled a group of forestry experts to discuss current events and issues. Many of them expressed concern that laws passed in haste may produce unexpected and less than helpful results. Confiscatory property taxes and complicated income and estate tax laws were mentioned. Because of the remarks of those experts, and the current haste of our U.S. Congress to pass barely read (much less understood) "bailout" or "stimulus" bills, we thought it might be useful to ask a historian to tell us about past examples of unintended consequences. That led us to Gen. Napier. In his book, Lower Pearl River's Pineywoods: Its Land and People, Napier describes a situation where Mississippi lawmakers, trying to run-off big, out-of-state forest landowners, ended up creating an economic climate that caused timber to be logged at unimagined speed. With the timber gone and with no replacement industry in sight, poverty overwhelmed the region.

Lower Pearl River's Pineywoods: Its Land and People, published in 1985 by the University of Mississippi, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, is available at the Crosby Arboretum, Picayune, Mississippi. Call (601) 799-2311. Cost: $25 + tax & S&H.

Phone: (334) 281-0505

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Dr. Mathew Smidt

(11:24)
Hear Conference

Mathew Smidt is the Associate Director of the Sustainable Forests Partnership and an Extension Specialist, Forest Operations, in Auburn University's School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.  Forest owners call AFOA for information everyday -- information about maintaining roads, selling timber, leasing hunting land, planting trees, building firelanes, preventing insect and disease damage, etc., etc. We asked Mathew to lead us to places on the web where the Cooperative Extension provides information, especially publications on specific subjects as mentioned above. He suggested we visit the four websites listed below. Since an AFOA member had recently asked us for help preventing erosion from woods roads on her property, we opened the second link and typed "forest road construction design" into the search box and voila, links to several useful publications appeared. If you run across a publication you think many AFOA members would find useful, send us an email -- rll@afoa.org.

1. Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES)
2. ACES Publications
3. Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Extension
4. Southern Regional Extension Forestry

Phone: (334) 844-1038
Email: smidtmf@auburn.edu

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Dr. James E. Henderson

(14:03)
Hear Conference

James Henderson specializes in Natural Resource Economics in the Department of Forestry at Mississippi State University. Knowing what you own is a good first step in improving the management and increasing the benefits from your land. James and Dr. Deborah Gaddis recently updated an Extension publication that focuses on timber inventories - why and how.

Topics covered in There Could Be a "Pot of Gold" on Your Land are:

• What is a Timber Inventory
• Use of Inventory Data
• Who Can Inventory Forest Land
• What is the Cost? 

Phone: (662) 325-0754
Email: jhenderson@cfr.msstate.edu

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Dr. Ed Wilson

(17:23)
Hear Conference

Ed Wilson is Vice President of Outdoor Underwriters, Inc., located in Columbia, South Carolina. AFOA members use group policies provided by Outdoor Underwriters to protect themselves from lawsuits that might arise from trespassers, non-commercial guests (link updated 5/23/09), and hunting related accidents (link updated 5/23/09). Now, Ed tells us, he has developed an insurance policy that will protect landowners from liabilities associated with permitting ATV/UTV/OHV riders to enjoy their trails and roads. A group policy hasn't been put together yet, but he assures us he'll have one ready in early March. Ed will be a speaker at AFOA's Annual Meeting on April 23 along with an expert on trail design, construction and maintenance. On April 24 we'll visit the Kentuck Trail on the Talladega National Forest and, again, discuss trail design and maintenance. Topics that will come up soon will be "users agreements" between landowners and trail riders, setting "user fees," and many more.

• Trails & Trail Systems on Private Land
• Fun and Profit: Trails for Bikers & Hikers
• ATV Accidents & Liability Potential

Phone: 1-866-961-4101
Email: ewilson@outdoorund.com

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Robert Mark Lowe

(19:50)
Hear Conference

Mark Lowe is the Wood Procurement Manager for Kronospan LLC in Oxford, Alabama. Kronospan is an international company with operations in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, China, Poland, Russia and the USA. The company is the world's largest producer of panels that include Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF), High Density Fiberboard (HDF), Plywood, Oriented Strand Board (OSB), and Particle Board. They also produce Laminate Flooring. In Europe most of the wood they use is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. "Kronospan is dedicated to producing a high quality product with raw materials that come from sustainable sources." Mark describes the type of timber Kronospan would like to buy from landowners. He also talks about the products made in Kronspan's Oxford mill.

Mark will lead AFOA members on a bus tour of Kronospan's chip mill at Ohatchee and their processing plant in Oxford on April 22. Click here for tour registration information.

Phone: (256) 240-6826
Email: mark.lowe@kronoflooring.com

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K. Ben Gore

(23:15)
Hear Conference

Ben Gore is the new CEO and President of the Federal Land Bank Association of North Alabama, FLCA, Cullman, Alabama. His organization has been a sponsor and exhibitor at many past AFOA annual meetings and is a regular advertiser in Capital Ideas, AFOA's monthly newsletter. We've been hearing a lot lately about a shortage of credit, so when we met Ben a few weeks ago, our first question was, "Is credit available? Are you making loans?" His rapid response was credit for loans backed by forestland and standing timber is readily available. Today Ben describes the type of loans offered by FLBA and current interest rates and repayment options. He also explains the process involved in obtaining an FLBA loan (time involved, information needed, appraisals required, and closing costs.)

Phone: (256) 737-7128
Email: ben.gore@farmcreditbank.com

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