|
CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
SEPTEMBER 2009
News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association, Inc.
This Conference was recorded on SEPTEMBER 16, 2009.
|
|
Hayes D. Brown
starting time: (00:00)
Comment |
Moderator
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.
|
Marc Morano
(00:29)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Pound of Prevention Worth an Ounce of Cure
Marc Morano
is Executive Editor and Chief Correspondent for
ClimateDepot.com, a website designed to be the "premier news and
information center for global warming and related news on environment and
energy." Morano on climate news reporters: “Sadly, many of today’s
mainstream climate reporters would be better suited writing newsletters for
Al Gore than attempting to inform the public about the latest climate
science developments.” We asked Marc to tell us about the
science behind
global warming and the potential
costs of some of
the popular solutions such as cap and trade legislation and ethanol
and other renewable energy subsidies. We also asked him what he thinks about
the idea of landowners selling or giving away development rights through
conservation easements in order to sell carbon offsets. Good idea? We doubt
it.
Phone: (202) 536-5052
Email:
morano@climatedepot.com
.
|
Scott P. Jones
(04:42)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Private is not Public
Scott Jones is Chief Executive
Officer of the
Forest Landowners
Association, a national landowner organization which strives to
support through advocacy, education, and information, forest landowners'
responsible management of their private property. An August 14, 2009 speech
on the
State of the Forests by U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
ruffled the feathers of numerous private forest owners across the country.
He seemed to confuse public and private forests, the problems faced by each,
and the solutions the federal government might impose to solve the perceived
problems. Fortunately, Scott Jones and FLA didn't hesitate to write
a letter to Sec. Vilsack stating, "While forest health has declined
on public land it has improved on private lands which incorporate 60% of our
nation's forests." You may believe Scott's letter could have been more
strongly worded, but it has opened the door for talks with Vilsack's staff,
an important first step in developing a dialogue with the Secretary.
Scott recommends you
read FLA's national priorities for private forests requested by USDA.
He also invites you to attend FLA's
National Forest Landowner Advocacy Day-October 20, 2009.
Phone: 800-325-2954
Email:
sjones@forestlandowners.com
.
|
Tanya Baker
(07:48)
Hear Conference
Comment |
4-Legged Forestry Workers
Tanya Baker and her husband own
and operate
Settler Valley Ranch in Dewey, Arizona. We learned about Tanya's
work with goats when someone sent us
an
article on a novel way to prevent forest fires that was being used by
The Nature Conservancy in Wickenburg, Arizona. Tanya was quoted in the
article: "They're one of the very few animals that are browsers, that will
eat multiple types of vegetation." "The [70] goats can chew up
about a quarter of an acre a day. Baker uses an electric fence to make
sure the goats graze in the areas that will most benefit fire officials. The
fences also serve as a method of keeping predators out." While Tanya is not
using her goats to prepare land for planting trees or for removing weeds
such as kudzu or privet, it doesn't take much of a stretch to imagine doing
that here in Alabama.
Tanya recommends the following websites for further study:
Goat and Poultry Auctions in Alabama:
- Clay County (Goodwater): Call
Richard Askew at (256) 839-6824
- East Alabama (Woodland): Call
Phil Stewart, (256) 419-8527
- Alabama (Boaz): David Sumners,
(256) 878-0739
- Southeast Alabama (Clayton):
Rodney Hurst, (334) 695-2438
Phone: (928) 710-3700
Email: tanya@tanyabaker.com
.
|
John R. Gwaltney
(10:22)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Southeastern Flora
John Gwaltney is President of
Forestry
Suppliers, a company that many of us have used to find tree planting
dibbles, snake leggings, tree marking paint and just about anything else
that forest owners need to help them manage their land. But today, we asked
John to tell us about his hobby. He has collected and posted to his website,
www.southeasternflora.com, more than 14,100 photos of more
than 1,000 species of native and naturalized wildflowers that may be
found in the Southeastern U.S. Most of us have found wildflowers on our land
that we couldn't identify, so Southeastern Flora should come in handy
the next time you come home with two or three unknowns in your truck.
"You can easily identify trees, shrubs, vines, and herbaceous plants
without knowing how to read a plant identification key. Simply define a few
traits about your specimen, and the visual photo search results will help
you narrow your selection to the exact species." Have fun.
Phone: (601) 354-3565
Email:
gwaltneyj@forestry-suppliers.com
.
|
Robert B. Carr, III
(14:00)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Mineral Resources Under Alabama Forests
Bob Carr is an
Alabama Licensed
Professional Geologist and president of Coal Carr, Inc., a
geological consulting firm established in 1991. We asked Bob to tell us
about the rock and mineral resources in Alabama and the kinds of services a
geologist might be able to perform for forest owners. He listed the
following activities that he does for landowners:
- Appraise the mineral property for estate tax purposes.
- Design and monitor the property’s mineral exploration.
- Evaluate the minerals on the property for quantity and quality of the
minerals.
- Negotiate mining leases and/or contract mining agreements with the mining
company for the landowner.
- Monitor mining, mineral production and royalty payments for the
landowner, assuring the mining company’s compliance with the terms of the
lease.
Minerals in the Economy of Alabama, 2007 by Lewis S. Dean and
published by the
Geological Survey of Alabama will give you a good overview of a wide
variety of rocks and minerals found in our state. Bob also suggested you take a look at the
Office of Surface Mining's
website. It "contains much pine and hardwood information." Once opened,
click on the search button and type the desired subject.
Phone: (205) 902-4156
Email: coalcarr123@gmail.com
.
|
Dr. Michael Kane
(17:25)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Plantation Management Research Cooperative
Mike Kane is
Professor of
Quantitative Silviculture at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural
Resources, University of Georgia and Director of the
Plantation Management Research Cooperative. Ninety-eight
publications are listed (some linked) on the PMRC website. We boiled
down the topics to "If we planted this type of tree at this density on this
site and fertilized it at this age and killed weed competition in this year,
etc., etc., how many tons of wood would we produce per acre?" Another link
on the PMRC website lists
field-based studies with executive summaries. In short, PMRC scientists
have looked for the answers to many of our questions about investing in
forestry and we thank them for doing that. We look forward to hearing about
future research plans that will help us stay in business.
Phone: (706) 542-3009
Email: mkane@warnell.uga.edu
.
|
D. Gannon Murphy
(20:53)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Starting a Trail-based Business – It ain’t
easy.
Gannon Murphy is a long-time
member of AFOA and recently began development of "an ATV/dirt bike trails
riding and camping facility" called
Doc Hilt Trails on about 500 acres
in Clay County, Alabama. Gannon has been busy the past year seeking approval
from various government agencies for water and other necessary amenities,
opening new trails, posting boundaries to prevent trespass, cleaning up
camping and picnicking sites, and most important, promoting the trails and
camping opportunities to trail riders. The last time we saw him, he and wife
Nancy and son Nolen were
telling the members of the Cheaha Trail Riders what a great time they could
have at Doc Hilt Trails.
Gannon suggests you check the following websites:
A Few Stories on Trails from Past Issues
of Capital Ideas - Live!
Phone: (770) 241-3182
Email:
gannon@dochilttrails.com
.
|
Dr. Jack Lutz
(23:30)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Timber Market Drivers: Housing & Paper
Jack Lutz is Principal and Forest
Economist of the
Forest Research
Group and Director of Global Research and Valuations for
Four Winds Capital
Management. Last winter, Jack wrote one of his Forest Research
Notes (Vol. 5, No. 4) on
Housing, Lumber and Logs and will speculate today on when he expects
housing starts to recover - and why. Early this year, he wrote the next
issue of Forest Research Notes (Vol. 6, No. 1) on
Paper, Pulp and Logs, saying, "But for the timberland owner,
pulpwood (and chip) prices are not strongly correlated with pulp prices.
This is in part because pulp mills generally run 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, so demand is fairly constant. Pulpwood prices move up and down as its
supply is affected by such factors as weather (including hurricanes) and
diesel and gasoline prices."
An index to past Forest Research
Notes is on the web at
http://www.forestresearchgroup.com/Newsletter_FRG.htm.
Phone: (978) 432-1794
Email:
jlutz@forestresearchgroup.com
.
|
|
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Comment below on the CI Live! conference
by using your Facebook, AOL, Yahoo!, or Hotmail login.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
|