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CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!
JULY 2014 News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association, Inc.
This Conference was recorded on July 16,
2014
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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.
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Gregory Allen Pate
(00:22)
Hear Conference
Comment
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Alabama Forest Resource Report 2013
Greg Pate is
State
Forester of the
Alabama Forestry Commission.
The Alabama Forest Owners' Association welcomes Greg to Alabama and to his
new role and responsibilities. Greg recently served as the State Forester in
North Carolina and is returning to Alabama - he grew up in Anniston and
received his forestry degree from Auburn University. In recent
correspondence with Greg, he wrote: “I am excited to have the opportunity to work in a great agency like the
Alabama Forestry Commission. I along with our over 250 employees statewide
will continue to work with private sector organizations and companies as
well as public sector agencies and organizations to strengthen Alabama’s
forest resource as a top economic driver in the state.”
Today we asked Greg to give us an update on
the forest resources of Alabama, based on a new report:
Forest Resource Report 2013.
The report is filled with data and graphs, plus lots of facts that may
interest someone who is considering investing in Alabama forestland or a
forest products manufacturing business. For example:
- The total estimated stumpage revenue
generated from the sale of all forest products in 2013 was approximately
$675.1 million, an increase of 13.3% from 2012. The increase can be
attributed to substantially higher hardwood stumpage prices for both
sawtimber and pulpwood, and an increase in timber harvests in the pine
sawtimber and pine pulpwood product categories.
- The total estimated stumpage revenue
generated from the sale of sawtimber increased by 4.6% from 2012. Pine
sawtimber revenue increased by 5.4% while hardwood sawtimber revenue
decreased by less than 1%.
- The total estimated stumpage revenue
generated from the sale of pulpwood increased by 22.8% from 2012. Pine
pulpwood revenue when compared to 2012 increased by 19.4% and hardwood
pulpwood revenue increased by 30.7% from 2012. Source: page 41
of the report.
Phone: (334) 240-9303
Email:
greg.pate@forestry.alabama.gov
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Stephen M. Butler
(04:15)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Tips for Buying Timberland
Steve Butler is
President of
TimberCorp, Inc.,
a consulting forestry and real estate firm in Central Mississippi. He is
also a Member Broker with
Timberland Sales,
LLC. Steve specializes in Forest Management, Property Inspections, Appraisals,
and Timber and
Land Sales. In the July 2014 issue of Capital Ideas, AFOA's monthly
newsletter, we quoted from an article written by Steve that was published in
the Mississippi Forestry Association's Tree Talk, Spring 2014:
Returns from timber come from three
primary sources: biological growth, product shifts, and timber price
appreciation. Biological growth makes up 61 percent of returns. It is
independent of all other factors and is highly predictable. A
well-managed forest can experience average growth rates of seven percent
annually over the life of a rotation. Product shifts also produce
significant returns. When a tree shifts product classes from pulpwood to
chip-n-saw to sawtimber, the value of a cubic foot of wood often doubles
with each product shift.
Today we asked Steve to talk about the
importance of road access (weight limited bridges, lack of legal
access) and tract size, and how those factors might make a difference
in our ability to sell the timber we will grow on the tract. We also asked
him how to determine the value of a potential acquisition. The tips
Steve shares in his Tree Talk article,
Tips for Buying Timber,
might help you avoid a bad property purchase, or they might help you
understand why the prices you are offered for your timber are never quite as
high as those received by your neighbor.
For Further Research: To find a forestry consultant, Steve recommends
using the Association
of Consulting Foresters website. He also thought that prospective
timberland buyers might benefit from reviewing
Timberland Returns on the website of the National Council of Real Estate
Investment Fiduciaries. You might also try a search using the Alabama
Consulting Forester Directory at
www.forestersearch.com. This directory is still undergoing testing,
so if you find a glitch or would like to make a suggestion to the site
administrator, write to
fcinc@mindspring.com.
Phone: (601) 591-4006
Email:
sbutler@timbercorp.net
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Dr. Donald J. Jonovic
(07:28)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Transparent & Shared Transition Agreements Are Best
Don Jonovic is a
Principal in the firm
Family Business Management Services and
has written a column in
Successful Farming magazine,
"Can Their Problem Be Solved," for many years. He wrapped up his
Mid-March 2013 column with these words:
"Transition agreements are better built stone by stone than discovered by
avalanche just after death." The column is short but well worth reading
if you have children or grandchildren who work with you on your family
forestland.
Can Their Problem Be Solved,
Successful Farming, Mid-March 2013.
Phone: 800-566-6842
Email:
don@familybusinessmgt.com
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Deborah Hawkinson
(11:28)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Forest Management Threatened by Fed Rules to Protect Endangered
Bat
Deb Hawkinson is
President of the
Forest Resources
Association (FRA). Based in Washington, DC, "the Mission of the
Forest Resources Association is to promote the interests of forest products
industry members in the economical, efficient, and sustainable use of forest
resources to meet the needs of the wood fiber supply chain through private
enterprise."
On
AFOA's News webpage we wrote on June 13, 2014: "Being pushed to the brink of extinction by a fungal disease (White Nose Syndrome
(WNS)),
the
Northern Long-Eared Bat (NLEB), which
lives in Alabama,
has been proposed for listing as an endangered species by the U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service." The June 19, 2014 FRA Bulletin stated:
FRA and Other Resource Users Oppose
Northern Long-Eared Bat Proposal
The announcement that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service proposes to
list the Northern Long-Eared Bat as Endangered in 39 states sometime
this fall has stirred up opposition throughout that broad region. [This
pushback has now delayed any decision to list until April 2015.]
The proposed listing is based on the anticipated impact of white nose
syndrome, a deadly and swift-spreading disease, on the bat population.
Proposed guidelines for protecting the bat could significantly impact
logging and other forest management activities between April and October,
even though in some areas within that 39-state range, the bat is 15 to
20 times more common than non-listed bats.
Over 40 individuals from Congressional and other government offices
attended a June 12 hearing on the potential impacts of a listing.
Among witnesses from other resource-based industries, Ray Moistner of
the Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen’s Association spoke on his experiences
working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Indiana
to address similar concerns regarding the Indiana bat.
FRA is supporting efforts to push Interior and USF&W to develop more
reasonable and economically responsible guidelines that offer
science-based protections to the bat population without creating undue
hardships and is educating Congress, seeking Congressional offices’
support to ask Interior for a more pragmatic approach.
Meanwhile, we have received information about a researcher at Georgia
State University, Dr. Chris Cornelison, who claims to have come up
with a cure for white-nose syndrome: synthesizing an enzyme that
inhibits the fungus from thriving and inoculating hibernation caves with
it. Bat Conservation International published a summary of his research
last year at
this link.
FURTHER READING:
Phone: (202) 296-3937
Email:
dhawkinson@forestresources.org
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Dr. Lloyd W. Swift, Jr.
(15:59)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Access Roads in Mountainous Terrain - A Guide
Lloyd Swift is an
Emeritus
Scientist of the
Southern Research
Station of the
U.S. Forest Service.
He conducted research for many years at the Coweeta
Hydrologic Laboratory in North Carolina. Dr. Swift was one of
the co-authors of a 1983 publication,
The Layman's Guide to
Private Access Road Construction in the Southern Appalachian Mountains -
Plan Now... Or Pay Later!!! Originally designed to prevent
erosion from access roads being built by cabin and home owners on remote
mountainous terrain, the 29 page publication should be useful to forest
owners who build roads on their forestland, especially in north Alabama.
Readers who read both the 1983 publication and the
newer
2005 Second Edition, will enjoy and benefit from presentation styles
separated by 22 years.
REFERENCES:
- Swift, L. W., Jr. 1984
Gravel and grass surfacing reduces soil loss from mountain roads.
Forest Science. 30:657-670.
- Swift, Lloyd W., Jr. 1984.
Soil
losses from roadbed and cut and fill slopes in the Southern Appalachian
Mountains. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry. 6:209-215.
- Swift, Lloyd W., Jr. 1986.
Filter
strip widths for forest roads in the Southern Appalachians. Southern Journal of Applied Forestry. 10(1): 27-34.
- Swift Lloyd W., Jr., Burns, Richard G. 1999.
The three R’s of roads: redesign, reconstruction, and restoration.
Journal of Forestry. 97(8): 40-44.
Phone: (828) 524-2128 ext.101
Email: lswift@dnet.net
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Charles R. Rath
(19:50)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Trapping in Alabama - An Introduction
Charlie Rath is
President of the
Alabama Trappers and
Predator Control Association and
Director-at-Large on the
Board of Directors of the
National Trappers
Association. Several references to trapping have been made over the
past few years in Capital Ideas, the monthly newsletter of the
Alabama Forest Owners' Association, but trapping has not been mentioned
often.
- May 2014
ALABAMA’S FUR-TRAPPING SEASON runs from November 10 to February 28, a long
season compared to some other states. Source: Great Days Outdoors,
4/14.
- March 2014
THE DEMAND FOR FURS is increasing as the “buyers in China, Russia, and Korea
watch their incomes grow,” reported The Missoulian on 12/26/13. The Alabama
Trappers and Predator Control Association (ATPCA) reported to AFOA that
there is a market for Alabama wild fur, the reporter having recently sold
otter and beaver pelts. The ATPCA conducted a 3-day Trapper Education
Workshop in Greenville, Alabama in February.
- December 2010
ALABAMA TRAPPING LICENSE NUMBERS DOWN from 6,000+ 30 years ago to about 450
last year. See Alabama Youth Trapper Education Workshops in Calendar —
1/7-9, 1/21-23, & 2/18-20.
- January 2008
TRAPPER’S COLLEGE is a week-long course, sponsored by the Fur Takers of
America. Taught twice each year, once in Indiana and once in Louisiana, this
course “would be the best money a land manager could spend to get hands-on
training.” To learn more, visit
www.furtakersofamerica.com/college.htm.
Source: Going Pro for Serious Predator Control, Quality Whitetails, 12/07.
You may be interested in learning to trap or
you may be interested in finding a trapper to help you reduce beaver or
coyotes on your land. If so, knowing more about the activities of the
Alabama Trappers and Predator Control Association is a good place to start.
Phone: (205) 678-6146
Email:
ripprath@bellsouth.net
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Dr. Dale G. Brockway
(23:59)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Bumper Cone Crop for Longleaf this Fall
Dale Brockway is a
Research
Ecologist at the
G. W. Andrews
Forestry Sciences Laboratory,
Southern Research
Station, USDA Forest
Service at Auburn, Alabama. Dale "recently published his yearly
summary of projected longleaf pine cone production for 2014 and 2015. The
report shows that a very good longleaf pine cone crop is expected in October
2014 for the Southeast. 'Our estimates show the 2014 crop averaging 98 cones
per tree, which is the second highest level on record and well above the
long-term regional average,' said Brockway" You might ask, "Why should I
care if the longleaf pine cone crop is good or bad?" Two or three examples
come to mind.
- If you harvested timber on some of your
land and are hoping longleaf seed trees left on the site will provide
seed to regenerate a new stand of young trees, this may be the year to
prepare the ground in those stands. Longleaf seed germinates best when
it lands on bare, mineral soil.
- If you plan to convert some of your land
to longleaf by planting seedlings, a bumper crop of cones means that
longleaf seedlings may be available when you get ready to buy them from
your favorite nursery.
- And finally, if your mature longleaf
stand is accessible to
cone shakers, you may be able to earn income from the collection of
cones.
Phone: (334) 826-8700 ext 28
Email: dbrockway@fs.fed.us
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Dr. Kenneth L. McNabb
(27:21)
Hear Conference
Comment |
Forestry Herbicide Update
Ken McNabb is the
Mosley Environmental Professor and
Extension Specialist at the
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
Before patents expired on forestry herbicides like
Arsenal,
Escort, and several others, training sessions on the effective use of
these chemical tools were common across Alabama. Applying properly mixed
herbicides in the right place, at the right time, and under the right
conditions can still be very beneficial to forest owners, so we asked Ken to
help us begin a process to introduce you to some of the most useful forestry
herbicides. In Important
Considerations for Using Herbicides in Forest Management, Ken is
preparing us for a series of presentations he will lead us through, where he
will talk and write about specific chemicals for use in specific situations.
We look forward to working with Ken on this project.
Situations where herbicides might be
useful might include reducing vegetation on roads and trails, preparing
a pasture for planting to loblolly or longleaf pines, releasing young planted
loblolly pines from hardwood brush, brown-up vegetation to prepare for a
fall burn that will expose mineral soil for soon-to-fall longleaf seeds,
etc., etc. Please send
Ken and AFOA your suggestions on situations you would like advice on
controlling unwanted vegetation.
Phone: (334) 844-1044
Email: mcnabkl@auburn.edu
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