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CAPITAL IDEAS -- LIVE!

SEPTEMBER 2008 News Conference for Forest Owners
Sponsored by the Alabama Forest Owners' Association, Inc.
This Conference was recorded on SEPTEMBER 17, 2008.

CLICK HERE
to Listen to the
Conference.
This conference is in .mp3 format, which is compatible with Windows Media Player and most other media devices.

Hayes D. Brown   Alabama Forest Owners' Association

Hayes D. Brown

starting time: (00:00)

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.

 

Dr. H. Sterling Burnett

(00:28)
Hear Conference

A Natural Resource is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Sterling Burnett, is a Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, an organization whose "goal is to develop and promote private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector." He recently co-authored a paper entitled, In Order to Extinguish Fires, Don't Let Logging Burn Out. This report couldn't have been published at a better time, with fires destroying timber in Western forests almost daily, the financial markets melting down, and high fuel costs threatening our way of life. One segment of the report compares the reaction to wildfire damage by the "owners" of National Forest land and the owners of private forest land in California. Be sure to read the paragraph that starts with "Bureaucratic paralysis" if nothing else. The sheer waste of the forest resource on the federal lands should be a national embarrassment; Burnett seems to be making it his goal to bring us to the point of embarrassment (or anger) so we, as a nation, can begin to make rational resource decisions.

Other NCPA Papers of Interest:

Phone: (972) 386-6272
Email: sterling.burnett@ncpa.org

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Dr. H. Ken Cordell

(04:17)
Hear Conference

Trends in Nature-Based Outdoor Recreation

Ken Cordell, a Project Leader and Pioneering Scientist in Forest Service Research, spends his work-days studying how other people have fun. His latest report entitled, The Latest on Trends in Nature-Based Outdoor Recreation caught our eye when we noted that Cordell's results seem to buck the findings of Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic. The title of their paper is Evidence for a Fundamental and Pervasive Shift away from Nature-Based Recreation. We aren't sure who is right, but we know that outdoor nature-based recreation is a big business and seems to be growing everyday. Have you visited a Bass Pro Shop or Cabela's lately?

Ken suggests you also review the IRIS Series of Reports

Phone: (706) 559-4263
Email: kcordell@fs.fed.us

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Allen E. Varner

(08:27)
Hear Conference

Forest Resource Report

Allen Varner is in charge of the Alabama Forestry Commission's Stewardship and Legacy programs and is with us today to highlight some of the contents of the Commission's new Forest Resource Report 2007. Using tables and color maps, the report breaks out several "economic status indicators of the forest industry and natural resources in Alabama for 2007." You will likely find it interesting to see how your county compares to the rest of the state.

Economic Status Indicators in the Report:

  • 2007 Timber Harvests Volume
  • 2007 Timber Price Trends
  • 2006 Timber and other Agricultural Commodities Rankings (latest statistics available)
  • 2002 Labor, Payroll, and Number of Forestry-related Establishments (latest statistics available)
  • 2007 Forest Products Investments in New & Expanding Businesses
  • 2006 Commercial Forestland Acres and Ownership (latest FIA statistics available)
  • 2006 Forest Timber Inventory Statistics (latest FIA statistics available)

Phone: (334) 240-9308
Email: allen.varner@forestry.alabama.gov

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Eben Lehman

(11:07)
Hear Conference

Remembering Forestry & Forests with Photos

Eben Lehman is the Technical Archivist with the Forest History Society, "a non-profit institution that promotes and rewards scholarship in the fields of forest and conservation history through programs in research, publication, and education. The FHS Library and Archives maintain rich research resources that document the myriad relationships that have existed between people, forests, and natural resources throughout history. The FHS Archives include a collection of over 25,000 historic photos, which are continually being digitized and added to an existing online photo database. These photos provide a unique visual record of the history of forests, the forest products industry, and lumbering and sawmilling practices." We thought forest owners would find the photo archives interesting and may see ways to document personal forest management stories and successes through well-organized photo collections. (without pictures, my grandson will never believe the hilltop campsite he enjoys was wrestled away from kudzu by his grandmother, his dad, and me)

Phone: (919) 682-9319
Email: eben.lehman@duke.edu

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Wayne Bassett

(15:30)
Hear Conference

New Chestnuts & Pears for Wildlife

Wayne Bassett is President of The Wildlife Group, nursery that specializes in trees and shrubs beneficial to wildlife. "Over the past six years Wayne has spent a considerable amount of time looking for superior trees to add to The Wildlife Group. Wayne teamed up with Auburn University’s 75 year old Chinese Chestnut program and now the New AU Buck Chestnut Package and the Turkey Package has been introduced." Among other things, Wayne was looking for varieties of plants that will extend fruit drop-time to improve chances that food will be available when needed.

A few pages from the The Wildlife Group website:

Phone: 1-800-221-9703
Email: wildlifegroup@mindspring.com

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Jonathan S. Kays

(19:19)
Hear Conference

GPS Units Continue to Improve

Jonathan Kays, Extension Specialist - Natural Resources, University of Maryland Cooperative Extension, recently wrote an article for foresters on how to use GPS [Global Positioning Systems] in forestry fieldwork. We called Jonathan and he agreed to talk to us today about Selecting, Buying, Enhancing, and Using your low-cost GPS unit. He has put together a big collection of training aids from fall workshops (in Maryland) to a 73 page Beginner GPS Training manual.

GPS Training Examples:

Phone: (301) 432-2767 x 323
Email: jkays@umd.edu

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Dr. Brian Roy Lockhart

(22:42)
Hear Conference

The benefits of sweetgum in bottomland oak management, or...
Sweetgum is Not a Weed

Brian Lockhart is a Research Forester at the U.S. Forest Service Center for Bottomland Hardwood Research at Stoneville, Mississippi. He was a speaker at AFOA's 2008 Annual Meeting in Selma where we remember gaining a much better understanding of the word "competition" between trees. When the wind blows, you can hear the trees competing for space. Sweetgum acts as a "trainer" species for its oak neighbors. Using 5 slides, Brian describes mixed species stand development in natural and planted hardwood sites.

Publications

Using natural stand development patterns in artificial mixtures: a case study with cherrybark oak and sweetgum in west-central Mississippi

A stand development approach to oak afforestation in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley <http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/> (will be online soon)

Phone: (662) 931-2772
Email: blockhart@fs.fed.us (may be out of service until October 1, 2008)

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Peter J. Stewart

(26:19)
Hear Conference

Timber Market Report

Pete Stewart, President and CEO of  Forest2Market.com, keeps a close watch on all the factors that affect stumpage prices, but with the current disarray of the financial markets, even Pete will be hard pressed to help us understand timber and forestland values and where they are moving. He discusses timber price improvements on the far horizon (2009-2010), market structural changes, and the perfect storm for Alabama forest owners (biomass market, energy prices, wood fiber market). Pete warns, "I think we have to be careful about courting businesses that are unsustainable." Take notes!

Phone: (704) 357-0110 x 11
Email: pete.stewart@forest2market.com

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