Forest Health
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Editorial on state’s bio-mass future in The Columbian
In today’s issue of The Columbian (Vancouver Wash.), an editorial notes the potential positives of developing an alternative fuels industry to use woody biomass. Of the four pilot biomass projects that DNR announced last week with private partners, the nearest… Continue reading
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DNR biomass efforts aimed at improving forest health
DNR’s biomass initiative aims to jump-start the state’s fledgling biomass energy industry by providing a reliable and predictably priced source of fuel. Removing this woody biomass— forest slash, small logs, branches, twigs, etc.,—in ecologically sustainable ways can reduce wildfires and… Continue reading
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Elbe State Forest Part III – Competing vegetation & commercial thinning
In the third video of the Elbe State Forest series, Ted Keeley, forester for DNR, explains how the department manages the plants and other vegetation that compete with planted tree seedlings in the Elbe forest. Located in Pierce County, the… Continue reading
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Hats off to Vashon Islanders: Community effort improves forest health
[An alternate version of this article appears in the November Tree Link News Bulletin, a free publication from DNR devoted to urban and community forestry.] Citizen groups on Vashon Island have taken a leading stewardship role to improve the health… Continue reading
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Washington’s forest heritage preserved by DNR gene pool reserves
It didn’t get much press attention at the time, but a Trust Land Transfer approved in early June by the Board of Natural Resources came with some interesting strings attached. And those strings might help save part of Washington’s forest… Continue reading
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Biomass: An old fuel gets new attention
This article today from the Associated Press discusses the various issues raised about biomass in the upper Midwest where wood-based biomass conversion projects are starting up. Here in Washington, Commissioner of Public Lands’ Peter Goldmark’s forest biomass initiative laid the… Continue reading
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Elbe State Forest: Cutover forest lands to lush productive forests
In the early 1900s, forest harvesting practices left large tracts of eastern Pierce County barren. Planting new trees and future harvesting were not considered back then. In addition, wildfires swept through the landscape. The state Department of Forestry—a predecessor of… Continue reading
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Global warming could increase high-elevation forest production (but that’s not necessarily good news)
Global warming in the next century — DNR and other managers of forests look ahead that far — could increase the productivity of the Pacific Northwest’s high-elevation forests but also decrease growth at lower elevations (below 3,000 feet), a new study… Continue reading
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FLAME Act would restructure wildland firefighting
Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2010 appropriations bill for the U.S. Forest Service. Attached to the bill was a provision that the state forestry community has been seeking for some time: the Federal Land Assistance, Management… Continue reading
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Tree power?
Trees generate small but measurable amounts of electrical energy. The few hundred millivolts a bigleaf maple generates won’t run an Ipod but maybe it’s enough for nano-devices, such as sensors that could detect environmental conditions, tree health or wildfires. A new… Continue reading