By Steve Wilent

Most of the 11.2million familyforestland own-

ers in the United States—who collectively ownmore than 282 millionacres—are male, but theproportion of femaleowners is increasing. Ac-cording to the most re-cent USDA Forest Serv-ice National WoodlandOwner Survey, 24 per-cent of owners werewomen in 2011, up from19 percent in 2006—justfive years. Why thechange? Several reasons.Women tend to outlivespouses. Some have inherited forestlandfrom their parents. Others have purchasedwoodlands for their own reasons.

The Women and Their Woods(WATW) program is an effort to reachout to women forestland owners in themid-Atlantic region. Each autumn since2011, women forestland owners from theregion have attended four-day educa-tional retreats at Camp Susque, nearTrout Run, Pennsylvania. Two-day fol-low-up field workshops are held in thespring. The program is sponsored by the

Delaware Highlands Conservancy andPenn State University Natural ResourcesExtension, with funding from the Penn-sylvania Department of Conservation andNatural Resources and the Forest Serviceat Grey Towers.

“Many women are outliving theirspouses and, therefore, are becoming thesole land managers and decisionmakersfor millions of acres of forestland in ourcountry,” said Amanda Subjin, steward-

By Joseph M. Smith

This past August, Kirk Johnson, execu-tive director of Friends of AlleghenyWilderness, made an unwelcome dis-

covery on the northwestern shore of the Al-legheny Reservoir: a hemlock tree infestedwith hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA).

“This is a day I’ve been waiting for withtrepidation,” he told the Times Observer, ofWarren, Pennsylvania, which ran a front-page article about the pest’s arrival after theUSDA Forest Service confirmed it.

Andrea Hille, forest silviculturist on theAllegheny National Forest, knew this daywas coming, too. So, she decided to pursuefunding to help start a collaborative hem-lock conservation effort.

“Kirk Johnson and Susan Stout havebeen talking about this for close to a decade.I just happened to be successful in receivingsome funding from the State and Privatebranch of the Forest Service and used thatfunding to initiate this partnership with TheNature Conservancy (TNC) to have a land-scape-scale approach to hemlock conserva-tion,” she said. “When we began this, wedid not have HWA anywhere in northwest-ern Pennsylvania, so we kind of viewed it asan opportunity to be proactive and, hope-fully, have some sort of strategy in place be-fore the adelgid arrived.”

Today, that partnership—now known asthe High Allegheny Collaborative HemlockConservation Partnership—is a collabora-tive effort made up of stakeholders from

state agencies (in both New York and Penn-sylvania), environmental organizations,county conservation districts, universities,tribal nations, businesses, and elected offi-cials.

For Hille, the Forest Service’s role is tobring people to the table and facilitate com-munication to address what she referred toas a “common problem” for all landowners.

Susan Stout agreed.“We know that the insect isn’t paying

any attention to ownership boundaries, andthat’s been one of the challenges with all ofthese invasives,” she said. “They are fol-

lowing their ecology and, historically, bro-ken up ownerships have been a barrier to ef-fective conservation.”

To that end, the partnership’s goals arestraightforward—establishing collaborativepartnerships to enhance working acrossownership boundaries, acting quickly afternew infestations are discovered, and priori-tizing conservation areas to make more effi-cient use of limited resources.

To enhance that participation and accom-plish that prioritization, the Forest Service

SAF Leader Lab: Leadership andthe ecosystems of small townsSmall towns can teach us a great dealabout leadership—not through theirbudgets, by-laws, or bookkeeping, buttheir ecosystems. Page 7

Forestry around the World: Climate change and its impact on forests in Bosnia and HerzegovinaMore than 53 percent of the land in Bosniaand Herzegovina is covered by forests—among the highest forest coverage in Eu-rope. Methods and techniques of forestmanagement mainly rely on traditionalGerman forestry practices. Page 8

Society Affairs: Students: TomRoland, student rep on SAF’sCouncil, wants to hear from you

In his first few months as student repre-sentative on the Council of the Societyof American Foresters, Tom Roland’sbiggest challenge has been communicat-ing with other students and student chap-ters across the country. Page 9

Science and Tech: A WUI fire andember exposure scaleThe destruction of homes and businessesfrom wildland/urban interface (WUI)fires has been steadily escalating, ashave the fire suppression costs associ-ated with them. Page 10

Field Tech: OpenCrusie: A free inventory app for mobile phones,tabletsOpenCruise is a web-based service thatacts like a traditional app: instead ofdownloading an app from Google Play,the Apple App Store, or other source andinstalling it on your device, you use aphone’s or tablet’s Internet browser toaccess the OpenCruise website. Fromthat point on, OpenCruise resides onyour phone or tablet and behaves like anapp. Page 11

I N T H I S I S S U E

Women and Their Woods Program Educates and Motivates Woodland Owners

News for forest resource professionals published by the Society of American Foresters

Allegheny Plateau Partnership Works to Conserve Hemlocks

November 2013 • Vol. 18, No. 11

D E P A R T M E N T S

2 Editor’s Notebook

6 Commentary

7 Industry News

9 Society Affairs

10 Science & Tech

15 Classifieds

(See “Guidelines” page 5)

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High Allegheny Collaborative Hemlock Conservation Partnership members Andrea Hille(left), Kirk Johnson (middle), and Dale Luthringer converse in a stand of old-growth hemlock in the Hearts Content National Scenic Area on the Allegheny National Forest.

Women and Their Woods workshop attendees get classroom in-struction and hands-on experience in using chain saws, drivingATVs, and planting trees.

(See “Partnership” page 3)

Forest Guild Offers ForestBiomass Harvestand RetentionGuidelines

By Steve Wilent

The harvesting and use of forest bio-mass is nothing if not controversial.The Dogwood Alliance and the

Natural Resources Defense Council re-cently launched an “Our Forests Aren’tFuel” campaign against the use of woodybiomass to produce electricity. AlthoughSierra Club policy states that “We believethat biomass projects can be sustainable,”it also states, “We oppose projects whichrely upon ecologically destructive clear-cutting, in-wood chipping where exces-sive amounts of biomass are removedfrom the land, and conversions to non-native species which undermine nativebiodiversity.”

However, with the increasing globaldemand for biomass fuels, especially inEurope, as a substitute for fossil fuels,biomass harvesting in the United States isvery likely to increase. According to the2005 “Billion Ton Report” from the USDepartment of Energy and the follow-up

(See “Program” page 4)

Ihave a few things to write about thismonth (or blather on about, as some nodoubt would say). The shutdown of

many US government agencies and serv-ices is one topic. But first, something ofmore import: The fund-raiser for the Gran-ite Mountain Hotshots, which I mentionedin my September Editor’s Notebook. Asyou’ll recall, 19 of the 20-person crew diedin the Yarnell Fire in Arizona on June 30.The fund-raising effort, held in Prescott,Arizona, was organized by local membersof three organizations: the National WildTurkey Federation (NWTF), the Mule DeerFoundation, and the Arizona Elk Society,along with other volunteers.

“We are still working to finalize thenumbers. As of last week, it is looking likeour net for the families of the fallen fire-fighters will be in the neighborhood of$280,000,” wrote Fred Deneke, presidentof the Yavapai Yelpers Chapter of theNWTF, in a note to contributors. “We planto have a symbolic presentation of a checkto the Prescott Fallen Firefighters Fundthe evening of October 16 followedshortly thereafter by the real check to thefund in support of the families.”

Raising that amount of money in such ashort period of time was “nothing short of amiracle,” Deneke added. “The steeringcommittee for the event was just blownaway by your generosity and caring.”

To all SAF members and everyone elsewho contributed to the fund-raiser, I echoDeneke: Thank you.

Federal Furlough Follies“Due to a lapse in funding, the US Fed-

eral Government has shut down.” So saysthe usa.gov website, to which I was di-rected by a sign posted on the door at theMt. Hood National Forest’s ZigzagRanger District office, a few miles frommy home in Oregon. I stopped by the of-fice to see if it really was closed. It was, asyou can see in the photo on this page. Asof this writing on October 14, it still is.Like most other federal workers, mostagency employees have been furloughedwithout pay.

Everyone has an opinion on the federalshutdown. Some folks I’ve talked with arelargely unaffected, so far, but lament thefailure of members of Congress to do bet-ter than this. For others, the shutdown ismore than political theater, especiallythose who do (or did) business with thefederal agencies.

USDA Forest Service communicationsdirector Leo Kay, quoted in an October 5article in The Missoulian, of Missoula,Montana: “Due to the federal fundinglapse, early next week the U.S. ForestService must notify 450 timber purchasersacross the country that timber sales andstewardship contracts will be suspended.”Add to that the contractors, mill workers,and others who are directly affected by theshutdown.

According to a message posted atwww.fs.fed.us, “all federally owned recre-ation sites are closed.” In some cases, thisapplies to campgrounds operated by con-cessionaires. Deer hunters and many oth-ers are unhappy, I reckon.

The closure of all national parks has beenthe subject of much news coverage, as havethe reopening of some parks after states pro-vided funding to operate them. The State ofSouth Dakota agreed to pay the National

Park Service $152,000 toopen the park for 10 days,from October 14 throughOctober 23. I wonder ifthe state will be allowedto keep the revenue frompark visitors. It mightmake quite a bit morethan $152,000 from the$11-per-car parking feesalone.

Stewardship Contract-ing Reauthorization

Once the federal gov-ernment is back in busi-ness, the work per-formed by stewardshipcontractors will resume. If Congress isn’ttoo exhausted by its efforts to negotiate itsway out of the shutdown, it will havesome hard work to do on a number of im-portant forestry and natural resources is-sues, such as the Farm Bill and wildlandfire suppression funding. Reauthorizationof the US Forest Service’s stewardshipcontracting authority, which expired onSeptember 30, ought to be a priority.

In late September, the House of Repre-sentatives included a provision for a short-term extension of the stewardship con-tracting authority in its version of a con-tinuing resolution to keep the governmentoperating, but the House and Senate failedto agree on language for a continuing res-olution, triggering the shutdown. A short-term extension might be included in an-

other continuing resolution proposal, ifthe House and Senate can come to termson one to end the shutdown. A short-termextension would be better than nothing,but SAF has advocated for a permanentauthorization. John Barnwell, SAF’s pol-icy director, told me that there is little op-position to this on Capitol Hill.

“Reauthorization is clearly a priorityfor the administration and appears to havebipartisan support in Congress,” Barnwellsaid. “Reauthorization is also included inthe House and Senate versions of theFarm Bill, and SAF has sent letters of sup-port for stewardship contracting reautho-rization to key members of Congress.”

Reauthorization would seem to be ano-brainer. But then, Congress has a lessthan stellar record on no-brainers.

Hotshots Fund-raiser, the Shutdown, & Stewardship Contracting

Editor’s Notebook

The Forestry Source 2 November 2013

By Steve Wilent

Published monthly by the Society of AmericanForesters (SAF),The Forestry Source (ISSN 1084-5496) provides SAF members and other naturalresource professionals with news regarding de-velopments within the forestry profession as wellas the activities and policies of SAF.

The opinions expressed in articles, commen-taries, and letters do not necessarily reflect thepolicies or views of SAF.

Publisher: Michael T. Goergen Jr. Editor: Steve Wilent, wilents@safnet.orgManaging Editor: Joseph M. Smith,

smithj@safnet.org

Editorial Offices and Advertising Sales5400 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814-2198Tel (301) 897-8720 • www.safnet.org

Correspondence: Address all editorial correspon-dence to the Editor at the above address. Advertis-ing inquiries should be directed to ChristopherWhited at (301) 897-8720, ext. 110.

Subscription rates: $50 for individuals in the USand Canada ($85 in foreign countries); $95 for in-stitutions in the US ($125 in foreign countries).Subscription price to members is included in an-nual dues. Matthew Walls at the above phone num-ber regarding subscriptions and address changes.Single issues may be purchased for $3.50 from theSAF sales office.

Permission to reprint: Individuals, and nonprofitlibraries acting for them, are permitted to makefair use of the material in this publication; for ex-ample, copying an article for personal or class-room use. For republication, or systematic ormultiple reproduction of copyrighted material,permission must be obtained from SAF, with a feefor commercial use to be determined. To requestpermission to republish or reproduce material,contact the Editor at the address above. Propernotice of copyright and credit to The ForestrySource must appear on all copies made. Permis-sion is granted to quote from The ForestrySource if the customary acknowledgment ac-companies the quote.

Postmaster: Send address changes to The For-estry Source, 5400 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD20814-2198, Attn.: C. Whited

Periodicals postage paid at Bethesda, Maryland,and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA.

© 2013, Society of American Foresters. ISSN 1084-5496.

The mission of the Society of American Foresters is toadvance the science, education, technology, and prac-tice of forestry; to enhance the competency of its mem-bers; to establish standards of professional excellence;and to use the knowledge, skills, and conservation ethicof the profession to ensure the continued health anduse of forest ecosystems and the present and futureavailability of forest resources to benefit society.

President: Joann M. Cox, CF/FCA,joann.cox@ca.pwc.com

Vice-President: William D. (David) Walters, CF,Dave.Walters@tn.gov

Immediate Past-President: William H. “Bill” Rockwell, CF/FCA, rockwell@mich.com

Executive Vice-President: Michael T. Goergen Jr. goergenm@safnet.org

Council: Robert L. Alverts, CF, Tigard, Oregon; AndyHayes, Honeoye Falls, New York; Johnny Hodges, CF,Fort Collins, Colorado; Gregory A.Hoss, Dixon, Mis-souri; Ernie Houghton, Gladstone, Michigan; David S.Lewis, CF, Monticello, Florida; J. Lopez, Los Angeles,California; IanMunn, CF, Mississippi State, Missis-sippi; Kim Steiner, CF, Boalsburg, Pennsylvania;Thomas J. Straka, CF/FCA, Clemson, South Carolina;and John Walkowiak, CF, Tacoma, Washington.

Forest Science and Technology Board: Kurt W.Gottschalk, CF, chair; Rachel R. Billingham, CF, So-cial And Related Sciences; Brett J. Butler, Nonindus-trial Forestry; Paul F. Doruska, CF, Representative;Matthew W. McBroom, CF, Forest Ecology/Biology;Kenneth L. McNabb, Regional Science Representa-tive; Sayeed R. Mehmood, Decision Sciences; Guy L.Pinjuv, Regiona Science Representative; Andrew J.Sanchez Meador, Forest Resources; David C. Shaw,Forest Management

National Office Department Directors: Louise Murgia,director, field services; Matthew Walls, director, pub-lications; Carol Redelshiemer, CF, director, scienceand education; Christopher Whited, senior director,marketing and membership.

Society of American Foresters

and TNC organized a pair of workshops.The first, which took place on February 14,2013, served as a forum for educating col-laborators about the ecological value ofhemlock, the biology and impact of thehemlock woolly adelgid, treatment options,and TNC’s proposed strategy for hemlockconservation.

The second, which took place on August8, brought stakeholders together to look atmaps of hemlock-rich areas across the Al-legheny Plateau and go through valuationexercises to prioritize and rank them.

The collaborators’ personal knowledgeof hemlock stands on the plateau was instru-mental to the process, said Sarah Johnson,conservation GIS analyst with TNC.

“What I was really leaning on was theparticipants’ field knowledge,” she said.“There were a lot of resource managers andpeople who use the woods on a very fre-quent basis in that part of the state, and whatI wanted them to do was look at these mapsand tell me where they know there are greatnative populations of brook trout shelteredby hemlock, or the places where the hem-lock is really aesthetically pleasing and a lotof people go there to hike.”

When the prioritizing was over, the areasat the top of the list were those known fortheir old-growth hemlock stands—CookForest State Park, Tionesta Scenic and Re-search Natural Areas, Hearts Content Na-tional Scenic Area, and Allegheny StatePark.

“These four areas of old-growth are ourmost highly prioritized areas in the entire[Allegheny Plateau],” said Johnson. “Thewhole area around Cook Forest State Park,as well, regardless of ownership—[its] veryhigh-quality streams, recreation, good con-tiguous hemlock in the bottoms, and corebiodiversity areas—this whole area fell outas being very important.”

Just about EverywhereUnfortunately, the hemlock woolly adel-

gid has little regard for the hemlocks in andaround the Cook Forest State Park, or any-where else. An import from Asia, the pestlanded on US shores in 1924 and spent thenext several decades establishing itself inthe East’s hemlock forests. According to theForest Service, the HWA can now be foundfrom northeastern Georgia to southeasternMaine and as far west as eastern Kentuckyand Tennessee.

In Pennsylvania, the earliest record of thebug dates back to 1967. Since then, it hasmoved from east to west and, so far, little

seems to be slowing its spread.“It’s just about everywhere in the state,”

said Donald Eggen, chief of the Forest PestManagement Division at the PennsylvaniaDepartment of Conservation and NaturalResources (DCNR). “We’ve probably gotabout 10 counties left out of 67. The onlycounties not infested are in the very north-west and very southwest part of the state”(see map on this page).

According to Hille, there are threeknown infestations on the Allegheny Na-tional Forest (ANF).

“Two of them are considered to be rela-tively small. Unfortunately, they’re dis-persed across the forest. One is on the north-ern edge, on the New York state line (atWebbs Ferry Boat Launch), one is along thesouthern edge of the forest along the ClarionRiver near Cook Forest State Park, and onewas just found along the western portion ofthe forest (below the Kinzua Dam), alongthe Allegheny River,” she said. “I don’tknow what the extent of it is, but there weretwo spots that were roughly two miles apart,so I suspect it’s probably a pretty good–sized infestation.”

On its own, the HWA travels at an esti-mated rate of 15.6 kilometers per year southof Pennsylvania and 8.13 (or less) in thenorthern section of its range. However, ex-perts agree that birds probably aid in mov-ing the pest around.

The continued march of the HWA is badnews not only for the eastern hemlock(Tsuga Canadensis)—Pennsylvania’s “statetree”—it’s also a threat to the myriad lifeforms that depend on the ecological servicesthe tree provides. According to the ForestService’s Southern Research Station, hem-lock forests provide critical habitat for birdsand other animals and their shade helpsmaintain the cool water temperatures re-quired by trout and other aquatic organismsin mountain streams.

Forest Service data also indicate thathemlock once made up about 20 percent ofthe trees found on the Allegheny Plateau(circa 1800–1815). Today, the speciesmakes up about 6–7 percent, and as theHWA moves its way through the region, thatpercentage is likely to drop even lower.

Not Admitting DefeatYet, despite the severity of the threat

posed by the HWA, partnership membersare optimistic that they’ll be able to save atleast some of the hemlock component in theareas they’ve identified as priorities.

“There are probably a lot of places whereit hasn’t been detected, but we’re way earlyon and we’re able to capitalize on the expe-rience of other regions that didn’t have thathead start,” said Stout. “So, we’re trying to

be both really smart in terms of prioritizingtreatment areas without regard to ownershipand incorporating information from otherareas that have been through this already.”

The primary method of protecting in-fested hemlocks in the priority areas isthrough the use of the insecticides, primarilyImidacloprid and Dinotefuran (aka: Safari).

“If HWA hit all areas of the park [CookForest State Park] at once, [the ForestCathedral area] is our highest priority. Oursecond priority stand—the stand that it’s inright now—is along the Seneca Trail. Wehave 11 old-growth forest areas, and nine ofthose are probably dominated by easternhemlock,” said Dale J. Luthringer, environ-mental education specialist with the Penn-sylvania DCNR stationed at Cook ForestState Park. “We’ve got certain areas blockedoff, and we’re pretty confident we can takecare of the smaller areas and jump aheadand pretreat some of these significant treesthat are large by dimension, age, or heightclass.”

According to Eggen, which insecticide isused depends on site condition, the condi-tion of the tree, and the level of infestation.Both can be applied in three ways: soil in-jection at the base of the tree, soil drench,and a bole spray.

“Imidacloprid in some of those really bigtrees can take anywhere up to a year or moreto get up into the tree, so it’s a little slowermoving, but it also lasts longer. Once youtreat with [it], the trees are protected for five,six, seven years,” he said. “Safari is princi-pally an annual. [It’s] good to knock back aheavy infestation because it’s quick acting,so if we have a tree that’s heavily infested ora really large tree (greater than 24 inches indiameter) that’s infested, we like to hit itwith Safari. You can also double treat it—you knock back the population [with Safari]and then the Imidacloprid can then go up.”

Both of these insecticides have limits onhow much can be applied per acre, so Eggenand his colleagues have to plan their treat-ments carefully.

“When we have an area that we’re work-ing on, we kind of divide it into thirds. Wetry to knock back the heavy infestationswith the Safari, and over a three-year periodtry to get as many of the trees that need pro-tecting protected,” he said.

In addition to chemicals, the Pennsylva-nia DCNR has been using biocontrol organ-isms—predatory beetles—to slow theHWA’s spread since 1999.

“The one that we’re using principallyright now is the Laricobius nigrinus (LN)from the Pacific Northwest. The good newsabout that insect is that all the life stages ofthat beetle feed on all the life stages ofHWA. That [beetle] is established in the

state, and we’re going to continue to dothat,” Eggen said. “The problem is we’renorth of the Mason-Dixon Line, and we getcold winters. They establish pretty well invery sunny areas, such as in the rural urbaninterface, where you might have a hedgerowof hemlock where it’s bright and sunny. Ifwe get really cold winters, the populationsof the HWA get knocked back, and sincethis beetle has to feed on HWA, if you getrid of HWA you get rid of the beetle.”

As a result, Eggen plans to enlist a morecold-hardy strain of the LN beetle fromIdaho in the near future. Until then, theagency will continue working to establishpopulations of the Pacific Northwest strainof LN beetles.

“In some of these areas, what you do isrelease multiple years in a row in a good lo-cation, and they eventually become estab-lished. Sometimes it takes upwards of six toseven years to get a good population going,and that’s what we’ve noticed in PA. That’swhat they’ve noticed in Maryland and otherlocations,” he said. “In certain areas downsouth, the beetles have become very abun-dant, and they actually do help controlHWA. I think that as you get climate changeand things start to warm up, HWA will dobetter, but so will our predators.”

Beyond insecticides and biocontrols, thepartnership is also researching silviculturaloptions.

According to Ned Karger, CF, land man-ager with The Collins Companies, the ANF,the Pennsylvania Game Commission, andhis company are experimenting with silvi-cultural guidelines for hemlock stands de-veloped by Forest Service Research Silvi-culturist Mary Ann Fajvan.

“Andrea [Hille] used them on some For-est Service property, state gamelands haveput a prescription on their property, and so Iwas talking to my team and they identified acouple stands here that were predominantlyhemlock, and we thought maybe we couldtry the same thing,” he said.

The silvicultural prescription used on theANF was designed to reduce stress and en-hance vigor in advance of the HWA, Hillesaid.

“The stands on the ANF that we se-lected for treatment were overstocked, sothe objective was to reduce some of thestress of that overstocking in advance ofthe adelgid far enough that the trees will re-cover from the stress of the harvest opera-tion and, hopefully, have more improvedvigor and could withstand an adelgid infes-tation longer,” she said.

Still, it’s a bit of a catch-22, said Hille.“The adelgid feeds on the new

The Forestry Source 3 November 2013

Partnership(continued from page 1)

This map shows Pennsylvania’s infested, uninfested, and newly infested counties as of October 2013.

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(“Partnership” continues on page 7)Hemlock shade helps maintain the cool water temperatures required by trout and other aquaticorganisms.

The Forestry Source 4 November 2013

ship coordinator for the Delaware High-lands Conservancy.

In many meetings that include bothmen and women forestland owners, Sub-jin has seen that men often dominate thediscussions.

“Typically, as attendees introducethemselves at county-centric woodlandowner association meetings, the hus-bands and wives are sitting next to eachother, and the husband says who he is andhow much forestland he owns. And thenit’s the wife’s turn to introduce herself,and she usually says, ‘I’m with him.’ Butwhen you separate the men and womeninto groups [by gender], you can’t stopthe women from talking about forests andforestry and what their goals are,” saidSubjin. “It’s a different dynamic that wetry to encourage. It’s not that we don’twant to encourage the education ofmen—not by any means. But when weget women together, they form a networkthat they feel comfortable with. I thinkthe women show their enthusiasm a lotmore when they’re with other women.It’s pretty exciting when you get a roomfull of women who never stop talkingabout forestry. They’re very passionateabout it, about what they want to do ontheir land.”

The retreats and workshops includeclasses on stewardship and silviculture,forest plant and tree identification, hy-drology, forest wildlife, forest measure-ment, estate and financial planning, andother topics.

“You learn things like how to measureboard feet,” said Kenna Levendosky, a

WATW attendee who owns about 220acres in New York near the DelawareRiver. “And if you have had no experi-ence in measuring board feet—I certainlydidn’t—then it’s something that makesyou feel pretty good about the programand what you’ve experienced.”

Levendosky also gained the knowl-edge and confidence to change the man-agement of her property, which her fam-ily has owned since 1944. Over the years,it had been logged three times.

“A forester told us that if it was loggedone more time, it would be the last time.So our attitude was that we just had toleave it alone and let it grow, and that isreflected in our forest management plan,”Levendosky said. “But from what Ilearned at Women and Their Woods,there are many proactive things we can

do. Since I started attending the retreatsand workshops, we have planted maybe80 walnut trees. We planted somepoplar—we’re pretty far north here inNew York State, but a few of them havegrown pretty well. We’re working withAmerican chestnut—we’ve planted a fewof those. We have some steep, old log-ging trails, and we’re putting some bermson those to try and lessen erosion. So, allin all, it’s changed from a hands-off ap-proach to a more proactive approach be-cause of these meetings.”

SAF member Allyson Muth, a foreststewardship program associate at PennState Natural Resources Extension whohelps lead the retreats, said one attendeewrote in an e-mail that she was “embark-ing on a new, beautiful, and heretoforeunexpected relationship with my forest.Thank you for opening this new worldfor me. I feel a strong responsibility tocare for [my woodlands] in a purposefulway.”

“I learn a lot about how people relateto their land,” Muth said. “In forestryschool, there was a lot of emphasisplaced on dollar value. I’ve always feltthat that’s the wrong way to catch peo-ple’s interest. The retreats are an opportu-nity to hear and experience the intangiblereasons that people own land. Women arereally good at expressing those reasons.For many of the women who go throughthe program, they’ve either said that ithas confirmed the way that they felt orthat it has opened up new ways of think-ing about their woodlands. And they arevery excited to share that knowledge. Asa forester, I’m very glad that this seems tobe resonating with the women who attendthe retreats.”

At a workshop held this spring, a

Cornell University extension foresterprovided training in using chainsawsand driving an ATV with a log arch, andhelped attendees plant trees and shrubson the property. WATW presentationsalso focus on helping women interesttheir families in managing their wood-lands.

“We want to be encouraging the nextgeneration of landowners and the nextand the next, not just train the currentgeneration,” Muth said.

“We even teach women how to talk to foresters,” said Nancy Baker, a Penn-sylvania woodland owner with a master’sdegree in forest ecology from the Univer-sity of Georgia. Baker helps teach at theretreats and at workshops on her property.“They have to understand the lingo, theyhave to know what questions to ask. Wegive them a handout on how to choose aprofessional forester, so that they know toask about education, experience, refer-ences, and things like that.”

“We have a wide diversity of womenwho come to these retreats, but I have yetto see one who wasn’t totally excited,”said Levendosky. “Sometimes, at first,their attitude is that they don’t know any-thing about their woods and to be a littlebit intimidated by the people who haveexpertise in these areas. But they allcome away with a lot of information—they deluge you with information!—andwith the knowledge that they can dosomething in their woods.”

For more information about WATW,visit www.delawarehighlands.org/watw.See also “Women Owning Woodlands:Understanding Women’s Roles in ForestOwnership and Management,” by LaurenE. Redmore and Joanne F. Tynon, Journalof Forestry, July/August 2011.

Program(continued from page 1)

A walk in the woods during a break between classes at a Women and TheirWoods retreat in Pennsylvania in September.

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The Forestry Source 5 November 2013

2011 “Billion Ton Update,” there is a greatdeal of biomass to be had. The latter reportestimated that about 97 million dry tonsper year of material from logging residuesand thinning operations would be avail-able from US forests if prices reached $60per dry ton.

In response to present and anticipatedfuture biomass harvests, states such asMissouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsinhave developed biomass harvesting guide-lines. In 2011, the Forest Guild releasedForest Biomass Retention and HarvestingGuidelines for the Northeast, followed in 2012 by guidelines for the Southeastand in 2013 for the Pacific Northwest(www.forestguild.org/biomass.html). Theguild’s goal was “to address questions offorest sustainability in a time of increasinginterest in harvesting forest biomass forenergy security, climate mitigation, andeconomic reasons.” Its guidelines are “in-tended to augment and enhance existingBest Management Practices (BMPs) ornew state-based biomass guidelines thatmay, in some cases, leave managers andpolicy makers looking for more detailedrecommendations.”

I recently spoke with Michael DeBo-nis, the Forest Guild’s president and exec-utive director, about the guidelines. DeBo-nis has worked for the guild for abouteight years, first as its Southwest Regiondirector and for the past four years in hiscurrent position. He previously workedfor the Maine Forest Service and was a li-censed forester in that state. The guild hasabout 1,000 members, primarily consult-ing foresters, some of which are alsomembers of SAF, the Association of Con-sulting Foresters, or both. DeBonis stayedon in the Southwest, making his home inSanta Fe, New Mexico. What follows is aportion of our conversation.

How and why did the guild decide todevelop these guidelines?

It was driven from the ground up. Itwas driven by practicing foresters, and Ithink it started in the Northeast, where sixor seven years ago foresters were seeingnew markets, emerging markets for bio-mass—thermal energy, proposed electric-ity generation, the emerging pellet mar-kets. They saw these new markets as anopportunity to support good forestrywork, but they also started to have ques-tions. If I’m going to have an opportunityto remove more wood from the forest,what impact is that going to have? In par-ticular, what impact is that going to haveon wildlife habitat, soil nutrients, and soon? Foresters started to ask, how muchwood do I need to leave? How manysnags? How many tons per acre of coarsewoody debris?

The guidance was inconsistent. Statebest management practices are fairly com-prehensive across the country, and aremainly focused on water quality, but therewere some holes related to biomass. Sowe did a review of the existing scienceand the existing biomass harvesting guide-lines in the United States as well as inter-nationally. We realized that there are gapsto be filled in, that there was potentially aneed to pull together some guidelines forspecific forest types about how much ma-terial should be left in the woods forwildlife habitat, for soil nutrients.

So that was the start of the process. Aswe moved ahead, we realize that the sci-ence was a bit inconsistent. For some for-

est types there was a good body of sci-ence, and for others it was lacking. Ourapproach was to involve practitioners whowere actually engaged in forest manage-ment to fill in the gaps, to provide recom-mendations for how much you shouldleave in the woods. The guild’s guidelinestake the approach of using the best sciencewhere it’s available, but also incorporatinglocal knowledge.

Will you revise the guidelines as newknowledge becomes available?

Certainly. The guidelines are not staticdocuments. The science is evolving, localknowledge is evolving, and I think any ap-proach to developing guidelines needs tobe fluid to account for that.

You want any sort of guidelines to bebased in good science, but the challengewe face is what to do with the science thatisn’t consistent or is incomplete. And theyalso have to be based in reality. For exam-ple, if the science indicated that you needto have, say, 10 snags per acre in a partic-ular forest type, but the local foresters andnatural resource professionals say that noone leaves 10 snags per acre, that the mar-kets don’t dictate that, that that’s not theway forestry is practiced in that region. Inthat case, you need to try to find a balancepoint. How many snags could you leave?What’s reasonable? What’s operable forthose sites and the type of forestry prac-ticed there?

I don’t know if we could ever havedone this project without input from thepractitioners. I think we would’ve comeup with something that would’ve been ofsome use, but may have been totally de-tached from what’s happening on theground.

And they are guidelines—targets andgoals—not hard and fast rules.

As a forester, I would like to knowwhat the recommended retention targetsare, and then I’ll work with the landownerto determine what we can do on a particu-lar site, based on his or her particular ob-jectives, the history of the site, and so on.Even with a set of guidelines, you stillneed a forester, a professional involved inthe process, to help the landowner makeinformed decisions. The guidelines are atool that can be used, but there’s still thatgive and take based on management ob-jectives. For a landowner, having a pro-fessional forester to help you through thatis critical.

What sort of feedback about the guide-lines have you received from foresters?

Overall, the feedback has been posi-

tive. There has been a bit of a learningcurve, but I think the general concept ofhaving information about dead wood andwhat purposes it serves, and having someguidelines geared toward specific foresttypes, has been well received by forestersin the field and by the forestry community.Part of the learning curve is estimating thetons per acre on a site. In some cases, thetargets differ from what may traditionallyhappen on a harvest, so questions comeup, such as, is this going to increase thecost of harvesting? Is it going to changethe way that operations are done? In somecases, there will be a change, and in othersthere won’t be.

We just had a field tour in the Southeastwhere folks went out and used a prism-sweep method to estimate tons per acre ona site, and what they found was that thethree-tons-per-acre target was pretty easyto achieve, that it was pretty close to whatwas traditionally left in the types of har-vests that they were looking at. So in somecases, applying the guidelines may notmean any additional work compared towhat traditionally happens, but the idea oflooking at those targets gives you a guide-post for whether you’re in the target zoneor not, and then you can decide whetheryou need to change your management ornot.

How have landowners reacted to theguidelines?

It’s been interesting. Some landownershave been keen on the guidelines, espe-cially if they’re concerned about wildlifehabitat, water quality, soil nutrients, andthat sort of thing. Other landowners we’veinteracted with initially look at it as, doesthis mean I’m going to be able to harvestless? Am I going to lose the market op-

portunities because I have to leave morewood in the woods? And I think that’s anatural response. These people look at itas a restriction that could have an impacton revenue.

But, generally, there is an openness onthe part of landowners to the guidelines.We pitch them as voluntary guidelines forlandowners and foresters to use. Had theybeen developed with a regulatory frame-work in mind or something that was man-dated, I think the response would’ve beenvery different.

Have you identified any key areas forresearch that will be important in revis-ing the guidelines in the future?

One area is the expansion of informa-tion and data for specific forest types.There are some forest types where therewasn’t as much information on coarsewoody debris retention or snag retentionas there could have been. Also there is aneed for some research on the require-ments for downed woody debris by cer-tain wildlife species. Some of the researchwe’ve looked at has indicated that it’s notjust the amount of material, but it’s alsothe type, size, arrangement, and even thespecies of woody material that somewildlife species prefer. Some wildlifespecies prefer more snags than downedwood, for example.

We also need to look at how theseguidelines are applied on the ground andlearn from that experience. Is three tonsper acre in southern pine enough?Should there be more? The only way wecan answer that is by actually applyingthe guidelines and then doing further re-search to see if we are maintaining oursoil nutrient targets and meeting our

Guidelines(continued from page 1)

Michael DeBonis, president and executivedirector, the Forest Guild

(“Guidelines” continues on page 7)

The Forestry Source 6 November 2013

Folks at the Washington Office of theUSDA Forest Service would do wellto ponder the fate of Marie An-

toinette—she of “Let them eat cake” fame.When county commissioners cry out, “Ourworkers have no jobs and our children haveno schools!” what response do we hear?

Today the Forest Service is primarilyconcerned (obsessed?) with ecosystemmanagement and restoration, growing bigold trees (late seral habitat), preserving (nothusbanding) selected resources, enhancingscenic values, and providing amenities,wilderness experiences, and “spiritual re-newal,” along with a host of other ad-mirable nonessentials. In doing so, it has

lost sight of the basic human need for jobs,security, and family and community stabil-ity. This apparent nonconcern with peopleand the commodities essential to their well-being is reflected in the Fiscal Year (FY)2014 Forest Service budget, which pro-poses to reduce the timber sales program by15 percent from FY 2013. The graphic on

this page shows the expected result.Proposed legislation in Congress, the

Restoring Healthy Forests for HealthyCommunities Act (HR 1526), is an attemptto remedy this situation. Stripped of itscomplexities, the basic intent of HR 1526 isto increase commodity production fromfederal lands and thereby better serve thelocal communities directly affected bythese lands. This would create a totally new(to the Feds) management system based onthe premise of using lands best suited tocommodity production for producing com-modities (maximizing revenues). It is theapproach used—very successfully—on the2.1 million acres of forested state trust landsin Washington State, the Common SchoolFund lands in Oregon, and other state trustlands in the West.

One of several key features of HR 1526is the establishment of locally managedcommunity forest demonstration areas onselected national forest lands—no less than200,000 acres within a state. These landswould be managed by an advisory commit-tee appointed by the governor of the state,according to “the laws and regulations ap-plicable to management of State or pri-vately-owned forest lands in the State inwhich the community forest demonstrationarea is located.” Federal laws such as theEndangered Species Act and Clean WaterAct would apply only to the extent that theyapply to state or private forest lands.

Revenues from the sale of timber orother products from community forest

demonstration areas would go primarily tocounties or local government units, withsome also going to the US Treasury andsome being reserved to pay for forest-man-agement activities.

Although the act was approved hand-ily by the House, in its present form it haslittle hope of passage in the Senate, and,should it somehow pass, faces a near cer-tain veto by the president. Simplifyingthis overly complex bill by removinghighly controversial provisions relating tomandatory harvests from proposed forestreserve revenue areas on national forestlands and to timber harvests on Oregon &California Railroad lands in Oregonwould increase its chances for survival.These issues could be better addressed in

separate legislation.While HR 1526 bodes no good for the

future of the Forest Service as it now func-tions, it does hold promise for solving manyproblems for the people who use and livenear our national forests. The developmentand final form and fate of the act will be ofintense interest to foresters, concernedstates, local governments, national forestusers, and dependent citizens, and to allthose interested in the future of public landmanagement.

W.V. (Mac) McConnell is a retiredland management planner/forester with67 years experience, including 30 withthe USDA Forest Service, in the south-eastern United States. He lives in Talla-hassee, Florida.

Commentary By W.V. (Mac) McConnell “Let Them Watch Owls”

The basic intent of HR

1526 is to increase com-

modity production from

federal lands and thereby

better serve the local com-

munities directly affected

by these lands.

Jeans Made of Pine?Researchers at Finland’s VTT Techni-

cal Research Centre, Aalto University, andTampere University of Technology envi-sion a day when thread, yarn, and fabricsmade from wood fibers replace thosemade from cotton, polyester, and othermaterials. Tests by a team led by AaltoUniversity professor Olli Ilkkala showthat the self-assembly of cellulose fibrilsin wood permits the fibrils to be spun intostrong yarn. VTT has developed an indus-trial process that produces such yarn fromcellulose fibers without the spinningprocess.

According to VTT, about five to sixmillion tons of fiber could be manufac-tured from Finland’s current loggingresidue (25 to 30 million cubicmeters/year). This could replace morethan 20 percent of globally produced cot-ton, at the same time reducing carbondioxide emissions by 120 to 150 milliontons and releasing enough farm land togrow food for 18 to 25 million people.

Cotton textiles account for about 40percent of the world’s textile markets. Oil-based polyester for most of the remainder,while cellulose-based fibers make up 6percent of the market. Although cotton isdurable and comfortable to wear, cottonproduction is highly water-intensive, andartificial fertilizers and chemical pesti-cides are often needed to ensure a goodcrop. The surface area of world’s cotton-growing regions is roughly to the size ofFinland.

Mississippi Mill to ExpandMaple Land and Timber will spend

$1.95 million to expand its AmericanLand and Timber sawmill near Baldwyn,Miss., according to the Mississippi Devel-opment Authority (MDA) the state’s eco-nomic development agency. The companyproduces hardwood and pine lumber fordomestic and overseas markets, as well aspallet materials and crossties. The expan-sion will allow the company to begin pro-ducing additional lumber for export. TheMDA provided tax incentives to the com-pany in support of the project.

Sierra Pacific to Rebuild MillSierra Pacific Industries plans to close

its decades-old large-log sawmill inQuincy, California, and build a new, more-efficient mill on the site by late next year.A small-log mill, planer, and cogenerationplant will continue operations during theconstruction. The new mill will produce awider array of lumber products, includinglumber up to 12 inches wide and pencilstock from incense cedar. The new millwill use some of the larger cedar and Dou-glas-fir harvested in that area of northernCalifornia is currently shipped to othermills for processing, according to MarkPawlicki, the company’s director of cor-porate affairs and sustainability. The millcomplex will continue to obtain logs fromnearby national forests as well as privatelands.

Sierra Pacific Industries owns andmanages nearly 1.9 million acres of tim-berland in California and Washington, andis the second largest lumber producer inthe United States.

More Mill NewsFruit Growers Supply Company, a Cal-

ifornia agricultural supply cooperativewith timberland holdings in California,Oregon, and Washington, plans to buildand operate a small-log mill in Yreka, Cal-ifornia, according to the California For-estry Association. The mill will processlogs as small as four inches in diameterinto lumber for use in the manufacture ofpallets and other products. It will employbetween 30 and 40 people.

The White Mountain Apache Tribe withreopen a defunct lumber processing facilityin Whiteriver, Arizona, according to the For-est Business Network. The sawmill, onceone of the tribe’s biggest employers, closedin 2010. US Bank, in partnership with CEICapital Management and Rural Develop-ment Partners, has provided more than$13.4 million of New Markets Tax Creditequity for the project. The mill will employan estimated 185 people.

Omak Wood Products LLC will re-store and operate a shuttered plywoodmill owned by the Colville Tribal Fed-eral Corporation in Omak, Washington.The mill will initially produce veneer;plywood production will begin by mid-2014. The company has hired 87 work-ers; the mill may eventually employ asmany as 200. The facility will processlogs primarily from the Colville Confed-erated Tribes’ 800,000 acres of timber-land; some logs may be purchased fromthe State of Washington and other pri-vate sources. According to the company,“the domestic veneer and plywood mar-kets are currently vibrant and will re-main so for the foreseeable future.”Omak Wood Products LLC is a sub-sidiary of Wood Resources LLC, whichoperates a plywood plant in Shelton,Washington.

Pek

ka R

ötkö

nen

INDUSTRYNEWS

Cellulose fiber yarn made directly from pine fibers at VTT Technical Research Centre.

The Forestry Source 7 November 2013

Small towns can teach us a great dealabout leadership—not through theirbudgets, by-laws, or bookkeeping,

but their ecosystems. For example, after a promotion in

1983, I was preparing to move from onesmall town to another, so I took a trip tomy new hometown of West Point, Vir-ginia, to find an apartment. Fortunately, Ihad already learned something about get-ting the inside story on such things, so Iskipped the classifieds and went directlyto the US Post Office.

After introducing myself to the post-master and asking if he knew of any apart-ments for rent, he asked me a very impor-tant question: “Who are you?” Having al-ready given my name, I knew that he wasasking for a deeper understanding of myconnection to the community.

After sharing my story, it turned outthat my new boss was the postmaster’sneighbor. He knew the other foresters intown. He liked the fact that I’d be work-ing for the largest employer there. Andwe both loved dogs!

With his “connections” questions sat-isfied, he pointed me to his sister, whoworked at the florist shop two blocksdown the street and who “just might”have an apartment for rent. On the way tothe florist (and just one block away) aman stepped out of a storefront into mypath and asked, “Are you the foresterlooking for an apartment?”

Now, that’s a small town!My lesson: People need to know you

to help you.

Building Your Small-Town EcosystemLike small towns, every organization

is an ecosystem, with many intricate andsignificant connections.

Just as foresters are stewards ofecosystems, leaders are stewards of con-nections. When these connections breakdown, people experience miscues, mis-

communication, internal competition,and suboptimal results. When connec-tions are strengthened, leaders get free-flowing communication, willing team-work, and exceptional results.

Taking a cue from small towns, thereare five categories of things you can do tobuild connections among people. The fol-lowing acronym for what you can dospells “Main St.” for a reason.

“M” is for Mingle. Leave the e-mailsand texts behind more often in favor ofproactively building personal connec-tions. Mingle with people informally, sothat you get to know each other as peo-ple, not just fellow employees. Here’swhere you will find opportunities to min-gle and interact more often:

uWherever there is food. Mingle withpeople in the office kitchen, agencylunchroom, or wherever people gather toeat and drink. This is why churches haveso many potluck dinners!

uWherever people stop and talk.Mingle with people at the water fountain,employee lounge, scale house, or break-room—wherever they naturally stop andtalk.

uWherever there are tailgates.Pickup trucks are magnets for conversa-tion. Look for open tailgates in the park-ing lot, at meetings, or after fieldwork orfires.

“A” is for Affiliate. The citizens ofsmall towns affiliate with one another byjoining civic clubs, umpiring sportsleagues, and serving on committees. Youcan do the same thing in the workplaceby:

uAffiliating with their hobbies andinterests. Find out where your hobbiesand interests intersect and share informa-tion and resources.

uAffiliating with their charitable andcommunity work. Find ways to supportthe causes and organizations that are im-

portant to your people.uAffiliating with what they want to

see made better in the workplace. Dis-cover what interests them about improv-ing the workplace, and join orchampion those causes.

“I” is for Invite. Peoplewho live in small towns inviteone another over, and leadersneed to initiate these kinds ofconnections as well. In doingso, people meet each other’sfamilies and converse withone another in different ways.You can do this at work by:

uInviting your peers fromsimilar work teams to see whatyou and your staff are up to,sharing both successes and challengeswhere you could use their help.

uInviting your peers over from differ-ent functions who are less familiar withyour shop, helping them learn what youdo and how you do it.

uInviting over associates from manyfunctions for an open house at which peo-ple meet and learn from one another, aswell as from you and your people.

“N” is for Network. People networkin small towns in a most positive way,learning what other people need, and thenconnecting them with others who canhelp. You can network in the workplacefor similar reasons by:

uFinding out what other people needand connecting them with others withsimilar challenges, or those who canshare their experiences.

uFinding out what other people wantto learn and then connecting them withpeople who can show them the ropes.

uFinding out the sources of expertiseand letting others know where to findthem. Slowly, others will begin to seeyou as the go-to guy or gal.

“St.” is for Site See. You can wait tobe invited over to other people’s teamsand departments, but people in smalltowns get out to see for themselves. Go

sightseeing in your team ororganization by:

uAsking for a tour orvisit to another team likeyours to learn somethingnew about their best prac-tices.

uAsking for an orien-tation to an entirely differ-ent department or func-tional area from yours andtaking some of your teamalong to see how the otherteam’s work is connectedto others outside of your

work unit.uTaking your team to an entirely dif-

ferent organization to see how they worktogether, communicate, or serve the pub-lic, so everyone can look at old problemsthrough fresh eyes.

Without connections like these, yourteam might be colleagues but not friends,tolerant but not understanding, and talk-ing but not communicating. Take yourcue from small town ecosystems andbuild the kinds of connections that everyleader needs for successful teamwork atwork.

How are you building connections in your ecosystem? Share your storiesand join the conversation on the SAFLinkedIn Group (www.linkedin.com).

Tom Davidson is a forester and lead-ership consultant, as well as author ofThe Eight Greatest Mistakes New Man-agers Make. Sign up for his newsletter,Leaderslips & Tips, and subscribe to hisblog, SpotFires, at www.LeadershipNature.com. Email suggestions, com-ments, and questions to Tom@LeadershipNature.com.

Leadership and the Ecosystems of Small TownsWhat every proactive leader must do to build and maintain strong connections

By Tom Davidson

growth of hemlock, so if you have anarea with healthy, rapidly growing trees,it could actually make it more attractive.That’s really where the uncertaintycomes into this,” she said.

Silvicultural uncertainty aside, collabo-rators are hopeful that whatever they learnabout responding to HWA infestations willbe of use to others down the road.

“It’s sexy to say, ‘We’re going to savethe hemlocks,’ but the options for treat-ments are so limited, I think we knowthat prioritized areas are all you can doand, sometimes, prioritized individualtrees is all you can do,” said Karger.“Thinking ahead, we’re looking at somemonitoring and some studies to say howcan we make stands more resilient,what’s happening as these changes aregoing to take place. Looking 15 to 20years out into the future, that might bereally valuable for Michigan and Wis-consin and Ontario and places like that.”

What Would Success Look Like?Given this kind of long-range thinking,

not to mention the long-term challengesposed by the HWA, how will the partnershipknow its efforts have succeeded?

“To me, success would be that we have

identified hemlock conservation areas forvarious resource values across the plateauand sustained them long enough for the re-search to catch up,” said Hille. “We cannotsave every hemlock, we realize that, sowe’re trying to be strategic in where do wespend our time and energy and money intrying to sustain a good representation geo-graphically, and I think genetically, acrossthe plateau.”

The TNC’s Sarah Johnson agreed andadded that she’d like to see the developmentof a cooperative forest pest managementarea sometime in the future.

“I would like to get as many private land-owners as possible signed on to this cooper-ative management area, and to becomeaware of the situation, aware of their op-tions, and basically educated about whatthey have to lose with the impacts of hem-lock woolly adelgid.”

That awareness has already started tospread. When asked what he hopes to getout of his involvement in the partnership,landowner and McKean County commis-sioner Cliff Lane said knowledge and theability to share it.

“The first thing is better knowledge. Thesecond thing is the ability to communicateto other people that knowledge in such away that it is easy to understand why it’s im-portant to be aware of the HWA.”

wildlife habitat goals.It will be interesting to see if there are

better techniques for estimating the tonsper acre, to see if there are different oper-ational techniques that we can use, thingsthat we can do in the woods to betterachieve our downed wood targets, but ac-tually create some efficiencies on the eco-nomic side. I think there are some inter-esting research opportunities there.

And we’ll learn from the practitioners,too, because there may be folks out therewho have already figured these things out.

And now for the $64,000 question: Can

biomass harvesting be sustainable?The word “sustainability” gets thrown

around a lot. I think it’s important to drilldown into what that means. The guide-lines alone are not the equivalent of sus-tainable forestry. They are tool, a piece ofthe process. We also have to look at thetype of management that’s practiced andhow the wood is utilized. But it’s impor-tant for us to have these tools in place tohelp us make good decisions. There arelots of cases where harvesting biomassmakes sense. With some harvests it cansupport a landowner’s ability to meetmanagement objectives, if done correctly.Having the guidelines as tools to help usdo that is very important.

Having citizens engaged and participat-ing in the effort is boon to her agency, saidHille.

“We held a training down at the statepark for volunteers and for ourselves onidentifying populations of the HWA, andthere are a number of areas on the nationalforest that they have basically adopted formonitoring and conducting surveys for us.Having citizens out looking is a hugehelp.”

Among those providing that help areJohnson, who first discovered the HWA in

Warren County, and the members of theFriends of the Allegheny Wilderness.Johnson found a second infestation onSeptember 8.

“So far, we’ve been active in getting outand looking at hemlock sites throughout theANF just to survey for the HWA, so I thinkwe’ve been able to contribute that way—with boots on the ground,” he said. “Wehave a lot of people who are passionateabout wild areas of the forest. They’ve beenout and about, and they know where thehemlocks are.”

(“Guidelines” continued from page 5)

(“Partnership” continued from page 3)

SAF Leader Lab

The Forestry Source 8 November 2013

Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), asmall country on the Balkan Penin-sula in southeastern Europe, is lo-

cated at the intersection of roads from eastto west and from north and south: betweenEurope, Asia, and Africa. It covers an areaof approximately 17,000 square miles.More than 53 percent of the land is cov-ered by forests—among the highest forestcoverage in Europe. Methods and tech-niques of forest management mainly relyon traditional German forestry practices.

Over the centuries, the forests inBosnia and Herzegovina have beenheavily exploited. However, thanks tofavorable conditions, these forests havepartially succeeded in regenerating natu-rally, with marked diversity. This re-newal is, unfortunately, not countrywide.In the southern part of the country, which600 years ago was oak forests, renewalhas failed.

Most of the forestland inB&H (more than 80 per-cent) is owned by the state.The government givesrights to public companies(Public Forest Enterprises,or PFEs) to manage the for-ests, including silviculturalwork and selling timber,which provide salaries,taxes, and other benefits;some of the profits must bereinvested in forests andtheir enhancement. PFEshold Forest StewardshipCouncil (FSC) certification.

According to B&H law,clearcutting is forbidden.Depending on the type offorests, the following cutscan be applied: thinning, selective cut(recommended for Norway spruce, Eu-ropean silver fir, European beech forests,and mixtures of these types), and sheltercuts (recommended for oaks and pineforests). One of the main goals for mostforest types is natural regeneration byseed. Although PFEs must by law cutless than the annual volume increment,they nevertheless can make a profit. Thecommon name for these kinds of forestsis High Valuable Natural Forests withNatural Renew. Also, there are degradedforests and coppice forests mostlyowned by the stakeholders—privatelandowners. Stakeholders have smallproperties, usually only one acre to 10acres, and mostly they are not interestedin improving the condition of their for-ests. They typically sell wood tosawmills or they use timber as firewood,but in any case they also must conformto the general principle: to cut less thanthe annual volume increment. Althoughthese facts suggest the possibility of sus-tainable forest management, the state ofthe forests in Bosnia and Herzegovina isnot good. This is primarily due to cli-mate change issues, which over the last20 years have decreased the total area ofvaluable forests.

According to investigations by the In-tergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange, the temperature in B&H is “pro-jected to increase from 0.7 to 1.6°C per1°C of global increase during the period

2031–2060. It is expected that the aver-age rise in temperature is between 1° and2°C along the coast, and between 2° and3°C inland. The largest temperature in-creases would occur in summer, and ininland areas. The increase in the numberof summer days, defined as the numberof days when Tmax exceeds 25°C, isfrom two to six weeks, or about one ad-ditional month of summer days on aver-age. Finally, the increase in the numberof hot days in the Balkans, defined as thenumber of days with Tmax> 30°C,ranges from two weeks along the coast tofive–six weeks inland. Precipitation willdecrease, and climate will be noticeablydrier in southern Europe. The twowarmest and driest months will be Juneand August, when already small amountsof rainfall could be halved. On average,the Mediterranean region is expected tofeature more dry days. Increasing vari-

ability in the weather hasbeen noted in all seasons,with rapid changes of shortperiods (five to 10 days) ofextremely cold or warmweather—heat and coldwaves—and periods with ex-tremely high levels of rain-fall, as well as droughts. It isexpected that the duration ofdry periods, the incidence oftorrential flooding and the in-tensity of land erosion willincrease over the next cen-tury” (IPCC 2007).

Due to climate change,there is the emergence of for-est decline. It happens to theoaks and pines forestsmostly, but also in all the

other forests. Human assistance is neces-sary, in the form of afforestation and re-forestation.

Tracking climate change in forestrytoday requires active forest monitoringusing inventory plots as well as differentprogeny tests of forest trees and seed or-chards. These tests are necessary to becarried out in order to designate seedzones. Unfortunately, in B&H there are asmall number of such tests. Seeds havebeen collected from the natural seedstands that are not classified in seedzones by geographical and altitudinaldistribution. This is one of the basic re-quirements for the production of foresttree seedlings that can be used in adapt-ing to climate change.

Lack of seed zone designation is incontradiction with European Union di-rectives 1999/105/EC concerning thequality and origin of forest reproductivematerial (Official Journal of the Euro-pean Communities, 2000).

To resolve the problem, it is necessaryto carry out emergency measures of des-ignation of seed zones. The job entailsinvestment in resources to collect seedsamples, production of seedlings, and es-tablishing progeny tests, and also tests ingenetic laboratories. For some treespecies, the majority of this work has al-ready been accomplished; however,there still remains a lot of work to do inmonitoring the progeny tests along withgenetic laboratory tests to define which

seeds, in accordance with the currentcondition of the forests and the upcom-ing climate change, are best to use in thespecific zones. It is hoped and expectedthat the B&H forestry decisionmakerswill have a hearing and approve fundingfor important projects concerning theproduction of the improved seeds andseedlings resistant to future challenges ofclimate change.

The collaboration of the entire for-estry sector—PFEs, the B&H govern-ment, private owners, forestry schools,NGOs, citizens associations, and oth-ers—is necessary for working on theproblem of climate change through for-est inventory, education, experiments,and making recommendations for furtheruse of forest reproductive material toachieve maximum revenue.

Branislav Cvjetkovic, a Fellow at the World Forest Institute (wfi.worldforestry.org), is a senior assistant in theFaculty of Forestry at the University ofBanja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.He received his master’s degree in for-estry seed science at Belgrade University,Serbia. As a researcher, he is involved inseveral national projects in Bosnia andHerzegovina, including establishing seedorchards, investigations on dormancybreaking, seed germination of differenttree species, etc. Also, he is involved inthe European Cooperation in Scienceand Technology (COST) action FP1202to strengthen conservation: a key issuefor adaptation of marginal/peripheralpopulations of forest trees to climatechange in Europe. At the World ForestInstitute, he is investigating the transferof forest genetic recourses in light of cli-mate change. E-mail: bcvjetkovic@worldforestry.org

ReferencesuOfficial Journal of the European

Communities, COUNCIL DIRECTIVE1999/105/EC of 22 December 1999 onthe marketing of forest reproductive ma-

terial, L 11/17uIPCC, 2007. Initial national com-

munication (inc) of Bosnia and Herze-govina under the United Nationsframework convention on climatechange (UNFCCC), Banja Luka, Au-gust 2009.

Forestry around the World By Branislav Cvjetkovic

Climate Change and Its Impact on Forests in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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An afforestation project near Mt. Manjaca in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most previous attempts to afforest this area have failed; this photo shows the latest planting.The rock base is limestone and the soils are shallow.

Branislav Cvjetkovic, a forester from Bosnia andHerzegovina, is a Fellow atthe World Forest Institute.

The Forestry Source 9 November 2013

In his first few months as student repre-sentative on the Council of the Societyof American Foresters, Tom Roland’s

biggest challenge has been communicat-ing with other students and student chap-ters across the country. His message: Call.E-mail. Or both. Students, your SAF rep-resentative wants to hear from you.

“I always appreciate hearing from anystudent who has a question or concernabout anything they want to talk about re-garding SAF. I need to know what the realissues are on a local, regional, and nation-wide basis,” said Roland, who was se-lected at the 2012 SAF National Conven-tion as the Student Representative toCouncil (SRC).

The SRC serves as the chair of theStudent Executive Committee (SEC)and as liaison for the SEC as a nonvot-ing member of the SAF Council, attend-ing all Council meetings. As part of hisSRC duties, Roland will be leading threeannual student events at the 2013 Na-tional Convention: the Student Ice-breaker, the Student Executive Commit-tee meeting, and the National StudentCongress.

The SEC is comprised of the 11 Dis-trict Student Representatives. Student rep-resentatives are nominated by faculty ad-visers or other SAF members; DistrictCouncil Representatives select the DistrictStudent Representatives for their district.SEC members serve a one-year term end-ing on May 1. The Student ExecutiveCommittee meets annually at the NationalConvention and holds two or three confer-ence calls each year.

Born and raised in Fort Collins, Col-orado, Roland’s family had a small treefarm. That turned out to have a big impacton his career choice. As a high school sen-

ior, Roland said knew he was destined tobe a forester. He chose to attend NorthernArizona University (NAU), where he isnow a senior, and from which he expectsto graduate in May with a bachelor’s de-gree in forestry. For the past five sum-mers, he has worked as a seasonal em-ployee of the USDA Forest Service inColorado and Alaska. He is an activemember of the student SAF chapter atNAU’s School of Forestry, and he servedas the District 4 SEC representative duringhis junior year.

Roland attended his first Council meet-ing in June, in Leesburg, Virginia, and saidhe was looking forward to attending theCouncil meeting at the SAF National Con-vention.

“I was very impressed with the level ofexperience that the Council has. I wasvery pleased to see that SAF is in suchgood hands,” Roland said. “Council mem-bers are very welcoming to the idea ofhaving a student representative. I was ableto talk with them about some of my con-cerns for students, such as the jobs situa-tion and forestry program accreditation,and they were very receptive to what I hadto say. It was good to see that we havesuch forward-looking individuals leadingSAF. And I learned more than I thought Iwould. It was quite fascinating to see theinner workings of SAF.”

As he prepared for the Council meetingin Charleston, Roland said he looked for-ward to another opportunity to interact inperson with the Council.

“I focus most of my attention on whatSAF should be doing to help students be-come more successful as they move intotheir professional careers,” Roland said.“I’d like to look into returning on-the-spot[Forest Service] hiring to the SAF con-vention. I’ve received a lot of e-mailsfrom students who expressed displeasurewith the fact that there wouldn’t be on-the-spot hiring at the convention this year.I also want to look into increasing studentmembership. Student membership hasbeen fairly steady, if not increasing, overthe last few years, but students are theones who will replenish the Society, so weneed to make SAF more appealing to stu-dents.”

Strengthening SAF’s efforts to mentorforestry students is one key way to attractand retain student members, he said.

“I’d like to see the mentoring program

get revamped a little bit, so that we canhave a stronger connection between pro-fessionals in the Society and studentmembers. I think it would be really bene-ficial to have more students receive guid-ance from experienced foresters. Forestryis such a diverse profession—there are somany places that a college graduate canend up. Having a little bit of guidance toget where they want to be would be

tremendously helpful,” said Roland.“In a lot of the areas where we have

student chapters, there aren’t necessarilyhuge communities of professionals closeby,” he added. “I think it’s important tohave local mentorships, so you can meetwith a forester face-to-face on a regularbasis, shadow them on their jobs, and seefirst-hand what you’re getting into. It’s re-ally important to have that one-on-one,hands-on experience.”

Roland said he has attempted to contactall 10 of the other SEC members, but asyet has heard from only three of them. Healso is interested in hearing from any stu-dents who would like to discuss issuesthey may be concerned with.

“Students are going to be the profes-sionals who drive this organization overthe next 10 years and beyond,” Rolandsaid. “I would really like to see the pas-sionate students step forward and helpmake this Society something that will bet-ter serve students and professionals in thefuture.”

Students: Tom Roland, Student Rep on SAF’s Council,Wants to Hear from You

Society Affairs

I’d like to see the

mentoring program get

revamped a little bit, so

that we can have a

stronger connection

between professionals

in the Society and

student members.

Student representative to the SAF CouncilTom Roland

If your state society, division or chapter has been involved inany noteworthy activities, TheForestry Source want to know!Send us the details at source@safnet.org.

Tell Us about SocietyAffairs

A proposed scale will weigh the risk ofignition and facilitate the development ofimproved building codes

By Alexander Maranghides and Ruddy Mell

The destruction of homes and businesses from wild-land/urban interface (WUI) fires has been steadilyescalating, as have the fire suppression costs asso-

ciated with them. Since 2000, more than 3,000 homes peryear have been lost to WUI fires in the United States. Thiscompares to about 900 homes in the 1990s and 400 homesin the 1970s.

The WUI fire problem affects both existing communi-ties and new construction. In the United States, the prob-lem is most acute in the western and southern states; how-ever, WUI fires have also recently destroyed homes in themid-Atlantic states and the Pacific Northwest.

One of the fundamental issues driving the destructionof homes in the WUI is the very limited research con-cerning the relationship between building codes and stan-dards, and potential fire and ember exposure. The limitedember exposure information currently available does notaddress the full range of possibilities for home ignitionand offers little context for the design of ignition-resistantlandscapes and buildings.

Although fire agencies have been aware of how firestarts and spreads in the WUI for some time now, there’s nocurrent way to determine just how different building con-structions respond to different realistic ember exposures.The resulting gap in information between fire/ember expo-sure and structure ignition has created a lack of tested andimplementable hazard mitigation solutions.

Solution: A WUI ScaleTo close that informational gap, the fire service and the

general public need a WUI fire and ember exposure scale(or a WUI scale) that can consistently predict the expectedseverity of WUI fires by calculating the expected emberand fire exposure at specific locations during an event.This could be achieved through a combination of post-firestudies, laboratory and field experiments, and computermodeling.

The technical foundation of the WUI scale has beendeveloped jointly by National Institute of Standards andTechnology and the USDA Forest Service. Once the scaleis established, the information obtained from it can helpform the foundation for building codes aimed at provid-ing a level of structure ignition protection commensuratewith the expected fire and/or ember exposure.

The concept is based on determining the amount of ex-pected fire and ember exposure throughout a single, ex-isting WUI community. The proposed WUI scale can beused to explicitly identify WUI areas that have a fire prob-lem, as opposed to areas that meet housing density orwildland vegetation requirements. The scale can thereforealso be used to determine boundaries where specific land-use and/or building construction regulations would apply.Lastly, the exposure scale can be used for both new andexisting WUI communities.

The ApproachIn the WUI scale approach, each fire and ember expo-

sure threat is categorized into one of four levels. The in-tensity of the threat increases from category 1 to 4, and itdecreases as the distance from the fire increases. So acommunity in or near the WUI may include one or moreareas or zones at a given exposure level. Any one locationin the community will have both a fire and an ember ex-posure rating. As an example, a location could have nofire exposure, yet have an intermediate ember exposure.Note that, during an actual WUI fire, both ember and fireexposure levels need to be measured to capture the totalthreat to a structure. Additionally, both need to be ac-counted for when protecting a structure from ignition.

This two-component (fire and ember) exposure scale isnecessary because these two threats have different origins,each with a different “reach.” To put it simply, the heatgenerated by a fire decreases as you move farther awayfrom the flame front, and it is mainly affected by the fuelsin the immediate vicinity of the fire. Embers, on the otherhand, can travel hundreds of meters or more. Embers thathave traveled some distance may pose a threat to a partic-ular structure, even if the fire creating the embers isn’t ex-posing the structure to the fire’s heat.

Fire and ember exposure can be traced to four primarysources: fire in 1) wildland fuels, 2) ornamental vegeta-tion, 3) structures (including homes and auxiliary build-ings, such as sheds and garages), and 4) vehicles. TheWUI scale is designed to consider all of these sources, aswell as topography and local weather. These combinedparameters are referred to as FTLW—fuels, topography,and local weather (wind speed, wind direction, tempera-ture, and relative humidity). In the current proposed scale,an exposure rating isn’t related to the ignition response ofa particular structural element or landscaping attribute.

The primary objective of developing a WUI scale is toreduce the ignition risk of structures in a WUI. This willbe accomplished by juxtaposing a structure’s ignition re-sistance to its anticipated exposure level. During a WUIfire, a given structure can be exposed to fire and/or em-

bers, but it can also be hardened for embers, fire, or both.Also, a closed metal-frame window could break under di-rect flame exposure, and combustible insulation may ig-nite from embers that have traveled inside the attic andaway from exterior attic vents.

Once ember generation information and structure igni-tion information becomes available, the WUI scale willprovide fire departments with a tool to assess the impactof a wildland fire on an existing community. Once the ini-tial impact is determined, the scale may be further used topredict the WUI fire spread across the community. Firedepartments will be able to use the WUI scale to identifyhigh hazard zones and effectively plan their responsestrategies well before a fire reaches a specific community.GIS may be used to visualize fire and ember exposures inthe wildlands and through a community. Lastly, the scalemay be used not only to educate homeowners and home-owner associations (HOAs), but also to prioritize retrofitsolutions.

A Framework for SafetyTo prevent further catastrophe and property loss to

WUI fires, fire agencies need a reliable resource thatthey can use to determine the fire risk of certain struc-tures or subdivisions within the WUI. The WUI scaleand zone concept offers a framework for evaluating thefire and ember exposure of proposed and existing WUIcommunities. Although there’s a lot of work to be donebefore the proposed scale can be fully implemented,once it is implemented, it will provide a data-driven,

cost-effective way to reduce losses from future WUIfires—and that will increase both civilian and fire-fighter safety.

Alexander Maranghides works for the National In-stitute of Standards and Technology. He is responsiblefor developing a WUI data-collection methodology,collecting field data from case studies, identifyingstructure construction vulnerabilities, and identifyingimplementable hazard reduction technologies.Maranghides splits his time between NIST and theUSDA Forest Service. Ruddy Mell works for the USForest Service and is the main developer of the Wild-land-Urban Interface Fire Dynamics Simulator(WFDS), a three-dimensional, physics-based model forpredicting fire behavior of the WUI.

This article originally appeared in FireRescue Magazine,July 2013, Volume 31 Issue 7, and is reprinted here with thepermission of PennWell Corp. Copyright 2013.

The Forestry Source 10 November 2013

A WUI Fire and Ember Exposure ScaleScience & Tech

Fire departments will be able

to use the WUI scale to identify

high hazard zones and effec-

tively plan their response strate-

gies well before a fire reaches a

specific community.

WUI Exposure Scale Technical Assumptions

The following assumptions were used in the devel-opment of the WUI scale:uThe fire and ember exposure conditions at a

given location can originate from fire both in wildlandfuels and in fuels within the WUI community.

uThe fire/ember exposure that each area or zoneexperiences is the result of both externally and inter-nally generated exposures. In other words, structureswithin a zone will experience a significant ember as-sault from their proximity to wildland fuels and fromany burning fuels within the zone itself.

uDuring a WUI fire, both the fire exposure andember assault at a given location will change withtime. The fire and ember scales are intended to captureboth the peak intensity and maximum duration of theexposure/assault.

A Colorado Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter fliesover a burned house on the Black Forest Fire near ColoradoSprings, Colo., on June 12, 2013. The fire destroyed more than500 structures and burned 14,280 acres. Firefighters defendedmany homes, as shown in the photo at left

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By Steve Wilent

Over the last couple of years, sev-eral readers have responded to myreviews of rugged handheld field

computers by saying that they couldn’t orwouldn’t shell out $1,500, $3,000, ormore for such a device. Isn’t there a for-est-inventory app, some asked, that I canuse on the cell phone or tablet that I al-ready have? There are, I replied, andpointed them to my reviews of the twoproducts I knew about: Forest Metrix(September 2013) and Plot Hound (Sep-tember 2011). Now there is a third: Open-Cruise.

OpenCruise is a web-based service thatacts like a traditional app: Instead ofdownloading an app from Google Play,the Apple App Store, or other source andinstalling it on your device, you use aphone’s or tablet’s Internet browser to ac-cess the OpenCruise website. From thatpoint on, OpenCruise resides on yourphone or tablet and behaves like an app.

Jim Rivard, a forestry instructor atMichigan Technological University’sSchool of Forest Resources and Environ-mental Science since 2005 and a consult-ing forester since 1998, built OpenCruisefor his students.

“My primary motivation was to createa tool for the students here at the univer-sity,” said Rivard. “For instance, this yearwe have 46 students in the capstone proj-ect class, working in pairs, and part oftheir project is to collect inventory data. Iwanted to give them the option of collect-ing data on their iPhone or Android phoneor whatever they already had, instead ofusing handheld computers.”

Rivard is a busy man. In addition toteaching several classes and consulting fora few long-time clients, he’s a PhD candi-date at MTU, focusing on using new tech-nologies for forest inventory. Part of thatwork has involved creating OpenCruise,mostly in his spare time.

OpenCruise is available to others in ad-dition to MTU students. Rivard had heardfrom fellow consulting foresters who ex-

pressed an interest in having a cellphone–based inventory app, so he madeOpenCruise available to anyone, any-where, at no charge.

Try it for yourself: https://opencruise.mtu.edu/

“It’s geared toward small consultingshops that may not want to spend hun-dreds or thousands of dollars for ruggedhandheld devices,” said Rivard. “Havingworked as a private consultant for a lot ofyears, I could never justify the cost of oneof those handhelds. I occasionally did in-ventory work, but that wasn’t the focus ofwhat I did.”

Because it is a web-based app, Open-Cruise will run on most Android andApple iOS phones and tablets, rugged orotherwise, as well as on any desktop com-puter. Most browsers will work, includingFirefox, Safari, and the standard browserthat comes on Android phones. Google’sChrome browser is supported, but is avail-able only on Android 4.0 and up. Theapp’s help page has more information onbrowser support. See also https://github.com/jcrivard/opencruise.

I used OpenCruise without a hitch onmy two-year-old Samsung Droid Chargephone (with Android 2.3.6), in both thedefault Android browser and in Firefox,and on two desktop PCs, one with Win-dows 8 and another with Windows XP,both with Firefox.

Inventory, Inventory, InventoryOpenCruise is designed to collect for-

est inventory data, nothing more. It comesconfigured for the needs of Rivard’s stu-dents (see Figure 1). However, the threefields on the standard data-entry form canbe configured to suit your inventory (al-though you can’t add additional fields). Ireconfigured the form so I could collectDBH, height, and cull percentage (Figure2), and changed the species list to reflectthe timber in my area of Oregon. In theoptional multiproduct mode, you canrecord a product type or grade for each login a tree; you can configure the list ofproducts and grades as you see fit.

A key capability of OpenCruise is thatit can be used with or without an Internetconnection. Once you’ve opened the appin a browser, the app software is stored onyour device and is available for use off-line.

“What makes this possible is the localstorage feature of HTML 5 [HyperTextMarkup Language version 5], which letsyou run a web-based application off-line—such as when you are out of net-work range, in airplane mode, or what-ever,” Rivard said. “A typical phone willhave no problem storing the software andthe data collected. I stress-tested it bypumping in data from 8,000 plots with 10trees each, and that took up 8 megabytesof storage—a fraction of the gigabytes ofstorage on most phones. And that wasusing OpenCruise in multiproduct mode,which added 12 fields to each treerecord.”

When you’ve finished collecting data,tapping the Download button gives youtwo options: Email and Save File. By tap-ping on the Email button when I was inrange of my office wireless network, I wasable to send data to myself as comma-sep-arated values (.CSV) files—with one ini-tial hitch: in using my private Gmail

(Google e-mail) address, Gmail initiallyblocked the e-mails as a security precau-tion, because it “knew” my location wasin Oregon and the e-mail was sent via theMTU server in Michigan. After I used abrowser to access my Gmail account set-tings and authorize the “suspicious” e-mail, it was delivered to my inbox withinseconds.

OpenCruise’s Save File option worksquickly and easily; the .CSV files frommy test projects were saved on myphone’s SD card. If you’re out of wirelessor cell range, you’ll have to use this op-tion; later, once you’re in range, you cantransfer the stored files using your phone’sfile manager. (I suggest starting with theSave File option, so you store a copy ofyour hard-won inventory data on yourphone, and then using the Email option tosend a copy of it to yourself or a co-worker. The file on your phone will serveas a backup copy, should it be needed.)

Although using OpenCruise via theMTU website will be the best option formost foresters, OpenCruise can be down-loaded and then installed and run on an-other server—the OpenCruise website in-cludes instructions for doing so. WithOpenCruise installed on your company’sserver, the Gmail security hitch I de-scribed wouldn’t be a problem, becauseGmail or another smart e-mail systemwould recognize that server as yours. An-other reason to run the app from your ownserver is that you can be sure it will beavailable for as long as you need it. Rivardcautions that the MTU server may not beavailable indefinitely.

Because OpenCruise is “open source”software, meaning that the app’s computercode is available to the public, it mighteven be modified to suit a consultant’sneeds.

“I wanted to put the software out thereso that consultants could download it andperhaps hire a programmer to customize itfor their needs—which is not necessarilygoing to be cheap, but not all that expen-sive, either. Or they can just download itand host it as-is on their own website,” Ri-vard said.

Rivard said he would make improve-

ments or add features to OpenCruise, timepermitting, based on the feedback he getsfrom consultants as well as students. Con-tact him at jcrivard@mtu.edu—he wel-comes your input.

If your inventory needs are relativelysimple, OpenCruise is a viable optionfor collecting data. It runs on most con-sumer-grade cell phones and tablets, andif these devices aren’t tough enough foryou, even with an OtterBox (www.otterbox.com) or Gumdrop (www.gumdropcases.com) case, the app will run onrugged Android handhelds such as Trim-ble’s Juno T41 (reviewed in June 2013).Not the least of its advantages is the un-beatable price: $0.

Three cheers for Rivard, who has puta great deal of his own time and effortinto developing OpenCruise, and kudosto MTU’s School of Forest Resourcesand Environmental Science for givingits blessing and providing a bit of spaceon a server. I’d nominate Rivard for aforestry technology innovation award, ifthere was such a thing. Yes, his primarypurpose was to create a useful tool forhis students, but making the app and thesource code available for free is a commendable service to foresters andforestry.

I have to think that there are other for-estry apps out there, just waiting to be dis-covered. Let me know if you’ve built one orused one. Wilents@safnet.org.

The Forestry Source 11 November 2013

OpenCruise: A Free Inventory App for Mobile Phones, TabletsField Tech

Forestry students at Michigan Technologi-cal University recently used OpenCruise onan Android tablet to collect inventory datafor a class project.

Figure 2. One possible configuration ofOpenCruise. Tapping on a Saw buttonopens a form for entering product type andgrade information for each segment of thetree.

Figure 1. The default OpenCruise configu-ration. During data entry, entries outsideMin and Max values are marked in red.

Jim

Riv

ard

Looking for More Field Tech?

If you’d like to see past install-ments of the Source’s Field Techcolumn, go to the professionalsarea of the SAF website atwww.eforester.org/fp/index.cf-mand check out the “consult-ing” and “GIS” pages.

The Forestry Source 12 November 2013

By Clayton Crawford and Raghav Vemula

The use of lidar has exploded in recent years, and forgood reason. The technology can produce higher-quality results than traditional photogrammetric

techniques for lower cost. This is accomplished, to a largedegree, by the automated collection of measurements thatare sampled very densely. The progress in laser scanninghardware has been astounding. A major side effect ofswitching to lidar-based technology has been the chal-lenges associated with increasing data volume and the ex-pansion of software processing capabilities needed. Fortu-nately, ArcGIS offers many tools for managing lidar pointclouds and deriving useful products from them to aid sci-entific research and decisionmaking. Here are five tips thatenable ArcGIS to take best advantage of these data.

1. Use the LAS Format. Having lidar data in LAS for-mat may be obvious to the initiated, but not to those newto using lidar data. LAS, short for LASer, is the industrystandard lidar format. The specification is maintained andpublished by the American Society of Photogrammetryand Remote Sensing (ASPRS). It was intended primarilyfor airborne applications, but is also commonly used forterrestrial and mobile lidar. It is binary, efficient, andwidely supported, and is the format ArcGIS works bestwith. (See the Additional Resources section at the end ofthis article for information on currently supported ver-sions.) Note that ArcGIS works with LAS-format lidar ofall kinds: airborne, terrestrial, and mobile. The latter twoare most useful when viewed in 3D, whereas airborne isuseful in both 2D and 3D and can be processed with nu-merous surface analysis tools.

2. Make Sure the LAS Files Are “Baked” for Use inGIS. There are many flavors of LAS. Some are betterthan others for use in GIS. LAS was originally intendedas an exchange format for laser hardware vendors. A lotgoes on between initial data collection of a raw LAS fileand its delivery to a client as a ready-to-use file. A fewcritical items in LAS processing are projection, tiling, andclassification.

All the LAS files for a project should be placed into aprojected coordinate system (PCS). The PCS should bethe dominant one needed by most of the intended users ofthe data, so on-the-fly projection is not required when it isused. On-the-fly projection is expensive in terms of per-formance and should be avoided. Note: It’s not uncom-mon for LAS files to have been projected, but to be miss-ing the projection metadata that are supposed to be in-cluded in their header records. Files without projectionmetadata are noncompliant with the specification andshould be rejected or repaired. ArcGIS allows use of .prjfiles that can remedy this situation easily if going back tothe data vendor is not an option.

Tiling should be performed on the LAS files. Thisavoids having relatively few swath-based files with over-lapping extents that can be gigabytes in size. It’s better tohave many smaller files that don’t overlap. Huge files arehard to manage, period. Smaller files are better. Also, LAShas no inherent spatial indexing, so retrieving points forsubareas requires scanning the entire file to locate them.Scanning a three gigabyte file for every spatial query isnot workable. Files of 200 MB or less are more appropri-ate. (Note that spatial indexing support for LAS will beadded to ArcGIS 10.2 through the addition of ancillaryfiles. This will allow more efficient use of larger files andaccess to files on a network, though the non-GIS relatedpractical constraints of huge files remain.)

Classified lidar is more useful. The majority of GIS ap-plications related to lidar have at least some need for bareearth elevation models, which require properly classifieddata. Classification is nontrivial and usually performed bythe data provider.

Some users believe that last returns (i.e., the last strikeof a laser pulse) are sufficient to isolate the ground. Thisis incorrect. Last returns can occur on rooftops and in treecanopies. At a minimum, airborne lidar should be classi-fied into ground versus nonground. Often, model key(thinned ground), water, noise, and overlap points are alsocategorized. There are other possible classes such asbuildings and vegetation height. The greater the degree of

classification (generally), the more useful the data. How-ever, this can become prohibitively expensive becausemore classification means more processing and morehuman intervention. For a comprehensive list of guide-lines, see the National Geospatial Program Lidar BaseSpecification 1.0, listed under the Additional Resourcessection (pubs.usgs.gov/tm/11b4/).

3. Consider Your Options. ArcGIS provides severalcomplimentary options for accessing lidar. There are threeprimary data access mechanisms: the LAS dataset, the ter-rain dataset, and the mosaic dataset. Knowing about thesedata types will let you determine which type to use.

The LAS dataset, introduced in ArcGIS 10.1, providesa simple way to access LAS files directly without import-ing or converting to some other format, so you can startworking with lidar data immediately. Using a simple tog-gle on a toolbar seamlessly switches between points andsurfaces in both 2D and 3D viewing environments. Pointscan be symbolized using standard LAS attributes such asclass code and return number. Points can be queried andused as a backdrop for measurements. Point class codescan be edited to fix misclassified points (which alwaysmanage to sneak through and get discovered when you areusing the data). Surface analysis, with support for break-line constraints, and point metrics can be performed viageoprocessing tools.

The terrain dataset is a geodatabase-based solution forairborne lidar. Terrains can efficiently store and retrievelidar surfaces from a database based on area of interestand level of detail queries. If only the lidar point geome-try is needed—without the other attributes—bringingpoints into a terrain and shelving the LAS files can save alot of storage space.

Along with other GIS data layers, terrain datasets canbe stored in a geodatabase and benefit from support formultiuser access and versioned editing. Because they arespatially indexed and pyramided into multiple levels ofdetail, they are also efficient and network-friendly.

The mosaic dataset is used to catalog, analyze, display,and serve massive image collections. In ArcGIS 10.1, thistype of dataset was enhanced to support LAS files, LASdatasets, and terrain datasets as imagery. The mosaicdataset performs on-demand rasterization, presents a map-like view of the lidar, and can be used as input to analyticfunctions as well as be the basis for sharing via elevationservices. Essentially, the benefits offered by mosaicdatasets for imagery have been extended to include lidar.

4. Stage Data Appropriately. Lidar data are notori-ously large. Careful planning is required to avoid bringinga network to its knees or making users wait too long fordata to display. To determine the best overall approach,identify workflows by asking questions such as, How bigis the dataset? and Will the entire lidar collection beprocessed in order, or will it be subject to ad hoc queries?

For example, consider a large statewide lidar program.Ultimately, it may provide the public with ad hoc accessto the data, but initially, all holdings will go through astandard process of review, cleanup, and derivative cre-ation. Consequently, it could make sense to house all dataon a large central server and bring pieces of it (in orderedsequence) to a local machine for review and processing.Moderate-size solid-state drives are now affordable, sothe local machine, where many reads and writes will takeplace during processing, can work off a fast solid-statedrive. Once the work is done, the processed data can bemoved back to the server. Data move off and back ontothe server once, but this allows for local processing of thedata, which is very fast. Depending on workflows, thereare many options. The moral of this story is that with lidarI/O tends to be very expensive, so minimize it to keep thatcost down.

5. Pick the Right Points for the Job. The expression“lidar paints the surface with measurements” is another wayof saying that the data are super dense. This density can bebeneficial for capturing the detail of a rough or complex to-pography or creating a decent bare-earth model for an areacovered by forest. However, for open ground that’s gentlysloped, the data are invariably oversampled.

Fortunately, point filtering can help. The filteringprocess includes just the points needed while excludingthe others. The LAS specification has support for a pointtype called model key, which is a subset of ground points.This thinned set will create a surface within a given verti-cal accuracy of the full resolution point set. Using justmodel key points to construct a ground surface may re-duce the point count significantly. An 80 percent reduc-tion rate is not uncommon. This benefit comes with just asmall hit in vertical accuracy. Often, the accuracy is stillsufficient for many engineering applications. The pres-ence of these points requires the data to have been explic-itly processed to flag or code them. Fortunately, it’s com-mon practice.

People often make the mistake of including all lidar re-

5 Ways to Use Lidar More EfficientlyGIS for Foresters

A digital surface model (DSM) near Plant City, Florida, made from first-return airborne lidar, which includes the building roofsand treetops. Hydro-flattening of the water features is accomplished through the addition of breaklines that are incorporatedinto the surface model.

“GIS” continues on next page

The Forestry Source 13 November 2013

Carolina Canopy: GreenvilleNovember 1www.ncufc.orgPitt County Cooperative Extension

OfficeGreenville, NCCategory 1-CF Hours: 2.0Contact: Leslie MoormanEmail: ncufc1@gmail.comPhone: (919) 614-6388

Working Safer/Smarter in the WoodsNovember 1Okeefenokee Technical CollegeWaycross, GACategory 2 Hours: 4.0Contact: Tommy PeaglerEmail: tpeagler@okefenokeetech.eduPhone: (912) 284-2569

Certified Prescribed Fire Manager CourseNovember 2South Carolina Forestry Commission

HeadquartersColumbia, SCCategory 1-CF Hours: 6.0Contact: Leslie WoodhamEmail: lwoodham@forestry.state.sc.usPhone: (803) 896-8800

Society of Municiapal Arborisrts 49th An-nual International Conference & TradeShowNovember 4–5www.urban-forestry.com/Westin Hotel & Convention CenterPittsburgh, PAContact: Pamela LouksEmail: plouks@myway.comPhone: (317) 431-3141

NC State Forestry Seminar SeriesNovember 4NCSURaleigh, NCCategory 1-CF Hours: 1.0Contact: Kevin PotterEmail: kpotter@ncsu.edu

Intro to ArcGISNovember 5–6www.landmarkspatialsolutions.comFort Valley State UniversityFort Valley, GACategory 1-CF Hours: 11.5Contact: Darian YawnEmail: dyawn@lmssmail.comPhone: (866) 395-5440 Ext: 2

Pesticide Category/CORE Review & Up-date ClassNovember 5www.landscape.orgWayne County Community CollegeBelleville, MICategory 1-CF Hours: 6.0Contact: Karla TrosenEmail: karla@landscape.orgPhone: (248) 646-4992

Timber Tax Income: A Practical Approachto Federal Tax AccountingNovember 5–6Sandhills Research & Education CenterColumbia, SCCategory 1-CF Hours: 7.5Contact: Susan GuynnEmail: sguynn@clemson.eduPhone: (864) 656-0606

Community Wildlife Protection Planning

November 6www.clemson.edu/fnrceCategory 1-CF Hours: 1.5Contact: Susan GuynnEmail: sguynn@clemson.eduPhone: (864) 656-0606

SFWS Seminar SeriesSeveral dates and topicsAuburn School of Forestry and Wildlife

SciencesAuburn, ALCategory 1-CF Hours: 1.0Contact: Brian ViaEmail: bkv0003@auburn.eduPhone: (334) 844-1088

Training and Keeping EmployeesNovember 8Okeefenokee Technical CollegeWaycross, GACategory 2 Hours: 4.0Contact: Tommy PeaglerEmail: tpeagler@okefenokeetech.eduPhone: (912) 284-2569

Red Oak Forest ManagementNovember 8Gray, MECategory 1-CF Hours: 6.0Contact: Kevin DoranEmail: kevin.doran@maine.govPhone: (207) 287-4988

Bioenergy Webinar Series - Agroforestry asan Approach to Produce Biomass for En-ergyNovember 11www.extension.umn.eduCategory 1-CF Hours: 1.0Contact: Diomy ZamoraEmail: zamor015@umn.eduPhone: (612) 626-9272

Assessing Wildfire Hazards in the HomeIgnition Zone TrainingNovember 12–13www.nfpa.orgSalt Lake City, UTCategory 1-CF Hours: 14.0Contact: Linda CoyleEmail: lcoyle@nfpa.orgPhone: (617) 984-7486

GIS & GPS Mapping & Forestry MappingTechniquesNovember 12www.lasertech.com/Professional-

Measurement.aspxHarrisburg, PACategory 1-CF Hours: 3.0Contact: Brian FerryEmail: bferry@lasertech.comPhone: (215) 880-2442

Intro to GPSNovember 12www.landmarkspatialsolutions.comEast Mississippi Community CollegeMayhew, MSCategory 1-CF Hours: 7.5Contact: Johnny ThompsonEmail: jthompson@lmssmail.comPhone: (866) 395-5440, ext. 2

Intro to TCruiseNovember 13www.landmarkspatialsolutions.comEast Mississippi Community CollegeMayhew, MSCategory 1-CF Hours: 7.5Contact: Johnny ThompsonEmail: jthompson@lmssmail.comPhone: (866) 395-5440, ext. 2

Master Logger Annual Update 2013November 13

turn points when constructing a digitalsurface model (DSM). This kind of eleva-tion model, which includes tree tops andbuilding roofs, is also called a highest hitsurface. Modern lidar is capable of pro-cessing multiple returns from individuallaser pulses. In vegetation, returns greaterthan one represent either intercanopypoints or ground beneath the vegetation.Including these points is unnecessary andwasteful when making a DSM. Includethem and the results will tend to look cor-rect, but these unnecessary points canskew the results and will add to the cost ofprocessing. All ArcGIS tools offer a wayto filter returns. Use the first return, whichwill be the highest.

Additional Resources. ArcGIS 10.1supports versions 1.0–1.3 of LAS, plus

subversions of 1.4 that are 1.3 compliant.See the ASPRS LAS 1.4 Specification atasprs.org. The US Geological Survey’sNational Geospatial Program Lidar BaseSpecification 1.0 (the official publishedversion of the v13 draft) is available atpubs.usgs.gov/tm/11b4/. For specific in-formation on using lidar with ArcGIS, seeArcGIS 10.1 Help under the LAS formattopic and visit the ArcGIS 3D ResourceCenter (resources.arcgis.com/en/communities/3d/).

Clayton Crawford is an Esri lidar and3D analysis product lead. Raghav Vemulais an Esri lidar and 3D analysis productengineer.

This article was originally published inthe Summer 2013 edition of ArcUser, apublication of Esri (www.esri.com/esri-news/arcuser/). It appears here with thekind permission of the editor.

E d u c a t i o nC a l e n d a r

A high-resolution DEM of Rock Island, located along the Georgia coast next to Deboy Sound,created in ArcGIS from airborne lidar and collected as part of the 2010 Coastal Georgia ElevationProject. Source lidar made available by the NOAA Coastal Services Center.

Florida Forest Service OfficeGainesville, FLCategory 1-CF Hours: 1.0Category 2 Hours: 1.5Contact: Phil GornickiEmail: phil@forestfla.orgPhone: (850) 222-5646

Bridging the GapNovember 13Community Center, Hwy 15White Plains, GACategory 2 Hours: 2.0Contact: Brenda MoodyEmail: bmoody@athenstech.eduPhone: (706) 369-5876

Hidden Illegal Operations in ForestryNovember 13Community Center, Hwy 15White Plains, GACategory 1-CF Hours: 2.0Contact: Brenda MoodyEmail: bmoody@athenstech.eduPhone: (706) 369-5876

NC Wood exports ConferenceNovember 13–15New Bern, NCCategory 1-CF Hours: 4.5Contact: Kelley McCarterEmail: kelley.mccarter@ncsu.eduPhone: (415) 634-4650, ext. 1

SAF Meetings

War Eagle SAF Chapter meetingNovember 12SFWS Building, Auburn, ALCategory 1-CF Hours: 2.0Contact: Joe RobesonEmail: joe.robeson@mwv.comPhone: (334) 703-8528

Blue Ridge Chapter FieldTrip/MeetingNovember 12Willis, VACategory 1-CF Hours: 1.0Contact: Roger TimbrookEmail: roger.timbrook@mwv.comPhone: (540) 969-2590

“GIS” continued from previous page

Basic Prism SamplingNovember 14www.warnell.uga.eduForestry & Natural ResourcesAthens, GACategory 1-CF Hours: 4.0Contact: Krista MerryEmail: kmerry@warnell.uga.eduPhone: (706) 542-4298

Little Hodge Harmon, 75, died August13. Harmon graduated from ClemsonUniversity with a bachelor’s degree inforestry and agriculture in 1961. He hada 39-year career with the South CarolinaForestry Commission and retired in2000. During his career as a professionalforester, he shared his passion for treefarming and operated a family tree farmand wildlife sanctuary. After retirement,he was a consultant to South Carolinalandowners. He served the South Car-olina Farm Bureau on the CommoditiesBoard as well as the Forestry AdvisoryCommittee for many years. He waselected as district commissioner for theNewberry Soil and Water Commission,where he served several terms, and healso served on the Central MidlandsCouncil of Government from 2001 to2013. Harmon was a charter member ofthe South Carolina Forestry Association,past officer of the Newberry County For-estry Association, and a member of theClemson Forestry Alumni Association,from which he received the honor of Out-standing Forestry Alumni. He joinedSAF in 1962 and was named Fellow in2005.

Bobby Joe Larkey, 82, died August 31.Larkey graduated from North CarolinaState University in 1955 with a degree inforestry. He worked for the USDA ForestService in the following states, NorthCarolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Ten-nessee for 34 years. He joined SAF in1955.

Peter H. Miller, CF, 54, died September24. He earned a master’s degree in busi-ness administration from Frostburg StateUniversity, a bachelor’s degree in for-estry from the SUNY College of Envi-ronmental Science and Forestry–Syra-cuse, NY. Miller was the administrationsupervisor for the NewPage CorporationLuke Mill Wood Department, a certifiedmaster logger, past president of theMaryland Forest Association, and pastchair of the Maryland-Delaware MasterLogger Steering Committee and the SFI

Implementation Committee. In 1995, hewas awarded the Outstanding Service toForestry Award by both the Maryland-Delaware Division and the Allegheny So-ciety of American Foresters. He joinedSAF in 1982 and was named fellow in2007.

Robert “Bob” C. Webster Jr., CF, diedSeptember 30. Webster attended the Uni-versity of Maryland–College Park andgraduated with a bachelor’s degree inforest management from the State Uni-versity of New York, College of Environ-mental Science and Forestry–Syracuse in1975. He also acquired an associate’s de-gree in forestry from Allegany Commu-nity College in 1973. His education wasinterrupted by his service in the military.He was a veteran of the United States AirForce, serving from 1967 to 1971. Herose to the rank of staff sergeant at West-over Air Force Base in Massachusetts,where he worked in support of the EighthAir Force during the Vietnam Conflict.Webster began his career with the Mary-land Forest Service in November 1975.His first position was as a project foresterfor Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties onMaryland’s Eastern Shore. In 1981, hewas promoted to Department of NaturalResources headquarters in Annapolis,where he held the position of chief of ad-ministration for forests, parks, andwildlife for approximately six years. In1988, Webster was asked to assume theduties of regional forester for westernMaryland, the post he held for 25 years.He was responsible for supervising theforestry operations (state forests and pri-vate land management) in Frederick,Washington, Allegany, and Garrett Coun-ties. Under his direction, foresters andforest rangers managed land for wildlifehabitat, watershed protection, recreation,aesthetics, wood fiber production, andfire suppression. He was appointed bythe governor to serve on the commissionfor the registry of professional foresters.He was a member of the Maryland For-ests Association and one of his proudestaccomplishments was receiving the Out-standing Service to Forestry Award in2003 from the Allegheny Society ofAmerican Foresters. He joined SAF in1975.

The Forestry Source 14 November 2013

Steve Koehn, state for-ester of Maryland andmember of the SFI boardof directors, received the award for Outstand-ing Forestry Regula-tion  from the NationalWoodland Owners Asso-

ciation. Koehn received the award in recog-nition of the Maryland Forestry ProtectionAct of 2013, which committed the state tono net loss of forestland, offers new incen-tives to landowners to plant trees, and alsocodified the state’s commitment to sustain-able forestry through the certification oftheir state lands to the SFI and FSC stan-dard. Koehn joined SAF in 1983.

Paul A. Trianosky has joined the Sus-tainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) as itssenior director of conservation partner-ships. According to SFI, Trianoskybrings nearly 30 years of diverse leader-

ship experience in for-est conservation, non-profit management,and forest certificationto the organization. In2013, he was recog-nized as a “conserva-tion hero” by The Na-

ture Conservancy of West Virginia, andhe has served as a gubernatorial ap-pointee to the Tennessee Forestry Com-mission since 2004. He most recentlyworked at the American Forest Founda-tion (AFF), where he served as directorof southern forest conservation. Prior tojoining AFF, Trianosky spent 18 years invarious positions with The Nature Con-servancy. He was a co-founder and firstchair of the Partnership for SouthernForestland Conservation, a partnership toleverage the work of dozens of public,private, and nonprofit organizations toachieve conservation of 20 million acresof working forest by 2020. He has alsoworked as a county forester with the Vir-ginia Department of Forestry and as anatural community ecologist with theWest Virginia Natural Heritage Program.Trianosky joined SAF in 1984.

P e o p l e I n t h e N e w s

I n M e m o r i a m

The Forestry Source 15 November 2013

Job ID: 15224573Position: Tree Farm ManagerCompany: Olympic Resource

ManagementIndustry: Forest ManagementJob Function: OtherLocation(s): Chehalis, WashingtonPosted: October 10, 2013Job Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: 5–7 YearsRequired Travel: 10–25%Fax: (360) 697-1156

Job ID: 15217331Position: Van Eck ScholarCompany: Purdue UniversityIndustry: RegenerationJob Function: OtherJob Type: Part-timeJob Duration: 1–2 YearsLocation(s): West Lafayette, IndianaPosted: October 10, 2013Min Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: NoneRequired Travel: 10–25%Salary: $18,000–20,500/yearContact: Mike SaundersEmail: msaunder@purdue.eduPhone: 765-430-1440To apply: http://www.htirc.org/

Job ID: 15205054Position: Timber Production ForesterLocation(s): Forks, WashingtonPosted: October 9, 2013Company: RayonierJob Function: ForesterTo apply: http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH08/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=RAYONIER&cws=1&rid=690

Job ID: 15197013Position: Harvest ForesterCompany: Hancock Forest ManagementIndustry: Forest ManagementJob Function: ForesterLocation(s): Mansfield, LouisianaPosted: October 8, 2013Job Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: 1–2 YearsRequired Travel: 0–10%Contact: S. Jean SquireEmail: Jobs@hnrg.comFax: 617-210-8509To apply: www.johnhancock.com/careers

Job ID: 15196315Position: Assistant Professor Ecological

Economics and SustainabilityCompany: Department of Forestry and

Natural Resources, Purdue UniversityLocation(s): West Lafayette, IndianaPosted: October 8, 2013Industry: Forestry/Natural Resources

AcademiaJob Function: Faculty in Forestry/

Natural ResourcesJob Type: Full-timeApplication Process: Submit: 1) letter ofapplication; 2) formal one-page state-

ments of research and extension interests;3) curriculum vitae; 4) three letters ofreferences; and 5) one writing sample.Questions may be directed to the SearchCommittee Chair, Dr. W.L. Mills, viatelephone (765-494-3575) or email(wmills@purdue.edu). Application pack-ets should be emailed (preferred) to Mar-lene Mann (mmann@purdue.edu) or ad-dressed to Ecological Economics andSustainability Search Committee, PurdueUniversity, Department of Forestry andNatural Resources, 715 West State Street,West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2061. Abackground check will be required foremployment in this position. Purdue Uni-versity is an equal opportunity/equal ac-cess/affirmative action employer fullycommitted to achieving a diverse work-force.

Job ID: 15189074Position: Staff ForesterCompany: South Dakota Department of

AgricultureIndustry: ForestryJob Function: Urban ForesterEntry Level: YesJob Type: Full-timeLocation(s): Pierre, South DakotaPosted: October 7, 2013Job Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: 0–1 YearRequired Travel: 25–50%Salary: $18.06/hourContact: South Dakota Bureau of Human

ResourcesPhone: (605) 773-3148Fax: (605) 773-4344To apply: https://scssdltmweb.agilera.net/ltm/CandidateSelfService/lm?_ln=Job-SearchResults&_r=1&bto=JobPosting&dataarea=ltm&name=PostingDisplay&ser-vice=form&webappname=Candidate-SelfService&HROrganization=1&Jo-bRequisition=1696&JobPosting=1

Job ID: 15189032Position: Procurement ForesterCompany: WeyerhaeuserIndustry: ForestryJob Function: Procurement ForesterJob Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteLocation(s): De Queen, ArkansasPosted: October 7, 2013Min Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: 2–3 YearsRequired Travel: 10–25%Salary: $53,400–66,900/year

Job ID: 15189004Position: Service ForesterCompany: South Dakota Department of

AgricultureIndustry: ForestryJob Function: Urban ForesterEntry Level: YesJob Type: Full-timeLocation(s): Rapid City, South DakotaPosted: October 7, 2013Job Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateMin Experience: 0–1 Year

CLASSIFIEDSFROM HTTP://CAREERCENTER.EFORESTER.ORG

Required Travel: 25–50%Salary: $14.76/hourContact: South Dakota Bureau of Human

ResourcesPhone: (605) 773-3148Fax: (605) 773-4344To apply: https://scssdltmweb.agilera.net/ltm/CandidateSelfService/lm?_ln=Job-SearchResults&_r=0&bto=JobPosting&dataarea=ltm&name=PostingDisplay&ser-vice=form&webappname=Candidate-SelfService&HROrganization=1&Jo-bRequisition=2119&JobPosting=1

Job ID: 15132615Position: Forest EngineerCompany: Lone Rock Timber

ManagementLocation(s): Roseburg, OregonPosted: October 2, 2013Job Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: BA/BS/UndergraduateRequired Travel: 0–10%Contact: Andrea KellomEmail: akellom@lrtco.comPhone: (541) 673-0141, ext. 300

Job ID: 15132085Position: DirectorCompany: Auburn UniversityIndustry: Forestry/Natural Resources

AcademiaLocation(s): Auburn, AlabamaPosted: October 2, 2013Job Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteMin Education: Master’s DegreeMin Experience: 5–7 YearsRequired Travel: 10–25%

Job ID: 15114115Position: Log Yard ScalerCompany: Gutchess Lumber Co. Inc.Industry: ForestryLocation(s): Canaan, New YorkPosted: October 2, 2013Job Type: Full-timeJob Duration: IndefiniteRequired Travel: 0–10%Salary - Type: Hourly WageContact: Dave DenceEmail: drdence@gutchess.comPhone: (802) 379-4272

Job ID: 15113616Position: Watershed Educator

Company: Watershed Agricultural Council

Industry: ForestryJob Type: Full-timeLocation(s): Yorktown Heights, New

YorkPosted: September 30, 2013Job Duration: IndefiniteRequired Travel: 10–25%Salary: $40,000–55,000/yearContact: Amy HawkEmail: amyhawk@nycwatershed.orgPhone: (607) 865-7790, ext. 102Fax: (607) 865-4932

Job ID: 15110540Position: Procurement ForesterCompany: WST Products, LLCIndustry: ForestryJob Function: ForesterEntry Level: YesLocation(s): Keysville, VirginiaPosted: September 29, 2013Job Type: Full-timeMin Education: Associate’s DegreeMin Experience: 0–1 YearSalary: $31,200/yearContact: Jeff HaertelEmail: vatoyota@aol.comPhone: (434) 390-6482Fax: (434) 736-2200

Job ID: 14303211Position: Inventory AnalystCompany: RayonierLocation(s): Fernandina Beach, FloridaPosted: July 31, 2013Job Function: Forest InventoryJob Type: Full-timeTo apply:http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH08/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=RAYONIER&cws=1&rid=693

Job ID: 13601275Position: Forest System AnalystLocation(s): Fernandina Beach, FloridaPosted: May 29, 2013Company: RayonierTo apply:http://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH08/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=RAYONIER&cws=1&rid=631

To see the latest classifieds visit the Ca-reer Center on the SAF website at http://careercenter.eforester.org/.

California Working Forest Plans to Cover up to 15,000 Acres

California’s Forest Practices Act and rules arewidely seen as the most restrictive—and expensiveto comply with—in the nation. For many owners

of private timberlands, paying thousands or tens of thou-sands of dollars to develop a Timber Harvest Plan (THP)is difficult or impossible. To help reduce planning costsfor individuals and families, the state in 1989 allowed pri-vate landowners with fewer than 2,500 acres to use Non-Industrial Timber Management Plans (NTMPs) instead ofTHPs. With a NTMP, landowners prepare a single long-term management plan, under which they must use onlyuneven-aged management and provide for long-term sus-tained yield. They must notify the state of any timber har-vests, but do not need to file additional harvest plan doc-uments. To date, 763 NTMPs have been approved by theCalifornia Department of Forestry and Fire Protection(Cal Fire), covering a total of about 315,000 acres.

On September 9, the California legislature approved abill authorizing Working Forest Management Plans(WFMP), which are similar to NTMPs, but cover owner-ships up to 15,000 acres. The bill passed with only one novote—the Senate approved the bill 35 to 1, the Assembly76 to 0. On October 8, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the billinto law.

In comparison to NTMPs, WFMPs allow more timefor public review of plans before they are approved andrequire landowners to conduct more-rigorous inventoryand reporting to verify uneven-aged management and sus-tained yield, interagency reviews to ensure complianceevery five years, and more-rigorous plan amendment andtimber operations notice protocols.

WFMPs also include a “no net loss” provision for late-successional stands of 10 acres or larger.

Once approved, both NTMPs and WFMPs are valid in-definitely and may be transferred to a new owner upon thesale of the property. A NTMP or WFMP holder may ter-minate the plan at any time; likewise, the state may revokea plan for noncompliance.

“Hopefully, the Working Forest Management Plans

will provide some certainty and stability for landowners,not to mention an incentive to keep their lands as workingforests instead of looking at alternative uses of their land,”said Bill Keye, government affairs specialist for the Cali-fornia Licensed Foresters Association, which was a strongproponent of WFMPs. The bill also garnered support fromthe Forest Landowners of California, among other groups.

Not all landowners will want or be able to apply for aWFMP.

“This is a large undertaking for landowners,” saidKeye, an SAF member. “They’ll have to do a very com-prehensive and costly plan at the beginning of the process,one that’s certainly going to be more expensive than aTHP. However, once they have gone through the processand gotten approval, they’ll go through a much-simplifiedministerial process when they want to harvest their timber.They’ll also have a valuable document that can be passedalong if they sell the land, as long as the new owner agreesto abide by the plan.”

Keye said that support for the legislation from moder-ate environmental groups was crucial.

“We had a lot of interaction with the environmentalcommunity about what their concerns were, and that’s ul-timately what led to the passage of the law,” he said. “Wehad opposition from some environmental groups, but wehad significant support from some groups such as The Na-ture Conservancy, Pacific Forest Trust, the Trust For Pub-lic Land, and others. Those groups stepped up and sup-ported the bill, and that made a huge difference.”

On September 20, Pablo Garza, The Nature Conser-vancy’s associate director, state policy and external af-fairs, sent a letter of support for the bill to Assembly mem-ber Wesley Chesbro, author of the bill.

“This proposal will make sustainable forest manage-ment more economically feasible while maintaining envi-ronmental protection standards to keep our valuable for-est ecosystems intact,” wrote Garza. “The WFMP requireslandowners to practice ‘uneven-aged management’ (in-stead of clearcutting), develop an erosion control plan,

and requires ‘no net loss’ of old-growth forest stands.”The Center for Biological Diversity, one of several

groups that submitted testimony in opposition to the bill,expressed concern that the advent of WFMPs “dramati-cally increases both the environmental impacts associatedwith logging operations and the problems related to thelack of oversight associated with a lifetime permit.”

Keye said the WFMPs would be a viable option formany landowners.

“We currently have about 315,000 acres underNTMPs,” he said. “With WFMPs, we could easily doubleor triple that in the coming 10 or 20 years.

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