With the evolving “green” movement in the United States and in the world economy, comes a new set of cause-and-effect considerations.  While the idea of “going green” and the widespread use of biofuels and ethanol sounds great in theory, there are many factors that must be considered.  Just because one aspect of a process produces less hydrocarbons than it did previously does not mean that the net effect of the entire process will result in fewer greenhouse gases.  This is especially true where the green movement relates to the timber industry.

Producing cellulostic (plant-based) biofuels has many unarguable advantages, with one of the most enticing being the idea of freeing the United States from dependence upon foreign oil.  However, in order to truly evaluate the full impact of such a movement, as many factors as possible must be considered. One of the critical impacts of a growing demand for biofuels, especially those that are plant-based, is the effect that such a demand will have on the existing land usage in a country and even on a worldwide scale.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the “amount of land that could be dedicated to energy biomass is limited, as most of the suitable land is, in use for agriculture, human settlement, covered by forests, or locked up in protected areas (FAO, 2003). Therefore, energy biomass plantations may compete with the existing agricultural land uses and/or may lead to the use of the remaining natural landscape that should be kept under conservation.”

As the competition for agricultural usage begins to encroach onto forested land (timber), the obvious result is deforestation.  The net effect is quite often an INCREASE in greenhouse gases rather than a decrease in greenhouse gases. There are studies that show that harvesting forest resources to produce biofuel results in 25 to 30% of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year (1.6 billion tones).  If the deforested land is then replanted with row crops rather than tree stands, the added long-term cumulative result is even worse because there are then less trees to convert carbon dioxide the oxygen through photosynthesis.

While the ultimate result of the effectiveness of various aspects of the green movement, and the production and use of biofuels in particular, are still under evaluation and may be for many years to come, one thing is for certain.  Whatever means are employed should be well thought out with an open mind that is free from pre-determined conclusions.  An effective movement toward “going green” will be composed of a variety of ideas, actions, and innovative methods, but must be tempered with common sense looking at the whole picture from a cause-and-effect perspective.  We must push for processes that result in overall greenhouse reductions and freedom from fossil fuel bases energy rather than simply jumping onto any bandwagons simply because it sounds good or may be politically expedient to do so.

Did you know that there was a centralized database that listed state and local wildfire programs?
The national database of state and local wildfire hazard mitigation programs serves as a clearinghouse of information about nonfederal policies and programs that seek to reduce the risk of loss of life and property through the reduction of hazardous fuels on private lands.  The database is searchable by state, jurisdiction (city, town, etc.), and even by program type.

The site is sponsored by the USDA Forest Service / Southern Research Station. The database seems fairly inclusive although there are some links in the summaries that are out of date.

To view their site and search for articles in your state, visit http://www.wildfireprograms.usda.gov/

The USDA Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Forest Service administers the 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands in the United States. Major divisions of the agency include State and Private Forestry, the National Forest System, and branch responsible for Research and Development.

The U.S. Forest Service has its origins in 1876 when Congress created the office of “Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture” to assess the state of the forests in the United States. In 1881, the office expanded into what became known as the Division of Forestry. Then in 1891, the Forest Reserve Act authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as “forest reserves,” managed by the Department of the Interior. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was formally renamed as the “Bureau of Forestry”. Early in the 20th century, The U.S. Forest Service gained its current title when the Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry. The Bureau of Forestry has been known as the USDA Forest Service ever since and is more traditionally referred to as the “U.S. Forest Service”.

Across the United States, there are 155 national forests, organized into ranger districts employing district rangers and other personnel. The districts construct and maintain trails, operate campgrounds, regulate grazing, patrol wilderness areas, protect culturally significant heritage sites, and manage vegetation and wildlife habitat. The Forest Service also has seven regional research stations, including the International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products Laboratory, that study the ecosystems of the national forests, as well as other federal, state, and private lands. The Forest Service also provides funding and technical assistance to non-federal land owners through a branch called State and Private Forestry.

Although a large volume of timber is logged every year, not all National Forests are entirely forested. There are tidewater glaciers in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and ski areas such as Alta, Utah in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. In addition, the Forest Service is responsible for managing National Grasslands in the midwest. Furthermore, areas designated as wilderness by acts of Congress, prohibit logging, mining, road and building construction and land leases for purposes of farming and or livestock grazing.

In August 1944, to reduce the number of forest fires, the Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council began distributing fire education posters featuring a Black Bear. The poster campaign was a success; the Black Bear would later be named “Smokey Bear,” and would, for decades, be the “spokesbear” for the Forest Service. Smokey Bear has appeared in untold TV commercials; his popular catch phrase, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires”, is one of the most widely recognized slogans in the United States. A recent study found that 95% of the people surveyed could complete the phrase when given the first few words.[3] Unfortunately, in certain fire-adapted ecosystems the ensuing decades of fire suppression unintentionally caused a buildup of fuels that replaced the historically natural fire regime of slow-burning, relatively cool fires with fast-burning, relatively hot wildfires in the fire-adapted forest lands across the nation.

Please visit http://www.wikipedia.org for more complete information on the U.S. Forest Service and for a list of important legislation that has helped shape the policies and administrative structure of the service.

To visit the U.S. Forest Service website, please point your browser to http://www.fs.fed.us/.

(by Linda Wang, Forest Taxation Specialist and John L. Greene, Research Forester, Southern Research Station)

This bulletin summarizes key federal income tax provisions for forestland owners, foresters, loggers, forest product businesses, and tax practitioners. It is current as of October 1, 2008, and supersedes Management Bulletin R8-MB 130. Consult your tax and legal professionals for advice on your particular tax situation.

TIMBER SALES If you have held standing timber for over 12 months, income from the sale or disposal of the timber generally qualifies as a long-term capital gain. This is an advantage since, among other reasons, long-term capital gains are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income and are not subject to self-employment tax.