News Archive 2007 PDF Print E-mail

Titles anchor to full stories below. The news archive from 2006 is also available.

 

New Forest Guild Report: How Northeast Forests Can Capture Carbon, Fight Climate Change ^
December 12, 2007 — The Forest Guild's December 2007 report entitled Climate Change, Carbon, and the Forests of the Northeast first and foremost declares that the Northeast’s forestlands must be retained as forests. Fragmentation or conversion of forestland to other uses not only releases carbon that forests are currently storing, but also damages the region’s long-term ability to sequester more carbon in forests and wood products. This report marks the first time that climate change impacts, carbon policy recommendations, and forest management challenges in the Northeast have been interconnected and distilled into practical, attainable strategies for use by forest managers. For more information, click here.

Guild Report Examines a Community Owned Forest in the Southwest ^
December 6, 2007 — The Forest Guild has published a new report by Eytan Krasilovsky and Arnie Valdez entitled Community Owned Forests: An Example from the Southwest. This report relates how several land-based communities in southern Colorado known as the Culebra villages regained access and use of their traditional forest known locally as La Sierra. Since settling in the area in the 1850s, these communities have used forest and watershed resources from the nearby Culebra massif. The Culebra villages have steadfast traditions of using the wood resources of La Sierra for dwelling construction, outbuildings, corrals, heating, and cooking. Additionally, they have depended on the headwaters of several watersheds for irrigation.

La Sierra became privatized as a result of the extensive land use changes that occurred in New Mexico and southern Colorado at the turn of the 20th century. In 2002, after 21 years of litigation, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Culebra villages and awarded access and resource use rights in 2003. Since 2003, the Culebra villages and the land rights organization they developed have been working with the current owner of La Sierra to return to the forest and again use the forest resources according to their traditions. This document explores the practice of community owned forests in North America for comparison and reference to the Southwest with a detailed inquiry of the Culebra villages, the loss of their shared forest, and the eventual recovery of their resource use rights to La Sierra. Read the full report here or the report summary here.

New Issue of Forest Wisdom Available ^
November 27, 2007 — In this issue of Forest Wisdom we explore the challenges and opportunities climate change poses to forest managers and how it is reshaping society’s expectations of forests. Articles include carbon policy, carbon markets, rebirth of american chestnut, and recent trends in U.S. private forest carbon. Read the new issue here.

Forest Guild Offers One Year Membership Free to Students ^
October 1, 2007 — The Forest Guild is excited to announce that we are offering free one year memberships to all new student members.  The benefits of Guild membership for students include: the opportunity to meet and learn from professional members with extensive knowledge and place based experience; being part of a career network of like-minded professionals; and helping to shape excellent forestry policies and practices. You can become a student member of the Guild by joining online right now or calling Aimee Abby, the Guild’s membership coordinator, at 505-983-8992 x21.

Forest Guild Northeast Regional Meeting in the News ^
September 26, 2007 — The Guild's Northeast Regional Meeting on climate change, carbon, and forestry captured regional TV cable news attention!
The Boston-based New England Cable News (NECN) covered the Guild's September 2007 Northeast Regional Meeting. Reporter Anya Huneke covered how forests can mitigate climate change and included interviews with Northeast Region Director Bob Perschel and Guild member Jeff Smith. Click here to play the video. Note it starts with a brief commercial.
The Rutland Herald newspaper also picked up the story in an article entitled "Carbon-eating trees are one key to easing warming." To read the story, click here.
    
Forest Guild Northeast Regional Meeting Examines Carbon Sequestration and Forestry ^
Nearly 100 Attendees Discuss Policies and Practices; PowerPoint Presentations Available on the Forest Guild Website
September 20, 2007 — Climate change and forests are inextricably linked, and forested ecosystems in the Northeast will be impacted by regional climate shifts. Thus, the Forest Guild organized its second Northeast Regional Meeting, "Carbon and Forestry in the Northeast: Management, Measurements, and Markets," to examine these complex issues of vital regional concern. The Guild held this meeting at Lake Fairlee Camp, Vermont, on September 10-11, 2007. To learn more about the meeting click here.
Meeting Agenda

Presentations from the meeting:
Carbon Offsets & Forests: A Global Perspective - Richard Donovan
Managing for Complexity and Carbon Sequestration - Bill Keeton
Northeast Carbon Polices and the Northeast Forester - Bob Perschel       

Forest Guild Increases Regional Staff Capacity ^
Kenneth Baldwin, Guild Founding Member, Hired as Pacific West Region Director

September 10, 2007 — The Forest Guild has hired Kenneth Baldwin of Douglas City, California, to serve as its Pacific West Region Director. Kenneth is a founding member of the Forest Stewards Guild (now the Forest Guild) and brings a wealth of forestry expertise to the Guild's regional efforts. He is a California registered professional forester with 41 years of experience, the past 35 in the forests of northern California. He has been involved in land and resource management planning, fire and fuels management planning, timber sale planning and preparation, watershed analysis, forest inventory and design, stocking and survival surveying, reforestation, forest worker training, forest research, fire control, fire damage appraisals, forest recreation, forestry and environmental advocacy, and fisheries restoration.

Kenneth has worked with a variety of clients including private landowners, fire safe councils, tribes, non-profit organizations, and local, state, and federal agencies. Kenneth is also a founding partner of Baldwin, Blomstrom, Wilkinson, & Associates, along with several other Forest Guild members. As a SmartWood consultant, he has participated in certification assessments, audits, and peer reviews in California and Oregon. He is highly respected in northern California forestry circles and has combined his professional efforts with thousands of hours of volunteer community service to achieve more sustainable outcomes for the region's forests and communities.

We look forward to Kenneth working for the Guild on a part-time basis beginning September 10, 2007, with the hopes of building the position up to a full-time capacity within a year.

Bob Perschel Assumes Full-Time Role as Guild Northeast Region Director
Guild Northeast Region Director Bob Perschel assumed this position in a full-time capacity beginning September 4, 2007. Serving in this role part-time over the last two years, Bob has worked with Guild regional members in a number of organizing capacities while also completing the Guild's 2006 report entitled Ensuring Sustainable Forestry through Working Forest Conservation Easements in the Northeast. Bob has been instrumental in building many successful partnerships for the Guild, spearheading our Northeast program planning effort, and helping the Guild raise the funds needed to establish the Northeast Region Director position as full-time. He currently is working with Guild staff and members on the soon-to-be released Guild report on climate change, carbon, and the forests of the Northeast.

In his 25 years as a conservation professional, Bob has worked on both forestry and wilderness issues. He worked for the forest industry before running his own forestry consulting business for eight years. He also co-founded the Land Ethic Institute, which assisted the Society of American Foresters in adopting a written land ethic. Bob also worked for 12 years for the Wilderness Society, including seven years as Northeast regional director, and was chairman of The Northern Forest Alliance and the Eastern Forest Partnership. Bob is a founding member of the Forest Stewards Guild and has a master's degree in forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Yale College.

Navigating the Motives and Mandates of Multiparty Monitoring ^
September 3, 2007 — The Forest Guild contributes to a paper titled Navigating the Motives and Mandates of Multiparty Monitoring in collaboration with the Ecological Restoration Institute, New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute, and the Four Corners Institute. This paper synthesizes for a broader national audience over four years of experience providing technical assistance in multiparty monitoring of community-based forest restoration projects in New Mexico. Questions relating to the goals of multiparty monitoring, reasonable expectations of multiparty monitoring efforts, and ways to help community groups achieve their monitoring goals are explored. For information about the ongoing technical assistance program, click here.
    
New Issue of Forest Wisdom Available ^
September 1, 2007 — In this issue of Forest Wisdom we explore Pacific Coast forests, their history, successes and challenges, and the work of Guild practitioners promoting excellent forestry. Read the new issue here.
    
Forest Guild Report Addresses Plight of Southeast Latino Forest Workers ^
August 23, 2007 — The Forest Guild today released its most recent report, Maltreatment and Injustice: An Overview of the Plight of Latino Forest Workers in the Southeast, which assesses the complex issues surrounding the exploitation of legal and undocumented Latino forest workers in the forestry industry in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama. The document traces the history of the dramatic population increase within the last 20 years of Latino forest workers in the Southeast region of the United States, most coming from Mexico and to a lesser extent Guatemala. This demographic increase in the Southeast parallels the shift in our nation’s forestry sector to this region from the Northwest over the past decade and a half. For more information, click here.

Map Spotlights New Mexico Forest Restoration Projects ^
August 14, 2007 — In collaboration with New Mexico Highlands University’s New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute and the USDA Forest Service, the Forest Guild has created a map of the 102 CFRP projects funded over the last six years throughout New Mexico. With the Guild's new map of CFRP locations, people can appreciate the extent and distribution of these restoration projects across the state. With more than 30 million dollars invested in CFRP projects, it is impressive to see where the projects are happening. The map also showcases the effectiveness of multiparty monitoring, a process that brings together diverse stakeholders (often with divergent opinions about forest management) to collaboratively work toward common forest goals. For more information, click here.

Forest Guild's Congressional Testimony Calls for Federal Wildfire Programs to Better Serve Rural Poor ^
June 19 , 2007 — Forest Guild Southwest Region Director Michael DeBonis testified before Congress today that federal wildfire preparedness programs must provide greater focus and assistance to ensure that low-income communities at risk from wildfire have the resources to take action to reduce that risk. Mr. DeBonis's testimony was part of the oversight hearing held this morning by the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands entitled "Wildfire Preparedness: An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure." For more information, click here.

New issue of Forest Wisdom available ^
June 1 , 2007 — The new issue explores community forestry, its many meanings and forms, what it looks like on the ground, and what it means to the Guild as an organization. Articles focus on town forests in Vermont, 800 years of stewardship in Santa Clara pueblo, public lands that support communities in Aitkin, Minnesota, and community forest use in southern West Virginia. Read the new issue here.  

Forest Guild Releases Analysis of Wildfire Risk Reduction on Federal Lands ^
March 22, 2007 — According to a new report from the Forest Guild, the federal government needs to improve the record keeping and increase public participation in planning fuel reduction treatments to lower the risk of forest fires. The Forest Guild studied projects implemented as part of the Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) and the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) to assess their ecological and social impact. To address the need for increased community participation, the Forest Guild also created a workbook to assist communities in monitoring fuel reduction treatments. For more information, click here.

Forest Guild Supports Legislative Study of Vermont's Use Value Appraisal Program ^
February 26, 2007 — Vermont's Use Value Appraisal Program (UVA) was established in 1977 to assist rural landowners in maintaining productive agricultural and forest land. Vermont Forest Guild members support the program, having seen first-hand how it has allowed landowers to retain family lands and continue to manage them well. Currently, however, all land in the program must be managed for timber, independent of its ecological significance, and Guild members have recognized that the UVA needs revision to include the protection of natural ecological systems. The current approach is not always rewarding land stewardship consistent with best practices, and may be keeping landowners out of the program.

In February, Vermont Forest Guild members issued a statement of support for a legislative study of Vermont's Use Value Appraisal Program. The Forest Guild UVA Working Group of Stacy Brown, Jayson Benoit, Nancy Patch, Carl Powden, Jamey Fidel, and Ehrhard Frost drafted and reworked the statement based on Vermont member's input. The Guild's position suggests the UVA program use forest health as the primary criteria for all activities, focusing on water, soil, biological diversity, carbon storage and forest vitality as key management strategies. It urges the Vermont legislature to conduct a thorough and substantive review of the UVA, its effectiveness in achieving the purposes of its enabling legislation, and to identify program areas in need of improvement. Forest Guild members are using this statement to encourage their legislators to take action. The position statement is being distributed to Vermont's House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Hearings will take place over the next month and members of the Forest Guild, together with other partners in Vermont, will continue to support the effort through testimony and continued engagement.

See the full statement here. Contact Vermont State Coordinator Ehrhard Frost (802) 785-4749, or Jamey Fidel for more information.
    
Forest Guild Weighs in on Oregon's Land Use Debate ^
February 6, 2007 — Oregon voters passed Measure 37 in November 2004. It says that government agencies, within six months of receiving a claim from a property owner, must either waive land-use regulations or pay the property owner compensation for lost potential property value due to the regulations. What may have seemed like a good idea to some voters at the time has turned out to be a nightmare for the public, as over 6,400 claims have been filed seeking more than six billion dollars in compensation. According to Oregon's governor, over 85% of these claims have been filed by speculators, developers, and corporations.

The Forest Guild's Oregon membership recently joined a growing public outcry against Measure 37. From a Guild perspective, if the havoc being wreaked by Measure 37 on Oregon's landscape and land-use regulations is allowed to go forward, then sensible and predictable management of Oregon's communities and ecosystems—and the services and values from them that residents depend upon for a sustainable, healthy quality of life—will be greatly imperiled.

Thus, the membership voted unanimously to ask Oregon Governor Kulongoski and the state assembly to issue a "time out" to temporarily suspend Measure 37 as well as development from land use waivers already approved under Measure 37. The Guild also urged the state assembly to develop legislation that addresses some of the sentiment that passed Measure 37—such as the construction of a single home— without "giving away the farm" to those whose motivation for large profits would endanger Oregon's communities and ecosystems. Click here to view the letter sent to Oregon's elected leaders from Forest Guild Executive Director Howard Gross.

 
 
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