“From the Woods” Blog
“From the Woods” Blog
Farm Credit East Releases Report Analyzing Economic Impact of Agriculture, Fishing and Forest Products in the Northeast
Enfield, Conn., November 9, 2020 – The agriculture, commercial fishing and forest products industries are key economic engines in the Northeast, according to an economic impact report recently released by Farm Credit East, the region’s largest agricultural lender. The report found that 75,657…
Wood for Good receives needed equipment from North Star Leasing
BURLINGTON, VT – Eric Axelrod has transformed a surplus of firewood in his Jericho, VT yard into a budding fuel assistance program designed to help Vermonters stay warm this winter. With the help of his two sons, Devin (14) and Logan (10),…
Andrews Community Forest Update
by Ethan Tapper While the weather is slowing us down, we’ve been able to make this process, and logs are starting to pile up on the “log landing.” A log landing, also called a “landing,” “log yard” or “header” is generally an…
Science Annex construction and Workforce Development project at a glance
The Science Annex will be Vermont’s first “mass timber” building. Mass timber is an umbrella term for engineered wood products used in commercial construction. Glue-laminated timber, cross laminated timber, nail laminated timber, heavy timber decking, and other engineered and composite systems are…
Loggers and Lagers: How Healthy Forests Help Brew a Better Pint
By Christine McGowan, Forest Products Program Director at Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund The story of von Trapp Brewing begins fifty years ago in the forested hills behind the resort, where a natural spring bubbles clear water up to the surface of the…
Novel canine scent detection program holds promise in PA’s fight against Spotted Lanternfly
A new pilot training program from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) points to a promising solution in Pennsylvania’s efforts to thwart the Spotted Lanternfly. By utilizing scent detection dogs to identify Spotted Lanternfly egg masses, Penn Vet researchers…
SPEAR-O: On the Tie that Binds
by Leo Laferriere Connectedness is a long word and a little hard to say. But it’s a relatively recent word we English-speakers have come up with to describe a sense of belonging to or having an affinity with something, an ability to…
ARS scientists seek answers from Spotted Lanternfly dispersal
WASHINGTON — The black spots and beautiful colors can be deceiving. At first glance, the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is a beautiful insect whose colors mimic the beloved ladybug with its polka-dotted outer wings and red hind wing. But this is not…
Secret weapon to stop invasive honeysuckle: Satellites
One common invasive species is so widespread that you can see it from space. The University of Cincinnati found that satellite imagery can identify nonnative and invasive Amur honeysuckle, an ornamental shrub introduced from Asia that has spread in forests across much…
Vermont’s Lafoe Logging Named Northeast Region “Outstanding Logger”
By Christine McGowan, Forest Products Program Director at Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund In every industry, there are individuals who set the bar. In Vermont’s forest products industry, two of those individuals are Brian Lafoe and his son-in-law, Stan Parker, owners of…
Can Vermont’s Forests Help Save the Planet?
The Cold Hollow Carbon project in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is the first co-op model in the country to successfully enter a voluntary carbon market. By Christine McGowan, Forest Products Program Director at Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Long valued for timber, recreation,…
TRIBUTE TO PUTNAM “PUT” BLODGETT; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 139 (Senate – August 05, 2020)
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Putnam ”Put” Blodgett’s lifetime of service to the Vermont forest industry deserves special recognition. Put personified the essence, values, and traditions of what makes Vermont special. Put’s family moved to a Bradford, VT, dairy farm during the height…
Guided Wildlife Walks
Come celebrate 100 years of habitat conservation and wildlife-based recreation through the department’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) by joining one of the department’s FREE guided wildlife walks on select state WMAs and elsewhere around Vermont. The walks are led by biologists and…
In a warming world, New England’s trees are storing more carbon
by Clarisse Hart, The Harvard Gazette Climate change has increased the productivity of forests, according to a new study that synthesizes hundreds of thousands of carbon observations collected over the last quarter century at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site, one…
Delineating tree crowns using unmanned aerial imagery
Finding is important for precision forestry, natural resource management DURHAM, N.H. — In a new study, University of New Hampshire researchers have concluded that when assessing forest imagery collected by unmanned aerial systems, an alternative method of delineating individual forest tree crowns…