New safety program to help loggers and reduce workers’ comp Governor Phil Scott today announced a new initiative to address the high cost of workers’ compensation insurance for logging contractors in Vermont’s forest economy. The Vermont Logger Safety and Workers’ Compensation Insurance Program—developed collaboratively by the Departments of Financial Regulation, Labor and Forests, Parks and
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Planning Family Forests by Thom McEvoy In his seventh forestry book, Professor McEvoy after 9 years of research compiles stories of forest-owning families representing every major timber type in the United States; narratives and analyses that tell the trials, missteps and successes of an older generation of woodland owners sufficiently committed to keeping their forests
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Wildlife Habitat Management for Lands in Vermont Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife Ultimately, fish and wildlife conservation begins with proper management and stewardship of land and habitat. As most land in Vermont is privately owned, fish and wildlife conservation is inextricably tied to the decisions of private landowners and how they manage their lands.
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Bark: A field guide to trees of the Northeast by Michael Wojtech (Available on Amazon) Many people know how to identify trees by their leaves, but what about when those leaves have fallen or are out of reach? With detailed information and illustrations covering each phase of a tree’s lifecycle, this indispensable guidebook explains how
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Forest Trees of Vermont by Trevor Evans The objective for Forest Trees of Vermont is to provide accurate information about Vermont’s trees. Forest Trees of Vermont includes trees that are native to Vermont’s forests or that were introduced and have since become part of Vermont’s forests. Imported landscape trees, except in cases where they have
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For those of you with sawmills, or who hire someone to do custom sawing for you, sawing is just the first step in turning logs into quality lumber. The boards have to be stickered, dried, and stored under cover. One of the ways to increase the income from sawn lumber, especially hardwood lumber, is to
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Many of us have complained that the main obstacle to successful forest management is the lack of a market for low quality wood. Jim Birkemeier, a forester/woodland owner/wood processor in Wisconsin feels that he has the answer for himself. He has adopted what economists call vertical integration, in that he engages in every step of
Read More...INTRODUCTION Forests have always been an important part of life in New England. In fact, for as long as people have lived here, they have looked to the forests to meet their needs, including heat and energy. Though the challenges we face may differ in scale and complexity from those of our ancestors, we continue
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Wishtree by Katherine Applegate Having just received my VWA newsletter, I was sitting on my front porch relaxing and reading the very excellent issue. I was thinking about what book I should review for the next issue, when my wife asked: “What is a red oak tree?” I looked across my driveway to the massive
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New Report Highlights Loss of Undeveloped Woodland in VT A new report by the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) highlights the increasing loss of undeveloped woodland tracts in Vermont through parcelization, the breaking up of land into smaller and smaller parcels. The phenomenon of parcelization, which usually occurs through subdivision, is gaining momentum, and subsequent
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