• Cahaba River Meeting Set
• Federal Pay Twice Private Pay    
• GP Closes Ala. River Deal
• John Deere Opens Biomass Website
• Boiler MACT Meeting Set
• Invasive Species Workshop
• FRA Biomass Webinar
• Democrats Using Tea Party Against Republicans?
• AFA Meeting Reminder
• From the EVP

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Public Meeting Called on Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge Expansion

Federal Civilian Employees Average Pay Twice that of Private Empoyees

An invasive species workshop will be hosted by the Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District on October 7, 2010 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The workshop will start out with a privet eradication demonstration at the Walker County Lake. Some of the speakers for this event will be Stephen Enloe with Auburn University, Jim Jeter with the Alabama Forestry Commission, and Danny Cain with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

Reservations are required. However, no registration fee will be charged. Please contact Katherine at (205) 387-1879 for reservations and information on CFE’s, PLM’s and pesticide applicators recertification points. Funding for this workshop will be provided by a grant from the Alabama Invasive Plant Council.

Democrat officials in four states are being accused of collaborating with Tea Party candidates in an attempt to sabatoge Republican challe  ngers in some of the closest House races in the nation.

Read more...

Alabama’s beautiful beaches are open and ready! Don’t miss this opportunity to come and show your support for our association and our Gulf Coast.

Hear from national leaders in the forest community and Alabama’s future political leaders at the 2010 AFA Annual Meeting, scheduled for September 11-14 at the beautiful Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach. ALSO, all attendees will have their name entered into a drawing for a two night stay at one of the Gulf Coast’s beautiful condos PLUS a $50 certificate for dinner.

For complete meeting brochure click here and for meeting registration form click here.

Contact: Fran Whitaker, (334) 481-2127, fwhitaker@alaforestry.org.

FROM THE EVP: A Big One That Almost Got Away

Most of you received an email alert from us several days ago informing you of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal for an expansion of the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge that would include land in Bibb, Chilton, Jefferson, Perry and Shelby Counties.  The proposal would authorize the Service to expand the existing refuge (7,600 acres) to a total size of 106,415 acres.  In addition, the Service would be authorized to establish the Cahaba River Conservation Area totaling 173,380 acres, bringing the total area under federal control to 279,795 acres.

Whether this proposal is good or bad is the subject for my next column.  For now, I’d like to talk about the public comment process unfolded and emphasize how much we rely on each of our members to keep us informed about what’s going on around the state.

On Friday, July 30^th we received a fax from one of our members in Bibb County informing us about of a public meeting to discuss the proposal on Monday of that week.  It seems that he heard about the meeting and wanted to see if we knew anything about it.  We did not.  First thing Monday morning we found a copy of the Draft Environmental Assessment and Land Protection Plan.  In addition, we began calling around to various state agencies and other related associations around the state and we couldn’t find anyone who was aware of the proposal.

After studying the proposal, we realized that this was an enormous project with potential far reaching implications for forest owners and the broader forestry community and we knew we didn’t have adequate time to comment.  That’s when we sent out the Action Alert to inform our membership and request that you send comments to the Service by Friday of that week requesting an extension of the comment period.  Our calls to other organizations precipitated a similar response and, as a result of numerous calls and emails, USFWS agreed to extend the comment period until September 7^th.

If our members and numerous others around the state had not been alerted, the comment period would have likely closed and we would probably not have known about this proposed expansion until it was in motion.  If AFA had not alerted our members and other organizations around the state, there would likely have been few calls.  If one of our members had not contacted AFA to alert us, we would not have known.  The moral to this story…One member’s voice, when magnified through the megaphone of the Association can change the course of events and make an impact.

Although I agree that the Service should have done a better job of informing stakeholders…a much better job…the fact is they did not.  In fact, there are more and more issues that we’re dealing with that originate at the local level, but have statewide impact.  Our only reliable source of intelligence on local issues impacting forestry is YOU, our member.  We need your help.  When you hear of or see things happening in your part of the state that you think might have an impact on forest lands or forestry businesses, please give us a call.  Don’t assume we know.  If we do know, we’d love to talk anyway, but if we don’t, your call may well allow us get in front of an issue BEFORE it’s too late!

AS ALWAYS... Thank's For Your support