Woodland News

April is Invasive Species Awareness Month, and we thought it would be a great time to further detail the services we provide to help control and eradicate certain vegetation and pests that can seriously affect your woodlot or community forest. 

The emerald ash borer (EAB) continues to cause landowners significant, and warranted, concern. Our region is seeing quite a bit of ash mortality due to the emerald ash borer.

Domestically, hardwood markets lag behind but somewhat closely track the softwood markets for framing lumber. As housing starts fluctuate, so go the softwood markets, and consequently the hardwood markets. Housing starts (as of January 2016) have reached 1.099 million, up from 1.08 million as of January 2015. The trend shows a slight up and down fluctuation monthly, but the overall trend line is up. Hopefully if this can continue we’ll see a solid strengthening of our hardwood markets.

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) is a tiny, piercing and sucking insect, unseen with the naked eye, that feeds on hemlock twigs at the bases of the needles. The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an invasive species from Asia. Much of the US East Coast hemlock forest from New Hampshire to Georgia has shown signs of damage from this pest, inhibiting twig growth and causing server damage and mortality to many trees. It has also recently been found in Michigan and it is believed to be expanding its range due to changes in climate.

Geographic Information Systems or GIS is a system that allows us to display and analyze geographic and tabular data.

Lumber prices were strong last winter and spring, soft over the summer and fall, but from what we read and hear, current lumber markets in the region have shown some signs of improvement.

When selling your timber for income, there are several important considerations that landowners should be aware of in order to maximize the value received and minimize the negative impact on your property.

Happy Holidays! We hope that this year, which is so quickly coming to a close, has been a good one for you and yours.

What is Stumpage?

After a strong winter and spring, from what we read and hear, current lumber markets in the region are generally soft with some recent signs of improvement.