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Woodland Clinic Season Wraps Up with State Competition

On April 19, over two hundred students from across East Texas gathered at the East Texas Plant Materials Center outside of Nacogdoches to test their forestry field skills at the Texas State Woodland Clinic. A total of 56 teams, 46 in the FFA division and 10 in the 4-H division, competed for top honors which included a $1,000 scholarship sponsored by the Texas Forest Landowners Council and Texas Forestry Association. Students were tested on skills including tree and wood identification, tree measurements and volume, wood products, site productivity, compass and pacing, and forest management applications. The top team in each division had the option to compete in the Regional Woodland Clinic held at Lake D’Arbonne State Park in Louisiana and qualifies to advance to their respective national competition.

The top-ranking teams in the 2018 Texas State Woodland Clinic FFA division were Avery (first place), Central Heights Team #1 (second place) and Gary Team #2 (third place). The 4-H division winners were Huntington 4-H (first place), Cass County Team #1 (second), and Trinity County Team #2 (third place). Dylan Hargroder, a senior from Warren High School was the high scoring individual and winner of the $1,000 scholarship.

Following the contest, schools traveled to Stephen F. Austin State University where students from the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture led demonstrations on tree climbing techniques used in arboriculture, as well as a sampling of Conclave events.

Door prizes at the contest were sponsored by the Texas Chapter of the Society of American Foresters. Two randomly selected teams received an equipment package containing all of the forestry gear needed for teams to practice and compete, including compasses, Biltmore sticks, a clinometer, a logger’s tape, and tree identification field guides. Elysian Fields FFA and Regents Academy 4-H were the recipients of the equipment packages. Regents Academy 4-H President Jake Hill, who was also high point winner in the 4-H division, expressed his gratitude saying, “This is our first year to compete as a team. We started with nothing other than our interest in forestry and now we have the confidence and equipment that will help us grow and improve in the coming years.”

The State Woodland Clinic is organized by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Texas Forestry Association in partnership with the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board, Texas A&M Forest Service, and Stephen F. Austin State University. Woodland Clinics are intended to teach youth methods of developing and managing commercial woodlands for their renewable natural resources. The clinics also give students an opportunity to train with experienced forestry professionals and help build a solid foundation for pursuing education and employment in the natural resource field.

Photos:
Photo 1: Dylan Hargroder, a senior at Warren High School, was individual high point winner in the FFA division and overall highpoint winner. Dylan will be awarded the $1,000 TFLC scholarship by Tyler County FLOA President Elizabeth Parker at his graduation ceremony.
Photo 2: Avery High School placed first overall in the FFA team division.
Photo 3: Huntington 4-H placed first overall in the 4-H team division.
Photo 4: Jake Hill from Regents Academy 4-H was the individual high point winner in the 4-H division.

Project Learning Tree Awards Gold Star to
Texas Forestry Association’s Education Director, Misty Bowie
Washington, D.C. – Project Learning Tree honored Misty Bowie, Education Director at the Texas Forestry Association, with a Gold Star Award. Founded in 1976, Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an award-winning environmental education program that educates teachers and youth about forests and the environment. The PLT Gold Star Award is the highest honor bestowed by PLT to a PLT program coordinator or partner in recognition of their years of exemplary service to Project Learning Tree.
Esther Cowles, PLT’s Senior Director of Education Programs at the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, presented the award to Bowie on June 6 during PLT’s 32nd International Coordinators’ Conference in Cody, Wyoming.
Based in Lufkin, TX, Bowie co-administers the PLT program statewide for the Texas Forestry Association in conjunction with the Texas A&M Forest Service. She creates environmental education professional development courses and workshops for school teachers and nonformal educators, develops curricula, and leads instructor training. Bowie also coordinates the Teacher Conservation Institute, a series of summer professional development camps for teachers and other educators interested in learning about Texas forests and the benefits they provide.
“Misty has a passion for teaching children and educators about the environment,” said Cowles. “Under Misty’s leadership, the PLT program is flourishing and green schools in Texas are expanding.”
Bowie has helped 12 schools and one community college each develop garden programs to address the food desert reality of their community. Students have also inventoried all trees on their school site and implemented a management plan for their school grounds that includes promoting the benefits of urban trees and forests to their school and local community.
Bowie earned a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1995 and developed a passion for natural resource education while working as a seasonal interpreter for the U.S. Forest Service and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. From 1999 to 2008, she worked as a Timber Merchandizing Specialist for Temple-Inland Inc and as a Contract Logging Manager at Campbell Global. Wanting to spend more time with her growing family, she became a contract forester for Crosby Resource Management where Bowie says her oldest son, beginning at age three, often accompanied her wearing a hard hat and safety vest of his own. During that time and ever since, she has spent her career promoting conservation education.
Bowie was trained as a certified PLT workshop facilitator in 1999 and served for many years on both the Louisiana and Texas PLT Steering Committees before becoming Texas PLT Co-coordinator in 2014. She is a current Board Member for the Texas Association for Environmental Education and the Texas Forestry Museum and is active with the Texas Informal Science Education Association.

About Project Learning Tree

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) uses trees and forests as windows on the world to increase students’ understanding of the environment. PLT provides educators with supplementary curriculum materials, professional development, and other resources to integrate environmental education into lesson plans for all grades and subject areas, and to use the outdoors to engage students in learning about the world around them. Developed in 1976, PLT’s 50-state network includes more than 750,000 trained educators using PLT materials and 5,000 PLT GreenSchools. PLT is an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. In Texas, PLT is coordinated by the Texas Forestry Association and Texas Forest Service. For more information, visit www.plt.org.
CONTACT:
Vanessa Bullwinkle, 202-765-3726, vbullwinkle@plt.org

Please see the link below from KTBS in Shreveport where Tim Holland discusses Forestry in north Louisiana. There was a news story broadcast on television that goes with this article. If I can find it, I will pass along.

https://www.ktbs.com

Eric

Eric McConnell, Ph.D.
Louisiana Tech University
School of Agricultural Sciences and Forestry
PO Box 10138 Ruston, LA 71272
Phone: (318) 257-2820 Fax: (318) 257-5061

2018 Officer Election Results

It’s a pleasure to announce that we had 94 responses to the ballot sent out last month. Many thanks to Dr. Pat Stephens-Williams for putting the ballot together and sending it out along with the reminders. Jordan Herrin was elected Chair-elect 2019 and David Newton Secretary/Treasurer.  Each of these fellows are foresters with the Texas A&M Forest Service and we are pleased that they each accepted the nominations for office. Please give them your full support throughout their term in office. John McRae will move to Chair and Michael Murphrey will continue as Business Manager of Texas Society of American Foresters.

Eric Gage
TSAF 2017 Membership Chair

Please click the attachment below to view a job announcement for an Assistant Professor in Forest Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, and share with anyone who may be interested.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our Texas SAF members, their families, friends, and colleagues.

American Red Cross donations can be made at the link below to support families impacted by Hurricane Harvey:
http://www.redcross.org

Information on caring for crops and livestock, food safety, and cleaning procedures can be found here:
http://www.lsuagcenter.com

Drax completes acquisition of Louisiana pellet plant
By Anna Simet | April 26, 2017
·        

Drax Group plc announced it has completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Louisiana Pellets, at a price of $35.4 million.
 
Drax indicated that it would participate in separate processes for the acquisition of the operating assets of the Urania, Louisiana, plant, as well as those of Texas Pellets in Woodville, Texas, on Feb. 27.
 
German Pellets, builder of both plants, filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2016.
In early April, following the conclusion of a March 30 auction, Drax announced that it had been provisionally successful in its bid to acquire the assets of Louisiana Pellets. However, the sale out of bankruptcy process of the assets of the similarly-sized Texas plant was postponed, though Drax stated that it remains an interested party in the acquisition.
 
Louisiana Pellets, commissioned in early 2015, will provide additional biomass pellet capacity in the region of 450,000 metric tons annually, according to Drax, which said the new capacity will play an important part in its strategy to build a flexible supply chain capable of self-supplying 30 percent of its generation requirement.
“Louisiana Pellets marks another positive step in delivering the Drax Group strategy,” said Dorothy Thompson, CEO of Drax. “The deal forms part of our plan to significantly increase our capability to manufacture high quality compressed wood pellets and increase self-supply to Drax Power Station. Upgrading half the Power Station to use sustainable wood pellets has resulted in Drax producing 16 percent of the U.K.'s renewable electricity and with the right conditions we aim to do more."
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Richard P. Vlosky, Ph.D.
Director, Louisiana Forest Products Development Center
Crosby Land & Resources Endowed Professor of Forest Sector Business Development
Room 227, School of Renewable Natural Resources
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Phone (office): (225) 578-4527; Fax: (225) 578-4251; Mobile Phone: (225) 223-1931
E-mail: vlosky@lsu.edu
Web Site: www.LFPDC.lsu.edu
 

 
President, Forest Products Society; President, WoodEMA i.a.