- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Gareth J Mayhead
Last week I visited Trinity River Lumber (TRL), a sawmill, in Weaverville, California. The sawmill was almost totally destroyed by a fire in September 2009 and completed rebuilding in January this year. The mill is the largest private employer in Trinity County with approximately 115 full time jobs. The community was relieved that TRL’s owner chose to rebuild the mill after the fire. The new mill is impressive in its versatility to saw a range of products and in its use of technology to maximize production. Both the pony (small log) and main headrig saws make use of 3D scanners to optimize lumber yield from each log. They are currently increasing production to approximately 120,000,000 board feet of lumber per year. The main...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Yana Valachovic
The Northern California Prescribed Fire Council provides continuing education opportunities for those using fire in forest management and conservation activities. Although prescribed fire councils are common in the U.S., this is the first such council in California. Council participants include public and private resource managers, researchers, firefighters, fire safe councils, tribes and regulatory agencies. The council hopes that by working together, this diverse group can increase individual members’ expertise in using fire for resource management and can improve fire-related education in the state. The council aims for a better public understanding of the value of prescribed burning in the state’s fire adapted landscapes, for...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Rick Standiford, Susie Kocher, Mike De Lasaux, Jaime Adler
Recently three leaders from the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI), a division of Tawain’s Council of Agriculture (COA), traveled to Northern California to meet with UCCE foresters to gain information about our outreach program that they might be able to apply in Taiwan. Dr. Yue-Hsing “Star” Huang, Director of TFRI; Dr. Meng-Ling Wu, Department Chief of Forest Protection; Dr. Gene-Sheng Tung, Assistant Researcher in the Department of Forest Protection spent three days at UC Berkeley, UC Berkeley’s Blodgett Forest Research Station, South Lake Tahoe, and in Quincy and Plumas Counties exploring extension projects and learning how UCCE Foresters initiate and maintain relationships with landowners, managers, conservation groups, and...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Steve Quarles, UCCE Forest Specialist
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Committee E05 on Fire Standards is meeting this week in Anaheim, California. ASTM is a standards writing organization. Today many task groups met to review and consider changes to standard test methods. For example, the task group that oversees ASTM E-84, Standard Test Method for Surface Burning Characteristics of Building Materials met. This test is used to determine the flame spread rating (Class A, B, or C) for construction materials, and is one of the measures used to describe the performance of deck boards that comply with Chapter 7A of the California Building Code. Chapter 7A is the state code that applies to new construction in California. Today it was announced that a...
- Posted By: Jaime Adler
- Written by: Bill Stewart, UCCE Forest Specialist
Making estimates of the life cycle benefits of harvested sawlogs are now required as part of every timber harvest plan in California. While forest managers are intimately familiar with what happens in the forest and at the landing, we are dependent on others to synthesize current and historical data to come up with accurate estimates of the ‘carbon footprint’ of sawlogs after they have left our control. Unfortunately, a number of the common calculators used in California to estimate the life cycle benefits from sawlogs depend on historic and poorly documented estimates that significantly undercount the climate benefits of harvested products. This post highlights some noticeable differences between accounting systems...