The National Wooden Pallet & Container Association (NWPCA) and the Pallet Foundation presented an Environmental Product Declaration for U.S. wooden pallets that reinforces the environmental attributes of wooden pallets for the supply chain and procurement industries. This document, certified by UL and produced in conjunction with Forest Products Lab, the research wing of the U.S. Forest Service, is the first of its kind for a product in the distribution packaging space. This declaration speaks to the quantitative impact that wooden pallets have on the environment beyond their reusable, recyclable and biodegradable qualities.
EPDs provide consumers and professionals with transparent and product-specific environmental information through an independent validation from a third-party organization. A critical component of the wooden pallet EPD study is a life cycle assessment, measuring the impacts of a wooden pallet’s product stages of gathering, transporting and manufacturing raw materials, the use and repair of the pallet, as well as its end of life usage.
When considering its life cycle, wooden pallets can have a potential net carbon positive impact. Through the unique properties of wood, carbon offsets may be achieved by the reuse of pallet materials and substituting wood fuel from pallet waste (e.g., unusable pallets) for natural gas.
At the Fall 2020 board meeting the FHS Board of Directors welcomed a number of new members including:
John Cook, currently the executive director of Forest Assets and vice president of the Natural Resources Foundation for the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University; Neal Ewald, the chief operating officer and senior vice president at Green Diamond Resource Company in California; Steve Hicks, president and CEO of J.M. Longyear LLC, in Marquette Michigan; and Rachel Kline, a supervisory historian for the Forest Service Enterprise Program in Colorado.
The American Forest Resource Council applauded the Bureau of Land Management for finalizing a new rule expediting post-fire recovery and reforestation efforts on federal lands. Specifically, the rule creates a new 3,000-acre categorical exclusion (CX) under the National Environmental Policy Act to help expedite the removal and sale of dead and dying trees on BLM O&C lands in Western Oregon.
Over 125,000 acres of BLM-managed O&C timberlands burned during the 2020 wildfire season. AFRC President Travis Joseph said the new 3,000-acre CX will improve the ability of the BLM’s professional foresters to recover and restore the small portion of lands that are managed for timber harvests under an Obama-era resource management plan. It is also the same size as measures enacted in the 2014 and 2019 Farm Bills, which are available only to the U.S. Forest Service.
The newly formed ThrutheTrees video contest, where high school students are invited to create a short video that provides information about the value of a career in the forest products sector, has just announced its first winners. Grand prize went to Jordan Neilson of Idaho; second prize to Tressa Geyer and Zoey Brott of Oregon, and third prize went to both Aiden Shamek of Oregon, and Alicia Gordon and Lucas Forshee of Oregon.
To view the winning videos just go to www.ThrutheTrees.org.
On the Cover
Photo of ZB Cutting on a smoky morning - TimberPro feller buncher with Quadco head on the Archie Creek fire in Glide, Oregon.
Sawmilling in the Age of COVID
Steady log supply, innovative equipment upgrades, fluctuating lumber markets, personnel issues…sawmills have constant challenges. Now add COVID.
On the Cutting Edge
When Zach Brugnoli began researching tethering machines, efficiency and versatility were at the top of his list.
A Look Into Fire
August 14, 1933, a forest fire literally exploded into being near the coastal Northwest Oregon town of Tillamook. It was described as “holocaustic”.
The Great Outdoors - Gustafson’s Favorite Office
Gustafson says, “On the Oregon coast, we have new environments every five minutes. When it’s ugly, it’s ugly, but when it’s beautiful, it’s awesome.”
Emergent Technologies column
A look at monitoring, 3D surveys, and digital wildfire training.
Tech Review
A review of track log loaders currently on the market.
Guest Column
2020: A Year We Won’t Forget
DEPARTMENTS
