Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell yesterday urged Congress to permanently authorize an expiring program that allows proceeds from timber sales to be used for forest restoration, arguing it enjoys broad bipartisan support.

Tidwell said a recovering housing market has generated more demand for wood products, which could allow the agency to raise more revenues to fund forest restoration projects.

At a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry, Tidwell also discussed the effects of sequester cuts, the success of collaborative planning and the Bureau of Land Management's new hydraulic fracturing rule.

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New report from the Pinchot Institute conveys findings and recommendations from the FY 2012 Programmatic Monitoring and Evaluation of the role of local communities in the development and implementation of stewardship contracts and agreements on the National Forest System and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The 21st Annual DC Environmental Film Festival will include a free screening of Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot on Thursday, March 21st at 5:30pm at the National Portrait Gallery.

Pinchot Institute President V. Alaric Sample testified before the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry.

Starting in March, keep your eyes peeled for Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot on your local PBS affiliate (check your local listings here). Seeking the Greatest Good is a documentary produced by the public television station WVIA that links Gifford Pinchot’s conservation philosophy with the Pinchot Institute for Conservation’s (PIC) efforts to address contemporary environmental issues.

Continue reading on the Forest History Society blog...

On climate change, the Obama administration seems to be finding its voice.

That was not always the case: because President Obama was not about to let climate change disrupt his second-term chances, during his first term he sat quietly as Republicans vociferously attacked anyone trying to construct an effective climate-change policy for the nation.

These assaults, Anthony Leiserowitz of Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies told Bill Moyers recently, were part of a larger "disinformation campaign" that the fossil-fuel industry has funded: "I mean, they're very happy, thank you very much, with the status quo," delighted with the results of their actions "to get people to believe that the experts do not agree."

Among those who deferred was the Obama administration, and that's still true to some extent. In mid-February more than 40,000 climate activists rallied around the White House as part of the nation's largest such fossil-free rally ever, but the president was a no-show. Instead, he was on a Florida golf course, shooting a sunny round with oil-and-gas executives.

This tone-deaf moment aside, off the links President Obama and the executive branch are starting to speak about the urgent need to protect life on Earth.

Continue reading on KCET.org...

Washington, DC – February 21st, 2013 – The Pinchot Institute for Conservation today announced that Anita Mielert of Simsbury, CT and Paul H. Wilson, Jr. of New York, NY, have been elected to the Institute’s board of directors.

The loss of certain forest ecosystems may be inevitable in a future shaped by climate change, the chief of the Forest Service said yesterday.

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell delivered his frank assessment of the challenges posed by global warming yesterday as the guest speaker for the 2013 Pinchot Distinguished Lecture, hosted by the Pinchot Institute for Conservation at the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. He stressed that his agency, now more than a century old, will need to adjust its standards and practices quickly to keep up with the rapid pace of ecosystem change under global warming.

"I can't stress this enough: The things we learned in school -- what's right for this stand of trees, what's right for this watershed -- might not work in the future," he said.

Among the changes, the Forest Service may have to suspend its long-standing mandate of restoring ecosystems that have experienced disturbance events, he said.

"There are certain areas that we are not going to be able to maintain. There are places we've seen where aspen [trees] have been lost, and we've gone in and tried to restore them, when the reality is, we've lost the site, it's not coming back."

Read the full article on ClimateWire (paywall)

Instead of selling or logging their land to pay medical bills as they age, could family forest owners trade carbon credits for health care?

A new pilot program in Columbia County is trying to find way for small forestland owners to pay for healthcare without cutting more trees. It’s next in a series on innovative environmental ideas.

Collectively, small private landowners own a lot of the tree-covered turf in the U.S. But a lot of that forestland – an area the size of Idaho, according to the Pinchot Institute for Conservation – is at risk of being lost to development as owners age over the next 20 years.

Click here to continue reading this article from Ecotrope.

How valuable are forests--whether in the city, country, or wilderness-to the management of water resources? Join the Pinchot Institute at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) 2013 Summer Specialty Conference June 26-28 in Hartford, CT.

Water quality is one of the most significant environmental issues facing watersheds across the country. States have used different forms of water quality trading over the last decades as a flexible tool for meeting water quality goals. This report gathers those successes, failures, and valuable lessons learned from pioneering groups to help new trading programs lay the groundwork for success.

U.S. producers of wood pellets will likely need to meet or exceed sustainability standards set by the European Union for solid biofuels in order access the European export market. Two reports have recently been published that examine the economic, environmental and policy implications of the expanding wood pellet market...

Click here to continue reading this article from Biomass Magazine.

Producers of wood pellets in the United States will need to meet or exceed sustainability standards set by the European Union and individual European countries to protect the health of forests, while accessing expanding export markets.

LandServer has added a new feature for Maryland landowners to help connect with land trusts.

The Pinchot Institute for Conservation’s Common Waters Fund has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the DuPont Clear Into the Future® Program.

This all came to mind for me today as I viewed a new series of videos posted by The Forest Guild with the support of The Pinchot Institute.  The series is basically one story told from four perspectives; renewable energy production, forest management, conservation and environmental protection, and policy. I found it interesting to see how one basic message can be tailored to four different audiences, and I appreciate their foresight to produce the series in that manner.

Click here to continue reading this post on the Go Wood Blog.

The Forest Guild and the Pinchot Institute are pleased to announce a new website presenting a series of videos about forest biomass harvest and retention guidelines.

Pinchot Institute releases FY 2011 report on stewardship contracts and agreements

New data shows that trees can significantly improve air quality in metropolitan areas like Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC by filtering out pollution that is damaging to human health.

The Pinchot Institute and Winrock’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) announced today a partnership to pilot the Forest Health-Human Health Initiative, the world’s first demonstration of linking forest carbon projects with affordable health care services for forest landowners.