|
 |
Questions & Answers:
For the answer to the current question, click onto the "View Full Newsletter, Christmas 2009" link below. For futures ones, please subscribe to the TimberTalk Newsletter by filling out the form at the bottom of this page.
There is NO COST to you!
|
|
|
From the President's Desk
Good Day to you! Hope your spring has gone very well despite the turmoil in the economy. We have been extremely busy at Southern Forestry, sometimes working extra hard to take advantage of opportunity (timber markets) and sometimes working extra hard to make something from nothing (real estate markets). Despite all the turmoil, the forests continue to be a great place to live, recreate, and work in.
Speaking of the forests, I have had the privilege and honor of serving as co-chairman (with Mike Bell of Rayonier) of Florida’s Working Forest Initiative for the past half-year or so. Birthed by the Florida Forestry Association and co-sponsored by Audubon of Florida and the Florida Division of Forestry, this initiative has gathered together all the stakeholders (friend and foe) in Florida’s forests to discuss issues, find common ground, learn about differences first hand, and ultimately conserve the Working Forests in Florida. After much planning we held a Forestry Roundtable and Legislative Day in Tallahassee on March 16th. Attended by approximately one hundred leaders and stakeholders, the combined events were a major success. The Initiative continues with committees being formed to deal with the emerging bio-energy debate, reforestation efforts, greenbelt taxes, and a broad scale effort to make forest ownership more incentivized so that more of our forests will remain for future generations. The uniqueness of this effort is the coalition of various stakeholder groups that are actively “at the table” participating. In Florida, this Initiative must be successful or else conversion of forest to concrete and buildings will continue to the detriment of industry and ecosystem. We hope you will find some way to participate if you are a Florida forest landowner, and hope that if you are a Georgia or Alabama forest landowner you will also find some way to reach out to the organization of your choice to make a difference in how the forests in your state are viewed and represented. Mostly we hope you benefit by having more good reasons to own forests. At Southern Forestry we are all participating in leadership positions in each state, so that the plight of the nonindustrial forest landowner is heard and understood. If you have any thoughts you would like to share, please let us know of them so the representation you deserve is given its due at committee meetings and discussion events we attend all year round.
As always as you go about the daily routine of forest land ownership, we hope you will call upon us to continue to provide the professional services your resources deserve. Whether it be forest management planning, estate planning, site preparation and planting, prescribe burning, wildlife management planning, timber sale planning and administration, road maintenance, pond management, real estate disposition and acquisition, or any other activity that occurs on forested land, we are here to assist you. For those services we have already provided, we appreciate the opportunity you have given us and trust the experience was made much
better because we were involved. We hope you have a wonderful summer!
Michael Dooner, President
|
872 Kb) 