AFA NEWSROOM - May 7, 2025
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2025 ForestPac Pinecone Open
May 15th
| See you SOON for the ForestPAC Pinecone Open at Montgomery Country Club on Thursday, May15! It is not too late to sign up for the fun! | North America’s Top Timberland Owners and Managers, 2025 Update | Forisk has been tracking timberland transactions and aggregating timberland owner data since 2005. The 2025 edition of the North American Timberland Owner & Manager List includes 313 organizations that own or manage at least 10,000 acres. Since the 2024 edition, 12 organizations were added and 21 fell off, representing a 10% change in owners and an additional 3 million acres. Over that time period, Forisk tracked timberland transactions involving those organizations totaling over 0.9 million acres. |
AFA Connect -
2025 AFA Connect, May - Alabama's Water Quality Report Card
May 15th
| Join AFA Connect on Thursday, May 15, 2025, at 11:00 am CST as the Alabama Forestry Commission's own Carey Potter discusses Alabama's Water Quality Report Card. |
AFA'S Back the Blue -
Birmingham
| What a great Back the Blue with Representative Susan DuBose in Birmingham on Friday, April 25! We had a great turnout of volunteers and first responders. Thank you to all who attended! |
Burning at Night:
Benefits Behind the Glow
| While nighttime burns have increased risks, proper planning, skill and ignition techniques can mitigate these risks, potentially addressing the complaint about the scarcity of burn days. | Beyond Tariffs: A Nuanced Look at US-Canada Lumber Trade | The US-Canada lumber trade is a cornerstone of the North American forest products industry, frequently spotlighted for its tariff disputes and economic stakes. Recent policy shifts have reignited discussions about supply chains, costs, and market resilience, often casting the relationship as a battleground of competing interests. Yet, beneath the headlines lies a more intricate story—one of interdependence, mutual benefit, and evolving global dynamics that shape the forest value chain. | |
The new Cheaha State Park Lodge will feature three hotel towers with 32 guest units in a variety of configurations. The towers will be connected by breezeways clad in copper-colored aluminum designed to reflect sunlight in a way similar to The Narrows in Zion National Park and will align with the summer solstice. Each hotel unit will have a private balcony with stunning views of the surrounding mountains and valley below. The project design also includes a rooftop bar and a meeting space that can accommodate conferences, business meetings, executive retreats, weddings or family reunions.
The Cheaha State Park Lodge project will use building materials sustainably sourced in Alabama, including exposed mass timber and stone that celebrate the landscape of Cheaha Mountain and complement the distinctive features of the park’s Civilian Conservation Corps structures. The exposed mass timbers are a sustainable building material made from compressed layers of wood that create strong, structural load-bearing elements with a strength-to-weight ratio similar to concrete.
| How Might Tariffs Affect Housing Construction? | This is the USD 64,000 question, as no one (including the administration) seems to have a clear handle on what tariff levels might be and when they might be implemented. On Friday, 11 April 2025, we thought we at least had clarity related to tariffs on Chinese imports—145%. Then over the ensuing weekend there was more confusion as to how certain technology imports would be exempt from China tariffs, only to be further muddled by additional communication from the White House. |
AFF & Partners are Hosting Upcoming Events Across the State
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Curious about how Prescribed Fire can enhance the health of your woodlands? The Alabama Forestry Foundation and its partners invite you to register for upcoming Learn & Burn events. Keep checking back - we will be adding more events across the state!
🔥 Hands-on learning
🌿 Expert insights
📍 Multiple locations – more counties coming soon!
Visit our events page to learn more about that county's upcoming Learn & Burn and secure your spot today!
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Old Growth Forests in Eastern Canada Show that the Climate Started Changing Almost 100 Years Ago | |
The effects of climate change are complex, especially on the water cycle. As we seek to better understand human-driven climate changes, long-term baselines for environmental data are essential.
However, records of past environmental conditions are too short to give us a robust understanding of how these systems have changed over time. One solution is to look at natural archives.
| Online CE Available For PLM & CFE | Still need CFE hours? Check out AFA's online CE Classes available for CFE & PLM credit.... New 2024 Bundle (5 Hours) is available now. Click the link below to see all the classes available. | |  |
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Forestry's Financial Impact
by County
click map below
| Check out our sponsor by clicking the links below | Ledkins Insurance Agency, LLC |
Thank you to our sponsors
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