Forestry conference focuses on future of the industry
Travis Allen of Northcentral Technical College in Antigo shared information about the college’s Wood Science program during the Sustainable Forestry Conference April 19.
Sarah Giddings
Loggers, legislators and industry leaders gathered Thursday, April 19 to discuss the future of forestry at the 14th annual Sustainable Forestry Conference, held at the Encore on Central in Florence.
Morning presentations from state and federal agencies indicated that the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is being harvested at levels not seen since the early 1990s. Paul Strong of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this is in part due to the 2014 Farm Bill, which has been a catalyst to partner with state and local governments, as well as nonprofit groups, to speed up harvests on the national forest. He said some of the money from those timber cuts will go toward maintaining the health of the forest.
This bodes well for the future of the timber industry and all the jobs connected with it. The later part of the morning focused on finding and educating a workforce to fill those jobs.
For the full story, see this week’s issue of The Florence Mining News.
