The West Virginia Division of Forestry (WVDOF) has tree seedlings for sale from its Clements State Tree Nursery to meet any of your Spring planting needs. There is species information, a price list, and ordering information on the Division of Forestry website at http://www.wvforestry.com/ If you have specific questions, contact the Nursery at - ph# 304-675-1820.

West Virginia University’s Appalachian Hardwood Center will offer a six-day Certified Logger Training Program beginning Monday, Oct. 24, and running weekdays through Monday, Oct. 31.

“The logging workforce is undergoing a transformation and requires new well-trained people to provide raw materials to help traditional forest products industries and help new green energy facilities to grow and prosper,” said Ben Spong, a WVU Extension Specialist with the AHC and one of the event’s organizers.

This Certified Logger Training Program provides an excellent introduction, including basic logging skills training and the required training for certification by the state.

“With this training and certification, you will be well positioned to start a career as a logging professional,” Spong said, recommending the training for anyone who is “underemployed, a private forest landowner, a student and most anyone else interested in the field of logging.”

Read the full story @ wvutoday

How much pulpwood can reasonably be produced in West Virginia?

In an exercise for the WV Division of Forestry et al., a combination of timber harvest and resource assessment data were used to develop estimates of potential pulpwood production in West Virginia. Harvest data are based on those harvests reported to the West Virginia Division of Forestry under the LSCA program. Harvest data were summarized for each county and year, and a 5-year (2006-2010) average was developed for each county in West Virginia. Pulpwood availability was estimated to be 25 tons per harvested area. While this number can be highly variable, based on a number of factors, this may be our best guess for partially harvested stands in West Virginia.  While it may seem unreasonable to some, knowledge shared with us from other operators in the central Appalachian region help to validate this number.  On a recent pulpwood dominated (very few sawlogs in 27 year old stand) clearcut in Oh, AHC staff were told that the operator was averaging ~67 tons of pulp per acre harvested.  While most harvests in West Virginia are not clearcuts, it does help us put our estimate in perspective.

Read more: WV Pulpwood Availability

October 20-22, 2011

Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH

The Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of
Historic & Artistic Works
in partnership with the Cincinnati Art Museum

Instructors:
Terry Conners, University of Kentucky
Larry Osborn, West Virginia University - Appalachian Hardwood Center

Course Fee: $275, AIC members, $475, non-members

Enrollment Limit: 12
Registration Deadline: September 6, 2011 (if space is available; early registration is advised)

Course and registration info at: http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=1387

Course Description
This two-and-a-half-day course will be of value to any conservator working with wooden artifacts, such as furniture, sculpture, or ethnographic or archaeological objects.  The goal of the course is to teach a systematic approach to identifying wood using simple tools and techniques, suitable for application to furniture, wooden artifacts, musical instruments, craft, archaeological and ethnographic objects etc. The primary focus will be on commonly used North American and European wood species, but will also include some of the foreign/imported/tropical species most likely to be encountered such as mahogany and mahogany “substitutes.” Wood identification is a visual exercise, so emphasis is placed on visual feature and pattern recognition at the macro and microscopic level, using actual wood specimens.

Discussion topics will also include: basic wood types, structure, and important anatomical features; basic specimen preparation and examination using hand lens and microscopes; important properties of selected wood species, and how those properties relate to specialized uses and objects; and the limitations of wood identification.

The course will include lectures and hands-on exercises, including the use of identification keys and online web-based resources. Set in a museum environment, participants will also view collection objects as examples and are encouraged to bring samples of their own for examination. 
Each course participant will be given their own reference wood specimen kit, course material, and additional wood identification resource material.

Matthew Borror, Forest Product Utilization and Marketing Specialist, with the WV Division of Forestry has recently released a new searchable directory of organizations in the forest products industry. The directory can be searched by plant type and/or county to refine the search results.  The directory provides a map location, contact information, products purchased and sold, and if the compnay export porducts outside the USA.

http://www.hardwoodswv.com/directory

Comments can be directed to Matthew at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it