Forest Service Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research announced the results of a study it had undertaken highlighting the role reforestation plays in reducing flooding and the volume of farmland-derived sediments in waterways of the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley.

On August 21, West Virginia Trucking Association President Jan Vineyard told the West Virginia legislature’s Select Committee on Infrastructure that WVTA supported the terms of the Safe & Efficient Transportation Act (HR 612)—authorizing a state option to permit 97,000-pound, six-axle trucks on Interstate highways within a state’s borders—and urged the Committee, as well as West Virginia’s Division of Highways, to endorse SETA. Although DOH’s chief staff engineer stated that the agency wanted to learn more about the possible impacts of SETA on the state’s bridges before venturing an endorsement, he seemed open to pursuing the question, and the Committee appointed a subcommittee to draw up a report on SETA’s potential effects.

Dovetail Partners, a leader in public education about sustainable forestry, has created a web feature called Forest Fast Breaks—presenting concise, engaging animated shorts that simplify complex forestry topics. The videos highlight forest ecology, sustainable forest management practices, and the environmental benefits of utilizing wood in consumer products and as a building material.

FRA and other members of the H-2B Workforce Coalition are following up on our win, this April, in defending last year’s preliminary injunction blocking the federal Department of Labor’s 2012 H-2B Guestworker “Program Rule,” which would have made the H-2B program unworkable. This “Program Rule” governs the logistics of the H-2B guestworker program, which covers foreign guestworkers employed in the handplanting of tree seedlings. The Coalition is now filing a motion with the same 11th Circuit Court (in Florida) to convert that Court’s previous “preliminary injunction” into a “permanent injunction.”