Ala forests spring 15 web

Alabama

Spring 2015

FORESTS IN THIS ISSUE

Timber Titan Glenn Bracewell Logger Todd Fuller Tree Farmers Mike & Joan Newman

ELECTRICAL SAFETY STARTS WITH THE RIGHT CALL Barron Jefferson – Lineman, Power Delivery

Here are a few very important things you should know about underground power lines and how to work safely around them.

More and more power lines are being buried underground. This poses a considerable threat for both construction workers and do-it-yourself homeowners. Even if you’re undertaking a seemingly harmless job, such as digging a hole for a new fence, the risks are still there.

You’ve probably heard the “Call before you dig” mantra many times. But take it to heart, nothing good happens when a shovel plunges into a live power line.

The number to call is easy to remember: 811. Call, preferably 48 hours in advance of your project, and the representative will notify all the appropriate utilities.

Pretty easy.

Soon after the call, various technicians will come out and put colored spray paint in the places where there are lines. At right is a chart to explain which one is which.

White

Proposed excavation

Pink

Temporary survey markings

Red

Electric power lines, cables, conduit and lighting cables

Yellow

Gas, oil, steam, petroleum or gaseous materials

Orange

Communications, alarm or signal lines, cables or conduit

Blue

Potable water

Purple

Reclaimed water, irrigation and slurry lines

Green

Sewers and drain lines

Before you dig:

Dial 811

In an emergency, call: 1-800-888-APCO (2726) For more electrical safety tips, visit AlabamaPower.com/safety.

© 2015 Alabama Power Company

Please take this simple step before digging. It’s easy. And it’s free. You’ll save a lot of headaches—and maybe even your life.

Color codes for marking underground utility lines

Contents Alabama Forestry Association, Inc. Chris Isaacson, Executive Vice President OFFICERS Fred T. Stimpson, Mobile, Chairman Ben Smith, Phenix City, President Stephan Tomlinson, Secretary Gray Skipper, Fulton, President-Elect Vaughn Stough, Mountain Brook, Treasurer

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Alabama

FORESTS

Communicating news and information of, about, and for the Alabama forestry community.

DISTRICT DIRECTORS BLACK BELT DISTRICT Doug Bowling, Millbrook CAPITAL DISTRICT Clark Sahlie, Montgomery DELTA DISTRICT Frank Mozingo, Toxey LONGLEAF DISTRICT Tripp Winters, Chapman MOUNTAIN DISTRICT Todd Langston, Stevenson PIEDMONT DISTRICT Chris Langley, Camp Hill VALLEY DISTRICT Dewayne Oakley, Florence VULCAN DISTRICT Trae Bonner, Childersburg WARRIOR DISTRICT Gee Allgood, McShan WIREGRASS DISTRICT Mike Dixon, Eufaula ALABAMA LOGGERS COUNCIL Chris Potts, LaFayette FORESTFUND Winston Bryant, Heflin AT LARGE DIRECTORS Paul Lohman, Prattville Hank Bauer, Perdue Hill Al Bracewell, Jasper Pat Holley, Millport Jim King, Jr., Tuscaloosa Mena McGowin Morgan, Point Clear Joe W. McNeel III, Montrose Virginia Macpherson, Fulton Lenn Morris, Jasper Tom Bradley III, Mobile ALABAMA FORESTS EDITOR Sam Duvall GREEN HORIZONS EDITOR Leigh Peters Alabama Forests (USPS #025-358) is an official publication of the Alabama Forestry Association, 555 Alabama Street, Montgomery, AL 36104-4359 and is published five times a year.

The AFA reserves the exclusive right to accept or reject advertising or editorial material submitted for publication.

Advertising rates quoted upon request.

Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Alabama Forestry Association, 555 Alabama St., Montgomery, AL 36104-4395.

SFI-01273

33 What is this?

Photo by Billy Pope

FEATURES

ADVERTISERS

Timber Titan Glenn Bracewell

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Logger Todd Fuller

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Warren Averett

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Judge Michael Bolin

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Index to Advertisers

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ABOUT THE COVER These logs look like “pick-up sticks” in this aerial view of American Chips, a Bracewell company near Childersburg that was sold to Resolute Forest Products.

Especially for our tree farmers/landowners:

Green Horizons

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Log A Load Update

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DEPARTMENTS From the Executive Vice President

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Dean’s Notebook

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News & Views

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Wildlife & Outdoors

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Come explore our web site! alaforestry.org

From Executive Vice President

HELP WANTED: Finding Well-Trained, Qualified Workers Tops the List

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mong the many challenges confronting companies in Alabama’s forestry community today, finding well-trained, qualified workers is at the top of the list. Whether it’s a logger in Chambers County who spends much of his day running a cutter because he can’t find a qualified operator, or the company in Butler County that has a permanent “Help Wanted” sign on the highway in front of the mill, workforce challenges are increasingly a factor limiting the productivity of many operations.

Our industry is not alone, however. As a result, numerous workforce councils have been formed, training and education has been provided and initiatives implemented. None, however, are focused on promoting jobs and recruiting workers for one of Alabama’s largest employers — the forest industry.

As a result, AFA has embarked on a comprehensive workforce development initiative that will unfold over the next 6 years. This 3-phase project involves leveraging some of the work already in place to incorporate a “jobs” focus as well as addressing the quality of education in our schools today to ensure the students are adequately prepared. (Find out more at www.alabama forestryfoundation.org)

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As we began developing strategies to engage high school students with information about forestry careers, we concluded that all of the staff at AFA suffer from a debilitating handicap — AGE. Sure, we have some young, very sharp professionals but even they are at least a decade beyond the 14–15-year-old students who we need to reach with our message about good jobs and fulfilling careers in forestry.

As a result, we have engaged some very talented, very creative professionals to help us develop a strategy to expose students to the variety of job and career opportunities across the forest industry and recruit workers into these jobs by laying out career paths then assisting those interested down those paths. Whether students are interested in going to work straight out of high school or their chosen path leads to technical training or a 2- or 4-year degree, our goal is to ensure that more and more students in schools across Alabama choose a path leading to employment in forestry.

Over the last few months I’ve spent a number of days in the field with a film crew capturing images of the people in forestry and learning their stories — why they love what they do, how they got there, and their visions of their future in forestry. From the 21-yearold logger who has been

running his own crew for the past 4 years to the 19-year-old millwright trainee who loves the idea that he is part of an industry that takes a renewable resource and turns it into lumber that will be used to build homes for American workers — we’re finding the best recruiters for our industry may well be the young workers themselves.

We’ve heard from a young forester who has found his

Chris Isaacson

We’re finding the best recruiters for our industry may well be the young workers themselves. calling as a steward of the forests that God created, to the forest technician who gets excited about helping a landowner achieve his goals.

The careers of some we talked to took an unexpected but welcome turn — like the young forester who started in land management but now manages a plywood manufacturing operation. We’ve even talked to a helicopter pilot who prepares tracts previously harvested for the planting of tomorrow’s forest, who also may well be one of the most articulate evangelists for sustainable forest management I’ve ever heard.

All of these stories and more paint a compelling picture of career opportunities in forestry and the character of

the people you find working there. In the next few months we’ll begin engaging students directly and telling those stories. We’ll also begin building those paths and developing strategies to walk future workers down those paths. We’ve even started the planning process to create technical training programs where none exist. This effort is a “marathon” not a “sprint” and success will depend on broad, long-term commitment across the forestry community.

Stay tuned for more about this effort and details about how you can be involved. ▲

Find out more at www.alabamaforestryfoundation.org

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NOT ALL SEEDLINGS ARE CREATED EQUAL. VISIT US ONLINE

INTERNATIONALFOREST.CO

Dean’s Notebook

AU’s School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences Has a New Dean

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ollowing a national search, Janaki Alavalapati, head of the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech, has been named dean of Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, effective May 27.

“Dr. Alavalapati has an outstanding record of accomplishments in a range of disciplines, including forest resources, the environment and new energy solutions, as well as a wealth of experience with national and international governmental agencies,” said Auburn University Provost Timothy Boosinger. “We look forward to working with him as we continue to build the academic, research and outreach programs of our School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences.”

Alavalapati has served as a professor and department head in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment since 2008. Previously, he was a faculty member in the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation from 1998 to 2008. Earlier, he worked at the University of Alberta in Canada and a state Forest Department in India.

“I am delighted and honored to have been chosen as

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the dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences,” Alavalapati said.

“With world class faculty, staff and students, and the significance of forests, wildlife and natural resources to the economic and employment fabric of Alabama, and unwavering support of stakeholders and alumni, the school has a great potential to grow. I look forward to dedicating my efforts to building upon the strong programs that already exist in the school.” Alavalapati succeeds interim Dean Graeme Lockaby, who will resume his position of associate dean of research in the school.

Alavalapati has a doctorate in forest resource economics and a master’s degree in rural sociology, both from the University of Alberta, Canada, and he earned master’s degrees in botany and forestry from universities in India. He has published more than 200 publications and made more than 145 professional presentations relating to forests and natural resources. As the chair or cochair, Alavalapati has advised 28 graduate students. As a PI or co-PI, he secured over $20 million for his research from a variety of funding agencies. He has the experience of teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in forest resource eco-

nomics and policy at Virginia Tech, University of Florida, and University of Alberta. He also has experience of forestry extension.

Alavalapati awards include Research Foundation Professorship and Outstanding Graduate Teacher and Advisor at the University of Florida, Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2008

Dean Janaki Alavalapati Auburn University

I look forward to dedicating my efforts to building upon the strong programs that already exist in the school. and International Union of Forest Research Organization’s Scientific Achievement Award in 2010. He serves as an editorial board member of Forest Policy and Economics and Outdoor Recreation and Tourism journals and as the policy chair for the National Association of University Forest Resource Programs. Since 2011, as a senior fellow of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas at the U.S. Department of State, Alavalapati has helped Belize, Guyana and Brazil with issues relating to sustainable forestry and natural resources management. In 2007-2008, as a Jeffer-

son Science Fellow, he served as a senior advisor for International Energy Affairs in the U.S. Department of State, Washington D.C. ▲

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Timber Titan of Alabama’s Forest Industry

Glenn Bracewell A Man Who Loves Forestry & the Trees!

By Sam Duvall

Glenn taking it easy, something he rarely does.

EDITOR’S NOTE: In Greek Mythology Titans were a race of immortal giants of incredible strength.

Today, the term “titans of industry” has been used to refer to individuals who made an incredible impact on the development of an industry. The following article will chronicle the life, work and contributions of one of our industry’s most influential leaders.

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lenn Bracewell of Troy, Alabama, has a simple philosophy about work: Either love what you do, or find something you love to do, and do that!

“If you love what you do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. You’ll always be doing fun things,” Bracewell said in a recent interview on his land near Clayton, Alabama.

Not to say that Glenn Bracewell has had a cushy life. Quite the contrary: Born in the Great Depression and raised on a farm in Blountstown, Florida, Glenn chose forestry as a career. Working in the woods for 60 years, he has probably cruised more timber than several forestry consulting firms, combined.

Although he turns 83 on July 11, Bracewell still gets up every day and goes to work.

On the day of this interview, he was itching to get done so he could close on a piece of property he was buying.

“Somebody saw me leaving home one day and they asked my son-in-law, ‘Does he still work?’ and he answered, ‘Yeah, six days a week,’” Bracewell said with a chuckle.

Glenn’s son Al Bracewell, president of Jasper Lumber Company — a firm that Glenn started in partnership with Guice Slawson — said of his father’s current work routine: “It’s probably a little bit more relaxed that it used to be. But he’s still got to come and check on things and have a little oversight.”

Working for over half a century, Glenn Bracewell built several highly successful forestry companies, sold some of them and bought, sold and held onto thousands of acres of forestland. He even farmed some of the open land that he bought. Anything that can be done to make money off of land Bracewell has done it, always with an eye toward improving marginal land and making it more productive.

Bracewell’s Roots Run Deep In Foresty Glenn Bracewell grew up on a family farm in Blountstown, Florida. His father Beno and mother Maudie had six children: five boys (three older than Glenn, one younger) and a sister who died at age two.

“My early childhood was farm work. Coming home from school, I would change into work clothes, shuck and shell corn to feed chickens; shuck corn for our mules, and get in stove wood in the summer months and firewood and stove Glenn’s Blountstown school photo from ’47- wood in the winter months,” Bracewell recalled.

“We didn’t have indoor plumbing. But we were fortunate to be on land where ’48 school year. we could sink a pump-type well 25 feet and get fresh spring water that flowed through limestone rock. You could pump it into a glass and it would frost over. It must have been somewhere around 65 to 68 degrees.”

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The Bracewell family raised hogs, corn, peanuts and, “once and a while we’d plant a little cotton.

“Daddy had land in the Apalachicola River swamp. In the fall the hogs would be moved to the river swamp to finish fattening them on acorns. We would kill fifteen for our meat. Now, we didn’t consume 15 hogs. Daddy used it as barter to pay men to hoe peanuts. He’d pay off in meat, meal, and sweet potatoes. We raised a lot of sweet potatoes. We didn’t have money, but you could get plenty of people to work by providing them some type of food,” Glenn said.

“My mother had a washwoman that would come every Monday and do all our washing. She paid her 25 cents, plus a ‘weasel’ of snuff,” Bracewell noted.

Maudie Bracewell also spent a lot of time keeping her large family fed.

“For us five boys, my mother would cook 50 biscuits for breakfast every morning. Fifteen or twenty of them were for lunches, made up with different things like ham. During lunch at school, we’d open our paper sacks and I’d usually pull out a ham biscuit. Sometimes there’d be somebody wanting to swap a pineapple sandwich for a ham biscuit. I learned to enjoy pineapple from that and still love it today,” Glenn said. “I thought that was a pretty good treat, getting a pineapple sandwich for a ham biscuit!”

War and Rumors of War Although Glenn and his brother, Joe, were too young for service during World War Two, Glenn’s older brothers, Carmen and James, served in U.S. Army combat units. Carmen was wounded on Luzon Island and James was killed on Leyte Island. Wendel, five years older than Glenn, served in the Merchant Marine during the war, helping keep vital supplies flowing to American fighting forces.

Glenn finished high school in A L A B A M A F O R E S TS | S p r i n g 2 0 1 5

Top: Glenn and Joyce Bracewell with children, left to right, Robert, Beth and Al. Bottom: The whole Bracewell Clan, L to R first two rows, Beth Rose, Beth Gibson (Paula’s daughter) is holding Evan Rose, Glenn Bracewell is holding Hudson Rose, Paula Bracewell (Robert’s wife), Joyce Bracewell, Amanda Gallatin (Robert’s daughter), Sara Katherine Bracewell (Al’s daughter), Jake Bracewell (Al’s son), standing at back left, Chris Rose (Beth’s husband), Matthew Bracewell (Robert’s son), Robert Bracewell, Al Bracewell, Ben Bracewell (Al’s son), and Christine Bracewell (Al’s wife).

Left: August 1956 newspaper marriage announcement for Glenn and Joyce

Blountstown in 1951. Following the footsteps of his father, who served in World War I, and his brothers who served in World War Two, Glenn went into the service in March of 1951 during the Korean War. “I went to Japan. The ship we went

over on was full of Army Infantry and Marines. We went to Hardy barracks in Tokyo. The next morning after arriving we all fell out (for formation) and the first sergeant said, ‘The following three men with the following MOS’s (Military 9

T i m b e r T i t a n o f A l a b a m a ’s F o r e s t I n d u s t r y : G l e n n B r a c e w e l l

Left, aerial view of Jasper Lumber Company, left, B&T Shavings, upper left, and Southern Wood Chips, middle right. Glenn’s youngest son Al is president of these three companies.

Right, American Chips. Below: Glenn and Al Bracewell at Jasper Lumber Company.

Occupational Specialty) step forward. I was one of those three men. He told us, ‘go down to the first sergeant’s office, you three men are staying here in Japan. The rest of you get on the train, you’re going to Korea,’” Glenn remembers.

“I was a sergeant in the Signal Corps. I wrote programs of instruction for the Japanese (military),” said Glenn. “I spent a year doing that. I returned to the U.S., to Seattle, Washington. From there I went to Fort Jackson (South Carolina), where I was released from service in February of 1954.”

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Time for Work On his return from the military, Glenn enrolled at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

“I went there one semester and ran out of money. So I went to work at a service station that summer. Late that fall, I went to Cleveland, Ohio, to work for Fisher Body (makers of car and truck bodies for General Motors),” Glenn said. Although Fisher said they weren’t hiring, an exception was made for Glenn who had entered the word ‘farm’ when asked where he

was raised. “I found out later that their objective was to hire southern farm boys because they knew they would work,” Glenn said.

After spending a winter in Cleveland, Glenn’s mother Maudie called and told him that a local man, Leon Durham, “wants to talk to you about running his grocery store” in Blountstown. So Glenn left the frosty north, returned and took the job running Mr. Durham’s store. “In my teen and high school years I worked at service stations and grocery stores, so I was familiar with that kind of work,” he noted.

It is fortuitous that Glenn returned because while working at the store he met a pretty young woman named Joyce Ellis.

At the time, Joyce was teaching school in Blountstown, 127 miles southeast of her hometown Troy, Alabama. “She came to the grocery store now and then and we got acquainted and started dating,” Glenn recalled. “A little over a year later, in August of 1956, we got married in Troy.”

That summer Glenn had been accepted into the Ranger School in Lake City, Florida. The school was an extension program the University of Florida started A L A B A M A F O R E S TS | S p r i n g 2 0 1 5

after World War Two to address a shortage of foresters. He and Joyce moved to Lake City. She got a teaching job while Glenn attended the Ranger School. “The class I was in started with 60 students and 50 finished,” said Glenn.

Time for Family and Work The newly married couple didn’t waste time starting a family.

“Our oldest son, Robert, was born in 1957 in Lake City. Our next child, Beth, was born in 1961 and Al was born in 1965,” Glenn said.

With his Ranger School diploma in hand, Glenn received five good job offers from, “a good sized wood dealer in South Carolina, a sawmill in Georgia, Buckeye Cellulose, International Paper Company, and C.W. Estes, a wood dealer in Eufaula.”

The South Carolina company owner told Glenn, “I’ll start you off at $400 a month. That’s $50 more than a 4-year graduate. I asked, ‘why would you pay me $50 more than a 4-year graduate?’ He said, ‘well, I’ve worked 4-year graduates and Ranger School graduates. The 4-year graduates want to sit behind a desk. The Ranger School graduates were trained in the woods and they don’t mind working!’”

Despite the generous offer, Glenn took the Eufaula job. “I wanted to go in business for myself one day, and that was the best opportunity for me to do that.” Glenn worked for Estes from 1957 to 1964.

“When Mr. Estes died in 1964, his wife and I went into business together. We were shipping 200 to 300 cords a week primarily to Great Southern Paper Company at Cedar Springs, Georgia. I was their 10th dealer. They wanted every dealer to ship 1,000 cords a week. We did get up to that.

“They also built a yard at Comer and I was the dealer for that yard too. The company started out as Bracewell-Estes, then Mrs. Estes got out and Frank Grant bought in and it became Bracewell-Grant Timber Company. In 1974 we bought a whole tree chipper from Mobark. That enhanced our production and by the end of 1980, we were shipping 1,800 to 2,000 cords a week, a pretty good sized dealership.”

In 1979, Glenn attended an equipment show in New Orleans and learned about wood treatment plants. Soon after, he talked with fellow landowner Guice Slawson about starting a wood treatment business.

“Guice and I put up a treatment plant in 1980, Southeast Wood Treating. Then we bought two other treatment plants, one right out of Jasper in the mid ’80s, and one at Coco Beach, Florida in ’86-’87.”

Slawson and Bracewell also bought a shutdown mill in Jasper, Alabama, then opened it as a sawmill in 1985, ultimately naming it Jasper Lumber Company. Glenn’s son Al is currently president of Jasper Lumber and affiliated companies, including a chip mill and a land company.

Al also serves on the Alabama Forestry Association Board of Directors.

“In 1992, I sold my interest in the treatment plant to Guice,” Glenn said. “Then in 1995, I bought his interest out of Jasper Lumber, and two chip mills. In 1990 we had built the first chip mill in Jasper, Southern Wood Chips, serving IP in Courtland. We then built American Chips in Childersburg, which contracted with Kimberly-Clarke” — now Resolute Wood Products. The Childersburg mill was sold to Resolute in 2009.

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s m e G ’s n n e l G

On Success: “I found out years ago, not to play somebody else’s game. If you play their game, you’re going to lose. Where I’ve been able to gain is, I knew land and I knew timber and I stayed with that.”

On Loblolly vs. Longleaf Pine: “I haven’t done much longleaf planting and I don’t like it. The reason I don’t is because the volume of growth you get out of it for the first 30 years is less than the volume of growth in loblolly. After that, the growth potential shifts to longleaf. But on a 30-year rotation, which is mostly what we’ve gone to, loblolly will generally outperform longleaf in overall growth potential.”

On Short Wood vs. Long Wood: “In the early ’90s, everybody was going from short wood to long wood. I believe it hurt land management. With short wood, landowners could keep their land intact and cleaner than with long wood harvesting.”

On Philosophy of Land Ownership: “I’ve always considered myself nothing more than a custodian of the land. About the best we can do is manage and look after the land and try to enhance it to provide a living for people and families.”

On the Need for Forestry-Related Organizations: “To me it (the AFA) is very important because they speak for just about every landowner in the state. Several thousand people with a voice, goes a lot further with politicians than one landowner’s voice.”

Glenn and grandsons Evan Rose (left) and Hudson Rose. The boys are the sons of his daughter Beth and her husband Chris Rose.

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T i m b e r T i t a n o f A l a b a m a ’s F o r e s t I n d u s t r y : G l e n n B r a c e w e l l

While Acquiring Companies, Bracewell also Bought Land “All of those years, my thinking was that I needed land. And I have accumulated a good little bit. In fact, when we bought Jasper Lumber Company, the banker made us a loan because of my land holdings.

“The first tract of land I bought was right here where these cabins are located (near Clayton). It was 275-acres. I paid $25,000 for it” in the 1960s, Glenn recalled. Since then he has bought hundreds of contiguous acres to that plot, in addition to many other tracts.

“After I bought this tract of land here (at Clayton), I bought some property with open farmland on it. I rented it one year.

At the end of that farm season, my land had just about washed away. I plowed up all the terraces and I said, ‘I’ll never rent another piece of land’ and I started farming it myself.

“With sharecroppers helping me, we

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farmed from 1970 until 1998. We planted peanuts, corn and cotton. I wound up with over 700,000 pounds of peanut quota, a pretty good sized quota for that time.

When the government bought out our peanut quota, we quit farming and I started planting pine trees,” Glenn said.

“My first tract of pine tree planting was in the winter of ’98.”

Since then, Glenn has spent much of his time buying land or overseeing timber harvesting on land he owns. “I’m selling timber all the time so I look after that and make sure they (loggers) do a good job cutting,” he said.

“One thing we require on timber-cutting on our land is to push the water bars up from the skid trails and on the roads for ingress and egress. Then we come back in and grass it to make sure we take care of erosion,” Glenn noted.

Throughout life as a farmer, soldier, tree farmer, forestry company owner/

operator, father and grandfather, Glenn Bracewell has cast a long shadow. To say the least, he has come a long way from the young farm boy thrilled at the prospect of swapping a ham biscuit for a pineapple sandwich!

Asked what advice he would give someone starting a career in forestry, Glenn said, “First, get a good education in forestry. Then, you need to love the outdoors, love the land and love being a good custodian of the land. If you like all of that, you’ll never have to work a day in your life!”

That’s good advice from a man who has spent his whole life practicing what he preaches.

“The good Lord has blessed me in so many ways,” Bracewell said, a smile creasing his face, “that every morning when I get up I thank the Lord that I can still put my feet on the floor!” ▲

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Logging Professional Profile We believe loggers should be celebrated for the part they play in the wood fiber supply chain of keeping wood flowing to the mills.

Todd Fuller Was Born to Be a Logger

By Sam Duvall

W

hen Lanett logger Todd Fuller was a young boy he was so enthralled with logging that he used to go to nearby logging jobs just to watch logger’s work and eat lunch with them.

“I’d ride my minibike out to where the Potts Brothers (Chris and Mike) were going to be cutting. I knew what time they were going to eat dinner and I’d take some vienna sausages and some potted meat and I’d sit down and have dinner with them.

At the time, I didn’t know them, I was just a little boy,” Fuller recalled, with a laugh. “I’ve just always been fascinated with logging.”

From that auspicious beginning Todd, who is now 52 took to logging like a duck to water and never looked back. He set up his company, Fuller’s Logging, in 1991.

From Thin Work to Full-time Thinning In the early days Fuller had just a couple of employees and did much of the work himself. Fuller’s Logging now has a crew of seven men who produce an average of 45 loads a week. His company specializes in first thinning’s on the landholdings of CatchMark Timber Trust, Inc. Listening to Fuller talk is a lesson in how loggers must stay nimble to make money at what is the most fundamental aspect of forestry.

“When we first got into the logging business, we logged big wood. Then for the last 14 or 15 years, we haven’t done anything but thinning,” Fuller noted. “We bought our own wood up until we went to work with CatchMark six years ago.

“Early on we ran a ‘cut-to-length’ operation for about four years. I loved cut-to-length. I didn’t have much help. I ran one machine and another guy run one machine and that was all.

But the mills got tired of all the random-length wood coming in and cut us back until we couldn’t make it,” Todd said.

“When I had cut-to-length I was running my own company and I had an edge because I could do a better job, plus I could cut younger, shorter stuff. So I kind of had an edge on buying wood against anybody else. Well, when I went back to conventional logging, I lost my edge,” Fuller said.

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One Edge Down, One or Two More To Go

Todd Fuller, owner of Fuller’s Logging of Lanett, Ala., was interested in logging as a young boy when he visited the Potts Brothers as they logged land near his home.

“I tried to figure out what I could do to get my edge back. I ended up putting a fuel wood chipper beside the loader. I started taking tops and all the limbs and everything and putting it in a fuel wood chipper.

“I’d have my cutter man cut everything.

These sweetgum bushes (he gestures toward them with his hand)—there wouldn’t be any sweetgum bushes.

There wouldn’t be any cedar trees. It would be completely clean.

It looked like a park when we left.

“I got my edge back then. If I could ever get the landowner just to come and look at the job, it didn’t matter what my price was 13

L o g g i n g P r o f e s s i o n a l To d d F u l l e r

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Two more loads for the mill.

2 Chris Potts (left) has a laugh with Todd Fuller on Fuller’s Logging site. Chris was there to evaluate Todd for a Logger of the Year nomination. As a young boy, Todd used to ride his minibike to watch Potts’ logging operations and eat lunch with the crew.

Cutting and laying another tree down. Fuller does primarily first thinning’s on CheckMark land.

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Fuller Logging uses surplus Army trucks to get the logs close enough to the good roads that he saves his better trucks for hauling to the mills. One of Fuller’s set out trucks. Shane Bridges is using a pole cutter to cut away vines and clean up the load, as the sun flares off windshield of another Army truck.

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Standing in front of a new John Deere skidder is the Fuller Logging crew, left to right, Shane Bridges, Fransisco Pastor, Brandon Threadgill, Wayne Howard, and boss man Todd Fuller.

on the timber, I got the job,” Fuller remembered.

At the time, Fuller was hauling pulpwood and fuel wood to the Norbord plant at Lanett.

“When Norbord shut down, I lost my haul for fuel wood. I had been hauling a lot of pulpwood and all of my fuel wood to them. So when they shutdown, that took my edge away again,” he said.

As I turned out, Fuller had traded for five tracts of CatchMark wood close to his home.

“I had cut three of the tracts when Norbord went out of business. When that happened, CatchMark asked me to go to work for them. They said, ‘You just come and work for us full time. Just cut our land,’” Fuller recalls. “I said, ‘Now look, thinning is all I want to do. I don’t cut hardwood and I don’t cut any logs. I thin. I want y’all to understand before you hire me, I am a thinner,’ ” Fuller told CatchMark.

“They said, ‘That’s what we want. We want somebody dedicated to thinning only,’” Fuller said. “So, that’s what I do for these boys, I thin.”

Todd added that he has a “great crew” and when he is away from the job, “Brandon (Threadgill) is my right hand man.”

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Todd also employees as full-time truck drivers, left to right, Billy Howell and Joe Ballard.

Surrounded by Women Essential to any working man’s life is his family. Todd Fuller has the full backing, involvement and support of his family in his work.

He and his wife Shelia have five daughters ranging in age from 15 to 26. His oldest daughter Kimberly has been the Log a Load for Kids event chairman for the Piedmont District for the past couple of years and has done an outstanding job, raising over $70,000 for Alabama’s Children’s Hospitals the two years she ran the program which she recently handed off to a friend.

Todd likes to spend time at Lake Martin and Lake West Point with his family and friends. “Our motto is, ‘Lake time is happy time.’ ” No matter how bad the day has been, when Todd gets to the lake, it makes it all better. He loves to pull the kids on skis, tubes and wakeboards.

Although his number one hobby is “work” Todd is restoring a 1929 Model A that he plans to turn into a hot rod.

Asked how life is surrounded by five girls, Todd was quick to point out it’s actually seven when you count his wife Shelia and her sister Cynthia Gunn, who serves as bookkeeper for Fuller’s Logging.

When Shelia was asked if Todd ever won an argument, surrounded by so many women, she pointed out that the math certainly does not work in his favor.

In addition to his sister-in-law’s involvement, Todd’s father-in-law Charles Mitchell also helps out at his shop.

“My daddy-in-law worked with me in logging for about 10 years. He still helps me at the shop. He’s right at 80 years old, but if I need something like having the trimming saws worked on, I just leave them there and he’ll get it fixed and leave it propped in the door ready to go, when I get home,” Fuller said.

Folks Like Todd Fuller’s Work Dusty Warren, Fiber Logistics Manager of Forest Resource Consultants, Inc., who serves as managing agent for CatchMark Timber Trust, has only good things to say about Fuller’s Logging.

“Todd’s crew adds value to our forest while never once compromising socially responsible forestry or safety of the crew,” Warren wrote, in support of Fuller’s nomination last year for Alabama Logger of the Year.

Warren noted that Fuller Logging “does an excellent job of adhering to all BMP (Best Management Practices) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) constraints placed upon them by our operations.

CatchMark Timber has an independent third-party audit for SFI every year. Todd’s sites have been third-party audited several years in a row and we have never had a

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L o g g i n g P r o f e s s i o n a l To d d F u l l e r research data several times,” Gallagher noted.

Fuller Believes in the Practice of Forestry

Backing up Todd on the home front is, left to right, wife Shelia, sister-in-law Cynthia Gunn, and their father Charles.

Todd’s daughter, Kimberly Fuller Carter (center), is presented with the award for the “largest single-day event” in 2014 when she raised $36,500 for the Piedmont District.

Presenting the award was State Log A Load Chair Janet Ison (left) and Deb Schneider, director of the CHIPS Center in Birmingham.

Like most loggers, Todd gets an earful from people who have a negative attitude about forestry in general and logging in particular.

“I’ve had folks tell me, ‘Y’all are going to cut all the trees down.’ When I hear that, I tell The Fuller family, left to right, Amanda Fuller, Danielle Fuller, Todd Fuller, them that the minute a tree hits Shelia Fuller, Suzanne Fuller, Stephanie Fuller, Kimberly Fuller Carter and the ground for the folks I cut for, Chad Carter. in six months there’s another tree put right back in the ground finding issue on one of his sites.” to take its place,” he said, with obvious Tom Gallagher, professor at Auburn pride.

University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Fuller recalls advice from an older logSciences also thinks highly of Todd and ger some years ago. “He told me, ‘You can his crewmates. be a logger or you can be a mechanic.’ He “Todd is always open to hosting meant that when a machine is in the shop groups, as I have annually taken my haryou lose your production. So I went and vesting class, several groups of Forest bought me some new equipment and actuService employees here for a harvesting ally started making money in the logging instruction seminar, and several individubusiness,” he said with a grin. als out to see his operations. He is always Asked how long he expects to continue very gracious and open to visits. Many in the profession he dreamed of while he times he speaks to the group and offers was a kid eating potted meat on a logging them great insight into logging and good site with the Potts Brothers, Fuller ‘advice’ for up and coming foresters. He responded, “I reckon till I get to where I has allowed us on his job to collect can’t do it anymore!” ▲

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PO Box 1425 • Jasper, AL 35502 www.jasperlumber.com Phone: (205) 384-9088 / Fax: (205) 384-0000 16

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Associate Member Spotlight ASSOCIATE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT highlights associate members who are invaluable to AFA. Through their dues and sponsorships, associate members fund AFA’s grassroots activities, including regional receptions and outreach to our members, prospective new members and other interested parties. Please learn more about our associate members and support them so they will continue to be an integral part of our association.

Warren Averett Serves Forestry Clients Throughout the Southeast Warren Averett is one of the largest accounting and consulting firms in the Southeast, ranking among the top 30 firms in the United States. With more than 800 employees, 350 CPAs and 15 offices across the Southeast, Warren Averett serves public, private and notfor-profit entities across the globe through specialized industry and service teams.

Warren Averett has the resources and depth to successfully help their clients thrive, offering services beyond audit and tax including asset management, staffing and recruiting, HR consulting, technology consulting, financial outsourcing and retirement plan services.

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s the region’s largest and most resourceful accounting, tax and advisory firm, Warren Averett has expanded to keep pace with client demand across the Southeast while recognizing that clients, and the environment they must operate in, have become more complex and challenging. The strategy is to provide them the resources to thrive in these complex environments.

The Montgomery office of Warren Averett was founded in 1957 and originally named Wilson, Price, Barranco, Blankenship & Billingsley. In 2012, the combination of Alabama-based Warren, Averett, Kimbrough & Marino and Wilson, Price, Barranco, Blankenship & Billingsley with Florida-based O’Sullivan Creel gave rise to a new driving force in the Southeast. All three firms recognized, as many firms have, that clients are multi-state, multinational, multi-line of business — so combining resources allowed the Firm to serve clients bet-

A

ter, offering them the resources they need to thrive.

Warren Averett continued to expand its southeastern footprint in 2013 with the addition of two high-performing firms in Gifford, Hillegass & Ingwersen (GH&I) of Atlanta and Pender Newkirk & Co. of Tampa. The Atlanta and Tampa markets are poised for growth an opportunity which will benefit the firm’s clients, and their professionals.

A Passion to Thrive A passion for their client’s success underscores why Warren Averett does what it does.

That passion forms the core of the promise and mission to help clients thrive and accomplish more of what’s important to them. Warren Averett does this by being on and at their client’s side.

Resourceful, inventive, accountable, spirited and competitive, clients say the Firm shares many of their defining traits. They treat their clients businesses like their own— from the advice they give, to

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Asso ciate M emb er Profile: War ren Averett the commitment they demonstrate and the service they deliver. Winning matters to their clients and to Warren Averett too. They are driven to add measurable value with ideas, advice and capabilities that help achieve the results clients’ demand of themselves and others.

Warren Averett hires exceptional talent throughout the Firm, and they are focused on making sure each and every client across their organization experiences that value consistently and comprehensively.

Forest Products Expertise Warren Averett’s clients are leaders in their respective fields and expect their professional advisor to know their industry. That’s why WA established industry practice groups that include professionals with years of experience either working for or working in specific industry. These teams spend hours in advanced training and are directly

involved with local and national industry associations and organizations. Audit, tax and consulting technical expertise, coupled with specific insight into an industry, allows their professionals to make the most of opportunities to create, grow and protect value.

Warren Averett thoroughly understands the foundation of the forest products industry as we currently serve many of the Southeast’s largest forest products companies. We understand timber depletion and the record keeping procedures that are required related to timber account management. We stay abreast of the changes affecting

the forest products industry so we can offer the most value to our clients.

Warren Averett provides its clients with the experience and technical resources of a national firm, yet their local roots and traditions provide a superior level of personal attention and service. A relationship with Warren Averett offers technical expertise coupled with industry insight and strong consulting expertise.

They work seamlessly with a clients’ management to

become a valuable part of their advisory team.

Warren Averett is a regional firm, serving clients throughout the Southeast as well as all 50 states and more than 30 countries outside the United States. Their resources offer a professional advisory team with expertise beyond the typical audit and tax services. Each of these clients is served by our professional staff located in 13 offices throughout the Southeast. ▲

50+ SERVING FOREST PRODUCTS CLIENTS THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHEAST Alabama Anniston Auburn Birmingham Cullman Foley Huntsville Mobile Montgomery

Florida Destin Fort Walton Pensacola Tampa Georgia Atlanta

“After purchasing a hardwood lumber-manufacturing mill in North Alabama I needed to seek advice on accounting and tax preparation matters. I knew if we wanted to be the best, we needed to seek the best. After some vigorous research, Warren Averett kept rising to the top and meeting our company needs. I’ve been onboard with Warren Averett for over 3 years and they’ve saved us thousands of dollars. They came in, studied our method of operation and advised us for our greatest potential of growth.” PRESIDENT/CEO, HARDWOOD LUMBER MANUFACTURER 18

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A Profile in Public Service

Behind the Black Robe…

Justice Michael F. “Mike” Bolin

By Tom Saunders

ike Bolin is an associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court first elected to that position in 2004, re-elected in 2010 and is running for election again in 2016. Judge Bolin is known for his conservative views and has been strongly supported by the Alabama Forestry Association for his unwavering commitment to strict constitutionalism.

This is the Mike Bolin of today…so how did he get here?

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Grew Up in a Working Class Neighborhood Judge Bolin grew up in a humble middle class family in Birmingham, Alabama. He was born in 1948 and is the son of a steel worker. He graduated from Shades Valley High School in 1966, Samford University in 1970 and received his law degree from Cumberland School of Law in 1973.

His early experience laid an important foundation for where he is today. While attending law school, he clerked for a small firm in Birmingham. His clerkship taught him lessons that gave him an early advantage in his A L A B A M A F O R E S TS | S p r i n g 2 0 1 5

law practice. In a small law firm, lawyers have to be “jacks of all trades.” As a clerk in a small firm you get the opportunity to be more involved than one would at a large firm.

Bolin used this opportunity to learn the inner workings of the Jefferson County Courthouse. While running errands for the firm, he got to know the judges and court personnel while developing a comfort level of the surroundings that would benefit him later on.

And he learned how to be an effective trial attorney, by watching great lawyers argue important cases at the courthouse.

Upon graduation, Bolin briefly considered the “Big Law” route, but chose the same firm for which he clerked that would later become Hanes, Hanes & Bolin.

As a green lawyer in a small firm, he was asked early on to take on responsibilities in case management that would have taken him several years in a larger firm. He also had the opportunity to gain experience by trying cases on a weekly basis.

What he didn’t know at the time was that the firm would later mold him both professionally and personally.

The firm’s senior partner

was none other than Art Hanes. Best known for his short tenure as Mayor of Birmingham during the turbulent times of 1961–1963, Hanes’ law career was defined by his involvement in several infamous cases. He represented three Klu Klux Klan members accused of murdering civil rights worker Viola Gregg Liuzzo, Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss who was convicted in 1977 for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and the deaths of four young African-American girls, and James Earl Ray, who was convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King.

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Profile in Public Ser vice Judge Mike Bolin

Gravitates to Family Court and Child Custody Cases Young lawyer Bolin was initially intrigued by the high profile cases, but later come to the conclusion that criminal cases “lost their luster after awhile.” As his practice grew, Bolin gravitated toward becoming the domestic relations expert within the firm, especially focusing on family court and child custody cases.

In 1988 an opening emerged in the Jefferson County Probate Court and he was encouraged to seek that office. Initially Judge Bolin was not particularly interested. If he was going to seek a judgeship, many of his lawyer friends encouraged him to run for a circuit judge position. However, at the time, there were 27 circuit judges and only 2 probate judges in the county. Convinced that he could have a greater impact as 1 of 2, rather than 1 of 27, he ran for Probate Judge and was elected as a Democrat.

He ran again for Probate Judge in the 1994 elections. He considered running as a Republican but was counseled to stay where he was, and chose at the last minute to remain in the Democratic primary. The 1994 elections included the bitterly contested race for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court between incumbent Democrat Sonny Hornsby and Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Republican Perry Hooper, Sr. The litigation over that election was not ultimately decided until late 1995 and Probate Judge Bolin was in the middle of it. As Probate Judge, 20

it was his responsibility to certify the results in Jefferson County and he became disgusted with tactics utilized by special interests to try to influence the election by changing the rules after the election.

Hooper/Hornsby Case Prompts Jeffco Change Judge Hooper ultimately prevailed and on January 3, 1996, Probate Judge Bolin and nine other circuit and district judges all switched to the Republican Party for philosophical reasons. Then Governor Fob James attended their press conference and was quoted as saying “It’s always been said that hell will freeze over before Republicans would gain control of the Jefferson County Courthouse.” On the day of the press conference as the Governor made this statement, snow began to fall in Birmingham.

His years in private practice, focusing on family issues, and his service as probate judge led judge Bolin’s heart to focusing on children’s issues.

He has been active in The Heart Gallery of Alabama, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding permanent adoptive homes for children in foster care in Alabama.

Through that organization, the average number of children in foster care has been reduced by over 2,000 children, and currently there are only 300 children available for permanent loving homes. These children include those with special needs and children who have abused or neglected.

Judge Bolin also has been active with the Glenwood

Autism and Behavioral Health Center of Alabama assisting thousands of children and their families cope with the challenges of autism and mental health issues.

During his tenure as Probate Judge, Bolin authored legislation creating the putative father registration system within the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

This program allows prospective fathers to have a seat at the table when adoption contests arise over parental rights during adoptions. As probate judge, Bolin had witnessed numerous occasions when biological fathers were not included in the decision made by the mother to put a newborn up for adoption. Because adoption records are sealed, these fathers had no access to any information to assist them make their case for custody.

This allows adoption contests to be heard quickly, rather than years later when the child and the adoptive parents have bonded as a family.

From Probate to Supreme In 2004, driven by consternation of the Alabama Supreme Court’s handling of the “Baby Sam” adoption case, Bolin decided to run for the Supreme Court. He was elected with 60% of the vote and hasn’t looked back since.

Bolin brings a unique perspective to the Supreme Court. As the only former probate judge, he now provides guidance to his fellow justices on

family law and probate matters, topics where the Court frankly does not have much experience.

While running for his first term on the Supreme Court, Bolin acknowledged the importance that the Alabama Forestry Association plays in the judicial election process.

“When I first decided to run, a law school friend who happened to be a Democrat Judge on the Court of Civil Appeals asked me if I had sought and received the endorsement of Forestry. I told him that I had not met with them yet, but I would to get their support. This Judge told me ‘Well you better…if you get their support, you will not lose.’ I certainly took his advice and he turned out right.”

“To this day, I am grateful to the Alabama Forestry Association for their friendship and support, and I continue to be impressed with its membership and leadership. Their commitment to smaller government and private property rights are second to none and I am honored to have their support.” ▲

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NEWS & VIEWS

Musings from the Banks of the Tombigbee River othing like a campfire. As I sit here and write, while catching my breath, I was going over the spring events in my mind. I had just meticulously placed sticks and used cardboard containers under my quaint little campfire and patiently waited to see a slow, almost perfect little flame emerge from the pile.

Knowing it would all catch up in its own time, I compared it to the busy spring.

I assumed the role as your, chairman of the Alabama Tree Farm Committee in January. In February, I attended a leadership conference in St. Louis, Mo. to learn how I might hone some skills and accomplish big goals for our program. I was working alongside Karen Boyd, former state coordinator for our program. We were anticipating new standards, 166 required inspections, a database cleanup for Alabama’s program, applying a newly adopted strategic plan, tackling budget issues as we transitioned to a “certified state,” plan for other events that would engage our landowners and inspectors, and continue to grow our program.

Karen had some opportunities to

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pursue other career goals, so she had to make some tough decisions. I personally thanked her and expressed how much our program would miss her as she resigned as coordinator. By now, it’s mid-March and the new “2015-2020 Tree Farm Standards” were being released. This meant every single inspector in Alabama had to complete a refresher training before we could complete inspections.

Early April, a new face is introduced as our program administrator and currently serves as Director of Landowner Programs for the Alabama Forestry Association, Leigh Peters. I met Leigh, and we got busy.

She was brand new to Alabama Tree Farm and had a blank calendar. We planned three refresher trainings immediately for Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, and Decatur.

Mike Older and Nick Granger completed trainings in Troy and Monroeville. Two more were last week in Columbiana and Cottonton.

The database clean up has begun. Leigh mailed out all first round letters to Tree Farmers and we are in the process of calling the ones on our call list. A second

Alabama Tree Farm Committee Black Belt District Bart Adams (334) 410-0608 Capital District Walter Cartwright (334)-240-9324 Delta District Benji Elmore (251) 275-3283 Longleaf District Mike Older (334) 222-0379 Mountain District Todd Langston (256) 434-4712

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letter will be going out soon. The purpose of the clean up is to update landowner information, remove uninterested participants, assist landowners, update management plans, and validate our database.

I know I am out of time and must keep this brief. Your state Tree Farm program is very much alive, active, and adaptive.

This year has exploded with new activities and possibilities. If you are a landowner, inspector, committee member, forester, business owner, or Tree Farmer, we welcome your input to Alabama’s Tree Farm Program. We currently have the largest, most active, and “best” program in the country. It is not because of what I do, but a collaboration and truly team effort of everyone involved in forestry in this state making Alabama #1.

From West Alabama & the bank of the Tombigbee River, thank you!

By Tim Browning, RF #1874 Alabama Tree Farm Chairman

State Chairman Tim Browning (205) 367-8232

Piedmont District Vacant Valley District Johnnie Everitt (256) 383-4376 Vulcan District Jason Dockery (256) 734-0573 Warrior District Tim Browning (205) 367-8232 Wiregrass District Heather Wierzbicki (334) 855-5394

Vice Chairman Lamar Dewberry (256) 396-2485 Financial Committee Chair Heather Wierzbicki (334) 855-5394 Awards & Recognition Chairs Paul Hudgins (334) 376-9114 Dr. Robert Parker (334) 399-1086

Board Development Chair Tom Carignan (334) 361-7677 Outreach & Education Chair Allen Varner (334)-240-9308 Certification Chair Mike Older (334) 222-0379 At Large Directors Tim Albritton (334) 887-4560

John Boutwell (334) 365-9221 Don East (256) 396-2694 Chris Isaacson (334) 265-8733 Doug Link (251) 564-6281 Salem & Dianne Saloom (251) 867-6464 Charles Simon (334) 222-1125 Jim Solvason (334) 372-3360 Carolyn Stubbs (334) 821-0374 21

Green Horizons

Mike & Joan Newman 2014 Alabama Tree Farmers of the Year

ocated in central Coffee County is the property of Mike and Joan Newman, Alabama’s 2014 Tree Farm of the Year.

The 199-acre certified Tree Farm is situated along the Pea River and consists of planted loblolly pines, mixed pine/ hardwood, bottomland hardwoods, wildlife openings, planted hardwoods, and a dove field.

The property owners, Mike and Joan, aggressively manage their certified Tree Farm to achieve multiple benefits. The excellent condition of the Newman property reflects countless hours of planning, dedication, and hard work. The Newman’s take great pride in the appearance of their property. Pine stands have been selectively thinned as needed while prescribe burning and herbicides have been used to control undesirable competition and to enhance wildlife habitats. The hardwood stands have been excluded from timber harvesting and prescribe burning activities in order to enhance the wildlife population

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by Nicholas Granger, Alabama Forestry Commission 22

and serve as a Streamside Management Zone against erosion. Several acres of wildlife food plots are planted and annually maintained. Hard and soft mast producing trees have been planted throughout the property to provide an additional food source for wildlife.

Mr. Newman installed an artificial power line above a field of sunflowers, sesame, and corn to attract dove to the property. The line is a great conversation piece that intrigues visitors. Several miles of forest trails are maintained for leisure walks throughout the property. Also a pavilion has been constructed to be used as a picnic area for family gatherings. The pavilion provides a picturesque view overlooking the Pea River.

Mike and Joan share their property with members of the community in a variety of ways. Local Boy Scout troops visit the property to earn their forestry related merit badges. Mr. Newman hosts the First Baptist Church Father/Son Campout and

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occasional Sunday school class gatherings.

The Newman’s also enjoy sponsoring deer and turkey hunts for local youth in the community. At least 11 girls and boys have harvested their first deer from the Newman’s property, while two have harvested their first turkeys. As a fundraising event, the Wiregrass United Way auctions a deer hunting trip to the property. The property has also been the venue for a bonfire that helicopter flight students stationed at Fort Rucker Military Base were invited to attend.

Last fall, the Newman’s hosted the South Alabama Regional Forestry Field Day. Over 150 fellow landowners, agency personnel, and even Alabama’s Second

Congressional District Representative Martha Roby were in attendance. Attendees enjoyed a catered lunch at the pavilion and participated in several tours throughout the property to gain information about Hardwood Management, Wetland Management, Herbicide use in Loblolly Pine Stands, and Dove Field Management.

The Newman’s realize their property is a gift from God. Mike and Joan believe that it is important to be good stewards of the land, and in doing so they strive to keep the forest as a forest. They hope that their land is a legacy that will be enjoyed for many future generations. ▲

Below the photo of a beautiful cypress stand are, left to right, Nicholas Granger, Joan Newman, Mike Newman, and Allen Varner with their Tree Farm award and new sign.

A special thanks to Doug Link for providing many of the photos of the of the Newman Tree Farm property.

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Green Horizons

on Alabama

By Ken McNabb

andowners and natural resource professionals from throughout the state gathered on February 6, 2015, to celebrate, honor, and recognize special individuals and families who made exemplary contributions to the sustainable management of Alabama’s precious natural resources.

The Alabama Natural Resources Council (ANRC) planned and hosted the event at the Marriott Prattville Hotel and Conference Center.

The plated dinner and awards ceremony was attended by 140 people.

Ivey Dr. Gary Lemme, director of the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service kicked off the event with introductory remarks and Lieutenant Governor Kay Brinker Ivey, who is a Tree Farmer with a certified family forest in Monroe County, gave the keynote address. After an enjoyable dinner, Dr. Dick Brinker, Dean Emeritus of Auburn’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, emceed the award ceremony.

Tim Browning, the current Alabama Tree Farm Committee Chairman presented a number of Tree Farm awards.

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Doug Link Leadership Award: Paul

This award is given to individuals who have distinguished themselves by building the capacity of the Tree Farm Program and spreading the message of sustainable forestry. Paul has been active in the Tree Farm program and the Tree Farm Committee for over 20 years. He was instrumental in the success of the 2014 Alabama Tree Farm third-party assessment.

He was also the Tree Farm Committee Chairman from 2012–2014. As an inspector he has written management plans and performed initial inspections for 45 new Tree Farms and completed reinspections of 110 existing Tree Farms. He also walks the talk — Paul is a Tree Farmer.

Hudgins

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Alabama Tree Farmer of the Year: 1 Each year the Alabama Tree Farm Committee selects a family as its Tree Farmer of the Year. A number of criteria are evaluated to determine the winner including hands-on management and public outreach. The Newman’s Tree Farm is located in Coffee County. A video showing the Newman’s beautiful Tree Farm as well as interviews with Mike and Joan were enjoyed by

Mike and Joan Newman

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3 Courtesy of the Alabama Forestry Commission

Stars Shone

attendees of the awards banquet.

It was evident that the Newman’s are a special family and their Tree Farm is a special place and worthy of this award. The family performs much of the work themselves including installing and maintaining firelanes, road maintenance, maintaining food plots, and controlling invasive 1 species. They also maintain several miles of trails. He built a Dr. Gary Lemme, Nick Granger and Tim Browning present Mike and Joan pavilion on the Pea River that is Newman with the Tree Farmer of the Year Award. used by the family, church groups, Boy Scouts, and civic groups. Boy Scouts visit the property to earn forestry related merit badges. The family has hosted the Coffee County Classroom in the Forest and the 2014 South Alabama Regional Forestry Field Day. They also sponsor youth (parent with child) deer and turkey hunts.

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Tree Farm Inspector of the Year:

This award recognizes inspecting foresters with high activity over the past year, as well as activity in outreach and education. John performed more initial inspections and added more acres to Alabama’s Tree Farm program than any other inspector in the state. His twelve initial inspections which included field visits and the development of man-

John Pirtle

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agement plans resulted in adding 4,000 new acres to Alabama’s Tree Farm program.

Gold Plus Hardhat Award: Chris

This award is Tree Farm’s highest honor for an inspector. To qualify for this award, 150 new inspections must be performed. Chris completed 173 new Tree Farm certifications during his career.

Erwin

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Courtesy of the Alabama Forestry Commission

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of publically recognizing those “unsung heroes” whose voluntary activities and achievements have resulted in the wiser and better use of Alabama’s natural resources. There were two winners of the Mosley Environmental Award this year.

The first was Fred Couch 8 of Calhoun County for his dedicated work on the creation of the Alabama Scenic River Trail.

Second, were James and Martha Hughes 9 of Autauga County for their exemplary efforts to reach out to youth, having received nearly 5,000 fifth graders on the property over the past decade.

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Courtesy of the Alabama Forestry Commission

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Central Region—Montgomery

held Annual Natural Resource Tour (Fish Fry) for 25 consecutive years, Classroom in the Forest, Farm—City Festival for youth, County Water Festival, Arbor Day celebration and Tree giveaway.

County

8 Outstanding Forestry Planning Committees: Following the Tree Farm Awards,

individual county planning committees from three regions of Alabama were recognized for being models of community outreach on virtually all aspects of sustainable forest management.

North Region—Clay County

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sponsored a Women’s Walk in the Forest, landowner seminar on selling timber, trained the 4-H county forestry team, Arbor Day seedling giveaway, PLM shortcourse.

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held annual Forestry Awareness Week Now (FAWN) event for all 6th graders and landowner tour/field day.

South Region—Clarke County

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W. Kelly Mosley Awards: Ken McNabb, Mosley Professor at Auburn University then presented the W. Kelly Mosley Environmental Awards for Significant Achievement in Forestry, Wildlife, and Natural Resources. This award began with a generous endowment to Auburn University by W. Kelly Mosley with the specific purpose

Outstanding TREASURE Forests: The final award recognition for the evening went to this year’s Helene Mosley Memorial TREASURE Forest Award winners.

This award is presented to exemplary TREASURE Forest owners who not only employ the multiple-use concepts of the TREASURE Forest Program, but also provide an additional special emphasis on education, thus deserving a higher level of recognition and reward for their work. A special video presentation of each property was shown as part of the award ceremony, providing an on-camera interview with the winner as they introduced their approach to natural resource management. The videos also contained a brief tour of each property showing some of the more unique and noteworthy natural resource management accomplishments. This year’s Helene Mosley TREASURE Forest Award winners were: North Region— Stan and Suzanne Wood 10 of Cullman County and South Region—Sid and Vivian Beech Trust 11 , Washington County. ▲ 25

Andalusia Mural Depicts Cattle in Tall Timber ecently a new mural in Andalusia celebrating and remembering an era when the old Spanishbased native cattle grazed the understory of the vast longleaf pine forest of the Gulf Coast has been completed by artist Wes Hardin of Dothan. This old breed of cattle gave meat and draft to a succession of owners from the Spanish cattle ranches and missions of Florida, to Southeastern Native Americans, to the final settlers from the newly formed United States.

The mural is 14 feet tall and 80 feet long. It took artist Wes Hardin about 5 months to paint the mural because he was also working on other murals at the same time. Pictured on the scaffold, artist Wes Hardin, with Charles Simon.

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he new mural should be entitled “Twilight of an Era” in that it depicts the time period of 1890-1910. This is when the old growth timber was rapidly being harvested opening up the land area.

New breeds of cattle were being introduced and the use of pastures was being promoted by a new generation of agricultural progressives. The old native cattle were being cross-bred or eliminated completely from the farm. By the 1960s, only a few of the pure native cattle survived on rangeland by families like the Barnes family of Covington County that still saw value in the breed.

The mural depicts a young boy salting his families’ free ranging native cattle. The old growth longleaf pine forest has had its understory freshened by a recent burn.

The cattle are grazing new growth wiregrass and other recovering understory plants.

The young boy’s horse, with its surplus McClellen saddle and old quilt used as a pad, with the family cow dog are looking

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on as the boy pours coarse salt into a lick log. These lick logs had hollowed out trough cavities that were filled with salt which was essential to the cattle and used to keep them in an area. The mural is an illustration that tells a story of a type of forest management that used fire and cattle grazing to provide income to rural people that were here a century ago.

Today we still use prescribe fire and/or herbicides to control the natural and invasive plant understory of our forest. A new type of understory grazing, called Silvopasture, is being promoted that combines bahiagrass pasture and pine plantations to provide cattle grazing and timber production. Research is being conducted to reevaluate the use of range cattle in timber management as a viable tool in invasive plant and understory control by forest landowners. Finally, new groups of enthusiast are trying to save the old lines of native cattle from disappearing. Today, these cattle are called “Cracker Cattle” and “Pineywood Cattle” depending on the family linage. It seems that it’s all going in full circle.

Finally, a questions that is asked by many, “Why is the calf out of the mural?’

If you raise cattle you know! It has to do with calves and fences.

The mural was made possible by the contributions from The Alabama State Council on the Arts, Covington County Cattleman Association, the Covington County Forestry Committee, The Solon and Martha Dixon Foundation and Dr. and Mrs. James Barnes. ▲

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Calling for Alabama Tree Farmer of the Year Nominations

Tree Farmers– We Need to Hear From You! Is Your Tree Farm Information Current?

If Not, Let Us Know!

ach year, the Alabama Tree Farm Committee recognizes superior stewardship of its Tree Farm members through the Alabama State Tree Farmer of the Year Award. These landowners are chosen for their remarkable efforts to demonstrate, communicate and spread sustainable practices. To nominate a Tree Farmer for their outstanding efforts, please visit www.alaforestry.org/treefarm and download the State Tree Farmer of the Year Nomination Form. The deadline for nominations is August 10, 2015.

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Database Clean Up Project Continues! he Alabama Tree Farm committee is currently working on a database cleanup project. The goal of this project is to obtain current contact information, delete bad records, and eliminate duplicate data. The committee recently reached out to Alabama Tree Farmers in a letter, requesting your help with this project.

If you have already responded to those letters, the committee thanks you for your efforts in helping us better serve you by updating your information.

If you have recent updates that need to be entered in the Tree Farm database, please complete the form below and return it to the Alabama Tree Farm Committee. If you prefer, you can email us with the updated information. A Tree Farm Committee member will contact you to complete the database update project.

Please include information changes based on the following criteria: ● Individual tracts (non-contiguous tracts) are now required to have individual Tree Farm numbers. Non-contiguous tracts are those that cannot be walked from one side to the other without leaving the tract. If you have non-contiguous tracts under one Tree Farm number, please let us know. We will contact you for more information and assign a unique Tree Farm number to each one. ● Tree Farm acres should reflect forested and wildlife management acres, and not include acres used for agricultural purposes (crops or pasture). ● Current contact and location information. This includes the sale or addition of forested acres to your Tree Farm, GPS coordinates (if you have them available), current mailing address, email address, and phone number.

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Proud signage on the property along the Pea River of Mike and Joan Newman, Alabama’s 2014 Tree Farm of the Year.

✁ Tree Farm #:

Tree Farm County:

GPS coordinates if available:

Tree Farm Name:

Tree Farm Organization (if LLC, etc.)

Contact Name:

Contact Address:

Phone:

Cell Phone:

Email:

City/State: ZIP:

Non-contiguous tracts?

Y

N

If yes, how many tracts?

Forested acres change?

Y

N

If yes, estimated forested acres:

Please return to Alabama Tree Farm Committee Attention Brandy Cole 555 Alabama Street Montgomery, AL 36104

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If you prefer to email or call in your updates, contact Brandy Cole at bcole@alaforestry.org or 334-481-2128.

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Green Horizons

- 29th Silent Auction -

Call for Donations he Alabama Tree Farm Committee is preparing for the 29th Silent Auction to be held in conjunction with the AFA Annual Meeting.

The Silent Auction is Tree Farm’s largest fundraiser, and proceeds are used to promote Alabama’s Tree Farm program and serve Tree Farmers throughout the state.

The committee is seeking donations of items or funds for the purchase of bid items.

We would love to have Alabama-made items that come from all parts of the state. Please contact local craftsmen in your area. We will advertise his/her business alongside the item, and publish a list of auction items along with the crafter’s contact information for meeting participants. Donations are tax deductible.

Examples of items to donate include: ● Travel Packages (hunting, fishing, beach, other leisure) ● Sports Game Tickets ● Wall Art (paintings, drawings, photos) – framed, please ● Handcrafted Gift Items (wood, pottery, glass, metal, textile items, etc.) ● Furniture (wood benches, adirondack chairs, tables, etc.) ● Jewelry ● Yard Art (bird baths, birdhouses, planters, etc.) ● Services (spa, landscaping, fine dining) ● Plants (gift certificates to nurseries etc.)

Please contact Heather Wierzbicki at Heather.wierzbicki@mwv.com or 334-855-5934 to donate items or funds.

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Got the rainy day blues?

Earn CFEs & PLMs while you wait for the sunshine.

www.alaforestry.org/cfe 28

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Log a Load for Kids Raises Over $100,000 at Mid-Way Point

A beautiful load of logs greeted attendees at the Delta District golf event at Chatom ably put on by Chuck Reynolds, his daughter Karen and Karen’s husband Glenn Sansing, along with their usual crew of Delta District helpers.

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he Log A Load for Kids 2015 fundraising program is moving into the second half of 2015 after raising well over $100,000 in the first half of the year. Outstanding events have been held across the fruited plain in Alabama. Here are the events held thus far and the approximate totals raised at each one:

April 18. Piedmont District Sporting Clay/Turkey shoot, Lafayette: $36,000.

April 30. Longleaf District Golf Tournament, Brewton: $34,000.

May 16. Wiregrass District Trail Ride, Abbeville: $6,130.

May 19. Capital District Golf Event, Montgomery: $30,000.

May 21. Delta District Golf Tournament, Chatom: $13,500.

June 4. Piedmont Golf Tournament, Birmingham: $24,000

Houston “Babbit” Adams holds up the winning card at Piedmont turkey shoot as shooters look on.

There are at least two more events that have been set up to close out the year. Those include:

June 22. Wiregrass District Golf Tournament, Troy.

September 19. Piedmont District Annual Bow Shoot at Waverly, Alabama.

November 6. Annual Charlie Hughen Memorial Sporting Clay & Skeet Shoot at

Westervelt Lodge, Aliceville.

NOTE: There are efforts under way to have at least two more events; possibly another sporting clays event in Montgomery and a dove hunt down in the wiregrass area. However, as of today, those events are still speculative. If they come to fruition, we will report those to you in our e-newsletter AFA Newsroom. ▲

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Finishing first at the Capital District event was, left to right, Roger Watson, Bobby Bradley, Wayne Woodham and Jim Clark.

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The longleaf event team, left to right, Richard Quina, Ann Rilling, Ricky Stanley, of event prime sponsor T.R. Miller, and Brooke Hartin.

Shooting 1st Place, Low Gross, at the Longleaf golf tourney was, left to right, Deno Rolin, Jerry Ordis and Mike Burns. The teams fourth player, David Broach, had left the event before winners were announced.

State Log A Load Chair Janet Ison gives Larry Jones the rifle he won by getting his ball onto the green.

These guys riding their swamp buggy had the best seat in the house at the Piedmont District sporting clay and turkey shoot at Lafayette.

Representing Children’s & Women’s Hospital at Mobile, were, left to right, Vickie Akers, Beth Mattei, Greg Bolin and Nancy Calhoun. USA Hospital boss man Owen Bailey also attended the event and thanked participants for coming.

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Forestry News & Views Mike Keim: Log A Load’s 2015 National Volunteer Champion

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ASHVILLE, Tenn.—The Log A Load For Kids Foundation conferred its 2015 National Log A Load For Kids® Volunteer Champion Award on Mike Keim, of Keim’s Forestry Services, based in Newberry, South Carolina, at the Forest Resources Association’s Annual Awards Dinner, April 28 in Nashville, Tennessee. Mike serves as South Carolina’s Log A Load Chair.

Presenting the Award, National Log A Load Foundation Chair, Sherri Hansen, made the announcement that Log A Load For Kids had raised an incredible 2.2 million dollars in 2014 and thanked everyone involved with Log A Load for their efforts.

Since Log A Load began in 1988, the campaign has raised over 41 million dollars for kids in need of medical treatment at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Log A Load 2015 Volunteer Champion Mike Keim (center) congratulated by Children’s Miracle Network Representative Jared Wall (left) and Log A Load For Kids® Foundation Chair Sherri Hansen (right).

TCW Needs Your Help

By Ashley Smith

H

appy Summer! As our seasons have changed from winter to spring and into summer, we are seeing the truly beautiful seasonal changes that take place in Alabama. I would like to thank you for your past support of the Alabama Teachers Conservation Workshops. Since 1970, thousands of teachers have grown in their knowledge and appreciation for Alabama’s well-managed forests through these workshops. They have learned more about the role they play in protecting our environment, economy, and way of life. Our strong commitment to forestry education through these workshops has provided many students an opportunity to learn about Alabama’s forests. This annual workshop is one of the best ways we ensure the true story of the forest community is heard in our state.

In order to continue these important efforts, we need your support!

The 2015 workshop occurs in Auburn this summer, July 13–16, 2015, at the Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. The agenda includes presentations from experienced industry personnel and Auburn University faculty.

Teachers gain applied knowledge from field trips to the Auburn University arboretum, the Mary Olive Thomas

Demonstration Forest, and the MeadWestvaco paper mill. Hands-on experiences in forest management practices with connections to the valuable forest products they use every day provide relevant learning for teachers. Using Project Learning Tree® activity guides as tools, the teachers incorporate material from the workshop into their classrooms with their students.

Please consider investing in the future of our forests by sponsoring at least one teacher in 2015 for $500. If you would like to sponsor a specific teacher, please complete the teacher sponsorship portion of the form as well. If you have questions, please let me know. Contributions to the Alabama Forestry Foundation are considered tax deductible charitable donations.

Thanks again for your past support and for all you do to keep Alabama’s forests healthy and viable for future generations.

State Conservationist to Retire from NRCS

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he Alabama Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) State Conservationist, William E. Puckett, will retire from the agency on June 26, 2015. Since taking on the role as Alabama’s 7th State Conservationist in April 2009, Puckett has become known for his proactive approach, can-do attitude, and building effective partnerships with a host of organizations and agencies committed to soil and water conservation and the wise stewardship of Alabama’s natural resources.

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Puckett has worked for NRCS for 31 years in various positions including Soil Conservationist, State Soil Scientist, and Deputy Chief for Science and Technology.

Although retiring from NRCS, Dr. Puckett will serve as the Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee’s Executive Director, effective July 6, 2015.

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News & Views

2015 Regional Receptions Well Attended

Floyd McGowin Talks Family and Forestry in New Memoir

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M

he Alabama Forestry Association had good turnouts and good times at its District Meetings and Regional Receptions in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

The Tuscaloosa RR on Feb. 19 was held at the Cypress Pavilion in Tuscaloosa and featured the highest attendance at a Regional Reception ever, with almost 150 people turning out.

The Birmingham RR was attended by 74 individuals. In both cases, the District Meeting preceded the RR and was also very well attended.

ONTGOMERY, Ala.— In a remarkable new memoir, published posthumously by NewSouth Books, The Forest and the Trees: A Memoir of a Man, a Family, and a Company, Alabama lumber baron Norman Floyd McGowin explores his life and times in an effort to give future generations an understanding of the past and the ways in which it is both similar to and different from present realities.

Norman Floyd McGowin Jr. was born into a prosperous family whose W. T. Smith Lumber Company dominated the small town of Chapman in Butler County in south Alabama. Family members achieved distinction in business, politics, the arts, and society.

The Forest and the Trees will be available in June through your favorite local or online retailer or from NewSouth Books, 334-834-3556, or at www.newsouthbooks.com.

ISBN: 978-1-60306-374-6. Trade paper, 344 pages, $27.95 ebook ISBN: 1-978-60306-375-3

Our thanks to sponsors for the Birmingham meeting: Alagasco; Alabama Farm Credit; Balch & Bingham, LLP; Brom & Taylor; Laston & McGowin Properties; Maynard, Cooper & Gale, P.C.; Resource Management Services; Sellers Richardson Holman & West; and Southland International Trucks, Inc. Sponsoring the Tuscaloosa meetings were: SuperTree Seedlings; JMF, PC; Modern Woodmen; Davis Whitetails; First South Farm Credit; The Westervelt Company and Weyerhaeuser.

J.T. McShan (center) holds court at the Tuscaloosa Regional Reception.

McKinley & Lanier Forest Resources, Inc.

mckinley wood 1-8_Layout 1 2/4/14 6:45 PM Page 1

507 Energy Center Blvd. Suite 303 Northport, AL 35473 Phone: 1 (800) 247-0041 • Fax: (205) 344-6950 www.mckinleyandlanierforestresources.com

Land & Timber Management Services Forest Management • Timber Sales • Land & Timber Appraisals Forest Inventories • Harvest Scheduling GIS and GIS Mapping • Real Estate Sales • Estate Division

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Wildlife & Outdoors This is the other side of photo from the Contents page.

Is that an

Eagle I See? Photo by Billy Pope

By Carrie Threadgill, Nongame Wildlife Biologist, Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries

Twenty years ago, if people told me they saw an eagle in Alabama, I would have guessed that it was probably just a vulture. Now, when people tell me they saw an eagle in the winter, I ask them, “Which species?” While we have an increasing number of bald eagles year-round across the state, we are actually discovering a Photo by Kim McFry

small wintering population of golden eagles in Alabama as well.

The story of the bald eagle recovery is one of the greatest wildlife success stories to date. In the 1950s and 1960s, the wellknown pesticide DDT, which caused eggshell thinning, devastated bald eagle numbers. Shells became so thin that they would not hatch, or would break when adult birds would sit to incubate them.

After DDT was banned in 1972, eagles began to rebound slowly, but still could not be found breeding in Alabama.

By 1984, the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) A L A B A M A F O R E S TS | S p r i n g 2 0 1 5

began a “hacking” program, releasing juvenile eagles from six different locations in the state with the hope that they would establish nesting territories. Hacking involves releasing juvenile eagles at towers in certain locations to imprint them so they will return to those areas to breed as adults. During a 7-year period, 91 juvenile eagles were released, which resulted in increased nesting activity in Alabama.

Thanks to the success of this program, eagles can now be seen nesting across the

state. Most often, bald eagles are seen along large bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers, but it is not uncommon to see them soaring over open land away from water or nesting away from water as well.

While we have bald eagles in the state year-round, people may not realize that we also have golden eagles in Alabama during the winter months. Golden eagles tend to be more secretive than bald eagles, which are most often seen out in the open, usually near open water. Golden eagles are 33

Wildlife & Outdoors more of a forest species, and tend to stay close to forested areas, making it harder to locate those birds. They are found most often near ridge tops in forested areas. In the western United States, a substantial golden eagle population is already in existence. New evidence suggests that a separate eastern population breeds in eastern Canada and winters along the Appalachian Mountains and down into Alabama.

WFF has been conducting winter camera surveys through a collaborative effort with other agencies in 15 eastern states to gain better knowledge about this separate eastern population of golden eagles. Over the last few years, we have gained valuable knowledge and photographed numerous golden eagles in north Alabama. Along with camera surveys, five adult birds have been trapped and radio transmitters attached to them to find out where those birds breed and migrate. Through the camera surveys and radio tracking, we hope to gain more knowledge of golden eagles so that we can manage public lands to provide wintering habitat for eagles, as well as all species found in the state.

WFF often receives calls about possible golden eagle sightings.

They usually turn out to be sightings of immature bald eagles. It takes five years for bald eagles to obtain the distinct white head and tail. Immature bald eagles are mostly dark brown overall with white mottling under their wings and have thick black bills. They are often confused with golden eagles, but lack the distinct gold nape. Golden eagle adults do not have any white on the undersides of wings, while juveniles have two distinct, small white patches visible when seen soaring overhead. While it may be easy to confuse the two birds, after seeing both birds in flight and learning the differences in coloration, it is easy to distinguish which kind of eagle you are seeing. During the winter, it is possible to see both golden and bald eagles, and while it is more likely a bald eagle, either way, seeing an eagle in Alabama is always a treat!

WFF does not conduct an annual statewide survey of eagle nests anymore since eagle populations are doing so well, but if you have information or questions about nesting eagles or sightings of golden eagles, please contact Nongame Wildlife Biologist Carrie Threadgill at carrie.threadgill@dcnr.alabama.gov, 334-242-3469. â–˛

The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources promotes wise stewardship, management and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through five divisions: Marine Police, Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. To learn more about ADCNR visit www.outdooralabama.com.

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Index to Advertisers

AGRICULTURAL LENDING

Alabama Land Banks Associations ▲ AlabamaAgCredit.com ....................................2 First South Farm Credit – South Division ▲ firstsouthfarmcredit.com ......................6 CONSULTANTS—FORESTRY

Larson & McGowin ▲ larsonmcgowin.com .............................................................36 McKinley & Lanier Forest Resources, Inc. ▲ mlforestresources.com .........................32

Trustmark has the loan options you need, all with competitive rates and terms.

To find out more, call 334-382-4161 today.

Need a strong, reliable lender?

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Trustmark Bank ▲ trustmark.com ..........................................................................36 FORESTRY EDUCATION

Alabama Forests Forever Foundation ▲ alaforestry.org....................Inside Back Cover FOREST PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS

Cooper/T.Smith ▲ coopertsmith.com.........................................................Back Cover Jasper Lumber Company ▲ jasperlumber.com ........................................................16 INSURANCE

Forest Fund ▲ alaforestry.org.................................................................................35 The Witherington Insurance Group ▲ witheringtoninsurance.com..........................32 LANDOWNERS (COMPANIES, INDIVIDUALS & TRUSTS)

The Westervelt Company ▲ westervelt.com ...........................................................34 LOGGING CONTRACTORS

Mid-Star Timber Harvesting, Inc. ▲ midstartimber.com ..........................................36

trustmark.com

SEEDLINGS

Member FDIC

Arborgen ▲ arborgen.com .......................................................................................6 International Forest Company ▲ interforestry.com ...................................................4 Rayonier ▲ rayonier.com........................................................................................12 Weyerhaeuser ▲ weyerhaeuser.com.......................................................................12 Whitfield Farms & Nursery ▲ whitfieldpineseedlings.com ......................................32

Business and personal loans / Operating lines of credit / Wealth management and personal trust services / Estate and business succession planning Midstar 1-4 color 2015_Layout 1 4/22/15 5:41 PM Page 1

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY MANAGEMENT

SEMCO ▲ thesemco.com.......................................................................................................30 TIMBER PROCUREMENT

TR Miller ▲ trmillermill.com...................................................................................34 UTILITIES

Southern Company ▲ alabamapowercompany.com/safety..............Inside front cover

Over five decades and millions of acres of experience www.larsonmcgowin.com Main Office: Mobile, Alabama / 251.438.4581

Frank Mozingo Linc: 185*338 Home: 251-843-5485 Cell: 334-456-2743 frank@midstartimber.com

Henry Lovette Linc: 185*201 Home: 205-673-2247 Cell: 334-456-2274

Justin Bonner Linc: 1*27565*20 Cell: 334-247-2427 justin@midstartimber.com

Jeremiah Russell Linc: 185*173 Home: 251-289-3082 Cell: 601-416-4889

251-843-5407 midstartimber.com 36

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