Soil & Mulch Producer News May/Jun 2020 by Downing and Associates

Vol. XIV No. 3

May /June 2020

Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com

NEWS

Mulch, Soil Producers Report Booming Sales During Pandemic

overnment imposed closings related to Covid-19 may have hurt - or even destroyed - many businesses across the country. The soil and mulch industry was apparently not one of them, according to mulch and soil producers who reported robust sales volumes this spring. “Our soil sales have been overwhelming and we have not been able to keep up with the demand,” said Gina McLean, of Penick Organics, in Macon, Miss. “We have been making it as fast as we are shipping it and our wait times have been longer for delivery. Bagged soil and mulch sales increased 31 percent over last year. We are really thankful for the increased business and that people are trying gardening maybe for the first time.” Pam Bee, of Bee Forest LLC, of Nelson, Wisc., is another vendor who attributed higher sales volume to “stay home” orders. “The volume is at least 50 percent higher than last year, which we attribute to the (corona) virus and people staying home doing home projects,” Bee said. Pricing for her products, however, remains low, she said. Bee Forest LLC’s natural shredded bark mulch is sold in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin in bulk units. The company delivers by self-unloading trailers or buyers can pick it up.

Fear of Food Supply Disruptions

obert LaGasse, executive director of the Mulch & Soil Council, Shallowater, Tex., said he anticipated a strong year gardening products even before the Covid-19 reaction, but added that fear about disruptions in the food supply chain was probably a major factor in strengthening the market. “We had a similar situation after 9/11,” LaGasse said. “Prior to 9/11, vegetable gardening was maybe in single digits of all the people who had a yard or garden. By 2004, vegetable gardening had grown to 68 percent of everyone who had a yard or garden, and the people who had a yard or garden were 74 percent of all households in the U.S., so that was like 87 million

By Ken Mcentee households. So 68 percent of those 87 million households were doing vegetable gardening of some kind, whether that was a container for tomatoes or full plots. We believe it’s happened again. There were surveys that indicated that vegetable growing made up a big portion of first-time gardeners.” Meanwhile, landscaping materials also saw strong demand this spring. Steve Boehme, of GoodSeed Far m Landscapes, a Peebles, Ohio landscaper, reported a record grooming season. “Because we take grooming reservations during the first quarter each year, we were already booked for the spring season when the Wuhan virus became an opportunity for the politicians to lock us down,” Boehme said. “Fortunately, the ONLA (Ohio Nursery & Landscape Association) had our backs and got Ohio to declare landscapers ‘essential businesses’. Not a single grooming client had any reservations about us coming onto their premises and doing our jobs.” Boehme said, however, that he was still nervous about his core business - design-build projects. “Usually we have our summer booked by this time of the year and have plenty of juicy design-build proposals in the works, but not this year,” he said. “Fortunately, things seem to be

breaking loose right now and we have enough work to keep our crew busy full time. We have design projects on the drawing board, so we expect to recover our momentum and have a typical year despite everything.” Boehme said GoodSeed buys about a dozen semi loads of bulk mulch and one or two semi loads of bagged pine nuggets annually for its landscape projects. Seth Bauman, of Conway Garden Center, in Tylertown, Miss., said the company’s overall sales have been up during the past weeks but mulch sales - bulk and bagged - are down 3 percent compared to the same time last year. “Our potting soil, topsoil, plant and stone sales are up 27 percent, so it has been a good spring for us in this area,” Bauman said. In Conroe, Tex., John Ferguson, of Nature’s Way Resources, said his sales are “way up this year. We have a vegetable and garden mix soil and that product is up over 200 percent.” Nature’s Way offers bagged and bulk products to retail and wholesale customers. “Soils, mulch and compost sales are up 30 percent so far,” he said. “We have a retail nursery on-site and sales there are up almost 300 percent.” McLean, who said Penick serves the states of Mississippi, Alabama and some of Tennessee, Continued on page 3

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Mulch, Soil Producers Report Booming Sales During Pandemic Continued from page 1 said, “After a wet and cold first quarter, our overall sales are up 7.5 percent over last year and are up 25 percent in the second quarter since we have been dealing Covid-19.” The company sells hardwood and pine mulch in natural and colors, and it manufactures its own soil amendments and potting soils. In North Carolina, Gary Gittere, of McGill Environmental, headquartered in New Hill, N.C., said the company has experienced very strong sales over the past several months, mainly with its wholesaler/reseller customers. “We attribute this to our industry being considered an ‘essential business,’ along with the influx of gardening and landscaping being conducted due to the stay-at-home” orders initiated in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” Gittere said. McGill, with locations in North Carolina, Virginia and Ireland, primarily services the central mid-Atlantic states, offering bulk and bagged premium compost products to wholesalers/resellers, golf courses, park and recreation, military institutions, universities and other customers. The company’s primary product is McGill SoilBuilder Premium Compost, an STA (Seal of Testing Assurance - a program of the U.S. Composting Council) certified compost used in various landscaping applications, sold both in bulk and in one cubic foot bags. The company also sells two other STA products: McGill LandscapeMix Premium Compost which is used primarily for raised garden beds - and McGill SportsTurf Premium Compost - a finer screened product used primarily on golf courses and sports fields.

Essential Businesses

aGasse said most states allowed garden centers and nurseries to stay open during the Covid-19 closings.

“The only states that closed them were Michigan, Vermont and Pennsylvania,” he said. “And they rescinded that order within weeks of its going into effect. We and a lot of other people petitioned those states to reopen the garden centers. Michigan and Vermont recanted relatively quickly, and eventually Pennsylvania did too. So as far as we are aware, all the garden centers in the country were open for a major portion of this.” Although fear about disruptions in the food supply chain probably played a large role in increasing interest in vegetable gardening, LaGasse said the strong economy of the past several years also has contributed to growth in demand for mulch and soil products. “We had a good year last year, and if Covid had not hit, we still would have expected a good year this year,” he said. “In a strong economy people have more money to do discretionary spending. There is more construction going on, and our business is heavily tied to the construction market. With new construction and new landscapes going in, more mulch and soil products are purchased, so sales have been on an upward swing. We expected it to continue on an upward swing.” According to Bee, “Compared to over 30 years ago when I started selling bark mulch, it was just as challenging last year to educate the public on its use. This (year) is the first indication in our area of the up-tick.” Bee said that during the past five years, Bee Forest LLC encountered competition from recycled pallets which are readily dyed. “Our goal now is the education of the public about the benefits of natural shredded bark,” she said. “We are also concentrating on producing a black soil in the future.” Ken McEntee is editor and publisher of Composting News (compostingnews.com).

Study Suggests Wood Pellet Industry Wrong Alternative to Fossil Fuels

study funded by the Canadian government and Greenpeace Canada has found that clearcutting old-growth forests to produce wood pellets for power generation is likely to exacerbate carbon dioxide emissions for decades to come, the National Observer reports. Refuting the wood pellet industry’s assertion that their product is a viable “carbon neutral” alternative to coal, the study findings are expected to impact Canadian policy. Even where the forest is left to regenerate for a century, it would not reach the point of carbon neutrality for more than 90 years, the study authors noted. To conduct their analysis, the research team collected data from forests in northern Ontario near the Quebec border. The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC), a group representing timber, pulp and paper producers, said the study is based on a “hypothetical” scenario that doesn’t represent the sector’s current practices and commitments, including to sustainable forest management and the low-carbon transition. Further, “most” pellets produced in Canada are from “wood waste,” or leftover material from sawmills such as sawdust or small tree branches, the group contends. Canada is now the second-largest wood pellet exporter worldwide.

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PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher / Editor Rick Downing Contributing Editors / Writers Kenneth Artz • Duggan Flanakin Robert LaGasse • Ken McEntee Sandy Woodthorpe Production & Layout Barb Fontanelle • Christine Mantush Advertising Sales Rick Downing Subscription / Circulation Donna Downing Editorial, Circulation & Advertising Office 6075 Hopkins Road, Mentor, OH 44060 Ph: 440-257-6453 • Fax: 440-257-6459 Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com Subscription information, call 440-257-6453. Soil & Mulch Producer News is published bimonthly by Downing & Associates. Reproductions or transmission in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is prohibited. Annual subscription rate U.S. is $19.95. Outside of the U.S. add $10.00 ($29.95). Contact our main office, or mail-in the subscription form with payment. ©

May /June 2020 Soil & Mulch Producer News

Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

California Considers Banning Gasoline-Powered Yard Equipment

EQUIPMENT & PRODUCT & Horticulture Professionals Nationwide SHOWCASE

NEWS C

By Kenneth Artz

alifornia may soon ban gasoline-powered gardening tools such as lawnmowers and leaf blowers statewide, following the lead approximately 60 California cities that have H 44060 • Ph: 440-257-6453 • Fax: 440-257-6459 of • Email: downassoc2@oh.rr.com already banned the use of gas-powered yard equipment. In an effort to reduce emissions of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is now considering a kmd@powerbrushes.com www.powerbrushes.com S&MP 2018 - Showcase Ad statewide ban, which would force Californians www.duffbrush.com to give up their gasoline-powered lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers. CARB calculates operating a gas-powered lawnmower for an hour produces the same - FOR WINDROW amount of air pollution as driving a Toyota Pull-Type, PTO Driven, Heavy Duty Camry from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. CARB’s goal is to reduce the smog from these machines by 80 percent by 2031.

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n the rush to regulate, California has not fully considered the effects these regulations will have on consumers or small businesses such as repair shops, says Baruch Feigenbaum, the assistant director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation. “I haven’t seen any cost-benefit analysis or any type of realistic study quantifying what the effects of this regulation would be, and I don’t think regulators should impose anything like a statewide ban without considering the negative impacts it will have on average people and the economy,” Feigenbaum said.

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attery-powered lawn tools are not suitable replacements for gasoline-powered equipment in many instances, says Christian Reynolds, a sales representative at Buck’s Saw Service in Novato, California. “They’re saying that within five years all gas-powered tools would be banned; logically it doesn’t make sense,” Reynolds said. “With the way batteries are now, maybe they’ll be comparable in another five or 10 years, but until then it won’t work, because they don’t generate enough power. “In addition, a quality cordless batterypowered leaf blower delivering a good hour-anda-half of commercial use costs about $1,400,” Reynolds said. “A comparable gas-powered AD about OK AS IS blower only costs $350.” For small businesses like the one where CHANGES NEEDED Reynolds works, there is also the question of what happens to all the old gas-powered equipment sitting on the showroom floor. “We repair and sell gas equipment, so we would have to change over to all battery-powered equipment,” Reynolds said. “The real question

is what would happen to all the tools we have in the shop currently? “If this regulation becomes law, we wouldn’t be able to do anything with that stuff,” Reynolds said.

Sees No Environmental Benefit

alifornia’s politicians and bureaucrats seem determined to prove there is no action too petty, no aspect of peoples’ lives too small, to dictate and micromanage in the name of “saving the environment,” says Adam Summers, a research fellow at The Independent Institute. “In addition to violating basic personal freedoms, CARB’s proposal, and similar measures adopted or under consideration by city governments, will harm consumers, small businesses, and workers by forcing them to use more-expensive, less-efficient equipment and more labor-intensive practices, leading to higher prices and lost business,” Summers said. “For wealthy residential users, this may be a relatively minor inconvenience, but for many small landscaping business owners and lower-income workers struggling to get by in California’s already high-tax and stifling regulatory business climate, this could cost them their livelihoods, all in the pursuit of meeting an arbitrary goal set by bureaucrats that does nothing to substantially improve environmental quality. “Moreover, forcing a switch from gaspowered to electric landscaping equipment will only place a greater strain on electrical resources, much of which do not come from ‘green’ sources anyway, thereby counteracting many of the supposed environmental benefits of the policy,” Summers said.

Trouble for Lower Incomes

limate change policies that force people to throw away perfectly good assets create large economic costs, says Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow at The Pacific Research Institute. “If this proposal is implemented, families will need to spend their hard-earned money to repurchase tools they already own,” Winegarden said. “This imposes large opportunity costs, because instead of repurchasing gardening equipment, these families could have spent this money on entertainment, new clothes, or perhaps saved this money for the future—all possibilities foreclosed by the policy.” In addition, this policy is inherently regressive, hurting the poor the most, Winegarden says. “An average electric lawn mower could cost $200 to $300 or more,” Winegarden said. “Since the batteries typically only last for an hour before recharging is necessary, the expenses could be even higher as families must buy multiple Continued on page 6

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May /June 2020 Soil & Mulch Producer News

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Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate & Environmental Policy

The center is named in honor of, and chaired by, Arthur B. Robinson, Ph.D., a distinguished chemist, cofounder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (OISM), and editor of the influential newsletter Access to Energy.

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California Considers Banning Gasoline-Powered Yard Equipment Continued from page 4 batteries and chargers in order to ensure there is a charged battery ready to run their equipment to finish a job they started. “Most families do not have an extra $300 lying around,” Winegarden said. “Therefore, the policy will impose a significant financial hardship for many lower-income families,”

Undermining Fuel Savings

ny money saved by not having to buy gasoline to run equipment will be offset by higher electric bills, Winegarden says. “Not only does California have some of the highest electric utility rates in the nation, many utilities in California, like the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, have introduced higher rates based on time of peak demand, meaning people pay a lot more when you actually want to use the power during daytime, which happens to be when most gardening and lawn care takes place,” Winegarden said. “Ultimately, the higher electric bills will be substantial. “Businesses will suffer too, as many retailers will have inventories of gas-powered equipment, which, if they can’t be returned, means the retailer will suffer financial losses on unsaleable inventory,” Winegarden said. “Further, businesses established to repair gas-powered gardening equipment will be forced out of business, resulting in job losses and transitional costs for workers.”

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Kenneth Artz (kennethcharlesartz@gmx.com) writes from Dallas, Texas. This article was reprinted with permission from heartland.org, a product of The Heartland Institute (https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/ california-considers-banning-gasoline-powered-yard-equipment).

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News From The Mulch & Soil Council

By Robert LaGasse, Executive Director

Mulch & Soil Standards Open for Comment

he Mulch & Soil Council (MSC) invites public comment on proposed amendments to the Uniform Voluntary Product Guidelines For Horticultural Mulches, Growing Media And Landscape Soils (UVPG). The UVPG was first adopted by Council members as an industry standard in 2003 to promote: 1. Uniform terminology and labeling that enables industry, consumers, buyers, and regulators to achieve a common understanding of mulch and soil products and product ingredients, 2. Fair and open competition in the mulch and soil industry, and 3. Standards for product performance that enable individuals to understand and choose the best product for their application. In 2005, the voluntary guidelines became mandatory for MSC certified products but remained voluntary for the industry at large. Over the years, changes in raw materials, processing technologies, general market demand for products and evolving definitions in other NGOs caused the Council to request its Standards Committee review and update the UVPG. The Standards Committee addressed several key issues and reported a draft document to amend the existing guidelines. The initial draft was submitted for review by Council members in March and a current draft is now available for review by nonmember mulch and soil producers and other green industry stakeholders. A review copy of the proposed updated guidelines is available on the MSC website at: https://mulchandsoilcouncil.org/standards.php. All comments must be submitted in writing by mail to the Council office at 7809 N. FM 179, Shallowater, Texas 79363 or by emailing to info@mulchandsoilcouncil.org to be received no later than 12:00 p.m. (EDT) on July 8, 2020. All comments will be reviewed by the MSC Standards Committee before drafting a final proposal to amend the Uniform Voluntary Product Guidelines that will be voted on by the MSC membership at their annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Charlotte, NC, on October 7, 2020.

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President Trump Proposes Reducing and Refocusing Environment and Energy Spending By Duggan Flanakin

he Trump administration recently submitted its proposed fiscal year 2021 budget, which would significantly cut funding for certain climate change-focused programs at several government agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Energy (DOE) would be affected by the plan, which would refocus regulatory and research efforts by the agencies away from climate change and alternative energy development and toward each of the agencies’ core functions.

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he White House’s proposal would cut EPA’s budget by more than 25 percent, reducing the agency’s Office of Science and Technology’s budget to $478 million, a 33 percent budget cut. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler says the goal is to streamline operations by employing commonsense deregulatory actions to eliminate duplicative, sometimes contradictory regulatory requirements, while refocusing efforts on the agency’s core function of protecting public health. “For fifty years, EPA employees and our many partners have worked together to fulfill the agency’s mission to protect human health and the environment,” Wheeler said in a statement. “Today, Americans enjoy cleaner land, air, and water than ever before.” EPA’s press release outlines the agency’s redoubled efforts to protect children’s health, including a newly established $50 million flexible grant program to identify and address risks to children, including at older K-12 schools that may contain environmental hazards. EPA’s budget also outlines a new series of efforts to detect lead in drinking water and to remediate lead-based paint and lead-contaminated soil, including an additional $45 million to support the Lead Exposure Reduction Initiative, a cross-media effort to reduce lead exposure, particularly among children. Under the Trump administration’s budget proposal, EPA would also dedicate more than a billion dollars to Brownfields Projects, a program that redevelops formerly contaminated commercial and industrial sites for a productive use. The allocation includes $18 million specifically to support projects in qualified Opportunity Zones, located primarily in low income and minority areas.

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or the third year in a row, the Trump administration proposes significantly reducing funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Department of Commerce. The proposal deemphasizes research on climate change, cutting funding for the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research by more than 40 percent, to $327 million, and refocusing the agency’s efforts on research and activities aimed at improving the nation’s economic competitiveness. Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction, whom Trump has nominated to run the agency, says the administration’s proposal supports NOAA’s goals of reducing the impacts of extreme weather and water events to save lives, protect property, and maximize the economic contributions of ocean and coastal resources. Although the Trump administration has proposed cutting NOAA’s budget by 16 percent, it would significantly increase funding for key programs, including an increase of $8,514,000 to support mapping the ocean within the U.S. exclusive economic zone, an increase of Continued on page 12

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President Trump Proposes Reducing and Refocusing Environment and Energy Spending Continued from page 10

$44,115,000 for the Space Weather FollowOn program, and an increase of $3,200,000 to establish a Tornado Warning Improvement and Extension Program to improve the accuracy and timeliness of tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings.

Promoting Energy Dominance

he proposed DOE budget cuts include eliminating the Office of Science’s Advance Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and reducing the Office of Energy

Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s budget by 74 percent. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette says the proposed 2021 budget would fund vital priorities such as promoting America’s continued rise as an energy-independent nation, enhancing national security through modernization of the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and advancing transformative scientific innovation and environmental cleanup. “President Trump’s budget underscores the importance of nuclear security by increasing funding to modernize and maintain our nuclear

stockpile,” Brouillette said in a press release. “It focuses on intradepartmental collaboration to advance crosscutting priorities such as energy storage, security, reliability, and resilience. “It also continues investment in early-stage research and development at our National Laboratories to guarantee that the United States is at the forefront of innovative technology and innovation by investing $1.5 billion in the administration’s Industries of the Future initiative,” Brouillette said.

Calls Reform Long Overdue

RPA-E is unnecessary because the private sector already has the incentives and resources to undertake the agency’s programs, and businesses and people don’t need the government’s guidance to make the energy choices that work best for them, says Marlo Lewis Jr., a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “ARPA-E’s budget itself states ‘the private sector has the primary role in taking risks to finance the deployment of commercially viable projects and government’s best use of taxpayer funding is in earlier stage R&D,’” Lewis said. “Although ARPA-E’s $38.5 million program to ‘develop technologies to rehabilitate natural gas distribution pipelines’ is a worthwhile idea, natural gas distributors have the most to gain, and their sales vastly exceed $38.5 million a day, so there is no reason taxpayers should be on the hook for pipeline rehab R&D. “Competitive markets already drive businesses to cut costs, including energy expenditures, and consumers already have an incentive to purchase energy-efficient appliances provided those appliances do not cost too much and actually perform as advertised, so there is little need for additional government support for investment in energy efficiency,” Lewis said. The Trump administration should go even further and end federal ownership of electric power infrastructure, Lewis says. “It is high time to begin reducing or even eliminating the federal government’s role in electricity transmission infrastructure ownership,” Lewis said. “Allowing private ownership of federal dams, for example, would introduce more market-based incentives, encouraging a more efficient allocation of economic resources, allowing rate competition, and mitigating risk to taxpayers.”

www.amadas.com 12 Soil & Mulch Producer News May /June 2020

Duggan Flanakin (dflanakin@gmail.com) writes from Austin, Texas. This article was reprinted with permission from heartland.org, a product of The Heartland Institute (https://www.heartland. org/news-opinion/news/president-trump-proposesreducing-and-refocusing-environment-andenergy-spending).

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Our Vision Colors Yours! May /June 2020 Soil & Mulch Producer News 13

Soil

Mulch Producer NEWS

Compost Shortage Expected as Stay-at-home Gardeners Get Busy

ANGOR, ME – Organic farmers who first noticed a big drop in compost as restaurants shut down in March say a statewide shortage is impacting their ability to meet organic certification standards, reports Bangor Daily News. Meanwhile, compost producers have sold unprecedented amounts of compost to consumers and garden centers this spring as stay-at-home orders have prompted more people to plant gardens. By May, suppliers said they were nearly out of the product. Compost production is especially tough in Maine, where sustained freezing temperatures over the winter can suspend the normally six-week maturation process of the material. One option for the state’s 567 farms certified by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is to use organic cover crops like legumes that add to soil fertility, according to the group’s spokesperson. But this represents an obstacle for the farmers who had committed to no-till farming, which uses a thick layer of compost on top of unplowed land. Farmers who did not already reserve their season’s worth of compost may have to switch to a non-organic fertilizer and risk breaking certification standards. Others may be forced to plant seeds later in the season when more organic material becomes available. Bulk organic materials and topsoil sellers have seen an overall increase in demand for compost for the past 5 to 10 years. Competition is escalating with growing popularity of farm-to-table market restaurants, community supported agriculture, organic food certification programming, and landscaping uses.

USCC Files for Stand Alone NAICS Industry Code for Compost Manufacturing

ALEIGH, NC (May 2020) – The US Composting Council, the leading organization representing the commercial compost industry, has applied for a NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code for “Compost Manufacturing”. The move, made this spring during the open period for new industry NAICS codes, fulfills a long-term goal of USCC, whose compost production and collection members are currently classified into non-relevant codes for fertilizer and other non-industry related activities. A specific stand-alone industry code is expected to help USCC members when they obtain insurance; when they look for federal and small business bid opportunities; and for members who sell to fellow members who are composters. Agencies like the Census Bureau and other federal groups use NAICS codes to collect and analyze data on industries and publish statistics on those industries and their impact on the U.S. economy. The data will also help USCC with aggregated data to use in discussions and advocacy with state and federal legislators and regulators, as well as other industries and interested stakeholders who are following the growth of the compost industry. The application has been filed with the US Census Bureau and is under review during 2020. USCC has outlined an Industry Economic Survey that is also taking place later this year, pending additional industry support. This is one of the products of the Target Organics Project in the Compost Corporate Leadership Council work plan (see detail here). Anyone wishing to join the council and contribute to the fund can learn more here. There are levels for composters, affiliates and brand companies who want to help move the needle on infrastructure. 14 Soil & Mulch Producer News May /June 2020

Florida’s Timber Industry to Receive Hurricane Michael Relief Funds Soon

ALLAHASSEE, FL – Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that Florida has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to administer $380.7 million in grant funding for Florida’s timber industry following the impact of Hurricane Michael. Last fall, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said that Florida would receive a sizeable share of $800 million in USDA block grant funding targeted to help Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina disaster relief programs. The state’s agreement with the USDA establishes eligibility parameters and defines guidelines for the state to implement the relief program. Timber producers will begin to receive funding as soon as this Fall, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The agreement includes relief for all types of timber producers, as well as farmers who have damaged irrigation systems. State officials will be working with USDA to create a plan to distribute the funds. To prepare, agricultural producers in Northwest Florida can begin to collect planting records, photographic evidence from the storm and apply to the USDA Emergency Forest Restoration Program. For more information, timber producers can email questions to timber@em.myflorida.com.

NCSU Startup Plans to Develop Genetically Modified Forests

ALEIGH, NC – North Carolina State University researchers say they will be able to breed new lines and seed banks of commercially important trees such as pines, firs, poplars, and hemlocks, according to a news release. The new venture, TreeCo, was established by two entrepreneurs from the university – a probiotics researcher, and an assistant professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. Their goal is to combine safe, efficient and non-GMO genome editing with computationally modeling of tree genetics. Within five to six years, the scientists plan to have generated a collection of unique and specialized trees targeting specific segments of the industry, whether it be for climate resilience, fiber production, bioenergy or timber. Using genome editing to speed up the enhancement of tree traits that are beneficial to the environment, their project focuses on improving stress resistance and conversion of wood into a particular fiber or chemical product. TreeCo conducted an economic analysis and found that their trees enhanced for pulping purposes would save paper mills $27 per ton of paper. On a large scale, trees grown specifically for conversion to pulp would reduce energy-intensive bottlenecks, translating into millions of dollars in savings. The partners have begun licensing of technology and “new” types of trees through non-exclusive partnerships with forestry companies and expect to expand that part of their business. The new genome editing technologies they are using will help increase the value of state’s forestry industry by spurring niche markets and boosting sustainability, they said. Forestry contributes over $32 billion to North Carolina’s economy, providing about 150,000 local jobs. Forests produce fiber, used for essential items such as bathroom tissue and printer paper; lumber for construction and furniture; and green chemicals.

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May /June 2020 Soil & Mulch Producer News 15

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VOL. XIV NO. 3

U.S. Postage

PAID

MAY /JUNE 2020

Inside This Issue Mulch, Soil Producers Report Booming Sales During Pandemic PAGE 1

California Considers Banning Gasoline-Powered Yard Equipment PAGE 4 Mulch & Soil Standards Open for Comment PAGE 8 President Trump Proposes Reducing and Refocusing Environment and Energy Spending PAGE 12 Compost Shortage Expected as Stay-at-home Gardeners Get Busy PAGE 14 NCSU Startup Plans to Develop Genetically Modified Forests PAGE 14

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