Tag Archives: GFC

Georgia post-Hurricane Helene Forestry Meeting Series 2024-12-10

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For those of us with many trees blown down, this meeting should be very useful and informative.

[Public Notice]
Public Notice

POST HURRICANE HELENE FORESTRY MEETING SERIES

Participants: GA Forestry Commission (GFC), UGA Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources and UGA Cooperative Extension Service

DAYDATELOCATIONADDRESS
MondayDecember 9 Tift County Extension Office 1468 Carpenter Rd S., Tifton, GA
TuesdayDecember 10 4-H Center, Lake Park 6100 4-H Club Rd. Lake Park, GA
WednesdayDecember 11 UGA Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center 8163 SR-147, Lyons, GA
Thursday December 12 Augusta Library 823 Telfair St., Augusta, GA

AGENDA

9:00-9:20 Registration

9:20-9:30 Welcome by County Extension Agent and GFC Forester

9:30-10:00 Hurricane Helene—Timber damage assessment — Troy Clymer and Ryan Phillips (GFC)

10:00-10:30 Forest markets and longevity — Lessons learned from Hurricane Michael — Devon Dartnell (GFC)

10:30-11:00 Assessing storm damaged stands — Dr. David Dickens or Dr. David Clabo (UGA Warnell School)

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-11:45 Lean and uprooted pines recovery — Drs. David Dickens or David Clabo (UGA Warnell School)

11:45-12:15 Insect and diseases post hurricanes — frequent visits to pine stands — Dr. Elizabeth McCarty (UGA Warnell School)

12:15-12:45 Emergency Forestry Restoration Program (EFRP) and other programs after a declared natural disaster — Melissa Mullis (Farm Service Agency) or Ryan Phillips (GFC)

12:45-1:15 Lunch

1:15-1:45 Timber taxation and casualty losses— Dr. Yanshu Li (UGA Warnell School)

1:45-2:15 Reforestation options — Dr. David Dickens or Dr. David Clabo (UGA Warnell School)

2:15-2:45 Invasive species — ID and control options — Dr. David Clabo (UGA Warnell School) or Mark McClure (GFC)

2:45-3:30 Seedling availability updates — Arborgen, GFC, Meeks Nursery, and PRT/IFCO

3:30 Adjourn

Registration is required. Each location will only accommodate 90-100 attendees.
Dec 9 & 10 meetings – call 229-386-3298 or email salina@uga.edu
Dec 11 & 12 meetings – call 912-478-8986 or email dmiracle@uga.edu

Society of American Foresters continuing forestry education credits will be offered by meeting.

Georgia Master Timber Harvester continuing education credits will be offered by meeting.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

Propaganda for charter school amendment 1 paid for by out-of-state donors

Who can afford to pay for these two glossy mailers pushing the charter school amendment? Who are GeorgiaHope2012.org and BrighterGeorgia.org, anyway? Recipients of millions from Alice Walton and the Walton Family Foundation to push a bill sponsored in the statehouse by ALEC’s “our state legislators”. Will we believe Alice Walton and ALEC, or will we believe our Georgia educators, who overwhelmingly oppose Amendment 1?

Two glossy mailers pushing the charter school amendment

GeorgiaHope2012.org’s mailer (the big one) says in really light grey type:

Paid for by Families for Better Public Schools Edward Lindsey Chairman

We’ve heard of them before. They raised $486,750 by September, about 96% from outside Georgia, including Alice Walton ($250,000), K12 Inc. of Virginia ($100,000), Charter Schools USA of Florida ($50,000), J.C. Huizenga and National Heritage Academies Inc. of Michigan ($25,000 each). Their spokesman Bert Brantley (who went to Lowndes County public schools) claims the bogus preamble to the charter school amendment, the one that uses ALEC Family Trigger jargon and asserts things that just aren’t in either of the authorizing bills; he claims that preamble is “factual”. His previous PR campaign was pushing the T-SPLOST transportation tax that failed by a landslide.

Families for Better Public Schools is still playing the charter school bait and switch in their mailer by pretending Amendment 1 is needed for charter schools:

EVERY CHILD DESERVES A CHANCE! VOTE YES! for Public Charter Schools on November 6th.

We don’t need this amendment to create charter schools. Any local school board can already do that.

BrighterGeorgia.org’s mailer (the smaller one) says in grey on grey type:

Paid for by Georgia Charter Schools Association

GCSA got $700,000 from the Walton Family Foundation last year, and is a member of Continue reading →

Center of Innovation – Energy

Where’s Waldo? And where’s the state renewable energy strategy for Georgia, or for the southeast, or for just south Georgia? Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) Project Manager Allan Ricketts found another candidate.
“Forests Dominate Georgia’s Land Use”
That’s the title of slide 10 of 21 in Center of Innovation – Energy (CIE) by Jill Stuckey, Director. Actually, massively pesticided planted pines dominate south Georgia’s land use; not the same as actual forests with species diversity and diverse ages of trees. The same CIE slide equates
Georgia Forestry = Biomass Energy
That is what the state government seems to want it to be.

Back on slide 9, solar is defined as a southwestern regional energy source; nevermind that the solar map on that page shows Georgia with the same insolation as most of Texas (more on that later). And wind is defined as a central U.S. regional strength, nevermind that even Georgia Power has started exploring the possibility of wind off the Georgia coast.

I get it that Georgia has trees and forestry is a big industry in Georgia. I’m a tree farmer myself. I’d love to be convinced that biomass from trees is one good way to go. But at what costs? And compared to what? Continue reading →