Forest Service Paving the Way for Plum Creek?

The nation’s largest landowner may be getting a last-minute, going-away gift from the Bush Administration. The Forest Service may amend existing easements, a step that would allow Plum Creek Timber (NYSE:PCL) to pave roads through USFS land.  Such a move would facilitate an important first step for the giant timber REIT as it converts forested acreage to residential developments.  Read the complete story here.

Resilient Montanans Rally Around Timber

Worthwhile read in the New York Times today by Kirk Johnson for the National Desk. The focus of the article is less about timber or timberland as an investment and more about the Montana logging communities whose lifeblood has been altered by forces far from home, including the mortgage meltodown, climate change, and the drop in demand for … wood chips. Read more

Potential for Massive Wildfires Next Summer in the West

The great plague that is the pine beetle infestation has now destroyed millions of acres of timber across the western U.S. and into Canada. The extent of this calamity is so enormous that last month we covered the devastation at this website. This week Jim Robbins at The New York Times picked up the storyline and filed his own excellent report about the disappearing forest. Here are some of his key observations: Read more