Crews are making good progress on the Backbone Fire in the Kisatchie Hills Wilderness Area in Natchitoches Parish. Jim Caldwell with the U.S. Forest Service says as of yesterday evening, the 2,400-acre fire was just under 60% contained.

“Our lines are certainly holding. There’s still a very small amount of fire out there, but things are going completely to plan, and we think it will soon be out,” Caldwell said.

Buck Vandersteen joins the show from the LegisGator Conference to discuss the state of Louisiana’s forestry industry, highlighting its vast forest coverage—over 15 million acres, mostly privately owned. Historically, early 20th-century logging led to deforestation, but reforestation efforts over the past 75 years have reversed that trend. Today, Louisiana grows 70% more wood than it harvests, creating a surplus of timber, especially small-diameter wood from first thinnings.

Traditionally, this surplus fed the pulp and paper industry, but declining newspaper demand and mill closures—like International Paper in Pineville—have left millions of tons of wood without a market.

A tale of two sawmills shows lessons learned that helped with the startup of Bienville Lumber Co., the second endeavor of a partnership of Hunt Forest Products and Tolko Industries of Canada.

The partnership of the Ruston-based Hunt Forest Products and Vernon, British Columbia-based Tolko Industries began around 2016 with a decision on its first sawmill in Urania — LaSalle Lumber Co. — soon followed. Testing at that mill began in late 2018 and it became fully operational in 2019.

Manulife Investment Management (Manulife IM), a company of Manulife Wealth & Asset Management, announced today the closing of a Louisiana timberland transaction on behalf of a client. Under the terms of the agreement, Manulife IM, the world's largest timberland investment manager,1 acquired approximately 50,000 pine timberland acres in southwestern Louisiana, expanding acreage under management in Arkansas/Louisiana/Texas/Oklahoma to over one million acres. The timberlands are near existing Manulife IM managed timberland assets and are well placed to be incorporated into ongoing regional operations.

Packaging and paper company Hood Container Corporation announced it will invest $118.9 million to modernize its paper mill in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The company said the project would boost production capacity and quality.

Hood Container expects the development to retain 295 positions and add 819 indirect jobs. 

Forisk Consulting will hold a webinar on Timber Market Analysis Class in October and COFC foresters and Master Loggers can earn 3 CE credits to attend one day of the two-day event or 6 CE credits if they attend both days.

The live Zoom webinar will be held frm 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. CDT Oct. 1 and 2. It is designed to help attendees "understand, track and analyze the price, demand, supply and competitive dynamics of local timber markets and wood baskets though the use of case studies," according to the Forisk website.

We turn off the highway and drive a couple of miles on a gravel road through the tall longleaf pines of Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest. This area in Vernon Parish is home to the once-endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. But now the small woodpecker is making a comeback. Thanks in part to the efforts of humans. Biologists have been tracking these woodpeckers for years, finding their nests dozens of feet above the ground in the trunks of tall pines. They raise a camera to peek inside.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, along with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, conducted a Longleaf Pine Restoration and Management Landowner Field Day and Workshop June 27 at the Marsh Bayou WMA in Evangeline Parish.

Longleaf pine forests offer a number of ecological and economic benefits. Longleaf pine savannahs are among the most diverse ecosystems in the world, with well-maintained sites providing optimum habitat for turkeys, quail, deer and numerous other game and non-game species.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime event for many across Central Louisiana and beyond as wildfires and drought destroyed over 60,000 acres of trees, drying up land in the summer and fall months of 2023 and costing the state $71 million in timber loss.

Dr. Mike Strain, the commissioner of Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry, shared, “We have about 18.6 million acres total of timber. That’s 15 million acres of farm timber as well. It’s about 3.6 million acres of bottomlands and hardwoods. So, if you look at 85% of Louisiana, it is in timber or row crop type agriculture or aquaculture.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at revitalizing America’s timber industry by increasing logging on federal lands, streamlining permitting, and reducing regulatory delays.

But in Louisiana, where the timber sector has been in long decline, early reactions suggest the impact has been minimal — at least for now.

Sumitomo Forestry Co. officially announced it has acquired 100 percent of interests in the Teal Jones Louisiana Holdings through its Sumitomo Forestry America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary.

"With these acquisitions, we will begin the launch of our first timber industrial complex*1 in the US. In addition to dimension lumber*2 and other materials to build houses and multi-family residential buildings in Louisiana, this complex will consider manufacturing mass timber*3 to maximize the value of wood through the cascading utilization of logs where nothing goes to waste. Harnessing the synergy effect with our existing US operations in residential property development, real estate development and FITP,*4 we are aiming to further grow our businesses in the US," according to a press release.