The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) has published twelve draft forest management prescriptions for nine Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) that are now available for review.

The above detail proposed methods to improve, maintain, and sustain wildlife habitat while providing quality wildlife-oriented recreational improvements and growing quality timber resources for the long-term.

State lawmakers want Gov. Jeff Landry to declare an emergency to address millions of dead and dying pines that insects have infested and now pose a risk to people, property, power lines and roads. 

But officials say not much help is available to homeowners who want to remove trees that are certain to fall down and cause damage.

Almond Brothers Lumber Co. and LaSalle Lumber were recently awarded the 2023 John Edgar Rhodes Sawmill Safety Exellence Award by the Southern Forest Products Association (SFPA).

Almond Brothers Lumber of Coushatta was one of three mills in Division I (producing 50 million board feet or less) and LaSalle Lumber of Urania was the only mill in Division III (producing more than 150 million board feet annually) receiving the award for having zero reported incidents in 2023.

Extreme drought and pine beetle outbreaks are of increasing concern for forests in the south to the extent that USDA approved financial and technical assistance to help owners restore forests on non-industrial private forestlands in Mississippi and Louisiana. Behind much of the information about the drought and the trees adversely affected are Forest Service scientists who have developed tools that allow users to see real-time effects of the drought.