March 2017
Caddo River Forest Products Mill to reopen Glenwood mill AFA Glenwood, Arkansas is happy to welcome Caddo River Forest Products (CRFP) to the city. CRFP will be reopening the former Bean Lumber Company sawmill. CRFP plans to produce 50 million board feet of Southern yellow pine lumber in 2017 and increase to 100 million board feet in 2018, with plans for continued growth. “Caddo River Forest Products is thankful for all of the support received from CAT Financial, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the City of Glenwood, Pike County, the State of Arkansas and the U.S. Economic Development Administration program,” said David Henderson, a member of the Caddo River partnership. “We are pleased to bring back important jobs to the area.” According to CRFP, in its first year of operation, the Glenwood sawmill will hire 80-90 full-time employees and will create 300 indirect jobs.
AFA attended the Caddo River Forest Products Community Update that was held on Thursday, March 16 in Glenwood at the CRFP facility. Brett Bray, pictured above, is CRFP’s general manager. The mill plans to open on May 15.
“In our ten management/supervisor positions in the mill, we have over 330 years of experience, said Brett Bray, CRFP General Manager.“ We have been successful in attracting “veterans” of the industry, we even have brought a couple out of retirement.”
How could the Timber Innovation Act impact you? AFA The Timber Innovation Act was reintroduced to Congress on March 7 by a group of bi-partisan congressmen, including U.S. Representative Bruce Westerman from Arkansas. This legislation works to find new and innovative ways for wood to be used as a building material. The Timber Innovation Act will increase research and development of wood for use in construction, primarily focusing on the construction of buildings that exceed 85 feet in height. The Arkansas Forestry Association was one of over 100 organizations in support of the
Timber Innovation Act’s reintroduction. Mass timber is a type of framing style using large panelized solid wood construction. Materials that could be used include crosslaminated timber, nail laminated timber or glue laminated timber panels for floor and wall framing. Mass timber products are said to be cost-competitive, carbon efficient, sustainable and reliable.
timber panels and wood based building systems creates new possibilities for wood construction,” Adrian Blocker, Weyerhaeuser senior vice president of wood products, said.
“There is enormous potential for mass timber and the Timber Innovation Act takes an important step forward to advance this new technology. While wood is one of the oldest building materials around, new technology utilizing engineered mass
Please consider reaching out to your representatives on behalf of the forest products industry, encouraging them to support this bill.
You can find more information on the Timber Innovation Act at http://www. timberinnovation.org/.
AFA CALENDAR UAMS needs the forestry industry’s April 5 Executive Committee help 10 a.m. | AFA Office AFA April 6 Log A Load for Kids Kickoff 10:30 a.m. | Arkansas Children’s Hospital April 6 Arkansas Gives Campaign Benefits AFAEF May 4-5 Spring Board Meeting Red Apple Inn | Heber Springs May 8 Log A Load for Kids Central AR Golf Tournament | Pine Bluff June 2 3rd Annual Tree Farm Conference Morrilton June 8 Log A Load for Kids South Central Golf Tournament | Glenwood June 8-9 Teacher Conservation Tour | Session 1 Texarkana June 10 Log A Load For Kids South Central Dinner and Auction Arkadelphia June 22-23 Teacher Conservation Tour | Session 2 Springdale August 4 AFA Night with the Travs | 7:10 p.m. October 3-5 AFA Annual Meeting | Little Rock
Jon Blevins, Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has reached out to the AFA for help in a research project at UAMS. The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is conducting research to learn more about ticks and tick fever. Please consider helping in this effort. Here are some helpful directions for those interested: •Place tick(s) in a small ziploc bag with a moist cotton ball or piece of wet paper towel and seal the top of the bag with tape. Multiple ticks can be combined in a single bag if they all have the same history (e.g.; similar collection site/date, collected from same animal, etc.).
Please be sure to include the information form along with your tick(s). The information form may be found at https://www.lymedisease.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/03/ArkansasState-Tick-Testing-Form.docx Ticks may be mailed to: Jon Blevins, Associate Professor UAMS Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology 4301 West Markham - Mail Slot 511 Little Rock, AR 72205
•Place the baggie in a small padded envelope and ship to the address above. Alternatively, you can contact us at ARTickTesting@uams.edu to discuss whether it might be feasible for us to either pick them up or have you drop them off at UAMS.
Log A Load for Kids recognized during #ChildrensHospitalsWeek AFA Fifty “champion kids” and their families representing each state made the journey to Walt Disney World for the Children’s Miracle Network Momentum conference that took place from March 20-27. The week, known as #ChildrensHospitalsWeek, celebrated the brave children who have battled or are currently battling various diseases. The Arkansas Champion was Miss JaKiah Collins from Bryant, Arkansas. JaKiah fought kidney cancer four years ago and is now in remission. continued on page 3 Pictured (L to R): John Schneider, CMN co-founder, Brenna Westlake, champion from Illinois, Marie Osmond, CMN co-founder, JaKiah Collins, champion from Arkansas and Steve Young, CMN partner
Former AFA president inducted into the Arkansas Ag Hall of Fame AFA
On Friday, March 3, 2017, Allen Bedell, Circle B Logging of Hot Springs, was inducted into the Arkansas Ag Hall of Fame.
Density Control, Inc.
Some of his accomplishments include helping start Mr. Bedell served as president of the Log A Load for the Arkansas Forestry Association Kids program here from 1994 to 1995 and continues to in Arkansas. This is serve on the Association’s Executive an annual campaign Committee as well as the Board of that raises money for Directors. Mr. Bedell represents the patients at Arkansas forestry community on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Department of Agriculture Board. Mr. Since this program Bedell is in his second term on the began in 1993, Arkansas Arkansas Forestry Commission Board, loggers and forestry Pictured (L to R): having served as chairman from 2008companies have raised Larry Boccarossa, Arkansas Timber Producers Association, Max 2013. over $9 million. Mr. Bedell Braswell, Arkansas Forestry Association, Allen Bedell and Joe Fox, was a founding member Arkansas Forestry Commission Mr. Bedell has committed much of his of the Arkansas Timber life to advancing the forestry industry in Producers Association, an association Mr. Bedell earned an undergraduate Arkansas. He worked for Georgia-Pacific dedicated to logger education and degree in forestry from Louisiana State in Fordyce for many years as a forester training. Mr. Bedell is a two-time University and a master’s degree in and then began his own businesses, recipient of the Arkansas Forestry forest management from Yale. Circle B Logging and Quality Stand Association’s Logger of the Year Award.
#ChildrensHospitalsWeek cont’d Log A Load for Kids was recognized during #ChildrensHospitalsWeek as one of 30 partners who achieved membership into the Million Dollar Club. #ChildrensHospitalsWeek featured various sessions to educate partners on ways to increase funding, the history of Children’s Miracle Network and also included opportunities to meet the “champion kids” from each state and Canadian province. Champion families had the opportunity to meet several celebrities that made appearances during #ChildrensHospitalsWeek
including John Schneider, Marie Osmond, David Osmond, Nick Cannon, Cody Allen, Alli Simpson, Steve Young and more. Log A Load for Kids committee members from all over the nation met and swapped fundraising ideas as well as discussed plans on ways to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Log A Load for Kids partnership with Children’s Miracle Network in 2018. John Schneider, co-founder of Children’s Miracle Network sat down with the Log A Load for Kids team for an interview
about the program. You can check it out online at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vLTF3iCtgFw&t=265s. Arkansas’ Log A Load for Kids continues to be the leading Log A Load for Kids program in the country, raising a final total of $577,181 in 2016 and over $9 million since the program started in Arkansas in 1993. If you are interested in being a part of this life-changing charity, please contact Rebecca Neely about events in your area!
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