SLB ANNOUNCES BOARD

Lineup

United States Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack has appointed Ricky Stanley to serve his first term on the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) Board of Directors. He has also reappointed Jim Neiman, Tim Biewer, and Ray Ferris to serve their second terms on the Board.

Representation on the Board is proportional to re- gional production, and domestic manufacturers and importers of a variety of softwood lumber products from a broad range of size and type of company are represented. Directors will serve a three-year term of office beginning immediately to December 31, 2025. On January 1, 2023, current Director Brian Luoma began his twoyear term as Board Chair, taking over from outgoing Board Chair Caroline Dauzat.

Stanley is President and CEO of Brewton, Ala.–based T.R. Miller Mill Company; he starts his first term on the Board representing the U.S. South. He comes to the SLB as a veteran leader in several other industry associations and has already been active in the SLB, recently serving as a non-board member on its Industry Relations and Governance Committee.

Neiman is President and CEO of Hulett, Wyoming– based Nieman Enterprises and affiliated companies. He currently serves as Treasurer of the Executive Committee for the SLB’s Board of Directors and as Chair of the Finance Committee. This marks the start of his second term on the Board, representing the U.S. West.

Biewer is Owner and President of St. Clair, Mich.–based Biewer Lumber. He currently serves on the SLB’s Industry Relations and Governance Committee. This will be his second term on the Board, representing the U.S. Northeast and Lake States.

Ferris is President and CEO of Vancouver, BC–based West Fraser. He currently serves as the First Vice Chair of the SLB’s Executive Committee and Ex-Officio of the Finance and Industry Relations and Governance Committees. This will be his second term on the Board, repre- senting Canada West.

Luoma is President and CEO of The Westervelt Company. He currently represents the U.S. South region on the SLB Board of Directors and has most recently served as the Second Vice Chair of the SLB’s Executive Committee and Chair of the SLB’s Programs Committee.

The 2023 Board will have 14 members, including 10 domestic manufacturers and four importers. Members can serve up to two consecutive threeyear terms.

Forest Project Moves Ahead

The U.S. Forest Service recently prevailed against a 3year-old lawsuit seeking to halt a forest health project in coastal California’s Los Padres National Forest that sought to thin timber stands to reduce the threat of crown fires. Forest officials say the Tecuya Ridge Shaded Fuelbreak Project is an effort to prevent wildfires from reaching several small communities in the area.

When the project was initially approved in 2019, several environmental groups filed suit, claiming parts of the 1,600 acre project were in roadless areas and had been improperly included. The FS won the case in 2020, and has now won the appeal as well. Local news reports note that while the project has faced opposition, residents in the communities affected are overwhelmingly in favor of the project.

Proposed Pellet Mills Advance

A proposed project that would build two wood pellet facilities—one in the foothills of the Central Sierra Nevada

Mountain range, in Tuolumne County, Calif., and one in the Modoc Plateau of northern California, in Lassen County— released a Notice of Preparation (NOP) of a Draft Environmental Impact Report in midNovember, which allowed a 30-day public review and comment period and included four public meetings.

Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA), acting as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) lead agency, released the NOP for the Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) Forest Resiliency Demonstration Project. As part of the project’s scope, the finished pellets will be shipped by rail to a port for international shipping. The preferred port location is currently being selected, and will be either the Port of Stockton, or the Levin-Richmond Terminal in Richmond, Calif.

The project is a response to the growing rate of wildfires in California, which has been exacerbated by hazardous excess fuel loads in forests, and the need to promote economic activity within California’s rural counties, according to the participants. The project would improve the resiliency of California’s forestlands by sustainably procuring and processing excess biomass into a pelletized fuel source for use in renewable energy generation overseas.

There would be two primary feedstock types: roundwood and residuals. Roundwood would be procured through vegetation treatment activities, including prescribed thinning, occurring on public and private lands within a 100 mile radius of each production facility. Residuals include material (bark, shavings, sawdust, wood chips) left over from the milling process, and may include forest slash or material left following timber harvesting and treatments (such as the limbs and the tops of trees), and vegetation from fire management activities performed by utilities.

The NOP emphasizes that forest material my come from pubic or private lands, and noted that in October 2019, GSFA executed a 20-year Master Stewardship Agreement (MSA) with the U.S. Forest Service to provide for the mutual benefits and interests of GSFA and the USFA in achieving resilient forests within U.S. Forest Service Region 5, which includes all of the 18 national forests located in California. The MSA would allow FSFA to undertake forest thinning and fuel reduction activities identified in individual Supplemental Project Agreements.

The NOP describes planned capacities of 300,000 tons per year at the Tuolumne site and

700,000 tons at the Lassen site. The Tuolumne site was previously used as a bark facility by Sierra Pacific Industries. The Lassen site is a portion of a larger property that included a mill site (which is not part of the proposed project site) and an area used by the mill operators to load rail cars.

GSFA is preparing an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) to determine if the project may have a significant effect on the environment, including air quality, forestry resources, greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous materials, etc.

Golden State Natural Resources was unveiled in 2018 as a public benefit, non-profit corporation. The web site shows Greg Norton as President/CEO, a position he previously held with Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC).

Treating Giant Plans Expansion

Great Southern Wood Preserving, known for its YellaWood brand pressure-treated pine, announced a $5.9 million expansion of its Louisiana Avoyelles Parish facility’s remanufacturing division with the installation of four new production lines. The additional equipment will increase the facility’s production capacity and allow for the manufacturing of components used in the oil field and for storm relief and mitigation.

The company will create 25 new direct jobs and retain 79 existing jobs.

With the facility enhancements, production of supplemental decking components, including rails and balusters, will shift from out-of-state facilities to the Mansura plant. These products will be used on-site as well as at Great Southern locations throughout the U.S.

“Our expansion in Mansura is phase two of the long-range plan we had in mind when we began operations here in late 2011,” says Great Southern President and CEO Jimmy Rane. “With the growth of various manufacturing segments in Louisiana, our goal is to be able to support these industries by providing both a greater volume of products as well as more variety in the products they need to continue their growth. We’re looking forward to getting underway in early 2023.”

The company projects construction to begin in January and be complete in October. This is Great Southern’s second investment in its Louisiana location. Last April the company announced a $22.5 million, 200,000 sq. ft. expansion of the Mansura facility that included a new warehouse, office building and maintenance shop.

To secure the project in Mansura, the state of Louisiana offered Great Southern Wood a competitive incentives package including a performance-based retention and modernization tax credit of up to $200,000, and the services of LED FastStart, Louisiana’s recruitment, customized training and workforce development program. The company is a participant in the state’s Quality Jobs program and is expected to participate in the Industrial Tax Exemption program.

Clutter Was Resources Expert

Dr. Michael Lee Clutter, who served as Dean of the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources from 2007-2015, and was a noted expert in his field, died on December 24. He was 63.

Born in Durham, NC, Clutter grew up in Athens and attended Clarke Central High School, where he graduated with honors in 1977, was captain of the soccer team, and lead trumpeter for the school’s band. He pursued his undergraduate education at Ohio University, playing collegiate soccer, and later at Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry resources in 1981. Returning to his hometown, Clutter received a master’s degree in 1982 and a doctoral degree in 1991, both from Warnell.

Clutter was considered an authority on the economics of the forestry industry, including finance, budgeting, timberland management and timber supply and sizing trends. Early in his career he held various management positions with two leading forest products companies, Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Union Camp Corp. in Savannah. Joining Warnell’s faculty in 2001, he was later named the Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of Forest Finance and received the Warnell School’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Assuming the role of Dean on August 15, 2007, Clutter was determined to keep students at the forefront of his scholarship and research, continuing to teach forestry courses until his departure in January 2015. Along with his Warnell classes, he also was an adjunct professor at the Terry College of Business, where he taught corporate finance. One of his proudest accomplish- ments was his lifetime affiliation with Warnell as a dean, professor, student, and the son of a professor at the school.

Desiring to return to the private sector, Clutter became an executive with Forest Investment Associates Timber Partners, a timber and timberland investment fund. He worked there until 2021, when he was named Chief Analytics Officer at F & W Forestry, a position he held until his death.

Along with his academic and professional accomplishments, Clutter was the co-editor of a book on timberland investment, author of numerous articles and other publications, a recipient of several research grants, an editorial board member of the professional journal Forest Science, a member and past chair of American Forest and Paper Assn.’s forest inventory committee, and a member of the U.S. Forest Service’s forest inven- tory and analysis review committee. He was an inductee of the Georgia Foresters Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Catherine (Cathy) Nemetz, and their three children, Matthew, Emily and Maggie.

Clutter was predeceased by his father, Dr. Jerome Clutter, also a leading professor at Warnell for 20 years.

Visitation was held January 6 in Watkinsville, and a funeral mass was January 7 at The Catholic Center at the University of Georgia. Interment was at Oconee Hill Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to: The Dr. Michael L. Clutter Fellowship, University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, attention: Bridget Harden (bharden@uga.edu). In addition, donations may be made to Trout Unlimited, at gifts.tu.org.