OK, so this is a fall leaf web cam site developed for autumn 2009. It is now one of my hottest sites and I suspect being used for viewing the large arctic blast and record snows of February 2010. All you have to do is look at the regional cams for awesome mid-winter sights. Use this as your Winter Web Cam Central to keep up with our beautiful, snowy winter forests...enjoy the views!

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report in 2004 indicated that United States forests sequestered 10.6% of the carbon dioxide released in the United States produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas. America's urban trees sequestered another 1.5%.

Terrestrial carbon sequestration is simply a forest's or grassland's ability to take in and lock up atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis over a significant period of time. Many CO2 producing companies are now concerned and voluntarily trading carbon offsets or buying carbon credits.

Carbon offset credits are now being purchased from investment funds and carbon development companies who have registered the credits from individual sequestration projects. Forest related projects come in the form of stored carbon from the manufacture of wood products and the reforestation of harvested forests.

According to a Forest2Market (F2M) report, the price for pulpwood has increased and is good news for tree farmers who need to make intermediate tree harvests. Although some of this price rise is seasonal as winter's wet weather limits access to a supply of harvestable trees, it also suggests that loggers and dealers are determined to outlast this economic recession and need the work.

F2M suggests many loggers are presently operating at a loss but betting that there will a long-term increase in paper production. Another encouraging spark for increasing wood prices is the federal Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP). As per the U.S. Department of Agriculture, BCAP will "provide financial assistance to producers or entities that deliver eligible biomass material to designated biomass conversion facilities for use as heat, power, biobased products or biofuels".

Pulpwood prices are up since last summer an average of more than $3/ton and the average price is $12/ton, says F2M.

Southern Pine Tree Farm - Photo by Steve Nix and Licensed to About.com

Tree Cookie Discussion

"Does anyone know the best way to prepare a large tree cookie for permanent display so that it won't crack? Our method didn't work particularly well; it included air drying the cookies and then soaking them in a giant vat of PEG for about 6 months." - Portion of an About Forestry Forum Discussion

For those of you who don't know what a tree cookie is -

A tree cookie is a sliced portion of a tree bole that can show each and every annual ring on a viewable plane. A tree cookie can be one of the best teaching aids to kids and adults on things happening in a tree and environmental effects on trees.

Play this tree cookie game brought to you by Utah State University Forestry Extension