AX MEN coming to the History Channel

On Sunday, March 9, at 10:00pm, the History Channel will launch a new program from the creators of Ice Road Truckers. The idea of the show, AX MEN, is to examine the lives of loggers in the Pacific Northwest.

I had an opportunity to see an early screening of the first episode. It looks like it's going to be an interesting, and even exciting, TV show. As is the case with all shows of this nature, they certainly dramatized a few things. I also think a few of the guys on the logging crews did some things in front of the camera that they might not otherwise have done.

There is also a large focus on how dangerous logging can be. I think that, on the whole, that's a good things, as long as they don't end up painting the profession as too dangerous. I noticed that the program even mentioned that the area these loggers were in was practicing sustainable forestry and replanting after a cut. (And one of the crews is even moving felled trees out of a wind damaged area.)

On the whole, I think this will be a fairly positive show. If you want to see a short preview of AX MEN, follow this link.

Our nation's forests are growing

A press release from the Abundant Forests Alliance pointed me towards the USDA Forest Service's web page for their Resources Planning Act. Specially, it noted a recently released document concerning changes in America's forests (growth, removal, mortality). The document reveals that America's forests are still growing. Some key findings were:

• There are 750 million acres of forestland in the U.S. today, about the same as in 1907.
• 11 states had increases of over 25 percent over the last century, and nine had increases of over 30 percent.
• Overall, forestland in the northern U.S. has increased by almost 30 percent.

These findings match the Society of American Foresters 2007 State of America's Forests report.

All in all, this is encouraging news. It means that, as a country, landowners are working to keep our nation covered in forests. Of course, we know that we will have to keep working towards goals that let landowners maintain this land, such as a fair tax policy, freedom to practice timber farming (including control burning), a healthy economic environment for loggers and truckers, and a thriving forest products industry.