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Wet Weather, Rising Home Construction Brighten Outlook for Timber Growers

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ALBANY, GA, April 2014 — With help from wet weather and a modest recovery in new home construction, the outlook is finally turning brighter for tree growers in the South and other timber regions of the nation.

That’s the encouraging outlook for the forest-products sector of the U.S. economy from Marshall Thomas who heads F&W Forestry Services, Inc., one of the largest U.S. forest management and consulting firms based in Albany, Ga., in the heart of the nation’s southern pine belt.

“After years of depressing news for timber growers, all the economic indicators seem to be positive now—housing starts are up, building permits are up, interest rates are up slightly but still very low, and exchange rates are favorable,” Thomas writes in the spring issue of his company’s quarterly newsletter, The F&W Forestry Report.

“While this recovery, at least in our sector, has been frustratingly slow, it has at least been consistent—which means we should be able to expect slow but steady price increases for trees as we continue through the recovery—probably not reaching the highs of the 1990’s but perhaps at least returning to trend,” Thomas said.

Thomas said two factors other than demand for lumber and other wood products that influence U.S. timber markets are weather conditions and exchange rates of the U.S. versus the Canadian dollar. At the present time, the currency values of the two countries are about the same—with neither country having the big currency advantage that Canada has had in the recent past.

Weather patterns also influence timber prices because extreme wet conditions adversely affect timber harvesting operations. With a 50-50 chance that El Nino will bring wet conditions to the Southern U.S. in the coming months, timber prices stand to be further elevated.

“That leaves us in a pretty good situation,” Thomas writes.  “Over the long term (three to five years), we should see steadily rising prices for pine and hardwood sawtimber and we have a coin-toss chance that we will have some wet weather influences towards the end of this year into next winter.”

About F&W:

Established in 1962, F&W Forestry Services, Inc., of Albany, Ga., is one of the nation’s oldest and largest forest consulting and management firms.  The company handles timber sales and provides comprehensive forest management and consulting services to private and industrial landowners through a network of 19 offices in 12 states comprising the Southern pine belt, the Central and Appalachia regions, Upstate New York, and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. It also manages private forestlands in South America with offices in Uruguay and Brazil.

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F&W Reorganizes Arkansas Operations, Appoints Two New Managers

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April 2014 — F&W Forestry Services, Inc., one of the nation’s oldest and largest forestry management and consulting firms, has restructured its Southwest Gulf operations with the establishment of a new office in Texarkana, Texas.  The changes also include closure of its branch office at DeQueen, Ark., and appointment of two new regional managers.

Marshall Thomas, F&W president, said the new Texarkana office will better position the company to serve private landowners in East Texas and Northwest Louisiana while still continuing to serve clients in West Arkansas and Southeast Oklahoma. Thomas also announced closure of the DeQueen office.

Randy Jarzyniecki, who was previously based at F&W’s LaFayette, Ala., office, has been promoted to regional manager of the new Texarkana office.  Jarzyniecki, who joined F&W in 2005, holds a bachelor of science degree in forestry from Auburn University.   He is a member of the Society of American Foresters and the Texas and Oklahoma Forestry Associations.

As part of the change, Thomas announced that Brent Williamson has been promoted to the position of manager of the El Dorado office.  Prior to joining F&W in 2010, Williamson operated his own forestry and wildlife management firm in El Dorado for eight years.  Before that he was a research assistant at the School of Forest Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.  Williamson holds a bachelor of science degree in wildlife management from the University of Arkansas and is a member of the Society of American Foresters and the Arkansas Forestry Association.

About F&W:

Established in 1962, F&W Forestry Services, Inc., of Albany, Ga., is one of the nation’s oldest and largest forest consulting and management firms.  The company handles timber sales and provides comprehensive forest management and consulting services to private and industrial landowners through a network of 19 offices in 12 states comprising the Southern pine belt, the Central and Appalachia regions, Upstate New York, and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. It also manages private forestlands in South America with offices in Uruguay and Brazil.

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F&W Forestry Names Nathan McClure New Manager Of Upstate South Carolina

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April 2014 — Nathan D. McClure, a 29-year veteran forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission, has joined F&W Forestry Services, Inc., as manager of the upstate region of South Carolina with a new headquarters at Simpsonville near Greenville.  The firm’s former South Carolina office was in Greenwood.

McClure rose through the ranks at the Georgia agency from reforestation forester to chief forester for the Forest Utilization and Markets Department where he was instrumental in developing research data that helped bring forest-based industry to the state.  He also served on the Commission’s executive leadership team.

“We are delighted and fortunate to have someone with Nathan’s skills and experience across the forestry spectrum join the F&W team and take over our South Carolina operations from Lewis Levy, who retired  in December after 19 years of dedicated service to F&W and to our clients in South Carolina,” said Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services, Inc., headquartered in Albany, Ga.

Based in Albany, Ga., F&W is one of the nation’s oldest and largest forestry consulting and management firms, with 19 U.S. offices across the southern pine belt, the Central Region, and the Northeast.  It also has affiliated companies in Oregon and in Uruguay and Brazil, S.A.

McClure joined the Georgia Forestry Commission shortly after his graduation from the University of Georgia in 1983 with a B.S. degree in forest resources. He served in numerous Commission capacities, including initiation of Georgia’s carbon sequestration registry, performance checks of Best Management Practices (BMPs), and promotion of new uses for wood, such as engineered lumber.

He also has over twelve years of hands-on forest management experience with responsibility for all facets of overseeing 20,000 acres of  forest land in Paulding and Dawson Counties, Georgia.

As manager of the new Simpsonville office, McClure will have responsibilities for F&W operations largely in the Piedmont region of the state, often called the South Carolina “up country.”  F&W’s office in Statesboro, Ga., will continue to serve the coastal area of South Carolina.

About F&W:

Established in 1962, F&W Forestry Services, Inc., of Albany, Ga., is one of the nation’s oldest and largest forest consulting and management firms.  The company handles timber sales and provides comprehensive forest management and consulting services to private and industrial landowners through a network of 19 offices in 12 states comprising the Southern pine belt, the Central and Appalachia regions, Upstate New York, and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. It also manages private forestlands in South America with offices in Uruguay and Brazil.