April/May 2012

Log A Load For Kids kicks of 19th campaign for ACHOn Monday, April 9, the Arkansas Log A

Load For Kids committee held its 19th campaign kickoff at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Since 1993, this grassroots fundraising program has raised more than $5.5 million for ACH. Volunteers from logging and forestry related businesses work on local committees around the state to host dinners, auctions, golf tournaments and other events to raise money for the hospital.

In addition to reviewing and discussing fundraising efforts and planned events, the group toured the South Wing construction project. This new facility, scheduled to open in June, is home to a new Emergency Department and Trauma Unit.

In 2008, the program pledged to contribute $2 million to help fund the Trauma Unit, a state-of-the-art facility that will treat the state’s most seriously injured children. It will be the only pediatric trauma center in the state and serve as a critical part of the state’s new trauma system.

“The state’s professional loggers and natural resource managers should feel proud to be part of something designed to help protect the children of Arkansas; may it need to be used as little as possible,” said Allen Farley, with Green Bay Packaging and River Valley Log A Load For Kids.

With that funding commitment coming to a close at the end of this year, the Log A Load For Kids committee approved a new $2 million commitment, from 2013 to 2017, for the following:

• $1 million to Emergency Services• $1 million to the Trauma Program

The Emergency Department will be named for Log A Load For Kids of Arkansas.

“Log A Load’s plans for moving forward are impressive,” said ACH President and CEO Dr. Jonathan Bates. “This commitment will

afford us the opportunity to do things we otherwise could not do for emergency and trauma care in Arkansas.”

“It is exciting that the children of Arkansas will have the best emergency equipment and doctors available for them and the state of Arkansas will at last have a pediatric trauma facility,” said Gay Pace, with Drew County Log A Load For Kids. “We are proud to be a vital part of making possible the Log A Load For Kids Emergency Department.”

In addition to the Trauma Unit and Emergency Services commitments, Arkansas Log A Load For Kids has funded two $1.5 million endowments at ACH—one in pediatric cardiovascular surgery and another in support of the Angel One helicopter transport program—and one $1 million endowment in support of the hospital’s imaging and radiation program.

Last year, the campaign raised $448,243, more than any other Log A Load For Kids program in the nation. More than 26 states participate in the program, raising money for pediatric care facilities that are part of the Children’s Miracle Network.

The Arkansas Forestry Association and Arkansas Timber Producers Association

sponsor the program in Arkansas. For more information, look online at arkforests.org, under “Programs” or contact AFA Communications Director Anna Swaim at (501) 374-2441 or aswaim@arkforests.org.

Following is the 2012 Arkansas Log A Load For Kids calendar of events:

April 27Strong Log A Load For Kids

Molnaird Bros. Sawmill

May 9Central Arkansas Golf Tournament

Harbor Oaks, Pine Bluff

May 17South Central Arkansas Golf Tournament

Lake DeGray, Arkadelphia

May 19South Central Log A Load For Kids Event

Feaster Park, Arkadelphia

September 29River Valley Log A Load For Kids Event

Boys and Girls Club, Russellville

October 20Central Arkansas Log A Load For Kids Event

Community Center, Sheridan

The Arkansas Log A Load For Kids committee toured the South Wing construction project at Arkansas Children’s Hospital during the group’s annual campaign kickoff meeting. From 2013 to 2017, the program has committed $2 million for the Emergency Department and Trauma Unit, which will be housed in the South Wing, scheduled to open in June.

Women Woodland Owners workshop

CALENDARApril 27

Strong Log A Load For KidsMolnaird Bros. Sawmill

May 3Forest Awareness Day

Lake Wedington, Fayetteville

May 8 - 10Wildlife Habitat Restoration

on Private Lands ConferenceFaulkner County Natural Resources

Center, Conway

May 9Central Arkansas Log A Load For Kids

Golf TournamentHarbor Oaks, Pine Bluff

May 10-11AFA Board of Directors Meeting

Mount Magazine State Park Lodge

May 16Tree Farm Committee Meeting

AFA Office, Little Rock

May 17South Central Arkansas

Log A Load For Kids Golf TournamentDeGray State Park, Arkadelphia

May 19South Central Arkansas

Log A Load For KidsArkadelphia

June 26-29Teacher Conservation Tour

Monticello

July 11Program Committee

AFA Office, Little Rock

September 25-2767th AFA Annual Meeting

Holiday Inn Airport, Little Rock

September 29River Valley Log A Load For Kids

Russellville

October 20Central Arkansas Log A Load For Kids

Sheridan

The UA Division of Agriculture recognizes the increasingly larger roles that women

are fulfilling in managing and owning agricultural, livestock, and forestry lands and enterprises. Planning for the future transfer of these lands from one generation to the next often happens haphazardly. Either the parents don’t want to talk about it or the kids don’t want listen.

To address these and other concerns, a Women Woodland Owners workshop will be held Thursday, May 17, at the Southwest Research and Extension Center (SWREC) in Hope. The fee is $40 and includes lunch, breaks, dinner and registration for the Forestry Field Day on Friday, May 18 at the SWREC.

This year’s workshop, sponsored by the UA Division of Agriculture, Arkansas Forest Resources Center and Arkansas Forestry Association, will focus on family communication around forest planning and intergenerational transfer of land. Ginny and Allen Nipper of Nipper Management Services and creators of www.LandownerLegacy.com, will lead a Landowner Legacy Communication© seminar and workshop as part of the

Arkansas Women Woodland Owners Conference. UA Division of Agriculture, Arkansas Forest Resources Center Extension professionals Caroll Guffey and Tamara Walkingstick will cover topics including how to develop a forest management plan and how to create your own maps for your woodland. An evening program at the Old Washington State Park is also part of this year’s conference with a tour, dinner and evening program by the Hempstead County Melody Boys.

To register or for more information, contact Caroll Guffey at guffey@uamont.edu or by phone at (501) 671-2147, or Tamara Walkingstick at twalkingstick@uaex.edu or by phone at (501) 671-2346.

For more information on forestry, visit uaex.edu or arnatural.org/forestry.htm.

The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the UA Division of Agriculture and offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, marital or veteran status, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Century Farm, Family Forest programs recognize stewardshipThe Arkansas

Agriculture Department wants to hear from families who have owned and farmed the same land for at least 100 years.

The Arkansas Century Farm Program—administered by the Arkansas Agriculture Department—recognizes the state’s rich agricultural heritage and honors families who have owned and farmed the same land for at least 100 years.

This is a voluntary program, as each family chooses whether to submit an application and participate. The program places no restrictions on the farm and offers no legal protection. There is no cost to the family to submit an application and participate in the program. Successful applicants receive a special certificate and a metal sign identifying their historical farm.Applications must be postmarked

by August 1 to be eligible for designation in 2012. Please call the Arkansas Agriculture Department at (501)

225-1598 for more information.

The Arkansas Forestry Association administers the Centenntial Family Forest program to recognize families who have been stewards for a century or more. To qualify as a Centennial Family Forest, land must be certified as a Tree Farm or Stewardship Forest and have been in family ownership for at least 100 years.

Current Centennial Family Forest owners are Kelly and Anna Koonce, Monticello; Riley N. Wallace, Shreveport; French Wynne Jr., Warren; and Jimmy Powers, Van Buren.

For more information, contact AFA at (501) 374-2441 or look online at arkforests.org, under “Programs.”

Just a few miles south of town in Monticello, Arkansas, you will find a

hardwood flooring mill that has been part of the local landscape for many decades. The property had changed owners and names a few times when longtime flooring veteran and Warren native Tommy Maxwell, made the decision to move back to Arkansas from Dallas after purchasing the facility in 1992. His goal was to plant himself and his family in Southeast Arkansas and grow roots. Twenty years later, the roots are in place, along with the company and her sister companies, which together employ close to 200 hardworking and quality-minded people from the area.

Maxwell Hardwood Flooring, Inc., manufactures a variety of ¾” and ½” solid unfinished hardwood flooring. Sister companies—Ouachita Hardwood Flooring and Townsend Flooring—are located 25 miles west in Warren and manufacture plank and specialty flooring, and a new 5/8” engineered flooring line that was added in 2011. Maxwell Hardwood Flooring is now ranked in the top five manufacturers of unfinished flooring nationwide.

The Maxwell facility spans over 75 acres and includes a million board foot pre-dryer

and five dry kilns with the capacity to hold 600,000 board feet. There was also the addition of a pellet mill in 2006 that uses wood waste from the production lines to make pellet fuel for residential heating.

Maxwell Hardwood Flooring makes environmental issues a top priority by using new state-of-the-art technology in machinery to utilize the lumber that passes through the facility. The need for fossil fuels to dry lumber is eliminated by creating energy from wood waste. By sending this waste through a boiler and burning it to heat water, the steam from that water is used to dry the lumber. This method is cleaner and has fewer emissions than burning fossil fuels. The additional waste creates pellet fuel, which is more energy efficient than electricity and natural gas.

Lumber used at the facility comes from responsibly managed hardwood forests and is purchased from both SFI- and FSC-certified companies. Sixty percent of all lumber used in the Maxwell facility comes from the state of Arkansas and because the company makes its products from the most natural renewable resource available, products are naturally green and an environmentally friendly choice for flooring

Maxwell Hardwood Flooring:Growing roots in Southeast Arkansas

Tree Farm audit reviews compliance with standardsThrough the Tree Farm program, the

American Tree Farm System (ATFS) offers certification to forest landowners who are committed to good forest management. The Arkansas Forestry Association administers this program through its Tree Farm Committee, made up of volunteer Tree Farm Inspectors and woodland owners.

Forest certification is the certification of land management practices to a standard of sustainability. It gives consumers assurance that products originate from sustainably managed forests that protect economic, social and environmental benefits.

ATFS certifies forest management to eight standards of sustainability. Periodically, each ATFS region is required to undergo an audit by an accredited certification body. During this audit, a team examines on-the-ground conformance to the standards.

From April 30 to May 3, a team from

materials. In November of 2011, the company had its floors showcased in the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Over 52,000 square feet of solid oak flooring was installed in the museum and tens of thousands of people have already visited the museum since its opening.

“We are more than thrilled to have such a large footprint in Crystal Bridges,” stated Rose Mary Cummings, marketing director for Maxwell. “Thousands of people from all over the world will be walking on our flooring for many years to come. It’s a proud moment for our people here at Maxwell Hardwood Flooring and a testament to the quality and beauty of our products that we proudly make right here in Arkansas and the USA.”

The family-owned-and-operated company celebrated 20 years in business in February of this year and is setting goals for even more growth and expansion in the next few years. Backed by quality products and an excellent team of professionals, these goals will easily be met, making the future of the company a solid one.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers and ATFS will be in Arkansas to make site visits to 36 Tree Farms, selected by a random sampling of the database. These properties are located throughout the state and represent 80 percent of the square root of the current Tree Farms in the following divisions: 10 to

100 acres; 101 to 500 acres; 501 to 1,000 acres and greater than 1,000 acres.

“The first task in the audit process was to ensure the integrity of our database,” said AFA Director of Administration Jennifer Lambert, who coordinates the Tree Farm program. “This intensive effort provided a sound basis for the site selection and affirmed that our records are in good order.”

As of January, there were 1,927 active Tree Farms in Arkansas. The majority of these Tree Farms—86 percent—range in size from 10 to 500 acres.

“The volunteer inspectors, district chairmen and committee leadership have worked countless hours and been invaluable to me as we have prepared for this audit,” Lambert said. “Special thanks go to Bill Chaney, Caroll Guffey, Steve Burgess and Larry Morris for their assistance in setting up the site visits and preliminary work with the audit team.”

Arkansas Tree Farm Committee members work with PriceWaterhouseCoopers auditors during a review of the program’s database.

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