American Forest Foundation
By Amanda Cooke
When I heard Chuck Leavell performing “Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out” during his soundcheck yesterday, I knew we were in for a rockin’ night.
Keyboardist Leavell, with Minnesota Representative Collin Peterson’s Second Amendments band, entertained a crowd of hundreds at the International Year of Forests Celebration in D.C.
The March 30 event was hosted at the Washington Plaza Hotel by the American Forest Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.
Early on in the evening, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack rubbed shoulders with local Barnard Elementary School students and Principal Dr. Grace Reid. The D.C. students exhibited their Project Learning Tree forest exchange box, and presented Secretary Vilsack with a copy of Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree.
Barnard Elementary is a part of the GreenSchools! program, a partnership between USFS and AFF. The celebration showcased forest boxes from all 50 states the District of Columbia.
USDA Announces Green Building Strategy
The big news of the night was Secretary Vilsack's announcement about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new strategy to promote the use of wood as a green building material.
"Wood has a vital role to play in meeting the growing demand for green building materials. Forest Service studies show that wood compares favorably to competing materials," Secretary Vilsack said.
A recent USFS life cycle analysis found that harvesting, transporting, manufacturing and using wood in building yields fewer air emissions than resource extraction, manufacturing and using other commonly-used building materials.
Read the full article »
