Global Connections: 2007 Alumni Meet Again Taiwan

WFI alumni Pei-jung Wang (Taiwan) and Jasjit Singh Walia (India) met up in Taiwan at the invitation of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (TFRI) in December 2007. Coordinated by Pei-jung, Jasjit enjoyed a whirlwind tour of Taiwan’s forest recreation and eco-services projects, and came away inspired by Taiwan’s achievement in community involvement, development of tourist infrastructure, and the protection of traditional aboriginal knowledge.

Jasjit’s tour began with a presentation he gave on “Enhancing livelihood opportunities through Himachal's eco-tourism initiative” at the TFRI office in Taipei. The following day they took the bullet train to Chiayi’s Luman Community, an old timber harvesting site now converted to an ecotourism development, featuring a 19^th century rail-road built by the Japanese to transport logs.

Other activities that followed included a presentation to students at National Chiayi University, and visits to Alishan Forest Recreation Area, Yushan National Park, Tataka recreational area, Chugpu research station, Luodong Forest District Office and Fushan Botanical Garden.

Harry Merlo’s Autobiography “Vintage Merlo” Now Available

Harry Merlo, the founding father of the World Forest Institute, and current Chair of the World Forestry Center, has written an autobiography appropriately titled, “Vintage Merlo.” Hard work is a key tenet of Harry's many successes, but he has always attributed his good fortune to the life lessons he learned from his mother. "Vintage Merlo" is a loving tribute to Clotilde Merlo, as the book traces Harry's realization of the American Dream.

A book launching party was held at the World Forestry Center in January, attended by nearly 200 guests, who were treated to wine, appetizers, dessert, and even a harmonica waltz by the man of honor himself.

“Vintage Merlo” can be purchased through the World Forestry Center’s bookstore for $19.95. All proceeds of sales go towards the World Forest Institute. To order by phone, please contact Maria Jeffrey at 503-488-2111.

WFI Bids Farewell to Australian Nathan Trushell

After completing his six-month Fellowship, Nathan had the following to say:

“It is easy to get caught up in your own forestry world at home; fortunately I recognized this and took the opportunity to participate in the WFI program. I would have to say it has opened my eyes to a much bigger global forestry sector, which is good because that was one of the things that I wanted from the program.

I knew that the US was the world’s largest wood producer, but it is only when you get here and try to get your head around this immense forestry sector that you appreciate how big it really is. And including Canada really gets your head spinning. In six months there is no way you can expect to cover everything, you can only get a slice of this highly diverse industry.

Because forestry has some serious reputation issues in Australia I was interested in looking at communication strategies that support the forest products sector. Unfortunately, there is no magical solution but I did learn about some of the strategies and trends being employed here. There is a lot of good work going on, but like Australia the challenges of a large and highly fragmented forest sector still exist.

If I was on a polygraph right now I would have to tell you that travel featured fairly high on my list of reasons for coming to the US. My family and I had the chance to travel around the PNW, the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia, the east coast from New York to Memphis and northern California. We are now embarking on our departure via Arizona, California and Hawaii. Outside the PNW it would be hard to beat the Canadian Rockies for scenery and the high paced atmosphere of New York. Of course, all of this was not just for pleasure as I met with many forest sector professionals during these trips.

It was not only me that enjoyed this time, my wife Helen and daughters Alex and Megan also had a great time. So much so that we are still trying to work out how to get all the stuff they accumulated back home.

One of the great things about the WFI Fellowship program is the chance to get to know the other fellows from other parts of the world and of course the staff at WFI. We had some great laughs and I will look forward to catching up with many of them in the future.”

Visit to Villebois Development in Wilsonville

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Wilsonville city planners toured Fellows around Villebois, a development which will house 7,000 new residents. Plans include creating new urban forest cover and preserving existing trees. Click on the houses for more photos.

Hull Oakes Sawmill

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Hull Oakes Lumber, the last steam powered mill in Oregon, introduced Fellows to historic sawmilling methods. Click on the photo for more pics.

Frozen Mt. St. Helens

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Wow! What a beautiful winter day. We took advantage of a brief moment of sunshine to get up to Mt. St. Helens. The only other traffic on the road was the elk. The volcano was steaming, the snow was 5 feet deep, and we had a great time. Click on the group photo for more pics.

Storm Damage on Oregon Coast

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Retired Oregon State Parks forester Al Tocchini and Linsen Zhao (China) survey storm damage near the Klootchy Creek Sitka Spruce, the famous Oregon Heritage Tree which lost its top this winter. For more photos, click on Linsen.

Parr Lumber Provides Solutions, Not Just Products

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Thanks to WFC Director David Hamill, Fellows enjoyed a lively discussion with Parr Lumber’s procurement team at their Hillsboro distribution center. Parr is primarily a west coast lumber retailer, but the company also functions as a distributor, broker, wholesaler, manufacturer, and builder with 750 employees.

Parr managers did an excellent job explaining the complex wood supply chain to Fellows. When asked how they are able to stay competitive with such diverse offerings, Director of Procurement Matt Jeffries explained that they are constantly challenged to prove the value they bring to clients, otherwise they are the first to be eliminated in the supply chain. Providing excellent service and “solutions, not just products” has led to success.

A recent innovation from the company is their “Get Real” programs, a response to the green movement. Parr sees a need for smaller, energy efficient, quality homes in the market and the Get Real program provides customers with sustainable solutions without getting caught up in labeling and certification.

Fellows were impressed with the Parr managers’ passion for their work. Employees tend to stay with the company for a long time, and many managers worked their way up from entry level positions. Matt Jeffries, for example, started as a truck driver. His advice for success: “be innovative, and never assume that what you did yesterday will get you through tomorrow.”

For more photos, click on the Parr Truck!

Fellows Search for Innovative Products in New Homes

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Posing as an unusual nuclear family, Fellows went shopping for a new home in Portland. The US housing market has slowed to the lowest pace in decades, and real estate agents were happy to show Fellows newly constructed homes lingering on the market. This was an opportunity to compare construction practices and living styles between cultures, and to better understand the American lifestyle that drives the US lumber industry and economy.

The tour was of particular interest to Korean Fellow Namgon Kwag, who works for Eagon Ltd., a luxury building products supplier and builder. For his project, Namgon is searching for innovative home products that could be introduced to the Korean market, particularly in flooring or windows. Namgon paid special attention to heating systems, which are done quite differently in the US. Korea has a unique radiant flooring system for heating called the “Ondol.”

The average American house size has more than doubled since the 1950s and now stands at 2,300 square feet, although Fellows saw homes double that size with price tags of up to USD $700,000. Some memorable features included Brazilian hardwood flooring, extensive use of OSB, large kitchens, media and wine rooms, and creative storm water management systems.
Click on the giant house for more photos.

December 2007 WFI Update available for download

The December 2007 WFI Update is now available to download! In this issue:

• Welcome to New Fellows from China and Korea
  
• Weyerhaeuser Federal Way Headquarters Tour
  
• Farewell to Lithuanian Fellow Nerijus Miskinis
• Particleboard and Kraft Paper Mill Tours
  
• Taiwanese Alumni Reunion in Taipei: Photos from WFI Director's Trip to Taiwan
  

WFI Update can be downloaded here:
http://wfi.worldforestrycenter.org/WFIupdate12.07.pdf

Thanks,
Angie
WFI Program Manager

WFI Welcomes New Fellows from China and Korea

In November, Dr. Linsen Zhao joined WFI for a six-month Fellowship. Linsen is a professor in Landscape Architecture at the Southwest Forestry College in Kunming, Yunnan, China and he is sponsored by the China Scholarship Council. Linsen’s background is in silviculture, however, he has been working in urban forestry since 2001. In 2002-2003 Linsen spent one year at UC Berkley as a visiting scholar studying urban forestry.

During his Fellowship, Linsen will research social issues related to urban forestry, and is particularly interested in public participation in planning, planting and maintaining urban forests. He will also spend time working with research methodology for carbon sequestration by urban vegetation and various models that estimate the benefits of urban forests such as STRATUM and CITYGreen.

In December, Mr. Namgon Kwag also joined WFI for a six-month Fellowship. Namgon is sponsored by his employer, Eagon. Namgon is the fifth Fellow to be sponsored by Eagon, whose closest office is in Seattle. Namgon is a manager on the Management Support Team for Eagon Living Co. Ltd, a wood flooring subsidiary, and deals with planning and corporate activities. Previously, he has worked with Eagon on a variety of tasks, including corporate strategy planning, labor affairs, flooring distribution, and wood veneer purchasing.

During his Fellowship, Namgon will be exploring homebuilding and decorating trends and the housing market. He is interested in how Americans do business and how they are currently dealing with environmental issues.

Weyerhaeuser Kraft Mill

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Weyerhaeuser operates a pulp and paper Kraft mill in Albany that processes 1800 tons of raw material per day. Approximately 50% of the fiber used is pulped from chips, mostly from mill waste. The remainder is from recycled packaging. Materials are brought to the facility by truck, almost all from within a 50 mile radius. The final product, which is a three layer kraft paper, is sent for finishing as linerboard and bags at other facilities.

Click on Deepak and Weyco Engineer Scott Freeburn for more photos.

Flakeboard Particleboard Mill Tour

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Flakeboard, a Canadian company, operates a Duraflake particleboard plant in Albany. Duraflake is a well known brand name and they produce a wide variety of panels for cabinetry, furniture, underlayment, and sheet stock. Recently there has been more demand for green certified products and they have a specialty line made without urea or formaldehyde. Altogther, the mill produces 435,000 m3 annually.

Raw materials and waste from other mills are dried, milled and blended with resins, glue, and wax. There are separate formulas for the particleboard face and core. The blended materials are then formed, pressed, sanded, and trimmed before being shipped to customers across the US.

For more photos click on the sign!

Farewell, Nerijus!

2007 passed quickly for Nerijus Miskinis, WFI’s first Lithuanian Fellow, who completed his Fellowship in December. Nerijus’ Fellowship was sponsored by the Shelk Foundation. During his time at WFI, Nerijus interviewed CEOs and managers in the forest industry in order to compare forest sector issues between the two countries.

“I feel lucky because I worked on such a project,” said Nerijus. “I liked what I did, I greatly enjoyed the people I met and I strongly believe it will help me improve my personal life in the future. How and how much? Probably I will answer this question completely 20 years later!”

Nerijus is planning to travel to Brazil before returning to Lithuania to finish his Ph.D. project at the Lithuanian University of Agriculture.

Farewells are always difficult, but Nerijus will remember the good times. “I would consider the World Forestry Center my home in the US,” said Nerijus. “I will miss this Rose City!”

Taiwanese Alumni Reunite in Taipei

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

In November, WFI Director Sara Wu visited Taiwan and had the opportunity to meet with all of WFI’s Taiwanese alumni, most of them from the Taiwan Forest Research Institute.

The reunion kicked off atop the Taipei World Trade Center, where dinner was held in a suite overlooking the city nightscape. Those attending included Mr. Yen-Chang Chen and his wife and younger son, Dr. Chiung-Pin “Bonnie” Liu, Dr. Jiunn-Cheng "David" Lin and his wife and two sons, I-Shang Chen, Dr. John Wu, Min-Chung “Galy” Yang, and Dr. Pei-Jung Wang and her husband and baby son. Hosting the event were Sara Wu, her father and his wife.

Many of the alumni had to travel far to attend the dinner, as David is director of the remote Taimali research station, Yen-Chang is now director of the Fushan forest recreation reserve, and Bonnie teaches at a university in Tai-chung. The effort they made to attend the dinner was greatly appreciated and it was an opportunity to catch up on what everyone has been doing.

In the days following the alumni reunion, Bonnie accompanied Sara and her family to Fushan, where the Taiwan Forest Research Institute operates an experimental research forest that is also a popular tourist site. Yen-Chang Chen is now the director of the research station. The Fushan watershed feeds into Taipei’s drinking water catchment and visitors are restricted to 300 persons a day to protect the wildlife habitat and watershed. Director Chen invited the Wus to stay the night at the TFRI research facilities, which includes living quarters. Wildlife is plentiful at the reserve, including monkeys, various birds, wild pigs, bats, and insects. There are also fern gardens, a rhododendron garden and rare native species. University students and faculty routinely conduct studies at Fushan, and a small but effective staff, along with hundreds of volunteers, help to maintain trails and provide educational interpretation. Some of the plants at Fushan have medicinal potential and are being analyzed to produce commercial applications.

After Fushan, Bonnie met the Wus in Taichung, where they took Taiwan’s new high-speed rail to get there in less than an hour from Taipei. Bonnie is a professor of watershed ecology, the only female faculty in the entire forestry department. One of her students toured the group through the newly opened National Museum of Natural Science, where a large indoor arboretum houses a waterfall, canopy walk and many tropical plants. The museum also boasts a life-size, multi-million dollar robotic T-Rex dinosaur. The museum is one of many new recreational parks and visitor centers that Taiwan is building to attract tourists. WFI sends heartfelt thanks to our Taiwanese alumni for facilitating these trips!

For more photos, click on the group picture.

WFI Networks with CINTRAFOR and University of Washington

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

The University of Washington is one of the largest Pacific Northwest schools with 38,000 students. The College of Forest Resources (CFR) offers a variety of undergraduate and graduate degrees. Fellows spent a day in Seattle utilizing the expertise of the CFR faculty and staff.

CINTRAFOR (Center for International Trade in Forest Products) Director Ivan Eastin and Professor John Perez-Garcia hosted Fellows for a session on softwood lumber exports. The group learned about trends in wood products trade, which was of particular interest to Mariane Camargo (Brazil) who is researching moulding and millwork markets. WFI hopes to collaborate further with CINTRAFOR on projects in the future.

Fellows also met individually with a variety of professors to discuss their projects, on topics of sustainability, technology, marketing, and trade.

In the afternoon Fellows attended the Denman Forestry Issues Series, which was a four-hour series of presentations on biofuels and bioenergy. Over ten speakers provided a variety of viewpoints on Washington’s biomass resources and processing issues.

Fellows Receive Insiders’ Tour at Weyerhaeuser

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Fellows traveled to Federal Way, Washington, to visit with Weyerhaeuser at their corporate headquarters. Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest forest products companies world-wide, with an annual sales revenue of $21.9B USD and 46,700 employees in 18 countries. A large majority of their forestlands are located in Canada (26 million acres) but they also manage over 6 million acres in the US.

Jim James, the Director for Environmental Affairs, hosted Fellows and arranged a variety of speakers and presentations. Jim has hosted WFI in the past and is well versed in Weyerhaeuser’s inner workings. He explained some of the company’s core values, one of which is safety. The company believes that there is no such thing as accidents and that all incidents are preventable. Thus, the group received safety briefings at each stage in the tour.

Another of Weyerhaeuser’s focus areas is sustainability. All Weyerhaeuser lands are certified, predominately with the Sustainable Forest Initiative in North America, and elsewhere according to local schemes or ISO 4001. Jim explained that certification may not give a market premium, but it does give market access or preferred supplier status, especially to large companies such as Home Depot. Additionally, certification is viewed by the company as being a good management practice.

Speakers touched on a wide variety of topics of interest to Fellows, including investments in South America and the marketing of Lyptus, a brand for eucalyptus products. Tracking in the log supply chain was explained by the IT department. A researcher from their inventory department discussed experimental plans using LIDAR to acquire inventory data, although this is still in the research phase and much of the information is proprietary.

Fellows were also treated to a tour of the Technology Center. This top secret facility is one of the few remaining large research centers run by forest products companies. Home to 400 researchers, the center conducts a variety of studies, from product quality and strength testing to genetic improvement and cloning to new product development.

Fellows were impressed with the managers’ dedication to the company and the strides the company is taking to stay ahead in today’s difficult market.

Salmon Life Cycle

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Fellows learned about the salmon lifecycle by visiting wild salmon spawning in Eagle Creek and viewing hatchery production at Bonneville Dam. Click on the fish for more photos.

October 2007 WFI Update Available for Download

The October 2007 WFI Update is now available to download! In this issue:

• "Investing Globally in Forestland" conference a great sucess
  
• Siuslaw and Siskiyou National Forests Tour
  
• Farewell to Chinese Fellow Zengwang Ma
• Welcome to Chinese Weyerhaeuser Scholar
  
• Updates from our Alumni Kyungtae Park, Andreas Schuck, Jussi Silventoinen, Runar Gareyev, Inchul Jung, Claudio Ortolan, Mario Angel and Alex Battistella
  

WFI Update can be downloaded here:
http://wfi.worldforestrycenter.org/WFIupdate10.07.pdf

Thanks,
Angie
WFI Program Manager

WFI Bids Farewell to Chinese Fellow Zengwang Ma

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

After spending one year at WFI, Zengwang Ma will depart for his hometown in Hebei, China. “I had one year great time to conduct this program in Oregon,” said Ma. “I have regarded Portland as my second hometown, hopefully, I will have a chance to visit again.”

In Hebei, Ma is a researcher involved in restoration projects. His province has completed many projects to restore degraded ecological systems, which are now vigorous young forests. The task at hand now is to manage these young stands for future threats, including wildfire prevention, invasive species, and new forestland management techniques. During his program Ma examined the Oregon experience for dealing with such problems in order to take lessons back to Hebei. Ma recommends an integrated strategy that keeps ecosystem integrity mind and involves long-term planning, forest management, and research.

“I am missing my family after this one year abroad,” said Ma. “The first thing I’ll do when I return is spend some time with my wife and daughter, then I will continue my forestry research at Hebei Academy of Forestry Science.” We wish Ma all the best upon his return journey.