BATON ROUGE — The Edwards administration on Friday proposed a budget for fiscal 2022 that would use federal coronavirus aid to avoid cuts and provide additional funds to K-12 and higher education. The $36.6 billion budget provides annual pay increases of $400 to K-12 public school teachers and $200 for K-12 support staff, a proposal that teachers unions immediately criticized as too small. Jay Dardenne, the commissioner of administration, told legislators that the budget also

State Rep. Jack McFarland, who also is a Master Logger from Winnfield, is crafting legislation that would make additional reforms to how the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development spends money and propose a fuel tax that would be dedicated to roads and bridges. Over the past several weeks, he has toured the state seeking input from his colleagues and civic organizations on what reforms could be pursued as well as getting feedback from the public. In the Louisi

Louisiana forest landowners are asked to participate in the 2020 Costs and Trends of Southern Forestry Practices Survey with Auburn University School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. The survey gives forest landowners in the South a chance to participate in the survey that has been ongoing since 1950. The questionnaire allows researchers to better understand the cost of current forestry practices. However, this is a long-term study that also gives researchers a picture of h

Emily Cook, a graduate student at Virginia Tech University is working on a Master of Forestry project and would like to like a little help from loggers in the southeastern United States. Cook's project is about machine value retention of logging equipment and has created a survey for loggers to answer, if they wish. The survey is online and can be completed in a few minutes. Click the link below to reach the survey. SURVEY

BATON ROUGE — With an estimated $2 billion provided to Louisiana from a federal coronavirus aid bill passed in December and the likelihood of another federal stimulus package, state legislators are hopeful they can balance the budget for fiscal 2022 with no more than modest cuts. The greater concern is the danger of a financial crisis in the following years. Louisiana budget experts project a slow recovery from the pandemic. Federal aid is expected to dry up after this year a

A prescribed burning workshop to teach and certify forest landowners to burn their own lands safely and legally will be held May 5-7 at the Louisiana Ecological Forestry Center (formerly Hodges Gardens) in Florien. And now more people will be allowed to sign up for the workshop. The workshop will be held in conjunction with the Ecological Forestry Center, the Southwest Louisiana Forestry Association (SW LA Forestry Association), the LSU AgCenter and the Louisiana Department o