The Skidder Online

Hi all!   My name is Lisa Luokkala. 

I am the Vital Forest/Vital Communities’ Productivity Tour Research and Travel Coordination Summer Intern (my longest job title to date).  I’ll be assisting with preparations for your tour to Finland and Sweden.  This includes building your itinerary and briefing books, doing research, and posting “housekeeping” tasks on The Skidder over the coming few months. 

Today, I want to highlight two particular items for you:

What do King Gustav III of Sweden and the two feet of snow that fell in Grand Rapids this week have in common. Listen to Bernadine's final report from Stockholm to find out.

Bernadine Reports from Bollnas, Sweden

Listen to Bernadine's description of Sweden's forestry practices from the unique angle of her weekend visit with old friends in the town of Bollnas in central Sweden.

You can learn more about Bollnas by visiting this site.  Right-clicking on the link and choosing "open in new window" allows you to surf the site while continuing to listen to Bernadine's podcast.

Part 1

Part 2

Bernadine reports on Stockholm's Old Town and more!

Listen to Bernadine's tantalizing report about a must have dinner at Den Gyldene Freden (Golden Peace) in Stockholm's old Town. It is said to be Stockholm's oldest tavern, opening in 1722. She assures us that we'll have to earn our dinner with the hard work we'll do, especially at a planned US Embassy round table on renewable energy.

Nancy Berlin Comments on Iggesund Fossil Fuel Reduction Article

Nancy Berlin here! I have some comments about the article Jim discusses in his post to the Skidder Online last week.

In the article the Sweden-based Iggesund Paperboard reports reducing its use of fossil fuel by 75% and drastically cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

With the recently passed Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, I know federal Agencies will be looking at 20% reduction in petroleum consumption and a 10% increase in alternative fuels along with 30% reduction in energy used in federal buildings by 2015.

We will all be looking at models like Iggesund Paperboard to build our future. If you didn't get a chance to read the article, you can find the article link by clicking on Sweden or GlobalWarming in the "tag cloud" on the upper left-hand corner of any page on the Skidder Online.

One last thing! There are other web-based resources that Jim would like to share with you. You can find the link to them in his learning log.

Thanks everyone,

Nancy