Potlatch signs conservation deal
Potlatch Corp. will receive about $6.7 million for giving up developments rights on 16,000 acres of loblolly-shortleaf pine flatlands in Arkansas, which provide habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
The Spokane-based company will continue to harvest trees from the land, but won’t be able to subdivide it for development. The deal was brokered by The Nature Conservancy and several Arkansas state agencies. It will create the “Moro Big Pine Wildlife Management Area” in Calhoun County. The land will also be open to hunting and outdoor recreation.
The deal will create the largest conservation easement in the state of Arkansas, protecting a type of habitat under intense development pressure in the South, said Jay Harrod, a spokesman for The Nature Conservancy in Little Rock.
Federal, state and private funds will be used pay Potlatch for the land’s lost development values.
Through conservation easements, the company has been able to capture some of the increased real estate value of its working forestland.
Paris
A350 financing holding up launch
A dispute between the French government and the main shareholders of Airbus parent EADS is holding up a decision on the A350 jet’s launch, two people close to major EADS shareholders said Friday.
The board of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. called off a meeting that had been scheduled to discuss the A350 launch – badly needed to compete with Boeing Co. – on Friday because the French government could not agree with Lagardere SCA and DaimlerChrysler AG over how to finance the program, the two people said.
Detroit
Ford asked about Syria, Sudan work
Federal regulators have pressed Ford Motor Co. for information about its business in Syria and Sudan, which are under economic sanctions or other controls for being state sponsors of terrorism.
Ford said its operations in those countries are legal and not material to investors.
The letter asks the company to describe its past, current and future operations in the countries.