If you are a UK timber trader you are invited to share your views on the forthcoming EU Timber Regulation. The new regulation will make it mandatory for companies to ensure the legality of their timber products. The research is conducted by the European Forest Institute and a student, Phoung Hoang.

This research aims to find out the difficulties of operators. Also, the information will be used to provide a background to develop different services and campaign to support operators in complying with the regulation.

The law will come into force in 2013 and companies could face heavy fines or other penalties if their timber imports are found to be illegally harvested.

“The aim of this study is to provide an overview of timber operators' (importers) understanding and perception towards the timber regulation and their awareness regarding Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade licensing,” said Phoung Hoang.

It takes about 20 minutes to fill in the online questionnaire here .

In Mississippi the rain, or more the lack of has caused major problems for owners of timber land. Butch Bailey, the extension forester for Mississippi State has said that wildfire is the biggest threat to timber. There is currently a ban on burning but there are still incidents where fire is proving destructive.

"We do see trees die, and we are seeing trees die from this," said Bailey

While wildfires are of great concern there is another pressing issue caused by the heat and dryness. A small insect – the Southern Pine Beetle is tiny, it is about one third the size of a grain of rice. They become a lot more active in such droughts and the trees suffer. The way it causes damage is by actually killing the tree from the inside out.

The beetle gets underneath the bark, between that and the wood and that’s where the damage is caused.

There is no way to control what is going on with the rain but we can help the trees. If the trees are thinned effectively and have plenty of growing room the Southern Pine Beetle can usually be fought off.

Hopefully we will be able to see some rain soon and put and end to the major problems.