• Net sales for the full year in the range of $710 million to $740 million.
• Comparable store net sales change in the low single digits, either positive or negative.
• The opening of a total of 20 to 25 new store locations, including two to four in Canada.

Home Depot's CEO Frank Blake said favorable weather helped his company finish 2011 strong, notching net earnings of $774 million during the fourth quarter, which is an increase of 31.8 percent over 2010's $587 million in fourth-quarter earnings.

The company posted sales of $16.0 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.9 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010's sales of $15.1 billion, while same-store sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased 5.7 percent.

For all of 2011, Home Depot posted net profits of $3.9 billion, a 16.3 percent increase of 2010 profits of $3.3 billion. Sales for 2011 were $70.4 billion, an increase of 3.5 percent from $68 billion in 2010. Same-store sales for 2011 increased 3.4 percent.

For 2012, Home Depot forecasted:

• Sales growth of approximately 4 percent
• Low single-digit comparable store sales growth
• 11 new stores.

It's quite clear: The options for recycling a wood product are limited only by one's imagination. We told you about skateboards made from recycled wood flooring, speakers (allegedly) made from Michael Jackson's dance floor, wood flooring made from recycled equine barns, and many more. Now, here’s a story about a kickball disaster that has a happy ending.

Wool Hat, a Fort Collins, Co.-based furniture maker, recently bought all the wood flooring removed from the city's Northside Aztlan Community Center and is making reclaimed tables with it, according to The Coloradoan.

The floor suffered severe water damage after a boy kicked a ball at a sprinkler head in the gymnasium; the sprinkler head broke and doused the gymnasium. The 6,000 square feet of ruined maple flooring was headed for the landfill before workers with ReSource diverted the 6,000 square feet to their store. Wool Hat's Matthew and Danelle Britt brought the flooring and are making custom tables for about $200 to $500.

The Britts aim to make their furniture using at least 80 percent recycled material. "We love the story, love knowing the story," Danelle Britt told The Coloradoan. "We want people to know this was the basketball floor from the Aztlan Center."

Sadly, this isn't the first time a kickball has ruined a perfectly fine wood floor.

Earlier this month, contractors took a painstaking 12 days to tear out the old stage at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium and replace it with a reinforced stage of Brazilian teak—but they were able to salvage more of the old material than originally expected, according to The Leaf Chronicle.

On Monday evening, The Band Perry entertained a crowd during the new stage's inaugural concert. Instead of an 18-inch strip of old material at the stage's front, there was a 36-inch strip of original material on which Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Elvis Presley and other musical icons once performed.

Although publicity coming from the Ryman said the old flooring is oak, mill operator and Hardwood Floors reader Malcolm Pearson, who has "looked carefully" at the old stage, said it is beech.

The former stage lasted 61 years, and Ryman organizers said the new stage could last 100 years or more. “It’s so beautiful—we couldn’t be happier,” Sally Williams, Ryman Auditorium's general manager, told The Leaf Chronicle. “It’s amazing how different it sounds to walk across it. The teak and the subfloor are so strong, and there are no creaks.”

The new stage carries a load bearing capacity of 120,000 pounds, up from the old stage's rating of 40,000.

While the majority of Kenyans battle illegal logging, land grabbing and human encroachment into forests, the people of Arabuko Sokoke National Park's Kilifi County are proud of having conserved the largest indigenous coastal forest in East Africa, according to The Guardian.

At one time, the Arabuko Sokoke forest was part of a continuous stretch that reached from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique along the Indian Ocean.

"The people of Kilifi value conservation," Blessingtone Maganga, of the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), told The Guardian. "There is no logging, charcoal burning, illegal fuel wood collection, mining or poaching."

Two tribes, the Waatas and the Giriama, have protected the forest, which is rich in biodiversity, for nearly 80 years. Instead of cutting trees for income, the people farm butterflies and export them to Europe and the U.S. There is also a group of bee-keepers that practice herbal medicine.

Despite the region's high level of poverty, the forest is kept intact. "It is true that our people are poor, but in terms of natural resources, Kilifi County is an island of millionaires in a sea of poverty," Charo Ngumba, chairman of a local forest association, told The Guardian.

For the full story, see The Guardian.

The European Union is coming up short in stemming the flow of illegal and unsustainable timber into the confederated countries, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The criticism comes in anticipation of March 3, 2013, when the EU will enact the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. In essence, the legislation is similar to the U.S.'s current Lacey Act, which attempts to ensure that only legally harvested timber is imported into the EU.

Making conclusions from a recent survey of EU member countries, the WWF determined that 17 out of 27 countries are failing to take sufficient action for FLEGT implementation. Countries that received high marks were Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Spain received low marks.

The EU must ratify Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPA) with "tropical" timber exporter countries to halt trade in illegal timber. So far, the EU has ratified action plans with three countries: Cameroon, Ghana and Republic of Congo, according to its website. Negotiations are ongoing with Liberia, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

“Illegal logging has been on the EU agenda for years," said WWF Forest Policy Officer Anke Schulmeister. "Under the EU timber regulation, member states still have time until 2013 to at least set penalties and sanctions to hit those who are breaking the rules. But they need to start doing it now."

According to Timber Trades Journal, the EU has "a long to-do list," including having each member country decide its own penalties for violating FLEGT.

Between Dec. 16-18, Typhoon Washi struck the Philippines and left thousands dead in its wake. In Iligan, 750 died, and the town's mayor is convinced that the total would have been half as bad had it not been for a battering by "a tidal wave of logs"—illegally felled logs that had been stored in the hills surrounding Iligan.

"Iligan's timber tidal wave was formed by the potent combination of man's greed and nature's power," the BBC wrote on Sunday. "After several days of heavy rain, freshly cut logs and debris were swept off the mountains above Iligan" and practically bowled over entire villages.

Two months after the tragedy, Iligan's citizens are busy using chainsaws to claim their quota of lumber for rebuilding their homes. "I blame the loggers for this," Raphael Abuya, a retired driver, told the BBC. "If it was just water it would have flowed through and out to sea."

Illegal loggers function in the Philippines as a result of a complex and corrupt political system, the BBC wrote. Some logging is carried out using permits, but some of the country's citizens are disaffected and have turned to forming armed rebel groups that get funding from logging.

The full story can be read at the BBC.

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