Use It or Lose It Applies to Forests Too

Some readers probably thought that the April edition of this Blog -- "Save a Forest: Print Your Emails" -- was an April Fools' joke.  Not so then nor now.

A recent book released by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory points to the importance of sound and vibrant markets for wood if forests are to be conserved over the long-term.  The book, Sustainable Development in the Forest Products Industry, notes what appears to be a contradictory conclusion as does our April Blog.

Data Differs from Feelings
"The historical data we examined in this study support the hypothesis that an economically vibrant industrial forest products sector has been key to forest policies and forestry practices that support sustainable timber supply and demand," notes author Dr. Peter Ince.

Drawing from Ince's work, the Summer 2011 Issue of the Forest Products Laboratory's Newsline, notes that "If a forest is providing only low-value wood, such as fuelwood to heat homes or cook meals, there is less incentive for sustainable management.  Such lands are also likely to be converted into a more profitable venture, such as agriculture, grazing, or development."

America's Forests Amazingly Stable in Face of Use
Forests across the United States were once cleared with abandon to supply materials to build homes, railways, or provide places to grow crops.  Those changes drove real deforestation -- permanent conversion of forest to non-forest uses.  Yet, over the past century, even in the face of burgeoning population growth, the overall forest estate has remained remarkably stable.  That in a nation that still relies heavily on forest products.  One need only look at the tens of millions of homes built in recent decades and the mountains of paper-based publications (books, newspapers, etc.) to see that forest use continues while forestland remains. 

Lack of Use is a Bigger Threat than Too Many Uses
In a nation where fully one-third of our lands are covered by trees and more than 300 million citizens depend on them for traditional wood and paper products -- not to mention wildlife habitat and the source of drinking water for more than one-half the population -- it is the lack of markets for forests that should be of concern not the threat of over-harvest.

One need only look to Colorado, a state that has lost dozens of mills and now has millions of acres of dead and dying trees due to a devastating mountain pine beetle epidemic, to see one picture of what a future with limited harvesting and manufacturing infrastructure holds.  There the Forest Service and other landowners must spend hundreds to thousands of dollars per acre to "manage" forestlands that heretofore generated income rather than served as money pits.

Complex Issues Require Complex Solutions
No doubt one can identify a few places where the problem is too much market demand putting too much pressure on forest sustainability.  That said, the most common problem for the nation's forest landowners -- be they public or private -- isn't one of too many markets; it's just the opposite.

Results from Sustainable Development in the Forest Products Industry adds support to the Endowment's belief that our best hope of ensuring healthy working forests and the family-supporting jobs that they provide, is to find more and better ways to support a vibrant forest products sector.  In our view such a vision includes traditional sawmills and pulp and paper production as well as markets for wood-to-energy as well as high-tech chemicals and pharmaceuticals.