January 27, 2010
The National Alliance of Forest Owners is a national organization dedicated to advancing the environmental and economic benefits of private forests. Our membership represents over 75 million acres of private forests in 47 states. As a point of reference, this acreage is larger than the state of Arizona, the sixth largest state.
Forest owners occupy a unique position in the policy discussion on climate change and renewable energy, because our business model is to remove carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into public benefits – from carbon sequestration to energy to consumer products we all use every day. All of this has been done while maintaining the same amount of forestland in the United States for the past 100 years. In fact, over the last 50 years, standing inventory in our forests has grown by 49 percent[1].
We have achieved this while continuing to provide benefits all Americans enjoy: homes, furniture, books, paper, pencils and hundreds of other products that improve our quality of life, recreation opportunities, open space, clean air, abundant and clean water, wildlife habitat, and the list goes on.
This puts our forests in the position to make significant contributions to our nation’s climate and energy goals. NAFO’s position is that we should utilize the full potential of our forests to address our nation’s climate change and renewable energy priorities.
First, America’s private forests can provide renewable energy that replaces foreign sources of energy, or energy that puts geologic carbon in the atmosphere, with an energy source that is renewable and domestic, and that recycles the carbon it uses.
Second, we can provide carbon offsets to greenhouse gas emissions through forest management practices that can remove increasing amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and through the products we produce, like wood for homes, that store carbon for long periods of time.
Consider these facts:
- Forests in the United States, nearly 60% of which are privately owned, remove almost 200 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year[2], offsetting about 10% of our annual fossil fuel emissions[3].
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The EPA estimates that the amount of carbon stored annually in forest products in the U.S. is equivalent to removing more than 100 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere every year[4].
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Research on private forestlands has shown that more intensively managed forests and the products they produce can sequester and store as much as 150% more tons of carbon per acre than less intensively managed forests[5].
Finally, private forests produce and retain family-wage jobs and strengthen the overall economy. NAFO researched the economic impact of working forests in 29 states and found that, on average, private, working forests:
- Sustain 8 jobs for every 1,000 acres under management
- Produce $270 in payroll for every acre
- Generate $733 in sales for every acre
- Contribute $318 to the GDP for every acre.
All told, that is 2.5 million jobs, $87 billion in payroll, $235 billion in sales, and $102 billion in contributions to the GDP. And our private forests can do this while continuing to provide the many public benefits they have always provided our nation.
It is no wonder that the International Panel on Climate Change has stated that, “In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fiber or energy from the forest, will generate the greatest mitigation benefit”[6] for climate change. Similarly, the EPA has identified responsibly managed forests as one of five key “groups of strategies that could substantially reduce emissions between now and 2030”.[7]
We appreciate the leadership of Senator Stabenow, D-MI, who recognizes and advocates for the many contributions our working forests can and should make in climate and energy policy.
Ultimately, Congress will determine the timing of legislation to address climate change and to further build the renewable energy capabilities of our nation. When they do, we stand ready to make a full contribution to the effort and urge policy makers to recognize and fully utilize all of the benefits our private, working forests can offer.
[3] Birdsey, R., K. Pregitzer, and A. Lucier. 2006. Forest carbon management in the United States: 1600-2100. J. Environmental Quality 35: 1461-1469.
[4] US Environmental Protection Agency. 2007. Inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990-2005. EPA 430-R-07-002.
[5]Carbon Sequestration in Californian Forests; Two Case Studies in Managed Watersheds by Dr. Cajun James, Dr. Bruce Krumland, and Dr. Penelope Jennings Eckert, December 12, 2007. http://www.spi-ind.com/html/forests_research.cfm.
[6] Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (eds)], Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, page 543.
[7] Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under the CAA, 73 Fed. Reg. 44,354, 44,405 (July 30, 2008).
Tags: climate
