On March 24, 2010, NAFO President and CEO Dave Tenny submitted the following letter to the editor of The Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia. The paper editorialized on the potential conversion of a paper mill to a biomass energy facility in Franklin, Virginia. The editorial is available here.
Dear Editor:
Your editorial re: converting Franklin’s paper mill to a wood-fired power plant raises important issues about the original renewable energy source – wood. The issue of conserving our renewable forests for generations to come is an important one and deserves discussion.
Virginia’s private forests provide open space, recreation, wildlife habitat, and clean air and water while also supplying forest products and significant economic impact. According to a 2009 study, private forests in Virginia support 111,000 jobs, $3.6 billion in payroll, $121 million in state income taxes, $10 billion in sales, and $3.6 billion towards Virginia’s GDP.
Conserving working forests is a value we all share, which is why forest owners consistently grow more than they harvest. Nationally, forest owners plant 3.5 million trees per day, and the growing stocks in forests have risen 49% in the past 50 years.
What is often missed in the discussion, and in your editorial, is that viable markets are the single most effective factor in conserving forests. The primary reason we lose forest land is to conversion to other land uses when forest ownership is no longer economical.
Paper markets have historically been very important to our forests, but they are declining significantly in some areas. Renewable energy can help replace that lost market – a fact that is very visible when a closed paper mill reopens as a renewable energy plant.
With a mix of markets for forest products, private forest owners will continue to make long term investments to keep forests as forests.
Sincerely,
David P. Tenny
National Alliance of Forest Owners
Tags: biomass
