FPL research Peter Ince reached the conclusions in his recent book, Sustainable Development in the Forest Products Industry. Ince stated, “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.”

Read more in the FPL’s Summer 2001 newsletter (PDF).

WASHINGTON – The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) reacted today to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision to deny rehearing en banc in the case of NEDC v. Brown. Last August, a three-judge panel overturned an Oregon court’s ruling that stormwater control systems for forest roads do not need point source permits in addition to meeting existing Clean Water Act requirements. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations define forestry activities as nonpoint sources that are regulated by states and do not need permits similar to confined industrial sites.

David P. Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO, “Since the promulgation of the Clean Water Act regulations in 1976, the EPA has contended that the most effective way to regulate forestry activities under the statute is to treat them as nonpoint sources of water pollution. EPA was right – forestry is a minor contributor to water quality decline that three decades of experience has demonstrated is best covered by state regulations and guidelines. Unfortunately, the Ninth Circuit has tossed aside this science-based record of successful forest policy through an unprecedented re-interpretation of established law.

“Heaping new and unnecessary permit requirements on top of forests that already lead the world in environmental quality will add job-killing costs and litigation to rural areas hardest hit by the economic downturn. Instead of improving the environment, this action will cause forest owners to struggle even more against the economic forces that drive forestland into other uses that threaten water quality. The resulting loss of jobs and forests undermines the goal of preserving working landscapes that support rural families, wildlife habitat, clean water and recreation opportunities across the country.

“Now it is time for the EPA, states, the Administration and Congress to work together on policy to re-affirm forestry’s long standing nonpoint source status under the Clean Water Act and preserve the jobs, environmental quality and other public benefits our forests provide.”

Previously, NAFO filed an amicus brief in support of the defendants in NEDC v. Brown.

More information is available at www.nafoalliance.org/water-quality.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 80 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Private, working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. View NAFO’s interactive map to see the economic impact of America’s working forests.

• 1.6 billion: The number of trees planted on U.S. forests each year – 90% by private owners.
• 9.6 billion: The cubic feet of net growth of U.S. forests in 2006. The U.S. has consistently grown more than it harvests since the 1940s.
• .8 billion: The metric tons of greenhouse gases that are sequestered in U.S. forests and forest products each year – enough to offset 15% of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.
• 28.5 billion: The number of kilowatt hours of renewable electricity the forest products industry generates per year from wood – enough to power 3 million homes.
• 132 billion: The gallons of fresh water filtered by U.S. forests each day.
• $102 billion: The total contribution of private U.S. forests to the economy.
• $87 billion: The payroll for the 2.9 million jobs supported by private U.S. forests.

David P. Tenny, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners, said, “These are just a few examples of the many public benefits our private forests provide. This Earth Day, American’s should realize that using a tree helps save a forest. 10 million Americans own 57 percent of our nation’s forests. Conserving these forests to help the environment and provide good paying jobs today and in the future requires both strong markets for forest products and a strong framework of environmental safeguards.

“Our forest environment is already the envy of the world. Now we need to strengthen the markets and support the jobs that help keep our forests intact. Strong markets will help forest owners afford to plant and cultivate trees and prevent them from being forced to sell their forest land for other uses. Today, more than ever, we should work to save our forests by promoting the beneficial use of trees. There are billions of reasons why this is a good idea.”

For more information on the public benefits of private forests, from wildlife habitat to clean air and water to renewable forest products we all use every day, please visit www.nafoalliance.org/workingforests or contact Dan Whiting at (202) 747-0746 or dwhiting@nafoalliance.org.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Private, working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. View NAFO’s interactive map to see the economic impact of America’s working forests.

They state, “What many folks don’t realize is that it also may indirectly hasten the conversion of forests to other uses like strip malls, parking lots and housing developments—because the nation’s forest landowners can’t keep growing trees without markets for this natural, organic and renewable product. . . Trees are renewable, recyclable and sustainable.”

Read the full editorial here.

Here is an excerpt (full article is here):

It may seem ironic that with few exceptions the countries that use the most wood have a stable or growing area of forest whereas the countries that use the least wood are losing forest as more land is cleared for agriculture. There are two reasons for this apparent contradiction. First, the adoption of intensive agricultural practices in the industrialized countries makes it possible to grow much more food on the same amount of land. Second, it is precisely because we use so much wood that the area of forest is maintained. We may think that when we buy wood from a lumberyard we are causing a bit of forest to be lost somewhere. But what we are really doing is sending a signal into the marketplace to plant more trees to produce more wood to supply the demand in the lumberyard. It is no different from any other renewable crop; it’s just that trees take longer to mature than annual farm crops. As long as the demand for wood is steady and strong, landowners, both private and public, will plant trees to supply that demand.

The piece is excerpted from Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist.

WASHINGTON, DC (March 30, 2011) – The National Alliance of Forest owners praised Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, for announcing a new USDA initiative to recognize and promote wood as a green building product. The new policy requires the use of wood over less environmentally beneficial building materials and commits agency resources to increased research and promotion of wood use. NAFO President and CEO, Dave Tenny, made the following statement:

We thank Secretary Vilsack for his leadership in promoting wood as USDA’s environmentally preferred building product. The Secretary understands that for the past century the increased use of wood to build homes and other buildings has been our nation’s most important forest conservation tool. Thanks to growing markets for wood we have 50% more trees today than we had 50 years ago.

These same markets also provide jobs for 2.5 million Americans and $87 billion in paychecks annually for American families, particularly in rural areas. Wood provides a perfect blend of economic and environmental benefits. As we promote the use of building products from wood we help clean our air of excess carbon, keep rivers and streams pure and maintain wildlife habitat while at the same time providing economic security to rural communities and creating jobs and economic growth throughout the country.

We will continue to work closely with Secretary Vilsack to help his green building initiative succeed both within USDA and throughout other agencies of government.

The USDA announcement responds to policy recommendations made by NAFO as part of a diverse coalition of organizations responding to President Obama’s Americas Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative. The coalition, which shares the common goal of conserving working forests through markets and incentives, recommended that USDA adopt a green building policy favoring wood as a key approach to forest conservation. The Working Forests Coalition’s recommendations (PDF), many of which are reflected in the AGO report, are available on NAFO’s website.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Private, working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. View NAFO’s interactive map to see the economic impact of America’s working forests.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 9, 2011) — Today the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) told the House Committee on Oversight and Regulation, Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs that changes in several EPA regulations could shift the economics of private forestry in the U.S., pushing more land into non-forest uses and costing U.S. jobs.

David P. Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO, informed the Subcommittee that laws, regulations, and policies that work with rather than against the marketplace have made the U.S. a world leader in sustainable forest management, by protecting rivers and streams, promoting forest growth, and providing homes and products to American families, “Private forests in the U.S. provide over 2.5 million jobs and $87 billion in wages to American families. They are also recognized as the most sustainable forests in the world. This is due to the effective relationship between markets that make forest ownership economical and a carefully tailored legal and policy framework. Layering on duplicative and unnecessary regulations upsets this balance and threatens the economic viability of forest ownership, placing at risk rural jobs and the environmental and the many public benefits private forests provide. Pushed too hard, ill-advised regulation can force forestland into other land uses that prove to be more economically valuable.”

Tenny stressed that private forests serve as the nation’s filter for air quality and should be supported by federal policies under the Clean Air Act, “EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations must recognize that forest biomass used for energy recycles carbon from the atmosphere through tree growth and reduces overall carbon in the atmosphere.”

Tenny further emphasized that forests protect water quality under carefully tailored Clean Water Act policies, “State administered best management practices (BMPs) have been a national success story for improving water quality. The EPA should support existing policies and avoid adding new and unnecessary permitting and paperwork costs with no corresponding environmental benefit.”

Several proposed EPA regulations and recent court decisions threaten private forestlands and the jobs they support. Tenny singled out:

• Renewable energy, an important market for forest biomass. EPA’s proposal to regulate biomass energy carbon emissions the same as fossil fuels threatens the future of this renewable energy source. Tenny urged Congress to hold the EPA to its promise to defer the regulation of biomass energy carbon emissions for three years and conduct an unbiased study of biomass carbon emissions.
• Pesticide application, a limited but important forestry tool. The EPA has effectively regulated pesticide application under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which requires safe pesticide application to protect people, wildlife, and water quality. Because of a court decision, EPA is in the process of adding new overlapping regulations under the Clean Water Act – a duplicative and unnecessary requirement that is confusing, costly and ultimately harmful to good forest stewardship. Tenny urged Congress to support H.R. 872 to affirm the original intent of Congress that pesticide application is best regulated under FIFRA and does not need additional and redundant regulation under other laws.
• Forest roads, the vital infrastructure for forest management and recreational access. Private and public forest managers depend on well maintained roads to harvest, replant and manage forests while also providing public recreation access. A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals changed the decades-long policy of EPA that forest roads maintained to meet state water quality best management practices (BMP)s under the Clean Water Act, will also require federal permits typically required for factories and other confined industrial sites. The Ninth Circuit is currently reviewing the case en banc. Tenny asked Congress to be prepared to take legislative action, if necessary, to affirm the EPA’s long-standing policy.

For more information on these issues, please read NAFO’s fact sheets on biomass energy, forest roads, pesticide applications, and a white paper on the existing framework of laws, regulations, agreements, and non-regulatory policies that govern private forestry in the U.S.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Private, working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. View NAFO’s interactive map to see the economic impact of America’s working forests.

Watch the news story for more information.

The Congressmen accurately point out that roughly 92 percent of America’s wood products are grown on privately-owned and family-owned forests in the U.S. and that, “These owners work everyday to keep their forests intact and healthy; however they face constant economic pressure to convert their land to other uses. Markets for wood products encourage forest owners to keep their forests healthy and keep forests as forests.”

Read the full letter (PDF).

Private U.S. forests, which comprise 57% of all forests in the U.S., support over 2.5 million jobs and $87 billion in payroll. Private forests rely on vibrant forest product markets to sustain these jobs and remain economically viable as forests. Without a strong U.S. manufacturing base to support private, working forests, forest owners are less able to invest in needed management, and many face increasing pressure to convert their forestlands to more economically competitive non-forest uses. The result is fewer working forests and fewer well-paying jobs in rural America.

EPA’s original Boiler MACT rule threatened U.S. forests by pushing U.S. manufacturing over the brink of economic sustainability. We have urged EPA to improve the rule to be more responsive to the technical and economic realities of manufacturing processes. EPA’s action to improve the rule is a good start. However there is much work ahead. We look forward to working closely with EPA, Congress, and our manufacturing partners as the rulemaking progresses to craft a policy that protects public health and the environment while also supporting the manufacturing base that sustains working forests and the much needed family-waged jobs they provide.

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NAFO is an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing federal policies that promote the economic and environmental values of privately-owned forests at the national level. NAFO membership encompasses more than 79 million acres of private forestland in 47 states. Private, working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. View NAFO’s interactive map to see the economic impact of America’s working forests.