The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is pleased to see investments in forest health and resilience, rural communities, and wood innovation in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Sustainably managed working forests are a proven tool for reducing the risks of severe wildfire, providing carbon benefits at landscape scale, and producing renewable, carbon-storing forest products. As the climate changes, our nation’s vast privately owned forest resources, and the rural communities that depend on them, can provide natural climate solutions that deliver both economic support and environmental benefits. The investments provided in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will support the contributions of forests and the markets that sustain them to provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and jobs.

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Private working forests – which provide 90% of our timber harvest for wood and fiber – also account for 80% of our total net forest carbon sequestration and nearly half of our forest carbon storage. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.| @NAFO_Forests

Washington, DC – The National Alliance of Forest Owners released the following statement on Secretary Vilsack’s announcement of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

We applaud USDA’s support for the climate benefits that private working forests provide. Through the new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, the administration can empower forest owners to use voluntary measures to achieve the greatest positive climate impact possible.

Private working forests account for nearly 75 percent of gross annual carbon sequestration by U.S. forests – more than the total annual emissions from U.S. passenger vehicles.  In addition, private working forests are the largest forest carbon storage pool, accounting for 54% of the total U.S. forest carbon storage pool. Forest carbon stored in harvested wood products – used in houses, furniture, and in wood infrastructure projects – creates another carbon storage pool that is more than double the amount of carbon in all U.S. national parks.

Forest owners need healthy markets and high-quality data, so they can keep working forests working and continuing to provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and good paying jobs in rural communities. We look forward to working with the USDA to further advance the natural climate solutions found in private working forests.

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Private working forests – which provide 90% of our timber harvest for wood and fiber – also account for nearly three-quarters of our total gross forest carbon sequestration and over half of our forest carbon storage. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.| @NAFO_Forests

Washington, DC – The American Wood Council, the National Alliance of Forest Owners and the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association issued a joint statement on President Biden’s Executive Order, Catalyzing America’s Clean Energy Economy Through Federal Sustainability.

“We applaud the President for harnessing the federal government to lead the way in transforming the built environment to net-zero. The materials used to construct buildings account for 27 percent of total building emissions, according to the United Nations, and lowering the carbon footprint in buildings, construction, and renovations is critical to meeting climate goals. We can significantly cut the carbon footprint of the traditional built environment by expanding wood use and substituting traditional building materials with wood products, including mass timber – leveraging the carbon benefits of our nation’s forests into our buildings, communities, and cities.

Climate change presents a direct threat to infrastructure, supply chains, financial investments, and the U.S. economy. Governmental procurement practices can mitigate those risks by creating climate-resilient infrastructure, bolstering domestic supply chains, and expanding carbon sequestration in both the built environment and in America’s working forests. Increasing procurement of wood products addresses each of these challenges.

Wood buildings lock away carbon, turning our buildings and cities from emission sources into emissions vaults. Mass timber, in particular, is an affordable, scalable, and realistic option for achieving our shared climate goals. The Federal Sustainability Plan appropriately recognizes the role of life cycle analysis (LCA) in making choices that can reduce emissions. As more and better data is developed, LCA processes will become even more robust and enable more thoughtful, climate-smart decision making in governmental procurement.

Wood is the only carbon-storing, renewable, resilient and sustainable building material that can be grown and re-grown, and our sustainably managed forests can meet increased demand:  Since 1958, U.S. forest cover has been stable and forest volume has increased by 60 percent. Modern forest management in the United States ensures some of the highest sustainability standards in the world. Private working forests support 2.5 million American jobs and U.S. wood product manufacturers directly support over 450,000 family-wage jobs, both primarily in rural communities.

The forestry and wood products sector looks forward to working with the federal government to achieving a net-zero emissions building portfolio with American-grown and manufactured wood products.”

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The American Wood Council (AWC) is the voice of North American wood products manufacturing, an industry that provides over 450,000 men and women in the United States with family-wage jobs. AWC represents 86 percent of the structural wood products industry, and members make products that are essential to everyday life from a renewable resource that absorbs and sequesters carbon. Staff experts develop state-of-the-art engineering data, technology, and standards for wood products to assure their safe and efficient design, as well as provide information on wood design, green building, and environmental regulations. AWC also advocates for balanced government policies that affect wood products. www.awc.org | @woodcouncil

The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Private working forests – which provide 90% of our timber harvest for wood and fiber – also account for nearly three-quarters of our total gross forest carbon sequestration and over half of our forest carbon storage. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.| @NAFO_Forests

The Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (SLMA) membership footprint spans from Texas to Maryland and includes sawmills, lumber treaters and lumber remanufacturers. In total, there are 81 member companies operating roughly 130 locations. The mills directly employ nearly 10,000 people, in addition to the countless secondary jobs that are supported in the rural economies across the Southeast. Our members also manage over 2 million acres of timberland. Learn more at slma.org. | @SLMAGovAffairs

 

The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) applauds the new global commitment to end deforestation by 2030, an agreement signed by leaders from around the world at the COP26 climate summit last week.  Healthy and resilient forests are critical to meeting climate goals.  As global leaders in sustainable forest management, NAFO members encourage U.S. leaders to take action supporting measures to keep forests intact and increase sustainable management practices in developing nations. Forests provide enormous environmental and climate mitigation benefits that should be recognized by our leaders and strengthened through policies that support sustainable forest management.

Because of modern, sustainable forestry practices in the United States, annual net-forest sequestration is nearly 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e). This is added to nearly 150 billion metric tons of CO₂e stored in our forests, equivalent to a full 85 years’ worth of 2018 total CO₂e emissions from U.S. electricity production from fossil fuels. Privately owned, sustainably managed, working forests provide nearly three-quarters of the nation’s gross forest-carbon sequestration and more than 50 percent of its forest carbon storage. Sustainable, renewable wood products also extend forest carbon storage in wood products that store nearly 9.8 billion metric tons of CO₂e, more than double the carbon locked away in all U.S. national parks.

“Sustainable forest management in the United States is the gold standard of keeping forests intact, healthy, and providing enormous carbon sequestration and storage benefits,” said Dave Tenny, founding President and CEO of NAFO. “Sustainable forest management ensures that we can maintain an ongoing cycle of growing, harvesting, and replanting – far different from the deforestation and forest degradation we see in some parts of the world.”

Forest owners in the United States meet the highest standards of sustainable management in the world. By annually harvesting and replanting about 2 percent of the private working forest land base, forest owners provide 90 percent of the timber harvest needed for carbon-beneficial wood products – products that displace fossil fuel intensive alternatives. Each year private forest owners in the U.S. plant more than 1 billion seedlings. Since 1958, U.S. forest cover has been stable and forest volume has increased by 60 percent. We welcome this agreement from the COP26 climate summit as a significant step forward for the world’s forests and our shared future.

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Private working forests – which provide 90% of our timber harvest for wood and fiber – also account for nearly three-quarters of our total gross forest carbon sequestration. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.

 

Washington, DC – The National Alliance of Forest Owners released the following statement on the introduction of the Senate America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration Act.

We applaud Senators Manchin and Barrasso for introducing the America’s Revegetation and Carbon Sequestration Act, a bipartisan bill to support forest health and resilience and promote natural, forest-based solutions in the face of a changing climate. We are pleased to see Congress addressing critical forest carbon data needs through investments in the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA).  The bill also supports working forests and forest owners by advancing markets for sustainable wood products like mass timber.  Guided by quality data and encouraged by access to healthy markets for forest products, private working forests have no equal in their ability to sequester and store carbon at scale. With the right support, like we see in this bill, there is even greater potential to optimize carbon sequestration and storage.

Forest owners need access to healthy markets for forest products, and robust and accurate data, so they can keep working forests working and continuing to provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and good paying jobs in rural communities. We look forward to working with Senators Manchin and Barrasso and their Senate colleagues to further advance opportunities for growing the natural climate solutions found in private working forests.

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.

The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is pleased to see robust funding for the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and Wood Innovation Grants (WIGs) in the House Agriculture Committee’s reconciliation package. We eagerly await full text from the House Agriculture Committee and inclusion of this funding in the Senate package, but we are encouraged by the information provided to date.  Together, private working forests and forest products already deliver real carbon benefits and provide promising potential for the future.  Increased funding to collect and analyze data, enhance R&D, and share information about building with wood are critical to helping us document, understand and advance the climate benefits of working forests and forest products.

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that ensure our working forests provide clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and jobs through sustainable practices and strong markets. NAFO member companies own and sustainably manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.

Washington, DC – The National Alliance of Forest Owners released the following statement on the introduction of the House Disaster Reforestation Act.

“We applaud Representatives Sewell and Carter for introducing the Disaster Reforestation Act, a bipartisan bill that will support forest health and resilience in the face of a changing climate. This bill provides support to forest owners following a disaster to help keep working forests working and continuing to provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and good paying jobs in rural communities. We look forward to working with Representatives Sewell and Carter and their House colleagues to further advance opportunities for private working forests.”

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that support the long-term economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainably managed privately-owned forests. NAFO member companies own and manage more than 46 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.

Washington, DC – Dave Tenny, President & CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners released the following statement on the Senate’s passage of the Growing Climate Solutions Act.

“We applaud the Senate on the passage of The Growing Climate Solutions Act, which will help private forest owners of all sizes deliver carbon mitigation benefits at scale. We support working with USDA to address cost and technology barriers to participation in forest carbon markets while maintaining the rigor needed for high quality carbon outcomes. We look forward to working with members of both parties in the House to take up and pass this legislation into law.”

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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is a national advocacy organization committed to advancing federal policies that support the long-term economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainably managed privately-owned forests. NAFO member companies own and manage more than 47 million acres of private working forests – forests that are managed to provide a steady supply of timber. NAFO’s membership also includes state and national associations representing tens of millions of additional acres. Private working forests in the U.S. support 2.5 million jobs. Learn more at nafoalliance.org.