Tag: forestry

Forest Facts: U.S. Joins International Effort to Fund Sustainable Forestry

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

The United States has joined Norway and the United Kingdom to pledge a combined $280 million toward sustainable forestry in an effort to slow the effects of climate change. The initiative, managed by the BioCarbon Fund, will establish environmentally friendly tracts of forest in a wide variety of regions around the world, and expand forest protection technologies and climate-smart agriculture.

Announced during an event at the United Nations climate summit in Warsaw, the new initiative comes just after a report revealed that our planet has lost an area the size of Western Europe to deforestation over the last decade. That’s not just a problem for wildlife and the communities in which the forests are lost; deforestation speeds up climate change.

One of the crucial components of a climate-friendly sustainable forestry system is establishing new markets for timber. That’s part of the effort that will take place in Oromia, a region that contains 60 percent of Ethiopia’s forests. As demand for sustainable forest products increases, incentives to manage forests responsibly do, too.

“The fate of the climate, forests, and agriculture are bound together. If agriculture and land-use change continue to produce up to 30 percent of global greenhouse gases, it will mean further disaster and disruption from climate change”, said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s vice president of sustainable development. “That’s why the new BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes it so important. Its grants and results-based financing aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the land sector, through REDD+, climate-smart agriculture practices and land-use planning.”
Image: Geoff Gallice

This Week in Wood: More Furniture Makers Choosing Sustainable Supplies

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Certified Sustainable Wood

Large furniture suppliers are increasingly seeking sustainable certification for their materials, including responsibly grown and harvested wood. Haworth Inc., a Michigan-based manufacturer of office and contract furniture, has pledged to source all of the woods used in its products from sustainably managed forests by the end of 2015, and Ethan Allen Furniture has completed registration for Sustainable by Design, a program that helps companies establish standards, practices and management systems for their own environmental performance and that of their suppliers.

Ethan Allen, a chain with nearly 300 stores across the U.S., UK and Canada, was required to establish goals and a system for evaluating annual improvements in supply chain management, using eco-friendly materials, global climate impact and social responsibility. Part of the eco-friendly materials component is purchasing certified lumber.

Haworth, a privately held company with $1.31 billion in annual sales, says that it expects its vendors to have third-party certification from groups like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). About 86 percent of Haworth’s wood was sourced from controlled managed forests this year.

A number of large wood products organizations like the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association, the American Home Furnishings Alliance and the Business & Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association offer programs that set standards and targets for greener products.

Image via: Sustainable Forestry Initiative

The Majestic Old Growth Eastern White Pines of Pennsylvania

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Longfellow Eastern White Pine Pennsylvania

The tallest tree in the northeastern United States is a staggering 181.3-foot-tall Eastern White Pine in Cook Forest State Park, Pennsylvania. This old growth tree is known as the Longfellow Pine, and it’s one of many ancient and beautiful Eastern White Pine trees flourishing in the protected forests of the state. It’s the third-tallest tree in the Eastern United States – so tall, it’s tough to take a picture of the whole thing.

Longfellow Pine, estimated to be about 300 years old, stands among many other tall and large-girth trees in Cook Forest State Park. Some specimens have been found that date back an astonishing 500 years. Other pines of awe-inspiring heights can be found in Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail State Forest.

Michigan is home to Eastern White Pines reaching over 155 feet in height at Hartwick Pines State Park, and a private property in Claremont, New Hampshire hosts about sixty 150-foot-tall pines. The diameter of these pines can be up to five feet.

Old growth forests of Eastern White Pines that have never been logged can be found all over the country, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, which was home to the tallest Eastern White Pine (at 188.8 feet) before winds took off its crown in 1995.

Sustainable forestry methods and active forest preservation have helped preserve these trees for this long, ensuring that they’re still around for future generations to marvel at.

Photo: Native Tree Society

Forest Facts: Making Green Buildings Greener with Wood

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Green Wood Building

A lot of energy is spent in the green building industry on innovating new materials that made of eco-friendly materials, easy to transport, and reclaimable when a structure must be torn down. But many of these materials have problems of their own in the manufacturing process, and in the meantime, there’s a natural material that’s already strong, insulating, sustainable and recyclable: wood. Using more wood in both new construction and renovation can help make green buildings greener, driving demand for sustainable forestry.

All materials, no matter how sustainable, have some adverse impacts on the environment. The use of wood, when it’s not grown and harvested sustainably, can be devastating on an ecosystem and the surrounding community. But modern forestry practices ensure that even when wood is harvested in large quantities, healthy, balanced forests can be maintained. Maximizing timber yields might be important for a forest owner’s bottom line, but protecting rivers, the soil and wildlife habitats while minimizing erosion and planting plenty of new trees helps ensure their business will last well into the future.

Naturally occurring and renewable, wood does the important job of storing carbon from the atmosphere, playing a crucial role in the fight against climate change. The energy required to manage, cut, transport and process it is minimal compared to other popular building materials like steel. That energy can be minimized even further with the use of local wood species.

For all of these reasons, and simply its unparalleled beauty, wood is becoming even more popular to incorporate into modern architecture or even as the sole material for high-rises.

Photo: andrew_writer

Forest Facts: Sustainable Forestry vs. Traditional Forestry

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Sustainable-forestry

Logging has long been associated with deforestation; vast tracts of land clear-cut without a plan for future growth and no consideration for how the tree removal will affect the ecosystem and surrounding communities. While that was true for a long time, and still presents a major problem around the world, sustainable forestry methods are changing that perception. Sustainable forestry meets the needs of the present – for goods like paper and lumber – without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Traditional logging methods take down as many trees as desired with an eye on immediate profit, and rather than replanting trees so more can be harvested in the future, they leave the landscape bare and damaged, moving on to a new forest for additional wood. To ensure that tree removal won’t harm the ecosystem and will allow for a continued harvest, sustainable forestry requires a multi-step process of evaluation, management and regeneration.

Forest managers assess the land, noting the types and health of the trees, the species of wildlife present and whether they are threatened or endangered, and other environmental issues. Socioeconomic impact is important, too. Then they must determine how many trees can be harvested, and whether this can be accomplished by pruning, cutting down older trees to encourage new growth, or thinning the forest in certain areas. This might involve controlled burns, and often opens up parts of the land to recreation.

Third party certification ensures that all of this is done properly, in the best interests of the community, the environment and the nation in which the forest is located. An organization like the Sustainable Forestry Initiative cheeks on the forestry practices of a timber producer, and decides whether the resulting products can be labeled as sustainable.

Sustainable forestry can reduce climate change effects and reverse the damage that has been done by traditional logging in the past. Read more about how Eastern White Pine is a sustainable alternative to plantation-grown pine trees.

Photo: Bureau of Land Management

Forest Facts: Rural Communities Benefit from Sustainable Forestry Industry

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Sustainable forestry industry

Sustainable forestry is helping to create and preserve jobs and diversify economies in rural communities that have been hit hard by the recession, or have a high concentration of poverty. In forested areas all over the nation, tax credits combined with 21st-century methods of harvesting, moving and processing timber are improving the quality of life for local residents. The boom comes courtesy, in large part, of New Market Tax Credits, a federal program that aims to spur revitalization efforts in low-income and impoverished communities.

This program provides tax credit incentives to people and companies who invest in certain types of projects in low-income communities. Many of these companies are creating green jobs in struggling timber communities. The nonprofit organization Ecotrust reports that qualifying projects have included the re-opening of a closed plastic-wood composite manufacturing plant in Washington, construct a new wood biomass plant in Oregon and restore vast tracts of forest in the Northwest.

In Berlin, New Hampshire, the Burgess Biomass Plant recently received its first delivery of sustainably harvested wood. Built on the site of a defunct paper mill, the plant will produce 75 megawatts of power, sustain 40 jobs in management and plant operations, and create hundreds more jobs in the harvesting and transporting of the wood.

Another recipient of the New Market Tax Credits, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), used funds for the Maine Woods Initiative to encourage nature-based tourism, creating jobs in forestry while also encouraging a ripple effect in the local economy from visitors who come to enjoy the beauty of nature in the area.

Image: wikimedia commons