I came across a recent story in The Oregonian (“Fall in wood products market redirects environmentalist strategy,” by Michael Milstein, December 20, 2008) talking about the changing tactics of some of that region’s environmental groups. It turns out they have recognized that if timber companies and other large landowners can no longer afford to hold onto their land, the forestland can end up being sold for subdivision. Organizations that have been fighting timber sales on federal land and trying to regulate logging on private land are now trying to help the timber industry stay in business, recognizing that the government and conservation organizations cannot afford to buy every acre of forest.
This awareness, while new to them, is not exactly a blinding insight. Northern Woodlands has been saying this for 15 years now: stewardship of private forestland is made possible by a thriving forest products industry that provides markets for wood and an economic return to landowners. The best hedge against the suburbanization of our forest is the opportunity for financial return for holding onto it.
Not that there should be no standards for the extraction of those resources. We have pushed loggers to do better and better work in the woods, encouraging them to pay attention to water quality, erosion, and the condition of the forest they leave behind. We’ve kept forest certification programs in the spotlight and regularly profile people and companies who are doing the right thing.
But I won’t spend too much time on “I told you so.” Indeed, we welcome more organizations to join us in fostering a culture of stewardship in our forests. I’m thrilled to see quotes like this:
“It’s a new day—it’s a new landscape,” said Guido Rahr, president of the Wild Salmon Center in Portland. “We have to realize private-land timber companies are our friend. Once land gets broken up into smaller pieces, our ability to protect it is eliminated.”
Though some logging practices can harm fish, he said, the loss of forests altogether is much worse. That’s even more true as trees are increasingly counted on to soak up greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Trees and salmon, loggers and environmentalists, lumber and recreation – they are all part of a whole system that most of us hope will stay whole.