Jane Howard
In 2007, biologist Mike Fay spent 11 months walking the length of the redwood forest in northern California as a National Geographic explorerin residence. “He resolved to see for himself how Earth’s tallest forest had been exploited in the past and is being treated today,” a story in the October 2009 National Geographic explains. “He wanted to find out if there was a way to maximize both timber production and the many ecological and social benefits standing forests provide. If it could be done in the redwoods, he believed, it could be done anywhere on the planet where forests are being leveled for short-term gain.
“The buzz among environmental groups, consulting foresters, and even a few timber companies and communities was that the redwoods were at a historic crossroads—a time when society could move beyond the log/don’t log debates of decades past and embrace a different kind of forestry that could benefit people, wildlife, and perhaps even the planet.” Old logging practices had damaged salmon habitat and left only 5 percent of about two million acres of virgin forest. New practices, called “ecological forestry,” allow the use of renewable resources while promoting wildlife habitat, keeping rivers clean, and keeping excess carbon out of the atmosphere.
Today, the redwood forest is carefully managed with a combination of retaining old growth stands and clear cutting, which enhances the growth of redwoods and Douglas fir and creates good habitat for duskyfooted wood rats—spotted owls’ favorite prey in California. Another trend is to harvest the bigger trees, making a profit by getting more money per tree, and to take the same or less out of the woods each year than is growing each year.
Conservation easements
Companies that once logged their vast landholdings have met with more and more opposition over the course of time. As a result, companies in the forest management industry throughout the U.S. are selling large tracts of private land to commercial land developers.
In a 2006 U.S. Forest Service booklet entitled Cooperating Across Boundaries: Partnerships to conserve open space in rural America, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth addressed the subdividing of open space in rural America, saying that a trend toward low density, dispersed housing in the “wildland urban interface” could alter “the ability of these forests to provide ecosystem services and public benefits such as water quality, wildlife habitat, and a sustainable flow of forest products.”
The document goes on tonisay, “gRetirees,9/1 /second201 home owners, commuters, and others are choosing to build homes in rural areas to enjoy the many benefits provided by forests, lakes, rivers, coasts, mountains, and public land.” According to Forest Service researcher Wayne Zipperer, however, “The question is not whether we should develop, but rather how best to use the land to maintain or enhance the goods and services provided by ecosystems.”
The document states, “Replacing working farms, ranches, and natural areas with residential homes might appear at first glance to be a tax benefit. However, numerous cost-of-community-service studies suggest that costs to service these outlying houses and subdivisions exceed new revenues.” Increasing the use of biomass from Cook County’s considerable percentage of federal land would be one way to boost the local economy and offset the extra public burden of dispersed rural living that takes place here.
According to Superior National Forest/Gunflint District Ranger Dennis Neitzke, about 150,000,000 acres of land in the U.S. are federally owned, whereas 750,000,000 are in private hands. Some lobbyists have focused on disallowing timber harvest from Forest Service land while a far larger proportion of private land is being subdivided and developed.
Conservation easements are helping to stem the tide of this trend. According to Jim Bowyer in an article entitled The Future of Forestry in Minnesota’s Economy, published in the Center for Rural Policy and Development’s Rural Minnesota Journal, “In 1999 a Minnesota State Forest Legacy Program was inaugurated with the goal of protecting large, mostly intact blocks of privately owned forest land from development.
“…A conservation easement involves a commitment of a landowner to forego future development for a specified period of time, or in perpetuity, in return for a payment based on a calculation of the present value of future development potential (although payments are often less than this value). “Easement agreements often allow ongoing management of land, including timber harvesting, but prohibit forest conversion, subdivision, or a change in land use such as residential development.”
Forest certification
Another trend to encourage responsible forest management is forest certification. Although certification programs were started mostly to stop the destruction of tropical forests, at least 80 percent of the world’s certified forests are located in the northern hemisphere. Minnesota has a higher percentage of certified forestland than any other state with just over 50 percent of its forests certified.
Green building
Technological developments in the building industry continue to offer opportunities for greater energy efficiency with less use of natural resources at less cost to the environment. Initiatives include using less fuel for heating and cooling, using less water, using more local resources, and causing less disturbance of the land. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Buildings Council was begun in 2000. Senator Franken on preserving intact forests
With some environmental lobby groups opposing biomass harvesting from federal forests, some fear that the result of selling private forestland to developers could be increased importation of wood products from overseas. The U.S. has perhaps the highest forest preservation standards in the world, Gunflint District Ranger Neitzke said. If that is the case, using our own product might be preferable to buying from other countries.
Senator Al Franken was asked for his stance on continued utilization of federal forests to offset this possibility. He shared concerns over “the growing problem of parceling and selling of family and industrially-owned forest land in Minnesota,” he said. “A study in Itasca County, for example, found that two-thirds of parceled forest land were developed within seven years. Loss of forestlands to private and commercial development poses economic and ecological concerns for Cook County and across the state of Minnesota. Forests are precious resources that must be carefully managed and sustained for the benefit of future generations.”
Franken referred to a Minnesota Forest Resources Council study emphasizing the need for federal, state and local policies to address the issue. Initiatives could include conservation easements, tax incentives, land exchanges, and training and technical assistance to family landowners and farmers. “I want to be a partner for Cook County and the state of Minnesota,” he said, “to do whatever I can to help preserve Minnesota’s forests for the economic and environmental benefits they provide today and into the future.”
This is the eighth in a series of articles on issues related to utilizing biomass from the Superior National Forest as a source of local renewable energy and its potential to benefit the economy of Cook County.
Leave a Reply