It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to say a few words at this conference. Thanks to Andres Villegas of the Georgia Forestry Association for inviting me.
Role in Forestry and Conservation
The American forestry business has long been a partner for the Forest Service, going back to the very beginnings of American forestry and conservation at the turn of the 20th century.
As you know, the Forest Service was founded by Gifford Pinchot in 1905. Pinchot came from a forestry family, and he was an early advocate and practitioner of professional forestry in the United States. Pinchot put professional forestry into practice at the Biltmore Estate near Asheville in western North Carolina.
That was near the Cradle of Forestry, where many of America’s early foresters received their professional training. It’s on the Pisgah National Forest, near where the Forest Service maintains our Southern Research Station. So we share a common history and heritage of sustainable forest management supported by forest research.
Sustainability has always been at the core of conservation. Sustainability is at the core of Gifford Pinchot’s famous maxim “for the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.”
But what people mean by “the greatest good” has changed over time. The challenge for the Forest Service has always been to listen to what people want … to take conditions on the ground into account … to take science into account … and then to decide on the best balance of uses that is sustainable for generations to come.
And the balance has changed over time. For the first 70 years of our history, we focused on helping our nation develop America’s natural resources. We envisioned a future of prosperity for all Americans, and we contributed to that future by helping Americans develop timber, water, forage, and minerals, along with the jobs needed to produce them.
In the last 40 to 50 years, our focus has broadened to include a full range of the values and benefits that people get from their forests and grasslands, including jobs. Today, Americans understand that forests provide clean air and water, carbon sequestration, habitat for native fish and wildlife, erosion control and soil renewal, opportunities for outdoor recreation, and more. In effect, “the greatest good” has expanded to include a broader variety of things.
That broader variety of things is what Americans now want from their forests. It’s what all of us in the broader forestry community are committed to delivering. Some of it can come from public lands, some of it can come from private lands, and much of it can come through market mechanisms. Our job at the Forest Service—our role for generations to come—is in all three arenas.
Our mission is “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.” Our role is to help our nation deliver what Americans want and need from their forests, both public and private.
As you know, that includes managing 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands for all the benefits people get from them, both now and for generations to come. It includes managing 13.3 million acres of national forest land in the South for wood, water, wildlife, outdoor recreation, and so much more.
The challenges we face are tremendous. About 80 million acres across the National Forest System are at risk from catastrophic fire as well as from insects and disease, and hundreds of millions of acres in other landownerships are also at risk.
We have our work cut out for us to improve forest conditions using every tool and authority we have for active forest management. That includes timber sales and stewardship contracts. It includes noncommercial mechanical fuels treatments, herbicidal treatments, prescribed fire and targeted grazing, where appropriate.
And we are making progress. Over time, we are using more fire on the land than ever before, especially in the South, but increasingly in the West as well. In fiscal year 2019, we sold almost 3.3 billion board feet of timber—the most in 21 years, creating jobs through a sustainable flow of forest products.
Part of our role at the Forest Service is to support forestry jobs and markets for wood so that the nation’s forests remain sustainable. In particular, the Forest Service has a role to play in forest inventory and monitoring. I’ll bring you up to date on that in a moment.
I’ll also talk about our role in forest research and the development of forest products. That includes the development of markets for mass timber.
Finally, we have a role to play in bringing stakeholders together to pursue common goals across shared landscapes through our Shared Stewardship initiative.
Forest Inventory and Analysis
As you know, wood is a tremendous resource for the United States. Americans produce—and consume—far more wood than any other nation. Most of the wood we produce comes from the southern states because our southern forests are so tremendously productive. The South is the wood basket of the nation—maybe even of the world.
So we have the natural resource, but we need sound science to put it to use. That’s where Forest Service Research and Development comes in, both now and for generations to come. Many people don’t know this, but our researchers were already hard at work even before the National Forest System was founded in 1905. Our research data goes back for more than a hundred years.
That includes our forest inventory data. We have been collecting information on our nation’s forests through our Forest Inventory and Analysis program for more than ninety years. We now have 130,000 plots across the nation for feeding us FIA information. Most of you know the FIA well, and you rely on it to make your investment decisions. In effect, we conduct the nation’s forest census, and it’s a prime example of our partnership.
As you know, the FIA program is used by planners in the forestry sector, including major forestland owners and managers such as TIMOs and REITs. It is also used by federal and state forestry agencies, by carbon investors, by recreational businesses, and by academic and conservation organizations. They all rely on FIA to find out about the status of our nation’s forest resources and any changes that are happening, including investment risks and emerging opportunities.
FIA data is also used to assess ecosystem services such as carbon storage, freshwater production, and wildlife habitat. FIA supports planning based on current and future risks, including fuel conditions and fire risk, flooding, invasive species, and forest insects and diseases.
FIA also gives us information on the status of forests in the urban landscapes where 83 percent of Americans live. Through FIA surveys in urban areas and investments in the iTree tool, people can estimate the carbon and other environmental benefits from urban trees.
Not least, the FIA program tracks information about nonindustrial private forest landowners through the National Woodland Owner Survey. As you know, the NIPF sector is tremendously important because it is so extensive, covering more than a third of America’s forests.
So the FIA is of critical importance to the future of sustainable forest management in the United States, and the outlook for the program is promising. The Forest Service is working with Congress and the administration to sustain funding for FIA and to invest in new technologies to improve data collection. For example, we are now using geospatial technology and innovation in collecting and delivering information in partnership with NASA. In the South, we are starting to use LiDAR to improve our FIA data.
Our own researchers are looking to FIA to help forecast scenarios of future forest and rangeland conditions. We are using the forecasts to support our assessments under the Resources Planning Act and the Southern Forest Futures Project. The resulting science will help us make better decisions in land management planning across the board, including state forest resource assessments to support Shared Stewardship.
We are also using FIA to support the Trillion Trees Initiative announced by President Trump. Through FIA, we know that the United States has almost 1.4 trillion trees, and we also know that forests and harvested wood products offset more than 14 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in our nation each year. Our nation has room for more trees, and the Forest Service is committed to doing our part. On the National Forest System, we reforest about 60,000 acres per year on average through a combination of natural regeneration and planting. Our current budget supports outplanting about 18 million seedlings.
Research and Development
FIA is supported by scientists in our Research and Development mission area. For more than a century, our researchers have been using sound science to underpin sustainable forest management. We have seven research stations around the country, 81 experimental forests, and more than a hundred years of data on almost every forest type in the United States. For more than 90 years, our Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, has been making discoveries in support of products from wood fiber of all kinds.
We conduct research in such areas as nanotechnology, bioenergy utilization, and mass timber. These areas show promise for the future, so I’ll say a few words about each.
Cellulose nanomaterials are made by breaking down wood fiber into the tiniest components imaginable. Cellulose nanomaterials have unique properties that are unmatched by similar products made from crude oil.
For example, the addition of cellulose nanofibrils can improve the surface of graphic paper, and that can give you a better image for graphics printed on the paper. No chemical products can match the performance of cellulose nanomaterials in making high-quality graphic paper. We are also looking into improving the barrier properties of paper and plastic, the writing performance of gel-ink ball pens, and applications for oil drilling and building materials.
The Forest Service has invested $12.3 million in the last ten years in nanotechnology research, and our funding is leveraged through partnerships. For example, we teamed up with Georgia Tech, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and industry scientists to develop light-weight materials for cars by coating the fiberglass in fiberglass-reinforced polymers with cellulose nanomaterials. We are working with Siskiyou County California on a concrete bridge project to demonstrate how cellulose nanocrystals can make concrete stronger and lighter while reducing CO2 emissions from concrete. We are also working with the California Department of Transportation to include cellulose nanocrystals in their statewide tests.
Since most of the new applications of cellulose nanomaterials are not in traditional paper and building industries, innovations in nanotechnology can open new markets for wood. That can help to create new opportunities for working forests.
Biochar is another promising area of research and development for the Forest Service. As you know, forest biomass currently has little or no commercial value. We are looking into ways of using biomass as a feedstock for biochar. Biochar technology can help mitigate climate change, improve soil quality, and reduce waste.
Biochar technology can also produce energy as a byproduct. We are looking for ways to convert biochar into energy, for example for space heating and liquid transportation fuels. Our research is on overcoming some of the cost and technical barriers.
The market potential is there. According to one study, the global biochar market is expected to reach a value of $3 billion by 2025. In 2017, the global demand for biochar was large and growing, mostly in North America.
Mass Timber
Markets for biochar and other wood products are key to sustainable forest management in the United States. The Forest Service has long played a role in developing markets for wood, and we will continue to do so. One way is through our Wood Innovations Program, which won awards last year for its role in promoting mass timber.
Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is revolutionizing building in the United States. A builder today can use CLT to construct high-rise buildings entirely from wood. Beautiful wood buildings have gone up in the United States and around the world, buildings with twelve stories or more.
The CLT market is rapidly expanding. In 2013, when the Forest Service began engaging in mass timber, only a handful of CLT buildings existed in the United States, and there were no manufacturing facilities.
The Forest Service has made a commitment to pursue opportunities for mass timber through grants, partnerships, and research. We act as a catalyst, making high-impact investments through high-performing partners. For example, we partner with WoodWorks, a nonprofit organization that offers free project assistance and support in designing high-rise wood buildings. Since 2014, WoodWorks has converted over 5,600 projects to wood.
Relationships with other key partners also had positive outcomes. For example, we worked with the International Code Council on fire tests that led to changes in building codes, allowing mass timber buildings of up to 18 stories. Oregon, Washington, Utah, and the city of Denver have adopted the tall timber portion of the 2021 code, as has South Carolina for state buildings. Approval is in process in Georgia.
The Pacific Northwest was the original epicenter of mass timber manufacturing and construction in the United States, particularly Portland and Seattle. Now we see growing demand for CLT buildings in other urban areas, like Atlanta, Denver, and Boston.
Today, there are over 290 mass timber buildings in the United States, and 494 more are either in design or under construction. Ten mass timber manufacturing plants are in operation, with more to come. New manufacturing facilities are coming online in the South, including plants in Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas.
Building with mass timber creates market demand for wood products, including lumber. The mass timber industry currently accounts for about 400 million board feet of lumber per year, and that’s just a start. Each year, about 17,000 buildings are constructed with steel and concrete in our country, and many could be built from wood. By 2030, demand for lumber to construct tallwood buildings is projected to rise to over 3 billion board feet per year.
Wood is a renewable resource, and it stores carbon rather than emitting it into the atmosphere. Building with mass timber is a win for forestry in the United States and a win for the environment as well.
Shared Stewardship
In spite of new demand for timber through CLT, southern forests are at risk. The 13 southern states are home to more than 100 million residents, and as development pressures grow, forests are giving way developed uses. Over the next 45 years, up to 23 million acres of forestland in the South—one acre in ten—will be lost to development, if current trends hold. And with that loss will come the loss of all the goods and services that people get from healthy forests: forest products, carbon storage, wildlife habitat, water quality protection, recreational opportunities, and more.
The same holds true for other parts of the country, especially the Northeast and Midwest. But parts of the West also face loss of open space to development. This is a national issue.
The good news is that people today are aware of the changes and challenges, and they are willing to come together to stop forest loss. The Forest Service can help. We share common landscapes and common goals for conservation and sustainable forestry, values shared by communities threatened by forest loss.
These conversations led to an initiative launched by the Forest Service in July 2018. We call it Shared Stewardship because stewardship sharing is at its core. Eighty-six percent of the forestland in the South, for example, is private or state land, so the Forest Service has a long history of working across shared landscapes with partners. Shared Stewardship is an opportunity to work with partners toward shared conservation and sustainable forestry goals. By bringing together stakeholders across shared landscapes, we can come to some agreements on the outcomes we all want based on the values we all share.
With the help of USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and governors across the nation, we have gained broad support for Shared Stewardship. In the South, we signed the first Shared Stewardship agreement with Arkansas last September. We signed an agreement with Georgia last November with the help and support of State Forester Chuck Williams. We also have an agreement with North Carolina, and agreements are in process with Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina.
In a way, the stars are all aligned. The states all have forest action plans that can serve as conservation blueprints. The states are also uniquely positioned to convene stakeholders across shared landscapes … to agree on cross-jurisdictional planning areas … and to set priorities for investments to achieve shared goals.
Every state and every region is different, so Shared Stewardship won’t look the same everywhere. But it can give us a common statewide or even a regional framework for moving together toward shared goals. We actually have a whole range of tools and authorities in place for cross-boundary partnerships to mitigate risks across shared landscapes—risks such as fire and fuels, invasive species, or loss of open space. The trick is to do the work at the right scale.
I will leave you with one example.
In early 2019, the Forest Service sat down with one of our national partners, the National Wild Turkey Federation. We have great relationships with many NGOs, and they make tremendous contributions to conservation. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic has hit many of them hard financially.
In talks with the National Wild Turkey Federation, we challenged each other to develop a pilot project in the western states for increasing the pace and scale of forest restoration in the spirit of Shared Stewardship. Colorado became our pilot state.
Together, we convened about a dozen leaders in Denver who were concerned about declining forest health and growing risks from wildfires. We agreed that by pooling resources and focusing on just one landscape, we’d have a better chance of truly making a difference.
By last July, more than 30 stakeholder organizations had joined the initiative, including water utilities, state natural resource managers, recreation industry advocates, and more. Together, they pinpointed some of the most important Colorado landscapes at risk. They also outlined some potential strategies for protecting those landscapes.
The stakeholders chose three high-priority areas across Colorado, and they met with community leaders and organizations in all three landscapes. Together, they discussed opportunities for making collective investments to reduce risks from wildfires and other disturbances. By then, more than 170 people had gotten involved.
Last September, the stakeholders met to set a timeline and establish a process for agreeing on a single project area. Seven proposals came forward, and in December the decision was made.
The project area encompasses nearly 750,000 acres in southwestern Colorado, stretching 120 miles along a major highway. It includes several towns, along with the San Juan National Forest and a national park. The project area includes rivers, reservoirs, and tourist attractions, along with the entire water supply for a Ute Tribe reservation.
Each stakeholder organization decides what to contribute toward achieving the project’s restoration goals. The stakeholders are now working with the local project team to plan the first projects using all available tools, from timber sales to prescribed fire. The goal is to find the right places to do the right work at the right scale at the right time.
To recap: We started with two conveners, the Forest Service and the National Wild Turkey Federation. We brought together 12 influencers, who mobilized a group of 30 core partners to agree on a set of shared values. They engaged 70 organizations across the state in pinpointing potential project areas across broad landscapes and landownerships, for a total of 170 individuals involved.
It truly has been a model of shared stewardship. We brought partners and stakeholders together to make collective decisions about shared values and shared landscapes, and we are moving on to decisions about projects in the same collaborative vein. It’s a great example of what we can do when we bring stakeholders together through shared stewardship to achieve the outcomes we all want across the landscapes we all share.