

Properly managed forests a win-win

4:29 PM, Nov. 29, 2013  |  Comments
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Early in the last century, lumber companies devastated the mountains of Western North Carolina. They cut everything they could reach and then moved on, leaving slopes that looked like moonscapes.

Today, the mountains are green once more. There still is logging, but it is selective. This preserves the scenery that makes the mountains a tourist destination while providing wildlife habitat and preventing erosion that washes away topsoil and pollutes waterways.

Now we know that selective logging has yet another advantage: It helps slow global warming. One tree can keep a ton of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere during its 40-year life.

The South has a big role to play here. The Southeastern states produce nearly 20 percent of the world's wood and paper products.

"The South is a hardworking landscape. We can keep carbon in the trees and grow more mature stands of trees for harvest," said Andrew Goldberg of the Asheville-based Dogwood Alliance.

To do that, Dogwood and Staples have spearheaded formation of an innovative partnership of environmentalists and business people called Carbon Canopy. Essentially, it is a private market to trade carbon credits, so forest owners can make money without cutting their trees.

Those who buy the credits must log under Forest Stewardship Council standards. "FSC certification ensures that products come from well-managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits," the council says on its website.

Carbon Canopy was launched with 14,000 protected acres of privately held forest in WNC and southwestern Virginia. Those trees represent 100,000 metric tons of carbon kept out of the atmosphere in the first year alone.

It also ties in with the California carbon market created under that state's Global Warming Solutions Act in 2006. The act allows participation by forests in other states.

Among other things, Carbon Canopy is an example of the private sector stepping in where governments, aside from California, have feared to tread. Legislation to cap carbon emissions and set up a system to trade credits failed in Congress in 2010.

One firm that supports sustainability is Columbia Forest Products, which has a plant in Old Fort. "We were one of the first in the country to get certified," said Jim Sitts, Appalachian timber manager for Columbia. Roughly 15 percent of the wood used at Old Fort meets FSC standards.

One landowner who has benefited is Balsam Mountain Preserve, a planned community in Jackson County. Planners kept 3,400 of the subdivision's 4,400 acres in timber, creating a community within a park.

"When Andrew (Goldberg) approached us last year, we thought it was a perfect fit," said Bruce Fine, president and CEO of the preserve. "We're able to realize a new revenue stream while at the same time we preserve what's here for future generations.

"For us in the real estate development business, I couldn't think of a better scenario."

Critics of the program point out that the amount of carbon kept out of the atmosphere is a drop in the bucket. They argue that the only way to make a significant impact is to stop burning fossil fuels.

They have a point. But every drop in the bucket helps. Besides, the Carbon Canopy program would be beneficial even if it didn't keep a single pound of carbon out of the atmosphere. Green mountains draw tourists. Trees shelter wildlife and hold soil in place.

Properly managed forests benefit both companies and the environment. "What's wrong with that?" asked Sittis.

What indeed. If you want to view the alternative, just look at some photos of the Smoky Mountains in the 1920s and 1930s.

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