PUBLIC POLICY
Sustainable Forestry And Its Uses Today By Matt Leahy
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orests deliver significant benefits to people, wildlife, and the natural environment. They filter water, provide wildlife habitats, offer outdoor recreation opportunities, and mitigate the damaging effects from climate change. Unfortunately, a split seems to be emerging within the community of forest advocates over the issue of forest management, particularly as the urgency to address climate change increases. For some, the critical need to take concrete steps now to avoid the worst effects of climate change must include leaving forests intact so they can continue to sequester and store carbon. That position would seem to incorporate placing restrictions on timber harvesting. The Forest Society shares the commitment with those groups to keep forests as forests. However, even as society faces the
urgent need to address climate change, public policy should not undermine forest health and the goal of keeping forests as forests. Paradoxically, restricting sustainable forest management would do just that. We are especially mindful of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Climate Change which states, “Sustainable forest management can prevent deforestation, maintain and enhance carbon sinks, and can contribute towards GHG emissions–reduction goals. Sustainable forest management generates socioeconomic benefits, and provides fiber, timber, and biomass to meet society’s growing needs.” Although in practice sustainable forest management is complex, in very basic terms it means to always be growing more trees than are being cut. That simple definition, though, does not accurately
Give Back To The Trails! Join Us At Monadnock Trails Week Learn about the mountain on a guided hike, care for the trails on a volunteer trail crew, or enjoy an evening event at one of our local business partners. • Volunteer trail crew opportunities • Free guided hikes • Social gathering at Dublin Road Taproom and Eatery • Virtual keynote speaker Earl B. Hunter Jr. from Black Folks Camp Too Monadnock State Park | July 22–26, 2022
For more information, visit forestsociety.org/monadnocktrailsweek
22 | FOREST NOTES Spring 2022
describe the range of benefits it brings. Timber harvesting can help landowners reach other outcomes they want for their forest stand including the creation of diverse wildlife habitats, maintenance of plant biodiversity, and promotion of recreational opportunities while providing sustainably produced renewable forest products. Regarding one of the most pressing societal problems we face—climate change—forest management provides a key solution here, too. For example, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) has developed several “climate aware” management strategies forestland owners can use to manage their lands. While each of the approaches— resistance, resilience, or transition—is based on the conditions in a specific forest stand, they all involve to different extents
