PUBLIC POLICY

Sustainable Forestry And Its Uses Today

By Matt Leahy

Forests 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 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

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

the harvesting of trees. Again, sustainable forest management has a constructive role to play providing these ecosystem services.

Furthermore, human activity has affected forest health. The introduction of invasive pests and plants, poorly planned development patterns, heavy and unsustainable logging and, now, climate change all have altered the composition of the forests in New Hampshire and elsewhere. We therefore have an obligation to help improve forest health by trying to lessen the effects of those past decisions. Historically, a large disturbance like a flood, fire, or major storm would clear out weaker trees allowing room for new growth. Over time, people have developed spaces where these naturally occur, along rivers for example, and have suppressed natural fire regimes or altered these natural disturbance patterns with infrastructure like dams and pavement.

This all challenges the growth and functions of forests, especially young forests. To balance out these changes to the ecosystem, the Forest Society incorporates timber harvests into the management plans for our reservations in order to create the disturbances that forests need to regenerate. The goal of these actions is to develop more diverse habitat types for more species of wildlife and better forest health overall.

But the Forest Society is far from the only forestland owner in New Hampshire. Seventy percent of the forested areas in the state are privately owned. That equates to more than 128,000 landowners. This group of stakeholders are responsible for stewarding the majority of the forests that support the broad public benefits forests provide us. It is important to allow those landowners to use the tools available to them to manage their land responsibly and thoughtfully.

Sustainable harvesting, as we have noted, is one of those tools. Revenue from the harvests allows these landowners to avoid permanently converting them into some other use. That permanent conversion is a real concern. According to the most recent data from US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) statistics, New Hampshire experienced a permanent loss of 126,710 acres of forest from 1983 to 2017.

The bottom line is when we lose forests, we also lose forever those many values they bring. Public policies should seek to both educate and demonstrate how to properly manage these resources for the long-term good of people and nature. Yes, there likely are examples of poorly planned and executed timber harvests. However, thoughtful stewardship and careful management like the Forest Society and many other public and private forestland owners practice in New Hampshire will conserve our forest assets now and for future generations.

Matt Leahy is the public policy director for the Forest Society.

WE GREAT STORIES!

On-Demand| Online |Podcast nhpbs.org/windows