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PUBLIC POLICY UPDATE
By Matt Leahy
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The word “infrastructure” usually brings to mind images of roads, bridges, transmission lines, or the giant machines needed to construct them. That is understandable; for decades, policies governing transportation, energy, and economic development have prioritized those kinds of projects. True, these facilities are a necessity for our modern economy to function. However, this network of concrete, steel, and pavement—beyond the unsightly aesthetics— has also brought with it negative effects: air pollution, changes in water quality, fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and the conversion of forested areas.
Fortunately, the expectations regarding what constitutes infrastructure are changing. For evidence, look at the recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the bipartisan infrastructure bill). This enormous piece of legislation contains the following. • $1 billion for the Building Resilient
Infrastructure and Communities program, which will support states, local communities, tribes, and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects, reducing the risks they face from disasters and natural hazards. • $7.5 billion to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in the United States.
Preliminary estimates indicate New
Hampshire would expect to receive $17 million over five years to support the expansion of an EV charging network in the state. • $350 million for wildlife crossings across transportation corridors. • $350 million for solid waste and recycling grants to state governments. • $300 million for the Natural Resources
Conservation Service’s Emergency
Watershed Protection Program. • The bill also includes the Energy
Savings and Industrial Competitiveness
Act, which will improve energy efficiency in three key sectors: buildings, industry, and the federal government.
Most of those initiatives fall into what is now being referred to as green infrastructure and natural solutions. By incorporating nature as well as engineered systems, public policy is evolving to incorporate actions that provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and lessen the impacts of floods and other disasters while meeting the daily needs of society. Often, these natural approaches are more affordable than relying solely on traditional gray infrastructure methods. As an example, studies have linked how maintaining (or increasing) forest cover in water supply watersheds results in improved water quality and lowered water treatment costs.
The goal of investing is generally understood to be increasing the value of an asset over a period of time and involves the upfront expenditure of money, time, or effort. Natural solutions and green infrastructure meet this definition. Using public funds on such projects is an investment in the same way that constructing a new road results in a community-wide benefit. If a neighborhood, for example, becomes better able to withstand flood events because of the investments made to protect wetlands, that neighborhood is now a better place to live. If installing permeable pavement reduces stormwater runoff and promotes groundwater recharge, the improved water quality makes for a healthier community.
Gray infrastructure will always be a part of our daily lives. However, nature can, and does, play an equally important function. The next step for policy makers is to further expand this role. Actions such as the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are a good example of how to do that. By prioritizing the protection and conservation of the country’s natural assets, we will see a return on this investment in the form of more resilient, vital communities. That sounds like a pretty good deal.
A mighty hemlock tree grows high into the forest’s canopy at the Heald Tract in Wilton.
Matt Leahy is the public policy manager for the Forest Society.
The Forest Society thanks our business partners for their generous support
Summit Circle ($5,000 and up)
Asplundh Tree Expert Company Badger Peabody & Smith Realty Inc. Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A. BCM Environmental & Land Law, PLLC Merrimack County Savings Bank Seaboard International Forest
Products, LLC Whalen Public & Media Relations, LLC Trustees’ Circle ($2,500 to $4,999)
Northeast Delta Dental The Secret Agency, LLC President’s Circle ($1,000 to $2,499)
Checkmate Payroll Services Chinburg Properties Community Toolbox, Inc. EOS Research Garden Life, LLC Lumbard & Kellner, LLC Mallory Portraits Martin Forestry Consulting, LLC Mulligan Forest, LLC New England Private Wealth
Advisors, LLC Northland Forest Products, Inc. Pennyroyal Hill Land Surveying and
Forestry LLC Ransmeier & Spellman, P.C. Rockywold-Deephaven Camps, Inc. SCM Associates, Inc. Wipfli LLP Partner ($500 to $749)
Arcomm Communications Corporation Blue Mountain Forest Association Capitol Craftsman, LLC Devine, Millimet & Branch, P.A. Durgin and Crowell Lumber Co., Inc. GMEC, Inc. Gunstock Mountain Resort
Partner (continued)
Half Moon Enterprises LockNLube The Lyme Timber Company LP Meadowsend Timberlands Limited Mediation Partners of New England Middleton Building Supply, Inc. The Music Mill NH Conservation Real Estate Pine Springs R.M. Piper, Inc. Placework Plymouth Soapworks, LLC Samyn-d’Elia Architects, P.A. Zambon Brothers Logging Colleague ($250 to $499)
Acapella Technologies, LLC Altus Engineering Ambit Engineering, Inc. Bangor Savings Bank Black North, LLC Blaktop, Inc. Dublin Road Tap Room and Eatery Eastern Mountain Sports Fuller’s Sugarhouse, LLC Great Brook Veterinary Clinic, LLC Innovative Natural Resource
Solutions, LLC J and M Morse Trucking, LLC Kozikowski Properties, LLC Lenk Orthodontics Limington Lumber Company New England Flower Farms North Woodlands, Inc. Orr & Reno P.A. Rise Private Wealth Management, Inc. River’s Bend Woodworking Studio, LLC Tri-State Iron Works, Inc. Twin State Sand & Gravel Co., Inc. Whole Wealth Management, LLC
Matching Gift Companies
Amaresco, Inc. American Biltrite, Inc. Amgen, Inc. Amica Mutual Insurance Company Autodesk, Inc. Bank of America Bose Corporation Citizens Bank Dell, Inc. Erie Insurance Facebook, Inc. Gartner, Inc. General Electric Gilead Sciences, Inc. Google, LLC The Home Depot, Inc. IBM Corporation Liberty Mutual Insurance MassMutual The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Microsoft Corporation MilliporeSigma Motorola Solutions Novartis Oracle Corporation OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc. Shell Oil Company Subaru of America Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. The Travelers Companies, Inc. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
We are grateful to the many businesses that support the Forest Society with gifts of less than $250. The Forest Society…Where Conservation and Business Meet
For information about business memberships, sponsorships, or to initiate a gift membership program for your clients or employees, please contact Anne Truslow at (603) 224-9945 or atruslow@forestsociety.org
