Expanding Forest Stewardship in North Carolina

Calling the American Tree Farm System® (ATFS) “a cornerstone in sustainable management,” the North Carolina Forest Service has joined with ATFS in launching a major outreach effort to increase the amount of certified privately owned forest acreage in the Tar Heel State. Eight of North Carolina’s preeminent forest companies have joined in the new effort.

More than 60 percent of North Carolina is forested, and forest products contribute 67,500 jobs and $1.8 billion each year to North Carolina’s economy. Even though more than 11 million acres of the state’s forests are privately owned, only 304,429 acres are currently certified by ATFS. The new outreach campaign seeks to significantly increase certified acreage to help meet the increasing demand for sustainably grown, certified timber.

The new effort is being supported by Domtar Corporation, Enviva, H.W. Culp Lumber Co., KapStone Paper and Packaging, Louisiana Pacific, Resolute Forest Products, RockTenn and Weyerhaeuser Company. The North Carolina Forest Service has pledged in-kind support.

Contributions from the participating forest products companies will help the North Carolina Forest Service reach out to private forest landowners who already participate in the state’s Forest Stewardship Program, but who are not yet part of the Tree Farm System. These woodland owners are being urged to seek recognition for their good stewardship by pursuing ATFS certification, which offers benefits both on the ground and in the marketplace.

Tree Farm certification opens up market opportunities and resources to woodland owners, while the forest products industry gains more access to the sustainably grown, certified fiber its customers increasingly demand.

The new outreach effort is “a win for family forest owners, for our partners in the forest products sector, and for their customers who want more certified fiber,” says American Forest Foundation President and CEO Tom Martin (ATFS is a program of the American Forest Foundation). “The expansion of the certified family forest base supports local jobs in the green economy, and also serves as a source of sustainable local wood for building and other materials.”

Greg Pate, North Carolina’s State Forester, said the new campaign to boost certification can “help private landowners in our state maintain their forests as working lands” in the face of development pressures. “The North Carolina Forest Service is proud to participate in this project to expand the number of family forests certified under ATFS.”

The partnership comes at a time when threats to private forestland are growing, particularly in the Southeast. As many as 34 million acres of forestland could be lost in the United States during the next 50 years, according to a recent U.S. Forest Service assessment. These losses are projected to be the greatest in the South, with as much as eight percent of the region’s forestland in danger of disappearing, primarily as a result of increasing development and urbanization.