Forests: a new view.

New knowledge and an evolving conservation ethic reflect a promising future for our nation's trees.

As we approach the beginning of the new millennium, a change is occurring in the science and practice of forestry. Major advances in our knowledge of the social, ecological, and economic values of trees and forests have resulted in new criteria for evaluating these resources. And that new knowledge is allowing citizens to become more involved in deciding how forests are used.

The result? A new ethic of forest conservation that is causing us to readjust our perspective on forests and our relationship with them.

The change comes just in time. Nearly half the forests that once covered the globe are gone, and each year another 40 million acres are lost. Forest loss is a global issue with severe environmental, social, and economic effects (see "At Your Service," page 20). Until recently most forest loss occurred in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and temperate North America; between 1960 and 1990 one-fifth of all tropical forest cover was lost.

In North America forest cover stabilized in the 20th century, and citizen conservation concerns focused on the quality - the health - of existing forest cover. With new information detailing trees' vital role in erosion control, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and water and carbon cycling, people realized that healthy forests translate to a healthier planet and healthier people.

As Janet Abramovitz says in the State of the World 1998, "the real wealth of the forest - lies in healthy forest ecosystems." Robert Costanza of the University of Maryland agrees, writing in Nature that the economic value of the world's ecosystem services averages at least $32 trillion a year.

This new focus means that forest management strategies must emphasize long-term forest ecosystem health. While definitions of what constitutes sustainable forest management abound, all include this basic principle: Forests should be managed to meet the social, economic, and ecological needs of present and future generations. Quite simply, the people who are dependent on a forest, especially local communities, must be part of the decisions and actions that take place in that forest. Innovative programs around the country are now teaching us ways to derive products from the forest while still improving the overall health of the ecosystem (see "A Junk to Jobs Experiment," page 26).

U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck has made ecosystem restoration and watershed protection the top priorities for his agency, which manages our National Forests, provides assistance to states and landowners, and coordinates our largest forest research effort. Public opinion, fueled by better science and better communication, has had much to do with conservation moving from a "special interest" to a national priority, he says. As a result, over the last 10 years clearcutting has dropped 84 percent, ecosystem health-related timber sales have increased by 70 percent, and the amount of wood fiber harvested annually fell from 12 billion to 3 billion board-feet.

The forest industry, too, is changing. In 1994 its trade group, the American Forest & Paper Association, launched a Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) to develop "a comprehensive system of principles, guidelines, and performance measures that integrates the perpetual growing and harvesting of trees with the protection of wildlife, plants, soil, and water quality."

The challenges are many, long-term, and difficult, perhaps none more so than convincing a savvy but skeptical citizenry. As with any industry-regulated standards, establishing and maintaining credible, widely accepted monitoring and reporting methods is essential for public support and sustainable management.

Although sustainable management implies a large-scale perspective, changes in private nonindustrial forest ownership are working against the implementation of broad, ecosystem-wide strategies. Private nonindustrial lands now represent 46 percent of all U.S. forests and 79 percent of forests that are privately owned. If present trends continue, 95 percent of those owning private forestland in 2010 will have fewer than 100 acres, according to Neil Sampson and Lester DeCoster in AMERICAN FORESTS' recent book Public Programs for Private Forestry (see "Private Forests: More Owners, Fewer Acres" page 23).

By 2010 small-parcel owners will control 38 percent of aH private forestlands - about 150 million acres - with an average size of about 17 acres, which DeCoster terms "too large to trim, too small to log."

This fragmentation is driven by death, taxes, and lifestyles as land is divvied up among heirs or subdivided to pay estate taxes. As more people own smaller and smaller bits of forest, we lose our chance for ecosystem-wide protection and restoration - unless we can communicate their role in preserving the forests' overall health.

Complicating this challenge is the fact that many of these owners are among the 80 percent of Americans who live in cities and towns. Educating them about these issues will require new communication efforts. Fortunately, concern for such basics as clean air and water has expanded the audience for conservation into cities, and urban residents are becoming more savvy about the role trees can play in their lives.

In fact, urban forestry has pioneered the shift from seeing trees only for their products to valuing them for the services they provide: air pollution control, stormwater control and filtration, recreation, and the value of tree aesthetics for human health and well-being. AMERICAN FORESTS' urban ecosystem analyses show that the environmental value of urban forest services nationally is well over $400 billion.

Building communities to take advantage of the ecological services natural resources provide keeps cities and city residents from paying more for utilities that dispense stormwater control and energy. Building with this thought in mind can also help address many of urban life's social and economic challenges. Planting trees for example, is a proven way to build community within a neighborhood.

Placing a value on these benefits is the first step toward learning to measure them and creating better public policies (see "Saving for a Rainy Day," page 24).

The shift to valuing the services of the forest will provide the rationale and investment needed to restore and manage them. The overriding principals of forest ecosystem restoration maximize the environmental, social, and economic benefits to ensure a diversity of native species for a diversity of benefits. That's the goal of AMERICAN FORESTS' Global ReLeaf Forests program, which restores ecosystems damaged by tree loss by underwriting the planting of native species.

By giving tree-planting grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations, we've helped plant more than 7 million trees on 13,589 acres since 1990. Our 100 projects to date span 37 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. Similar projects - with private funding, on public lands - plant trees in urban areas and with Global ReLeaf nongovernmental organization partners across the globe. These programs are small in comparison to the task ahead, but together they provide a road map for restoration that can and must be replicated worldwide.

This ambitious challenge is dependent on a new forest conservation ethic, one that values forests for their services as well as their products. The process of developing an agenda for the 21st century has begun. In that agenda, ecosystem management strategies are based on the best science available and communicated effectively to forestry's most powerful advocates: the public. Now it's up to citizens to insist that forests are valued, not as just a source of timber, but for all the services they provide. Our health - and that of our environment - depends on it.

RELATED ARTICLE: At Your Service

A growing trend in forestry places a value on the "services" a tree can provide, giving it worth beyond its potential as a source of wood products. One of the highest-profile services is offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, and millions have already been spent on projects to do that. In Latin America, Russia, and Southeast Asia these carbon-storing projects preserve forests, plant trees, and manage forestland for the long-term. In the U.S., climate change concerns are helping to grow AMERICAN FORESTS' own Global ReLeaf Forests program.

The perception that some corporations question the existence of the greenhouse effect may make utilities, oil companies, and manufacturers seem unlikely partners in this effort. However, the scientific community generally agrees that the earth would have an average temperature of 0 degrees F. if not for the presence of certain gases that insulate the lower atmosphere by trapping the sun's energy as heat.

The big question being studied now is the local implications of a warmer planet. A few degrees difference wouldn't feel like much, but it could spawn rising sea levels, migrating insects that spread disease, and more extreme hydrological cycles, among other problems. While these scientific problems are being addressed, many corporations have begun to offset their emissions by supporting forestry projects.

Corporations consider trees a "no regrets" action because of the many services they perform - providing wildlife habitat, protecting water resources, cleaning the air, and stabilizing topsoil - which are independent of the climate change issue and valued by local communities. While many scientific questions remain, the threat of global warming is very real, and so corporations are spending money to plant and protect trees - and take advantage of their low-cost carbon-storing potential.

The Kyoto protocol, last December's international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recognized the importance of trees and forests as a strategy for mitigating climate change. Now it's up to the Conference of Parties to work out the details at the November meeting in Buenos Aires (see Washington Outlook). As this issue develops, landowners increasingly will have.,to balance the highest values their tree as products and service provides.

- John Falconer

Deborah Gangloff is executive director of AMERICAN FORESTS. Gary Moll, Urban Forestry Center VP, and Gerry Gray, Forest Policy Center VP contributed to this article.