More on timberland troubles.Editor: The coverage of the changes in timber ownership was an appropriate topic for the Winter 2006 issue of American Forests American Forests is a nonprofit conservation organization that promotes healthy forests and urban tree planting. The organization was established in 1875 as the American Forestry Association, by physician/horticulturist John Aston Warder and a group of like-minded citizens . What surprised me was that the concern of the comment was focused almost entirely on the prospects for deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. . Whatever that prospect may be, is not the security of raw materials for heavily invested forest products industries an equal concern? Was this not the main reason for past extensive industry investment in forests? It is obvious that the profit is not in production but rather in processing. Have the industries somehow secured this without ownership? Through importing? Have I missed something? Frank H. Wadsworth San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (IPA: [saŋ hwaŋ]) (from the Spanish San Juan Bautista, "Saint John the Baptist") is the capital and largest municipality on Puerto Rico. Gerry Gray Gerry Gray (born January 20, 1961 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a former Canadian national soccer team player, who played 33 times for Canada's full national team as well as for the Olympic and youth national teams. responds: This issue of the magazine does focus primarily on the disturbing trends in private forestland for·est·land n. A section of land covered with forest or set aside for the cultivation of forests. ownership and the challenges of "keeping forests as forests." Our key interest in the magazine was to explore innovative economic and policy incentives to encourage private forest landowners to maintain and manage their lands. We wanted to look at the public benefits being provided by private forests, or "ecosystem services Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes like the decomposition of wastes. " such as clean air and water, carbon sequestration sequestration In law, a writ authorizing a law-enforcement official to take into custody the property of a defendant in order to enforce a judgment or to preserve the property until a judgment is rendered. , biodiversity biodiversity: see biological diversity. biodiversity Quantity of plant and animal species found in a given environment. Sometimes habitat diversity (the variety of places where organisms live) and genetic diversity (the variety of traits expressed and other nontimber values, and discuss the potential for new incentives for forest conservation and stewardship. In response to your questions about the forest products industries and their strategies for securing raw materials for their processing facilities, we tend to focus less on overall trends in the global forest-products markets and more on specific efforts to encourage sustainable forest management Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. It is also the current culmination in a progression of basic forest management concepts preceded by Sustainable forestry and sustainable yield forestry of public and private lands and to capture the highest-value uses of wood products. Much of our policy work focuses on how to create economic uses of small-diameter trees and other low-value woody materials that are being--or need to be-removed from overstocked public and private forests through restoration thinning treatments. Editor: I read the Winter edition of American Forests, and I applaud your attention to the problem of our vanishing woodlands. As a former state forester for Indiana and an active tree farmer, I share your concerns about the future of this vital resource. However, I was disappointed in the narrow focus of the article "Keeping Forests in Forest." It appears that someone dropped the ball in eliciting expert comment on this subject. I was appalled that no one from the Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters The National Association of State Foresters (NASF) is a non-profit organization that represents the directors of all 50 State Forestry agencies, the eight United States territories, and the District of Columbia. , the Extension Service, or the Consulting Foresters of our nation was involved in responding to this issue. Perhaps I missed something in the reading but I would appreciate your response to my concerns. Robert D Raisch Via e-mail Gerry Gray responds: For this "Perspectives" piece, we focused primarily on private-sector individuals and organizations involved in innovative programs or recent initiatives to address the question we posed. By taking this private-sector approach and limiting ourselves to five perspectives, we constrained the piece significantly. Perhaps we should have been clearer in presenting our objectives and framework for the story in the introduction. We greatly appreciate the role of the federal and state agencies in addressing these private forest conservation issues, especially the high-level of current interest in exploring ecosystem services within the Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. We plan to address these issues regularly in future issues, particularly as the 2007 Farm Bill discussions begin, and we will include the important knowledge and perspectives of federal and state agency representatives along the way. |
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