Reinventing the forest industry.

"The new role would put the forest industry into a proactive leadership position in meeting the needs of society - not just producing products for consumers, which we already do well but the total needs."

In the waning years of the last century, when the first roots of WOOD & WOOD PRODUCTS appeared on the scene, the U.S. forest industry was reeling from the impact of the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution. The railroad, telegraph, steel mills, telephone, typewriter, and wood pulp paper - all commonplace today - were dramatically transforming American life. Now, as the 20th century moves into history, new technological advances - ubiquitous computers, the so-called information "superhighway," workforce and workplace revolutions - are again dramatically transforming American life.

Early in this century, the country was experiencing the effects of a diminished supply of wood, increasing market demand, rising prices, and worries about running out of wood. A vigorous conservation movement, in which forestry was defined by President Theodore Roosevelt as "the conservation of forests through wise use," was taking root.

Enter a new view

Today, that scenario sounds familiar-like a movie we have seen before: diminished supply, great demand, rising prices, and worries about running out of wood. But this movie plot has an unexpected twist. In 1970 the budding environmental movement redefined the role of people in the world, from the Old Testament version of man's dominion over the Earth, to considering man as part of the ecological functioning of the world, with trees, spotted owls, and endangered plants having the same "right" of survival. That view of the world has had a major impact on the forest industry in the last part of this century.

Members of the forest industry have reacted to this redefinition in a variety of ways: some have tried to roll back the clock to pre-"environmental" days; others have deliberately ignored or denied the new view as no more consequential than "sticks and stones;" yet others have spent millions of dollars on public relations and education strategies in the hope of winning support; still others have tried to live with the ecological view of the world by certifying the sustainability of their forest management or using in manufacturing wood products only timber that has been so certified. Whatever the response, being cast in the role of "despoiler" or "raper" of the earth has cost the forest industry dearly, impairing its ability to use hard-earned knowledge and skills in the management of its business.

Most of our efforts to gain respect from the public are still countered by the "sins of the fathers" legacy of the cut-and run era when forests stretched further than the eye could see. Two generations schooled in the environmental movement - since the highly orchestrated 1970 "Earth Day" and the passage of the major environmental legislation - have learned that any activities to save cutting a tree are good for the Earth. Recycling, using non-wood materials, even using blow dryers in public restrooms instead of paper towels have gained public approval because they "save" cutting trees.

Is it time to reinvent the forest industry?

An unfavorable public perception puts the forest industry at continued risk. It is recognition of that risk that has prompted industry efforts to develop sustainable forestry programs.

The time is ripe for a new direction that accommodates both the demands of environmental sustainability and the life necessities of human beings. The stage for this new path has already been set by Brock-Evans of the influential National Audubon Society. During the celebration of Earth Day 1995, Evans observed of the past two decades, "We were on a crusade...out to save the world. Our intentions were high. We felt we were doing the right thing, but we were insensitive...All these people (farmers, landowners, officials, and others) could have been allies, but we ignored them."

Earth Day in 1970 pushed the environment into America's consciousness. Earth Day in 1995, 25 years later, was a day for taking stock. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, doomsday has not arrived - and the doomsday activists are suffering a loss of credibility.

In the early days of the environmental movement, environmentally-oriented groups used fever-pitch emotion and astute strategies and tactics to drive their ideas home to the American people. Though Americans have bought into the idea of saving the environment, it hasn't quite fit with their American dream. Now the country is searching for ideas that will retain a sustainable earth and at the same time retain a sustainable life.

Recognizing that the environmental view of man's position in the world is here to stay but that the American people are ready for some changes, the forest industry has undertaken some first steps. Some companies are assuring customers that the wood they are using comes from timber which has been certified as sustainably managed. The American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) has adopted the principles of sustainable forestry, responsible practices, forest health and productivity, protecting special sites, and continuous improvement - all implemented by specific guidelines and monitored for performance. The Western Wood Products Association, along with other associations, is using Lifecycle Analysis to demonstrate the environmental advantages of wood. The industry is planting millions of trees, recycling millions of pounds of paper, and reusing old wood.

In addition, companies are re-engineering products to take advantage of engineered wood, fingerjointing small pieces, and other technological wonders - all using wood that might not have been utilized in past decades.

Is anyone listening?

With all our accomplishments, the industry can legitimately ask: Why does the public still disapprove of so many of our actions? Have they not been correctly informed? Is it the media? Is it education?

Our credibility with the public is clouded by the issues that have captured headlines - the clearcutting issue, the log-export issue, the "green" issue, the sustainability of our forests issue, the overflowing landfill issue, the endangered species issue, the volatile organic compounds (VOC) issue.

There is reason to doubt that the new efforts will drive away the clouds. Few of the new industry efforts are dealing head-on with these issues. There has been little change visible to the public on our role in society and how we deal with society. Consequently, we can expect little change in how society deals with us.

The programs initiated by the industry still focus on how the forest industry works. They hardly hint that the industry has altered its role or has adopted a new relationship to the rest of the world. Reinvention would propel the forest industry in a new direction that shows today's America that it really is not "business as usual." The new direction would encompass principles and objectives that fundamentally change the relationship of the industry to society. The forest industry needs to reframe itself - to reinvent itself - to meet the demands of the 21st century.

As the chemical industry has already learned, after wrestling with a disapproving public for years, the best strategy to win public favor is a program built around genuine role changes. The "Responsible Care" program of the Chemical Manufacturers Association is their strategy for survival. New principles and implementation aims to demonstrate that the chemical industry is changing its ways. After seven years of the "Responsible Care" program, the chemical industry has felt that the operation of the industry is much more responsive to public concerns.

A new role to improve the public position of the forest industry

The new role would put the forest industry into a proactive leadership position in meeting the needs of society - not just producing products for consumers, which we already do well, but the total needs. The environmental path that has been generally adopted by society and regulators provides for social needs that go beyond mere survival. A reinvented forest industry framework would demonstrate our commitment to these broader social interests.

The framework would be supported by a program, one that forthrightly deals with those issues which damage our credibility. Instead of attempting a compromise on an elusive "balance" that satisfies no one, the program will undertake research to solve the problems that now irritate the public. For example, a recent survey indicated that clearcutting to harvest timber is a practice that offends a substantial percentage of the public. Media accounts of the necessity or value of clearcutting to the industry are confusing at best and certainly do not increase the comfort level of driving on highways bordering forests that look like war zones. The program would undertake to clarify the total public interest in methods of harvesting different species as it benefits the public - not the industry. In order for forest-industry assertions that we are the original environmentalists to fall on more friendly ears, we need to make real changes.

Actions to position the forest industry as a leader in the next century would include:

* Finding industry leaders who understand the importance of a new role for the forest industry and are willing to provide leadership. The Chemical Manufacturers Association's "Responsible Care" program sought and obtained industry leaders to carry the message.

* Recognizing and objectively analyzing social concerns about the forest industry. This means understanding the broad impact of industry practices on society, whose support determines our access to timber resources.

* Developing a credible framework (the current buzzword is a "paradigm") for the new role of the industry in meeting society's concerns. This would include broadening the scope and mission of the industry. Rather than the timber industry, the shelter industry might better fit the framework.

* Determine the principles and processes that will respond to these social concerns and needs.

* Include the entire industry - all segments that depend on the forest - in the program, recognizing that harvesting, processing, distributing, retailing, educating, and regulating are all segments of the industry and are interdependent.

There is at present no forum in which all segments participate.

* Develop a program that is outer-directed to the public, not merely one that follows the agenda set by the environmental creed.

* Really reinvent the industry so the public is aware of the magnitude of the changes.

The industry is almost at the point of no return if action isn't undertaken soon. Certification of sustainable forest practices is a powerful vehicle for a consumer-friendly, industry-wide effort to confirm its new role in the world, but it is an opportunity that the present multiple certification systems may lose. There are other issues begging for an industry-wide proactive program of change targeted to consumers, rather than responding to environmental accusations. The trade associations are "pushing" wood as the most environmentally acceptable material. This push will fail to change the public image unless consumers come to believe the claims of the industry.

The forest industry faces constant challenges which can be converted to opportunities if we tackle public perception with honesty and realism instead of denying or ignoring it. History may remember this century as the era that tried to save the planet, and dropped a new set of problems on society. It is generally acknowledged today that the business of business is more than just business.

Reinventing the forest industry will solve the new problems and allow the industry to fulfill its rightful role in the social scheme of the coming century.

RELATED ARTICLE: WOOD FOR THOUGHT

After the Civil War, southern soldiers returning to their home farms were dismayed to discover that much of their unplanted farmland was sprouting loblolly pine seedlings. The farmers who let the seedlings grow laid the foundation for some of the great southern pine forests.

RELATED ARTICLE: Timber and Stone and Fraud

As the federal government opened up the West to development during the latter quarter of the 19th century, one of the main mechanisms it used to encourage the movement of people was the Timber and Stone Act of 1878. By it, any citizen could buy 160 acres of public land for $2.50 an acre. Unlike the Homestead Law, it did not require said citizen to do anything with the land; he just had to agree that the land was for his "personal use and benefit" and not for anyone else's.

Most lumber companies acquired the vast acreage they needed to support a major sawmill by patiently putting together many small claims, both Homestead and Timber and Stone, and even School Sections, until they had enough. Some companies, however, were not so ethical. They brought trainloads of would-be landowners into the western states. Each one laid claim to his 160 acres, guaranteeing, with a straight face, that it was for his own use. Then, out of sight of the land office, he pocketed a handsome fee and turned the rights to the land over to the lumber company.

Government officials weren't completely ignorant of what was going on. By 1905, there were so many forest fraud indictments in the courts that public indignation demanded repeal of the Timber and Stone Act. Fortunately, the fraud had been offset somewhat by passage of the Timber Culture Act. It gave 160 acres of public land to anyone who would plant trees on at least 20 acres of it.

RELATED ARTICLE: Does Smokey Have a Future?

In the 1940s, Smokey Bear became a symbol of the U.S. Forest Service's efforts to "help stamp out forest fires." The original Smokey was a cub found by state forester Ray Bell after a New Mexico forest fire. He was taken to the National Zoo in Washington, where he became one of the most popular exhibits. Smokey and his mate, Goldie, failed to reproduce, and in 1972, Bell found another homeless, orphaned cub, who was also taken to Washington.

Smokey II may not be as popular as Smokey I was, however. In the 1990s, school children were learning that fire in a forest was not the totally bad thing it had always been described as being. The public first became aware of this fact in the years following the massive 1988 fire in Yellowstone National Park. Very quickly, the devastation was covered and absorbed by fresh, new growth. Perhaps Smokey II will have to concentrate his efforts on preventing only those fires that are started by human carelessness.

RELATED ARTICLE: WOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Industrial Revolution in Europe was powered by the wood from Europe and America's forests. It took 25 cords of wood to make 1.5 tons of cast iron and almost as much to hammer that amount into wrought iron. Such wrought iron was the main material for tools of all kinds before steel became a practical material.

RELATED ARTICLE: Going to War for Wood?

Wood, regarded as the "universal raw material," is the only completely renewable natural resource. Today it can be used in almost as many ways as petroleum, which is not renewable. Adolf Hitler anticipated this fact when he placed wood at the heart of his plan for a Thousand-Year Reich.

In 1942, Austrian immigrant Egon Glesinger published Nazis in the Woodpile: Hitler's Plot for Essential Raw Material. The preface, written by Douglas Miller, observed that Glesinger's story "is as full of thrills and intrigue as an old-time international spy tale. He rips the green forester's uniform off Hermann Goering, jolly master of the hunt, and shows him to be a thieving, greedy plotter, who for years has been trying to steal the contents of every peasant's woodshed in Europe."

Glesinger related the quest by Hitler and his right-hand dreamer, Goering, to develop from the renewable natural resource of wood:

* vehicles that ran on wood or charcoal,

* gas to heat homes and run industry,

* protein for cattle fodder (and even fake meat) from cellulose,

* sugar for the production of industrial alcohol,

* artificial wool for clothing,

* plastics and other chemical by-products.

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Cedar shingles, known as "shakes," were all the rage in the 1800s. But the supply of New Jersey white cedar, the best wood for shakes, rapidly disappeared from that state's swamp lands. Then entrepreneurs "mined" the swamps for stumps and logs that might have been trapped down in the water. A layer of fallen logs 12 feet deep was found. Many logs, perfectly usable, had been submerged for centuries!