The Future of Forestry is Beyond Timber
September 8, 2021
Written By Zack Parisa
At its heart, forestry is about balance. There are questions about landowner objectives, growth rates, cash flows, and market dynamics, of course. But there are also bigger questions: what are forests doing for different communities, locally and globally? How can we help society measure and ensure delivery of all those benefits—including timber, but also beyond it? Will the forest we pass to the next generation be what they’ll need? The answers to these questions depend on tradeoff decisions, made across hundreds of millions of acres, every year. So we have to think big.
Like many of my colleagues, I got into forestry because I love forests. I decided this was the profession for me when I was 13, thinking that I’d rather be out in the woods than at a desk like my father, a NASA engineer. After graduating from Mississippi State University, I did exactly that, spending the next decade using new remote sensing tech to help large landowners make better management decisions.
It’s been 20 years since I started studying and practicing forestry. And today, I feel just as inspired as the day I walked into my first class. Perhaps even more so now, as the world is beginning to recognize just how much depends on the work of foresters. Well-managed forests are the source of so much that society needs—clean drinking water, timber, wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, carbon storage, and more.
In light of that, efforts have accelerated to more rigorously track and quantify these goods, known as “natural capital.” As society finds that we don’t have as much of what is wanted in the places where it’s wanted, markets are created to increase delivery of those goods, just as we’ve done with timber in the past. Like they say, one of the best ways to get more of what you want is to pay for it.
One pressing example is carbon. Over the years, I’ve talked with quite a few foresters who have expressed skepticism about whether carbon markets would ever actually materialize. But as society begins to reckon with climate change, that day has come: In 2019, the global carbon market traded an estimated $227B. And prices are likely to keep rising.
This market is fueled by the last two years’ flurry of climate pledges. To date, more than a fifth of the world’s 2,000 largest companies have made net-zero carbon commitments. Here’s a small sample:
- Verizon, net zero by 2035
- Ikea, ‘climate-positive’ by 2030
- Microsoft, net negative by 2030, removal of all historical emissions by 2050
- Shell, net zero by 2050
- PepsiCo, net zero by 2040
To meet these pledges, corporations are racing to reduce their emissions as quickly as possible. But they will also need ways to store additional carbon and offset the emissions they can’t reduce—immediately, and on a huge scale. To do this, more are looking to forests.
US forests alone have the potential to store hundreds of millions of tons of carbon per year over the next decade. It is possible to unlock this potential of forests as a smart, scaleable, and efficient climate solution, but it will take a seismic shift in management.
Carbon markets give society a lever to make this shift. Through markets, society can pay landowners to plant more forested acres, and keep their forests growing longer, creating more acres of and more carbon-dense forests. This is a fast and scalable solution with immense potential for the climate. But it would be a mistake to manage forests for carbon to the detriment of all other important values. We can maximize carbon growth where it’s most appropriate and most efficient, and less in places where it increases fire risk, reduces critical wildlife habitat, or where forests are already protected and landowners don’t need extra incentives to keep them growing.
In other words, it’s a question of balance, on a massive scale. Which means it’s an exciting time to be a forester.
Our profession holds the knowledge to manage tradeoffs in forest outcomes over time—the expertise needed to evaluate the likely economic, ecological, and social impacts of forest management decisions. Carbon and other natural capital markets simply expand the suite of opportunities and tradeoffs landowners may consider—and the tools foresters may bring to bear when considering potential silvicultural prescriptions.
This represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Landowners and buyers of these newly minted forest products will benefit if markets develop quickly and intelligently. But that is not a given. Like timber, carbon markets create a product sold between landowners and buyers. But unlike timber, the products are delivered on-site, in the forest, over time, instead of in physical logs or 2x4s. This means that buyers can’t rely on their experience to know whether they’ve received a high-quality forest product. Instead, they will depend on clear definitions, good measurements, and high-integrity certification. For natural capital markets to be successful, buyers need transparency and expert assurance to know that they received what they paid for. In other words, they need leadership from the fields of forest biometrics, economics, and ecology.
To ensure the intelligent growth of a multi-billion-dollar carbon market, foresters need to make our voice heard. The shift toward climate-focused forest management is happening and stands to create enormous benefits for landowners and for society at large—and we need to help lead it.
Forestry has always been about managing the many values of forests, over time and under changing circumstances. What’s different now is the social need, technology, and market tools we have at our disposal. American forestry is a relatively young profession—only about as old as the airplane—born in the 1900s to meet the needs of a growing nation to regrow a reliable timber supply. Going forward, society is relying on us to be nimble enough to meet the new challenges we face—beyond timber.
To learn more about potential markets and opportunities for ecosystem services, join us for Plenary 3 at the virtual SAF convention in November.
Zack Parisa is co-founder of NCX and the closing Plenary 3 keynote speaker at this year’s virtual national convention.