July 15, 2016
By:
Walter G. Wright
Category:
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
Arkansas Environmental, Energy, and Water Law
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The National Alliance of Forest Owners (“NAFO”) announced the release of two reports addressing the relationship between “strong markets for wood products and sustainable forestry in the U.S.”
The news release has a link providing Arkansas-specific information related to the state’s forest.
NAFO describes itself as an organization of private forest owners committed to advancing national policies that promote the economic environmental benefits of privately-owned forests.
The reports released by NAFO are:
- United States Forest Inventory and Harvest Trends on Privately-Owned Timberlands
- The Economic Impact of Privately-Owned Forests in the United States
The reports address what are characterized as the “32 most forested states, representing 91.3 percent of all working forests in the contiguous U.S., 74 percent of which are privately owned”.
NAFO states that one of the reports indicates that private forest owners:
- Grow 40 percent more wood than they remove.
- In the South, they are growing 41 percent more.
- In the North, they are growing 32 percent more.
- In the Pacific Coast/Northwest they are growing 42 percent more.
- Remove a small percentage of the total inventory of growing trees.
- In the South, removals were equivalent to 2.9 percent of growing trees.
- In the North, removals were equivalent to 1.2 percent of growing trees.
- In the Pacific Coast/Northwest removals were equivalent to 2 percent of growing trees.
The report addressing economic impact is stated to have indicated that on a national level private working forests support:
- 2.4 million jobs
- 99 billion in payroll
- 281 billion in sales
The NAFO news release includes an interactive map detailing state-specific economic impacts.
The statistics listed for the State of Arkansas include:
- Private forest acres – 15,288,108
- Public forest acres – 3,153,075
- DII jobs from private forests – 58,445
- DII payroll from private forests – $2,252,897,669
- Annual sales from private forests - $311,992,553
A link to the NAFO news release can be found here.
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