John Dooner
Gadsden County News Service
October 23 kicks off “Florida Forests Week,” a special time for those of us who own, manage, and depend upon Florida’s forests for our livelihoods. It is our time to share our story, educate, and thank our fellow Floridians for recognizing our contributions to the great state of Florida. We often cite the forest industry’s significant economic contributions, its importance to rural North Florida communities, and the recreational opportunities associated with forestland. But just how important are Florida’s forests?
Historically, forests have been well-known for producing raw materials that go into hundreds of products including paper, lumber, cell-phone screens, and football helmets. However, a shift in population dynamics, concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, and other social and environmental pressures have generated a growing and urgent interest in the conservation value of forestland. This idea has been described in many ways from “natural capital” to “environmental services”, but the core concept holds that benefits are accruing to society through the production and conservation of working agricultural lands, the growing of trees in this case. These benefits include carbon sequestration (removal of carbon dioxide from the air), water filtration, water storage capacity, flood and sea level rise mitigation, wildlife habitat diversity, wildlife travel corridors, and hydrologic recharge areas to name a few.
For decades, forest landowners and managers have been aware of these benefits and have pondered the relative importance of their production, albeit with an interest in their value but without an extreme urgency to stake a claim to that value. But times are changing! Florida’s population has exploded to roughly 24 million people, all of whom need clean water to drink, pure air to breathe, safe homes to live in, and some level of balance between greenspace and parking lots. In short, more people place increased pressures on the natural resources we all depend on, which means higher demand for the environmental benefits associated with forests and other working lands. Fortunately, many brilliant minds are working diligently to better understand how we may fairly value these benefits and create incentives to increase their production. Through research efforts at the University of Florida and throughout the state’s university system, progress is being made to capture data that helps explain the critical role Florida’s forests and other working agricultural lands play in the ability to live and thrive here. As this vital research continues in earnest, we are in a race against what appears to be an inevitable and disturbing trend. Florida’s forests are being fragmented and converted at a rapid clip!
The alarming part is we still do not fully understand what happens if forests and working lands go away. It’s a scary proposition. Will we have enough water to drink? Will we have clean air to breathe? Can people and wildlife survive catastrophic hurricanes and flood events without the organic buffers and corridors that have routed water through our state for
centuries? How does our quality-of-life change if we lose the Florida Panther, the Gopher Tortoise, and many other plant and animal species that survive only in forestland?
To sum it up, just how important are Florida’s forests? Let’s hope we don’t find out the hard way.
With this in mind, we ask our fellow Floridians to seek to better understand our industry and working lands and all we have to offer economically, environmentally, and socially. We also stand ready to serve as a resource to answer questions and connect with our communities. We ask that you support the infrastructure improvements and the facilities that are required for our industry to do business. Finally, we ask that you stand beside us in advocating for conservation programs that support forest landowners by protecting working lands so that forests continue to thrive in Florida.
John Dooner is a Regional Manager and Director with Southern Forestry Consultants, Inc. and resides in Gadsden County, Florida. His team assists with management on approximately 750,000 acres in North Florida, South Georgia, and South Alabama.
