I took part in a tree farm strategy meeting in Charlottesville, at the Department of Forestry building. The goal is to make more people aware of the sustainable way we do forestry in the U.S. today and make tree farming more valuable to tree farming members. Learn more about tree farming at this link – https://www.treefarmsystem.org
One of the challenges is that certified wood really does not get a premium price. People claim to be interested in sustainability but they will not really pay for it. Most forestry people want to do the right thing anyway, but it would be nice to be able to tell them that there was a cash benefit. There are other benefits to tree farming besides the feeling of doing the right thing. The tree farm provides inspections and advice And I do not think we should underestimate the value of just paying attention to values and standards.
Anyway, my task is to develop a communications strategy. I know how to write these things and I really believe in the goals. I am not sure that we happy few can make a big difference, but I expect that we can do something.