Want to grow rural jobs, healthy environment? Protect our forests

The Southeast is projected to lose 10 percent of its forestland by 2060 due to urbanization. We need to prevent this.

By growing trees, we are growing jobs in South Carolina. The wood and paper-products industry provides 84,000 jobs, primarily in rural areas with high unemployment. Timber is the No. 1 agribusiness crop, supplying many rural South Carolinians with good-paying jobs and landowners with money for retirement or their children’s education.

Forests also are vital to our environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation.

In 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt wrote: “The fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use. Forest protection is not an end of itself; it is a means to increase and sustain the resources of our country and the industries which depend upon them. The preservation of our forests is an imperative business necessity.”

Our strategy for conservation must embrace President Roosevelt’s vision of preserving our forests for environmental values, wood and paper products and rural jobs. In order to accomplish this, South Carolina must:

▪ Promote forest conservation. Lumber, pulp and paper manufacturers locate in areas with abundant timberland. South Carolina is one of the fastest growing states, with an estimated 157 people a day moving here. Business, political and community leaders need to collaborate in balancing forest conservation and development.

▪ Focus on workforce needs in rural communities. Rural schools should prepare students for careers as truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, mill workers and foresters. Rural technical colleges should add a log truck driving curriculum.

▪ Protect the right to practice forestry. Ninety-six percent of timber used in South Carolina comes from private landowners. We must protect landowners’ property rights and prevent the unnecessary regulation of forestry practices.

▪ Maintain favorable tax policies for agriculture and manufacturing. These are critical for timberland owners to continue growing trees and for the wood and paper products industry to remain competitive.

▪ Support mass timber, a renewable material, as the future of sustainable construction.

By advancing these ideas, S.C. officials will create rural jobs while promoting a healthy environment.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.