An industry that sees the forest as more than just the trees.

Al Weller is a lucky man, and he knows it. He spends many a workday behind the wheel of his Dodge Dakota pickup, traveling the back roads of Eastern North Carolina. His job: to educate some 35 private landowners about their 40,000 acres of timberland. As a landowner-assistance forester, he advises them on everything from writing management plans to dealing with the southern pine beetle.

"I get phone calls every day from landowners from all over the eastern part of the state who have questions," he says. "My job is to assist these landowners - get them pointed in the right direction."

He does this for free mainly on a one-on-one basis, clocking 35,000 to 40,000 miles a year on his truck. "A lot of times you build a relationship with these landowners. I think I've got the best job in the country."

The scenery's not bad, either. "In a day's time, I might see wild turkey, I might see wild bear," he says.

Why are private forest landowners receiving such personal attention from Weller and other landowner-assistance foresters who are paid by timber companies and the government? The answer lies in the numbers. In North Carolina, forestry and other industries own 23% of forest land, and the state and federal government own 10%. Private, nonindustrial landowners own the other two-thirds. The future of Tar Heel forests - and the forestry industry - will be determined by roughly 300,000 private landowners.

"We need [landowners] to be growing trees," Weller says. "We don't need them to be cutting them and walking away from them."

Weller, who runs Weyerhaeuser's landowner-assistance program, has plenty of company. His counterparts at Georgia-Pacific, Champion International and other paper companies also dispense advice. The state assists landowners, too, largely through the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and its 100 agents, one for each county. So do consulting foresters.

All realize that abundant, healthy forests are crucial to a North Carolina industry that in 1994 employed 145,036, if you combine lumber-and-wood, furniture-and-fixtures and paper sectors. Under this broad definition, forestry ranked second only to the textile/apparel industry, which employed 272,957. Forestry wages in 1994 totaled $3.4 billion, behind textile/apparel's $5.6 billion. North Carolina ranks No. 1 in furniture shipments, hardwood-veneer shipments and plywood shipments.

It's easy to understand why the government, private companies and trade groups have focused attention and resources on educating private landowners about one of North Carolina's most precious resources.

The size of North Carolina's forest land is due in large part to the thriving forest industry. Landowners would be more eager to sell their land to developers if forestry weren't so profitable. "Forestry has been, and will be, one of the best long-term investments for any landowner," says Rick Hamilton, an extension forestry specialist at N.C. State University. "Demand is going up, price is going up [and] new technology is providing new markets."

In Good Hands

Not only does forest land support a large industry, it shelters the vast majority of our wildlife. "The food [and] shelter that forests provide to wildlife is absolutely essential," says Fred White, former assistant state forester for management and development with the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. "Without the forest, we would lose a vast majority of our birds, most of our fur-bearing animals and a large number of our reptiles."

That's why managing forest land is so crucial. "Forestry is involved in both protecting and utilizing the forests of the state," White says. So when a forest is harvested, it is an opportunity and, many feel, an obligation to ensure that the habitat for wildlife endures.

Thanks to careful management, which involves the practical application of scientific, economic and social principles, the state's forested land area has remained fairly constant. "We're still growing more trees than we're cutting," says Larry Tombaugh, dean of the College of Forest Resources at N.C. State University.

In the United States, 96 million acres are set aside for parks, wilderness and recreation areas. That is almost a quarter of the world's protected forests. The United States is one of the few nations that can afford to set aside such lands. Forest management is...