Keep logging in.

• Author: Gerow, Jr., Tom
• Position: LETTERS - Letter to the Editor

The April edition of BNC details good information, but allow me to summarize a bit and pull it together:

1. Wall Street punished the forest industry during the 1990s for owning "capital intensive" forestland, so the companies are forced to liquidate their holdings ("Wood That They Could"). Forestland is changing hands, out of timber companies into investment companies--and an uncertain future. It's important to remind ourselves that individual private landowners own 70% of forestland in the state. Obviously, these individuals must have an economic driver to maintain their land as a working forest.

2. The military is worth $18 billion per year to North Carolina's economy, the governor's office is working to protect that investment, and rightfully so (Tar Heel Tattler). Hopefully, the state's One North Carolina Naturally program will produce meaningful tools to help retain forestry in the state, as well.

3. Forestry is second only to textiles in value of manufacturing and, ironically, is also valued at $18 billion per year, according to an N.C. State University study. Let's hope forestry doesn't follow the same path as textiles (Up Front). The loss of textile jobs meant lost wages and slow economic growth. The loss of forest-industry jobs will mean an increased rate of forestland losses and degradation in the quality of our water, air and wildlife habitat as forests are converted into development as a "higher use."

4. The Regional Report disclosed that almost 1,400 jobs will be eliminated in the furniture industry--an important arm of forestry for North Carolina. Meanwhile, a coalition of...