As WFPA prepares to celebrate its 100th Anniversary in 2008, it is a good time to ask an important question – with the demand for wood products projected to increase in direct relationship to population growth, and with U.S. consumption four-times the world average, where are we going to get our wood supply? We actually have the ability to source our wood supply from working forests in the United States, yet we import 36% from around the world. Nationally, with forest growth 2 ½ times the rate of removals, it only makes sense to use products made from our sustainable working forests.
While there are many definitions of the term “sustainable,” the bottom line is that in order to stay around for a very long-time, you have to be adaptable, flexible, willing to listen, respond and communicate. The WFPA and its members have been around for a very long-time, some up to 150 years. Our organization’s founding companies are still members, practicing forestry today, planting new trees with the belief that they are creating tomorrow’s working forests.
Our challenge as foresters, citizens and policy makers is to work together to find a balance point where the economic and environmental benefits of our working forests will be sustainable. For these benefits to be realized, forestry must continue to play an important economic role in the State of Washington.
Learn about the vital role that forestry plays in Washington’s economy