James C. Barnett
GA Registered Forester
Mark D. Barnett
GA/AL Registered Forester

10800 Alpharetta Hwy.
Suite 208, #A8
Roswell, GA 30076

E-Mail Fall Line Consultants

GET THE FACTS, MAN!

The following poem, written by Gary North, president of the American Bureau of Economic Research, was printed July 7 in the Louisville Courier-Journal. We have corrected some of North's misconceptions about the forest products industry and the nation's forests, using Quick Facts - a handy card that folds to wallet size. Quick Facts is part of the National Forest Products Week kit produced by AFC and is available in quantity at cost. To order, call 202-463-2479.

ODE TO A DEAD TREE

I think that I shall never see

A sight as lovely as a tree;

A tree cut down for pulp and boards,

Cut down for profit and rewards, (1)

Whenever forests disappear(2)

To fill a bookstore front to rear,

The angels sing a glorious song,

Especially if the books are long.

When trees grow high above the earth

I love to estimate their worth.

I praise the chainsaw and axe,

Converting trees to paperbacks(3)

I love to contemplate bare hills(4)

Solutions to society's ills. (5)

For every tree dragged out by hooks

May soon become a shelf of books . . .

The thought of trees cut down for wood,

Serving man as nature should.(6)

Down my spine I get the shivers:

Giant forest into slivers,

Forest growing through long winters;

Spring will see them all in splinters.(7)

Literate mankind now confesses:

'Cut the trees and start the presses.'

Quick Facts About America's Forests:

The facts below correspond to footnotes in the poem 'Ode To A Dead Tree'

1. The nation's economy reaps those rewards.

Fact: The industry employs some 1.6 million people and produces wood and paper products valued at more than $200 billion each year.

2. U.S. forests are not disappearing.

Fact: About one-third of the United States - 731 million acres - is forested.

Fact: Net annual growth exceeds harvests and losses to insects and disease by 27% each year on the commercial forests.

Fact: The U.S. has 13.2 million acres of old growth -enough trees to form a band 5 miles wide stretching from coast to coast.

3. Recycling has greatly expanded the sources of paper.

Fact: Over half the raw material used from paper comes from recovered paper and from wood wastes left by lumber manufacturing.

4. New seedlings quickly cover "bare" hills by natural regeneration, or replanting after harvest.

Fact: In 1991, some 1.7 billion seedlings were planted in the U.S. - more than 6 new trees a year for every American.

Fact: The forest industry planted 43% of those seedlings; 39% were planted by private landowners; and 18% by government.

5. In addition to providing building materials vital to U.S. society's economic recovery, and a myriad of necessary paper products, the forest products Industry is helping solve one of society's greatest ills - solid waste - by recycling.

Fact: Over 35% of all paper consumed in this country was recovered for recycling in 1991.

Fact: Every ton of paper recycled saves 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.

6. The industry has served nature as well as "man."

Fact: America's forest products companies have donated more than 1 million acres of land - valued at over $400 million – for conservation, recreation, or social causes.

Fact: Over the past decade, forest products companies have spent more than $100 million on wildlife and environmental research.

7. On the contrary, Spring will see a vast forest growing.

Fact: Eight million acres of old growth are protected in parks, wilderness or other set-asides. (See also 2,4, &5)

(Source: The Logger and Lumberman/April 1998)