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Community Forest Bonds
Drinking water, rural jobs, habitat, recreation; these are just some
of the critical services that the country’s working forests provide for
our communities. And now, there’s a proposal in Congress to add a
powerful new tool to the working forest conservation toolbox. A unique
coalition of conservation organizations, timber companies and business
leaders has formed to advance legislation in Congress that would enable
non-profit conservation organizations to use municipal bonds to
purchase working forests for both long-term conservation and
economically sustainable timber management.
The bill could
conserve an estimated 2.2 million acres of working forests throughout
the country and preserve an estimated 13,500 direct and indirect jobs
using private capital markets.
The Community Forestry
Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 3302, S. 1501) was introduced in July by
a bi-partisan group of legislators. Supporters now include Senate
co-sponsors Patty Murray (D-WA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Maria Cantwell
(D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and House of
Representatives co-sponsors Mike Thompson (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA),
and Dave Reichert (R-WA).
The list of organizations supporting
the co-sponsors in advancing the legislation includes Land Trust
Alliance, Bank of America, Weyerhaeuser Company, National Alliance of
Forest Owners, Washington Forest Protection Association, US Forest
Capital, The Nature Conservancy, Cascade Land Conservancy, and many
others.
Fast action is needed.
While deforestation has
been balanced by reforestation of agriculture lands in recent decades,
the U.S. Forest Service estimates that 23 million acres of forestland
will be lost by 2050. There are multiple reasons for this trend,
including population growth, the lucrative residential and commercial
real estate market, tax policy, global competition, loss of mill
infrastructure, and changing inter-generational demographics.
Under
the proposed legislation, Congress would authorize that qualified
non-profit organizations could use funds derived from municipal revenue
bond sales to purchase working forests and keep them working. This new
tool will provide a mechanism for acquisition of lands that are at a
high risk of conversion and parcelization, and for other lands that may
be difficult for long-term commercial management. The bonds would be
paid off with proceeds from environmentally sensitive timber harvests.
“Our
communities have an urgent need for a financing mechanism that would
provide stable, long-term capital to purchase working forests and
prevent their conversion,” said Gene Duvernoy, President of the
Seattle-based Cascade Land Conservancy. “Community Forestry Bonds
conserve working forests and the jobs that go with them, protect the
environment and respect landowners’ rights.”
“A massive forest
ownership transition has taken place with nearly 84% of America’s
industrial forests changing hands in the past 12 years,” said Tom
Tuchmann, President of Portland, Oregon-based US Forest Capital. “In
this economic environment there are real opportunities for large-scale
conservation purchases. With funding for such purchases being the
limiting factor, tools such as Community Forestry Bonds will be of
benefit to all.”
“The municipal bond capital market has been
funding public purposes for 100 years. With the right cash flows from
working forests around the country, this market could be used to
finance forest acquisitions, which would help keep America’s working
forests in production,” remarked David Hospodar of Bank of America
Merrill Lynch.
The conservation community has built a
partnership with the financial and forest products industries to create
a solution to the financial obstacle hindering long-term working forest
conservation.
“This bill works by providing an economic
incentive, or funding mechanism, to maintain working forests. It will
protect rural community jobs by keeping renewable working forestry on
the landscape. This works for landowners, it works for the
environment, it works for local governments and it works for
communities across the state of Washington and the country,” said Mark
Doumit, Executive Director of the Washington Forest Protection
Association (WFPA). WFPA represents private timber owners in Washington
State.
- Click here for a fact sheet about this exciting legislation
Press Coverage of the Bill
More information or to get involved, contact:
Dan Stonington
Cascade Land Conservancy
(206) 905-6903
dans@cascadeland.org
www.cascadeland.org
