It is appropriate since this “America’s Great Outdoors Listening Session” is being held in the longleaf pine ecosystem of South Carolina that a longleaf restoration story be shared. Saloom Properties, LLC is a 1762 acre Tree Farm in the coastal plains of south Alabama—an area in the natural longleaf range. Historically the longleaf pine was the dominant species of tree at an estimated 60 million acres. This has been reduced to its existing 3.4 million acres. We have seen a resurgence of restoration of the longleaf back to its natural ecosystem. Each year more acres are being planted and managed by private family forest owners.

In 2004 Hurricane Ivan wreaked havoc with its destruction to south Alabama. The day after the storm the stumpage price for our wood products were more than halved. After 5 months of logging clean-up and recouping only pennies on the dollar for salvaged timber, we decided to turn adversity into opportunity. Over the next 4 years we planted 450 acres of longleaf, and now we manage this ecosystem with prescribe burning, herbicide site prep and release and spraying for control and eradication of invasive species.

It was through incentive cost-share programs for replanting, control of invasive species, education for certified burn manager, wildlife habitat improvement programs, land recovery program that we were able to reinvest, replant and manage for sustainable forestry.

The results—an ecosystem that is thriving with wildlife including turkey and quail and the threatened gopher tortoise.

It has become our responsibility as family forest owners to manage our forest for improvement and sustainability.

We share and promote good forest management for future generations. We are actively involved in education through personal contacts, seminars, field days and programs such as Classroom in the Forest/Forest in the Classroom with school children on an annual basis. “Project Learning Tree,” an American Forest Foundation program that is used to help educate teachers in environmental education. In May we had 500 people visiting our farm on two separate field days. One of these field days was titled “Longleaf Restoration and Wildlife Management.”

There has been a dramatic decline in USDA-Forest Service Cooperative State and Private Funding from $4million in 2007 to $2.7million in 2010. This is just one example of the challenges that we all face. If these financial incentives are not there for the private forest owners to assist in good management improvements, then sustainability will be adversely affected. This is vital for future generations.

We need legislation to include incentives for private family forests to be able to participate in carbon markets. Managed forests can increase the carbon storage from its current 12% to as much as 20%. Biomass will become a renewable part of our energy as we move to cleaner forms of renewable energy in the future. Since private forests make up 75% of all forested land in Alabama and 62% of forested land in the US (423 million acres) those legislative policies need to define biomass where private forests are included in this definition.

2.6 million acres of family forests change hands each year; and 1.4 million acres are actually loss to urbanization or development as a result of families having to sell property or cut timber to pay federal estate taxes. This could be alleviated with legislation such as the Thompson Family Farm Preservation and Conservation Estate Tax Act.

We are proactive when it comes to education. We realize that if the next generations are not exposed to managed forests and not exposed to America’s Great Outdoors with its inherent benefits then this legacy will wither and be only history. We are each called to be good stewards of what we have. Being good stewards of our family forests is part of that sustainable legacy. We need funding and incentives for environmental education to ensure that our children learn to appreciate and invest themselves in our environment’s future.

As you are aware private family forests provide many benefits to our society. Jobs (avg.8 jobs/1000 acres), clean air and clean water (1 acres supplies enough oxygen for 18 people), wood products and their derivatives, a source for renewable energy with less carbon and environmental impact than concrete and steel, recreation and aesthetics. Private forest owners need incentives to allow them to continue to manage and preserve their forests.

These listening sessions are a great move forward in bringing the discussion and awareness of how fragile America’s Great Outdoors is. We need to be proactive in our conservation efforts. This can effectively be done in partnership with private family forests, industry and the federal government. Let’s get to work to strengthen this partnership.