The idea of “going green” has become so abstracted that it’s easy to forget that the green things we’re talking about are leaves—leaves of grass, leaves on plants and most importantly leaves on trees. Our forests are critical to healthy soil, clean water and abundant food for the countless living creatures that depend on them. But our forests are also objects of beauty and wonder. Our forests are our backyards, our playgrounds, our retreats—and for the forest products industry, they are our workplace and our thriving farmland.
We Replant More Than We Harvest
Nobody relies on our forests more than we do. For us to make the products we make—for us to help you do everything from making your businesses more productive to protecting your food and medicine during transport—we need healthy, thriving, growing forests.
Before we ship a single ream of paper or fold a single cardboard box, hundreds of thousands of foresters—many of them working on small, family-owned tracts in tiny rural communities—have spent years carefully cultivating and stewarding our trees. We harvest just what we need, and always replant more than we harvest.
An Alternative to Development or Agricultural Use
Our industry is the biggest tree planter in America. Our partners, America’s tree farmers, are the reason why more than 1 billion trees are planted each year in the U.S. The income that landowners receive for trees grown on their private land (not parks), often from our industry, encourages them to maintain, manage and renew this valuable resource instead of selling their land for development or for other agricultural uses. And as long as there is healthy demand for forest products, that trend can and should continue in the decades ahead.
Take a #TreeSelfie
Every year, we ask our friends and colleagues to take a picture with their favorite tree—or any tree—to celebrate their love of forests. We hope you’ll join us this year, and let us know by using the #TreeSelfie hashtag.
Learn more about our sustainable forest practices that go beyond the trees to help maintain healthy habitats.
