about the project

The Sustainable Forests Alliance developed the Southeast Forestry Project to provide landowners information and free legal and forestry assistance to help them make better and more informed choices about how they manage their forests.  This web site is the central location for that information.  The Alliance is also developing brochures, videos and landowner guide books to help forest owners protect their land while making money.

Also, the Alliance seeks to assist landowners to keep their forests as forests in perpetuity.  Despite all the rhetoric from groups controlled by multinational timber corporations, the reality is that environmental organizations like those in the Alliance have much more in common with individual forest landowners than the corporations do.  While corporations decry government "regulations" limiting forestry, the reality is that there is virtually no regulation of the timber industry in the South at all.  Indeed, the biggest threat to forests is the same threat to wildlife, water quality and other environmental interests: the loss of forests and habitat due to conversion to farms, strip malls, subdivisions and parking lots.  Environmentalist organizations, like those in the Alliance, recognize that the forest landowner is a friend of the environment, a person who loves and cares for their land.  Even a poorly managed forest is better for the environment than another parking lot and mega-mall surrounded by subdivisions.  And a well-managed forest is a great environmental asset.  Rarely does a landowner make bad decisions for their forests due to greed; usually, it is because of a lack of knowledge about alternatives or about ways that help them protect their land.

Irresponsible logging practices on private lands can also adversely impact public forests.  This clearcut and associated pine plantation are on private lands in the middle of the Bankhead National Forest.  Every bit of sediment that runs off this clearcut goes into streams on public land.  Thus, learning about better ways to manage forests can lead a landowner to being a better neighbor, both to other landowners and to the public at large.

When timber harvesting is not done in a responsible manner, the land and people suffer.  Streams can be choked with sediment; wildlife can be killed.  Neighboring landowners can have their lands and waters degraded and their property values diminished.  The landowner whose forest is mangled through bad forestry practices suffers the most, losing soils, productivity, wildlife, the beauty of their land, and even future revenues.

Why do so many logging operations damage the very land that is harvested?  Simply put, the large multinational corporations that drive the world timber market demand that fiber be provided to them in the most efficient and profitable manner, for them.  Massive cut-and-run clearcutting is the best way to get trees off land and into the hands of large pulp and timber corporations, but it is not the best way for an individual landowner to make money and maintain the integrity of their land.  Industrial harvesting methods, such as clearcutting, cause great damage to land, wildlife, water quality and scenic beauty.  Clearcutting done wrong can also destroy a landowner's future chances of making good money from that land.

But when land owners have more information about their choices, they can make better decisions about forest management and avoid the problems that come when improper methods are forced on them.  Landowners can decide to manage their land in a way that maximizes revenue for them (as opposed to maximizing revenue for corporations) while also protecting the soils, wildlife, water and beauty that makes that land special to them.  Methods such as selective logging can provide great revenue from sawtimber without ever removing the majority of the trees from the forest.  Landowners who cut selectively and who wisely chose to take their timber to a quality sawmill have made more money from their land than neighbors who clearcut and just sold the trees for pulp to the nearest multinational pulp mill.

Sustainable forests come from knowledge and landowner care, and smart choices about forestry methods require research.  The Alliance seeks to aid landowners in making intelligent choices about how to manage their forests for now and for future generations to come.