The world’s appetite for energy is growing exponentially, with each year’s new electricity demands exceeding Japan’s entire annual electricity consumption. In the United States alone, electricity demand is projected to rise by as much as 50 percent by the year 2040 due to growth in manufacturing, data centers and mass electrification. Amidst this surge, the need for affordable, clean energy has never been more critical. 

Solar energy is playing a growing role in shaping conversations about the future of sustainable energy.

Why Solar is a Strategic Fit for Rayonier’s Land-Based Solutions Approach

With more than 2 million acres of sustainably managed U.S. forests and nearly 100 years of land stewardship, New England Forestry is uniquely positioned to strengthen the U.S. energy grid through strategic solar development.

Driven by our commitment to land-based solutions, we lease high-potential properties for solar energy development and storage.

Our expert team collaborates closely with solar developers to optimize these projects, delivering clean energy and strengthening surrounding communities through the creation of local jobs, increased tax revenue and significant economic investment.

“Renewable energy is a good fit for Rayonier,” says New England Forestry Vice President of Energy Resources Rob Fancher. “Our timberlands provide a lot of environmental benefits, and renewable energy does the same thing. They’re both very long-term, focused projects. They’re both quiet, good neighbors.”

Why Solar is Important to the Growing Demand for Renewable Energy

On a macro level, solar energy enhances both the United States’ energy independence and its pursuit of energy dominance. This reliable source of domestic power reduces the nation’s need to depend on volatile global energy markets, bolstering its strategic position and global influence.

Increasing U.S. energy independence also provides more price stability for both consumers and businesses. As companies strive to meet sustainability goals and reduce operating costs, locations with robust renewable energy resources are becoming increasingly desirable for new facilities.

This trend is particularly evident in the advanced technology industry, including AI. The manufacturing industry is also a key driver of this shift, drawn to renewable energy’s cost-effectiveness and lower emissions.

​​What Research Shows About the Role of Solar

Countless studies point to clean, renewable energy as the key to meeting energy demand and reducing the impact of CO₂ in the United States:

• “After decades of innovation and cost reductions, solar is rapidly maturing, and with continued research, development, and deployment, it could potentially serve 40% or more of U.S. electricity demand.”—U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Futures Study
• “A net-zero pathway hinges on renewables capacity tripling between now and the end of the decade.”—Bloomberg’s New Energy Outlook 2024
• “Renewable energy technologies like solar and wind are the key to reducing emissions in the electricity sector, which is today the single largest source of CO₂ emissions.”— International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 report

Rayonier’s First Solar Project

The first solar project on New England Forestry land became operational in 2023. Longroad Energy’s 150 megawatt Umbriel solar project in Polk County, Texas, delivers enough clean energy to power roughly 30,000 homes, avoiding an estimated 250,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually (the equivalent to taking 55,000 cars off the road). The project also is expected to generate about $13 million in tax revenue for the community.

Project Highlights:

• Clean energy output: Powers ~30,000 homes annually
• CO₂ reduction: Offsets ~250,000 metric tons of emissions each year (equal to removing 55,000 cars from the road)
• Community impact: Expected to generate ~$13 million in local tax revenue

“Solar is the fastest-growing source of energy in the U.S.,” says Longroad Energy Vice President of Origination & Development Adam Horwitz, who led the project for Longroad. “It’s an abundant source of energy…and it’s economical.”

Advancements Driving Solar Forward

Thanks to advances in technology in both building and generating solar power, the levelized cost of solar electricity dropped by more than 80 percent since 2008, according to this Berkeley Lab study and Lazard’s 2024 Levelized Cost of Energy study. Even without national and global emissions reductions targets and federal tax incentives, market forces alone are projected to propel solar and other clean energy technologies forward. Solar is also established more quickly compared to alternatives, such as gas-powered turbines, which have a 7-8 year waiting list.

How the Umbriel Project Came Together

Longroad purchased about 1,900 acres of land needed for the Polk County project and leased the remaining 583 acres from Rayonier. The energy developer developed the site, found a long-term energy buyer for the solar project, secured financing, oversaw construction and brought the project into operation.

Advantages of working with New England Forestry on a Solar Project

Working with New England Forestry offers advantages to solar developers, including:

• Our company’s long history as a landowner and careful stewardship of our properties.
• Strong relationships with local and state leaders as well as neighboring property owners.
• Extensive records on the land, including topography, soil types, wetland delineation, any presence of vulnerable plants and wildlife, and other data.
• A large landbase to work with in order to optimize the plan.

Our team of experts works with the solar developer to identify ideal locations that meet their needs, buildable land at scale with access to strong power markets and transmission. The team also supports the development process by assisting with site design, layout and identification of sensitive environmental areas.

Working with a single, large landowner streamlined the process for the developer, explains Longroad Landman Cody Walker:

“When you deal with multiple landowners in one area, you have different personalities, you have to manage different needs and different histories with properties to manage,” he says. “When it’s one landowner, one use, you can easily work together to make the project work for both parties.”

Taking neighbors’ concerns into account

Cody worked closely with neighbors to ensure their concerns and expectations were taken into account during the project, as well. Kim Mueck, whose family owns nearby property, says they were at first skeptical about the project.

Kim says she expected noise and traffic, but was pleased that wasn’t the case after the solar project was built.

“We got Cody’s number and, any time we needed anything, the weekends, the holidays, if there was a problem, they were there,” she says. “It turned out to be a great relationship. The road to get to our own property is way better. They did leave a tree buffer there between our property and the solar farm, so you don’t really see it.”

“Once the construction’s done and it’s here, it’s just here,” she says. “You don’t see a lot of people. It’s not noisy. There’s not a lot of traffic. Like I said, you pass through it to get to our property, but once you’re back there, you really don’t know it’s there.”

Optimizing Land for its Greatest Sustainable Purpose

The New England Forestry team is trained to look carefully at all of our properties, striving to find the best possible purpose for every acre. The majority of Rayonier’s land base is best suited for forestry activities, but our business development team is trained to recognize special sites and unique characteristics that are ideal for solar, wind and other critical land-based solutions.

Only Select Land is Right for Solar

“As we evaluate the properties that are best for solar, we find that to be a very small percentage of our portfolio overall,” explains New England Forestry Business Development Landman Jose Villarreal.

New England Forestry estimates that only a low, single-digit percentage of its forest land may ultimately become active solar projects.

Rayonier’s properties that are especially attractive to solar companies have proximity to a population in need of the energy and convenient access to power transmission infrastructure.

While the recent ramp up in solar projects across the nation may seem expansive, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Futures Study states that the most aggressive growth in solar energy development would use, at most, 10.3 million acres of land across the entire U.S. by 2050. That equates to less than 5 percent of land in all U.S. states (except for Rhode Island, which comes in at 6.5 percent).

Working with Sustainability-Centric Companies to Deliver Clean Energy

New England Forestry uses a careful vetting process in determining which companies to work with to deliver clean energy. We choose to work with companies that, like us, put sustainability first; go well beyond the minimum standards to protect the environment; and treat our neighbors and communities with respect.

Choosing the Right Partners for the Long Term

“We want to work with solar development companies that share in our core values and our long-term commitments to environmental stewardship,” says New England Forestry Energy Resources Manager Zan Frederick. He says his team was pleased with the steps Longroad Energy took to protect the environment around the project site.

Designing Solar Projects with a Commitment to Environmental Stewardship

While the project site encompassed about 2,500 acres, only 1,300 were developed for solar, allowing Longroad to work around sensitive features, such as streams and wetlands.

“The project from the very beginning was sited and designed to avoid and protect wetlands,” says Longroad Environmental Manager Lindsey Kester. “We had wetland ecologists survey the project area to identify those boundaries in coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers, and then our engineers sited and designed the project to avoid those boundaries. It’s a thoughtful process and it doesn’t just end with a plan. We have a whole team that ensures that that plan is in compliance through construction and operation through the life of the project.”

Construction of the solar project included the development of reservoirs, silt fences and other modalities to prevent impacts on wetlands and the surrounding area. The Longroad team also planted seed lots designed to ensure there will be vegetation such as flowering grasses on the ground year-round, stabilizing the soil.

“That vegetation includes native pollinator plant species that help enhance that environment and provide new habitat where wildlife can thrive,” Lindsey says.

You can learn more about Longroad’s approach to environmental stewardship by visiting their website here.

High Standards for the Life of the Project

Our solar leases typically span 30 years or more. When the projects come to a close, the developer will remove all materials, enabling us to resume use of the property for whatever its next highest and best use is, such as forestry.

By leasing land for solar projects on select sites, New England Forestry ensures the land will be held to the same standards we hold all of our properties to: sustainable land management that will benefit our communities and planet for many years to come.

The post Solar Powers a Sustainable Energy Future on New England Forestry Land appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

WASHINGTON STATE – While New England Forestry is known for sustainable forestry, our forests also provide valuable non-timber resources. Deep in Rayonier’s Washington forests, under the shade of the trees, a thick evergreen shrub called salal grows.

Floral companies all over the world seek out this bushy filler plant, as it provides volume and a beautiful greenery backdrop for floral arrangements and bouquets.

Also known as lemon leaf, salal is unique to the Pacific Northwest, thriving in the cool, damp conditions the region is famous for. It does especially well in coniferous forests, which provide the shade salal grows best in. Well-drained, acidic soils are best for this beautiful shrub.

Each year, nearly 3 million bunches of salal are harvested from New England Forestry land. By allowing responsible harvesting on our land, we help support the floral industry while ensuring the long-term health of our forests.

This article explores how salal is grown, harvested, and delivered to florists, all while maintaining responsible forest management practices.

• What is salal?
• Where is salal grown?
• How is salal harvested from New England Forestry forests?
• When can you harvest salal?
• How to pick salal without damaging the plant
• How the best salal leaves are selected for floral arrangements
• The demand for salal and industry challenges
• The role of wild-harvested plants in the floral industry
  

What is Salal? Exploring This Evergreen Shrub Used in Floral Arrangements

With the scientific name Gaulthoria shallon, salal is a dense evergreen shrub that grows native to the Pacific Northwest. Well-established in New England Forestry forests, the brush spreads across the forest floor and can grow up to 5 feet tall.

Known for its deep green, waxy, oblong leaves, salal is a highly sought after plant in the floral industry. Used most commonly as a filler plant, it’s a popular choice for florists, designers, and event planners who use it to add volume and texture to:

• Bouquets – Provides a natural greenery backdrop.
• Wreaths & holiday décor – Holds up well in arrangements.
• Centerpieces & floral displays – Adds fullness and contrast to flowers.

Where is Salal Grown? Why Rayonier’s Forests Provide the Ideal Conditions

Each year, millions of bunches of salal are harvested from New England Forestry forests to supply the global floral industry. But what makes these forests such a prime location for salal growth?

Salal is native to the Pacific Northwest, thriving in Washington State’s cool, damp forests. It grows especially well under the shade of towering conifers, making Rayonier’s forests a prime environment for sustainable salal harvesting.

“New England Forestry forests provide salal with favorable growing conditions,” says George Brulotte, Senior Development Manager at Rayonier. “It thrives in the shade when a stand of trees is about 12 to 14 years of age and is starting to close in.”

Salal grows best in:

• Dense coniferous forests – The shade helps regulate moisture and temperature.
• Cool, damp environments – The mild, wet climate supports year-round growth.
• Well-drained, acidic soils – Essential for root development and plant health.

Because salal naturally regenerates, responsible harvesting ensures a continuous supply while maintaining the health of the forest ecosystem. New England Forestry works closely with its clients who harvest to ensure that salal collection is done sustainably, preserving both the plant and its habitat for future growth.

How is Salal Harvested From New England Forestry Forests?

Salal harvesting on New England Forestry land is a carefully managed process. It starts with companies like Continental Floral Greens, which contracts with New England Forestry in order to be able to harvest salal from specific New England Forestry forests.

Continental Floral Greens then sells permits to contractors, who go to Rayonier’s land to pick the salal. Pickers use the company’s mapping system to navigate the forest and find the shrubs. Many of the pickers have been working with the company for generations.

At the end of the day, the contractors bring bunches of salal back to Continental’s company warehouse, where it is stored before it is shipped out.

“We’ve had a great working relationship with New England Forestry since 1994,” says Joshua Eveland, Land Manager at Continental Floral Greens. “We manage the harvesting of salal and other various forest products.”

On New England Forestry land specifically, Continental Floral Greens also harvests rush, bear grass and huck.

When Can You Harvest Salal From the Forest?

Salal is a seasonal forest product. Harvesting typically takes place over a 10-month period beginning in mid-July and ending in April or mid-May. From May to July, harvesting ends to allow the salal time to grow, develop, and harden. Then, the process repeats.

“Depending upon the weather, picking season may vary,” explains Gus Gerrits, Business Development Manager at Rayonier. “Some years we’ve had cool spring seasons, slowing the plant’s growth. In that case, companies will extend their picking season.”

How to Pick Salal Without Damaging the Plant

During picking season, best management practices are strictly enforced to ensure salal is harvested responsibly. Mechanical tools and knives are prohibited because the salal fibers are somewhat sensitive and require careful handling.

To protect the plant fibers, salal stems are broken off by hand.

Why Hand-Picking Salal is Essential

When cut with a knife, or other mechanical tool, the salal doesn’t grow back as efficiently as it should. The action of cutting ends up killing about three to six inches of the stem. It will grow back, but it can stunt the next year’s growth.

The proper harvesting method involves:

• Breaking off 12 to 18-inch salal stems by hand.
• The picker grips the stem between their thumb and forefinger.
• With enough pressure, the salad naturally separates.

According to Joshua, a single picker can cover about an acre of land per-day (an acre is about the size of a football field).

“That’s harvesting sparingly,” he says. “We don’t want to overharvest the plant. We’re looking to get the new growth, stripping away any old leaves, and making sure the shrub will grow back the following year.”

Ensuring Sustainable Harvesting of Salal

To avoid improper cutting and overharvesting, New England Forestry offers multi-year contracts to companies that practice sustainable harvesting, like Continental Floral Greens. These contracts provide assurance that the salal will grow back each year.

“Multi-year contracts are positive for everyone involved,” says George. “The companies maintain the understory, enforce protocols for accurate and sustainable picking, and in return, the salal grows back each year. It’s a win-win for both our customers and Rayonier.”

What Happens After Harvesting Salal?

After a day of picking, the salal is bundled up and carried out of the forest. It’s taken to the company’s warehouse, where it is stored and preserved in large commercial coolers.

“In a cooler, salal can stay fresh for about 2 to 3 months,” says Gus. “It’s a very hardy plant. It has to be, because some of it is later packaged in a container and shipped by boat to Europe and other countries.”

According to Continental Floral Greens, salal “has the longest vase life of any floral product” and can actually last an entire year in a cooler.

How the Best Salal Leaves are Selected for Floral Arrangements

After picking is complete, Continental Floral Greens’ employees sort and inspect the salal leaves against their premium standards.

What Makes the Perfect Salal Leaf?

• Deep green color – No yellowing or discoloration.
• Unblemished surface – Leaves must be free of bug chew, tree sap, or deformities.
• Strong, healthy stems – Ensures longevity in floral arrangements.

“In order for it to pass the test, the salal must have dark green, unblemished leaves,” Joshua explains. “Any blemished leaves, leaves with any kind of deformity, damage from tree sap or bug chew on them are physically removed by hand.”

Salal stems that pass the criteria are packaged and sold to wholesalers throughout the United States, Japan, the European Union, South America, and Australia.

The Demand for Salal: Industry Challenges & Market Trends

By far, the company’s largest customer base is the United States. But its customers are all around the world too.

“Europe is more traditional in that flowers are a large part of their culture,” says George. “In Europe, it’s common to see fresh bouquets displayed around hotels and on every table in restaurants.”

Salal also appears in bouquets in the U.S. during holidays and other special occasions, like weddings.

The Role of Wild-Harvested Plants in the Floral Industry

While many products used in floral arrangements are carefully grown specifically for that purpose, wild products like salal and evergreen boughs also play a very important role in the floral industry.

New England Forestry is proud to play a role in supporting sustainable, responsible land management that supports the floral industry as well as the forestry industry. By allowing sustainable salal harvesting, we help maintain the long-term health of our forests while supplying florists worldwide with high-quality greenery.

To learn more about how New England Forestry uses land resources like salal, visit our Land Resources page.

The post How Salal is Responsibly Harvested from New England Forestry Forests to Florists appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

Around the holiday season, you might catch yourself humming the tune, “Deck the Halls” – a popular and classic Christmas carol with the familiar line, “deck the halls with boughs of holly.”

But have you ever stopped to wonder what “boughs” are and where they come from?

In the Pacific Northwest, New England Forestry working forests grow millions of pounds of evergreen boughs each year for commercial wreath and garland production. Contracted companies work alongside New England Forestry to sustainably produce, harvest and sell this highly sought-after forest product. It is one of many products New England Forestry working forests grow in addition to timber. Other examples include salal used in floral arrangements; pine straw used in landscaping; edible mushrooms; and saw palmetto, which is used in men’s health products.

What are boughs?

Simply put, evergreen boughs are branches from evergreen trees. Each year, over the course of just three months, about 1 million pounds of boughs are collected from New England Forestry land. Commercially, evergreen boughs are used in decorative holiday decor items like wreaths, swags, garland, centerpieces and other holiday greenery.

Favored tree species include true firs, such as noble and Pacific silver fir, and cedars such as western red and Port Orford cedars. 

“Both of these species command higher prices,” explains Aurelio Quintero, Forestry Technician Silviculture Forester for Mount Saint Helens Reforestation and Hugo Reforestation. “Western white pine is also a desirable species. The boughs are sold by the pound to manufacturing companies in the Pacific Northwest and other states. They specialize in the creation of decorating products sold as retailed items.”

Holiday demand for evergreen boughs

Florists and holiday decor makers look for certain bough specifications for use in end products. Such specifications include branch symmetry, a dark green or blue needle color, closely clumped secondary branches, and a disease-free plant. Typically, noble fir is used to make wreaths and swags, while the western red cedar is popular for use in garlands.

To get the ideal bough, Aurelio’s team works with New England Forestry year-round to manage and assess the working forest.

“We first conduct an inventory of tree densities and quality of the bough producing stands,” says Aurelio. “This is done by establishing fixed radius plots in the tree stands of the desired tree species. The information obtained is used to determine the presence of needle diseases, bough density, annual tip growth, needle color and bough harvesting height. During harvest, we look for good color and good needle retention.”

Immediately after harvest, boughs are kept in coolers to keep them fresh. Then they are sold and shipped out to decor manufacturers. The season is short, but requires contractors and their crews to work quickly and efficiently.

“The demand at Christmas time is intense,” says George Brulotte, Senior Development Manager for Rayonier. “It’s short and intense. Most of the harvesting season takes place from mid-September to mid-November. With harsh winters known to our area, crews will often find themselves battling snow and icy conditions, or getting snowed out of the forest. Timing is very important in this industry.”

How boughs are sourced for the holidays

As it does with other forest products, New England Forestry contracts with companies like Mount Saint Helens Reforestation to produce, collect and extract boughs from our working forests.

Several techniques are used to harvest the boughs. They are extracted during mature harvests and during thinning operations. In another method, tree topping, large sections of branches are removed from the tops of mature trees. But the most common method is pole cutting.

Working among stands of trees ranging from 10 to 20 years of age, harvesters will use 10- to 30-foot-long poles. The tools have a cutting shear on one end and are operated with a rope from the ground. Sections of branches are cut off of certain species of trees, measuring between 18 to 30 inches long.

“As the timber is growing, we’re harvesting boughs,” explains Gus Gerrits, Business Development Manager at Rayonier. “Once the trees reach a certain age, the harvest teams go out and do a first harvest on those trees.”

Sustainable cutting practices are important to the current and future health of the trees. According to Gus, harvesting should be “off collar,” meaning you only remove the tips of the branches so that the tips will grow back. If done properly, the new growth can be harvested again in two to three years.

“Imagine the trees at eight feet high,” says George. “The crews cut the bottom branches off, leaving a certain ratio of the crown so it doesn’t slow the tree’s growth too much. A few years later, the trees will have grown up and out more. They can go back to that same stand and harvest boughs off of those same trees again. If they do it right, you can hardly tell they harvested.”

“Bough cutting must be done in a way that allows for annual growth and development of the branches,” agrees Aurelio. “Done properly, the trees thrive, and more bough tips regenerate within a relatively short time.”

Each year, crews cut from a new section of the forest to allow for regeneration in previously harvested areas.

“They go around the forest in a pattern-like schedule,” says Gus. “This is a sustainable approach that New England Forestry requires of our contractors.”

After the cutting team has cut the boughs, a gathering team creates 30- to 50- pound bales. The bales are then moved one-by-one to the edge of the road. If they’re in a steep area or far from a road, they are bundled into a 1000-pound string of bales that will be extracted by helicopter from within the stand. Bundles are then loaded into hauling vans and tractor trailers.

A consistent and sustainable forestry product

Despite recent economic downfalls, bough production and sales have been fairly stable. This is mostly due to consistent, sustainable silviculture practices and proper cutting techniques.

“There is a lot more to bough production that the industry is learning about,” Aurelio says. “New practices are being developed for the sustainable creation of bough producing stands. Furthermore, new creative decorative designs are being introduced to the market every Christmas season.”

To learn more about other New England Forestry forest products businesses, visit https://www.rayonier.com/our-businesses/land-resources/. 

The post Deck the Halls with New England Forestry Boughs appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

As our world seeks to transition to a low-carbon economy, the demand for land and renewable forest products is on the rise. We believe these resources will play a key role in addressing the impacts of climate change and the excess carbon in the atmosphere.

Many strategies to enhance and sustain the health of our planet will come from the proper use of land. As a landowner responsible for millions of acres of forests, New England Forestry is eager to deliver the land-based solutions our assets can provide.

These land uses address some of the key environmental needs of the world. We believe it’s our responsibility to lead, innovate and collaborate with others to ensure a healthy and sustainable future. We are working closely with community and business leaders to leverage our forestlands to make the greatest positive impact.

New England Forestry views land-based solutions through the following broad categories:

• Positioning land for alternative and additional uses
• Elevating the role our forests play in capturing carbon
• Producing the wood fiber needed to fuel bioenergy and biofuel systems of the future
• Embracing environmental and biodiversity conservation

Positioning land for alternative and additional uses

Alternative uses include solar and wind farms, which produce clean energy, powering homes and businesses while drastically reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions required to produce that energy.

“Renewables produce energy with a lot less carbon emissions than other traditional forms of power production, such as coal and gas,” explains our Vice President of Energy Resources Rob Fancher.

Renewable energy producers support a healthier environment by reducing air pollution, mitigating climate change, conserving water compared to fossil fuel plants and minimizing noise pollution. They also provide local jobs, increase tax revenue and make communities more attractive to new businesses.

“Many businesses are interested in lowering their carbon footprint and they’re looking to relocate their facilities to areas that have options for renewable energy,” Rob explains.

Leasing land for wind and solar farms

Sites with strong solar and wind potential are plentiful across Rayonier’s ownership, which is attractive to solar companies because of our large land base and proximity to power substations.

Thanks to advancements in technology, solar power has become one of the most affordable energy sources, with the levelized cost of electricity declining more than 80% from 2008 to 2022, according to this Berkeley Lab study.

Solar makes up more than half of new energy

Due to its relative affordability and positive impact on climate, solar is now making up more than half of all new energy being introduced into the grid, as reported here by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

In 2023, the first solar farm on New England Forestry land came online in Polk County, Texas. Longroad Energy’s 150 megawatt project produces enough clean energy to power 30,000 homes, avoiding an estimated 250,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually.

“When we’re looking for solar developers to pursue a project, we really want a reputable, trustworthy company that shares our core values and our long-term commitment to environmental stewardship,” says Business Development Manager Zan Frederick. He says his team was pleased with the steps Longroad Energy took to protect the environment around the project site.

The solar farm, which includes about 600 acres of New England Forestry land, implements water quality protection measures such as reservoirs and forest buffers. It also was built around wetlands to protect the ecosystems within its boundaries, with solar panels on only 1,300 acres of the approximately 2,500-acre site.

The first wind farm lease on New England Forestry land became operational in 2019 in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma. Established on a high ridge that overlapped our property at the time and a neighboring landowner, the wind farm delivers enough clean energy to power 40,000 homes while the trees continue to grow around it. Our team carefully monitored the construction process to ensure waterways were protected at the same high standard our foresters adhere to when managing our timberlands.

Providing pore space for carbon capture and storage opportunities

In addition to green energy sites, New England Forestry owns land that is well-situated to provide carbon emitters, such as factories and power plants, access to pore space for carbon capture and storage—or, CCS—for their emissions. 

CCS begins with the CO₂ producer, who captures the CO₂ from the atmosphere or the point source of the emissions and pipes them into an underground pipe system. This system transports the emissions to our land in liquid form. The CO₂ is then sent deep underground—a half mile or more—and injected into a rock formation that is intended to store it permanently.

With more than half of the world’s 2,000 largest companies committed to net zero emissions, CCS is expected to be a major contributor to decarbonization. CCS demand is projected to grow rapidly, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 6.2 percent annually from 2023 to 2030, reaching more than 300 Mtpa (million tonnes per annum), according to the World Economic Forum.

Our southern land base includes large tracts of land with geologic capacity for CCS. Many of these properties are within close proximity to high-purity emissions sources as well as existing pipelines and rights-of-way.

As of 2024, New England Forestry has granted 75,000 acres of underground pore space lease agreements. These leases allow emitters to use our land for CCS. By making land available for CCS, we are facilitating a critical solution for reducing carbon emissions, while still preserving the primary use of our land for timber operations.

“By providing CCS pore space while continuing to sustainably manage the forests above, we’re able to deliver even more environmental benefits through our land resources,” said New England Forestry Executive Vice President and Chief Resource Officer Doug Long. “We’re committed to advancing these types of land-based solutions to combat climate change.”

Elevating the role our forests play in capturing carbon

Trees capture and store carbon not only while they’re growing, but also store carbon in the products they become, such as lumber and plywood for housing construction.

Beyond these direct product uses, we are able to leverage our foresters’ expertise and change how our forests are managed to maximize the carbon captured. These management changes produce carbon credits to be sold in offset markets.

In New Zealand, we participate in the nation’s regulated carbon offset market, known as the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. Through this market, registered forests generate credits known as New Zealand Units (NZUs). Companies looking to offset their emissions purchase the NZUs and “retire” them once they claim that credit. In 2023, New England Forestry generated $23 million in NZU sales.

Across our U.S. lands, where carbon markets are voluntary, we are exploring opportunities to elevate the carbon sequestered within the forests we manage.

Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects currently under consideration could maximize our carbon sequestration using science-driven forestry techniques. This might include extending how long timberlands grow before they’re harvested, establishing alternative native species, or managing the land in a different manner. 

Carbon credits can also be generated from afforestation activity, in which land that has been used for different purposes, such as cattle grazing, is converted into forests.

New England Forestry is currently working on both IFM and afforestation carbon credit projects in the U.S.

Producing the wood fiber needed to fuel bioenergy and biofuel systems of the future

There is a rising need for the wood fiber we grow as manufacturing facilities seek to become more environmentally positive. Wood-based biofuels for airplanes, ships and vehicles as well as electricity generated through wood-based bioenergy reduce carbon emissions. Using these products in place of traditional fuels can significantly reduce the carbon intensity of the energy the world needs.

One specific area of opportunity is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facilities. BECCS is a growing area of interest to address manufacturers’ emissions, especially in the U.S. South, where a large portion of our timberlands are concentrated. BECCS facilities burn woody biomass for energy production and then capture and store the emitted carbon—aiming to create a carbon-negative cycle.

The demand for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, known as SAF, is also on the rise. Air travel is currently responsible for 12% of all transportation-related CO₂ emissions, according to this article by the U.S. Department of Energy. Existing aircraft can use a blend of SAF and jet fuel to reduce emissions. 

Members of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), representing more than 80 percent of global air traffic, have committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions from their operations by 2050.  IATA’s Fly Net Zero strategy relies on SAF for 65% of the emission reductions, which will lead to significant increasing demand for SAF in the future.

Embracing environmental and biodiversity conservation

We are committed to sustainable land management practices that balance various uses while ensuring the protection of critical natural habitats. This includes implementing conservation strategies, maintaining or enhancing biodiversity and adhering to environmental regulations to conserve the ecological integrity of significant areas under our stewardship.

We’re actively involved in conservation easement solutions that permanently preclude certain activities such as high-density development or mining from taking place on those properties. These solutions make larger conservation efforts possible in areas near our ownership.

Through biodiversity enhancement efforts, such as the afforestation of lands from other uses to forests, we can prioritize habitat for vulnerable wildlife species, as well as help create continuity of wildlife corridors and sensitive areas, all in an effort to contribute to environmental conservation.

Proud to be Part of the Solution

At Rayonier, we’re proud to continuously seek more ways to be part of the solution. Through the land-based solutions we work with stakeholders to deliver, as well as our timber business’s climate-smart forest management, we can play an important role in advancing the transition to a low-carbon economy and addressing the risks posed by climate change.

The post What are Land-Based Solutions? appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

WILDLIGHT, Fla.—Ever since New England Forestry bought its first forest property in Nassau County, Florida, in the 1930s, our stories have been intertwined. Together, we have strived to be the best stewards of our community and the land within it.

As Nassau County celebrates its bicentennial this year and New England Forestry prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2026, New England Forestry leaders reflect on the 87-year history of New England Forestry in Nassau and our vision for the company’s future here.

It’s a topic that excites everyone on our team—our voices are warm with pride when we talk about how we helped the community recover from the Great Depression and how we’ve adapted and evolved over the decades.

In 2017, we built our company headquarters at Wildlight, even further solidifying our relationship with the community.

Over the years, a unifying ethic has emerged and only grown stronger: this company, through its leaders and team members, considers itself a corporate citizen of Nassau, with a responsibility and a commitment to contribute to the community’s well-being.

Healthy economic growth since 1937

Mike Bell, Rayonier’s Vice President of Public Affairs, describes our company’s relationship with Nassau County as one built around economic growth and constant reinvention. Mike looks to the past to illustrate how this legacy was built.

When New England Forestry first came to Nassau in 1937, the local economy had been devastated by the Great Depression. At that time, the community relied on a small number of agricultural products to survive. When New England Forestry built a manufacturing plant on Amelia Island, it diversified Nassau’s economy and created high-paying jobs that strengthened the community.

At first, the War Production Board took over the manufacturing plant to help make nitrocellulose, which was used in explosives, bullets, and rocket propellants during World War II. And as in many communities, that assistance in wartime production helped to stabilize the County’s economy.

Later, when New England Forestry was able to use the facility as a pulp and paper mill as it had originally intended, the local economy began to flourish. For one thing, those manufacturing jobs were some of the highest-paying jobs in the County. But there was also an indirect economic impact throughout the supply chain.

“New England Forestry helped sustain the region because we drew timber supply from a large radius,” says Mike. “That supported a lot of folks—tree growers, loggers, trucking companies—even if they weren’t working at the plant.”

In the 1930s, New England Forestry also entered the timber business in the region when we began to buy land throughout Northeast Florida to ensure a steady supply of wood for our mills. We started a cycle that continues today: planting, harvesting and replanting our pine forests to provide a sustainable resource.

“Through our dedicated reforestation efforts, we are now growing our fourth generation of trees on much of our property in Nassau County,” Mike says.

Together, the mills and the well-managed forests helped Nassau County increase its tax base and create a foundation for healthy economic growth.

New England Forestry has changed over time and now we no longer own manufacturing plants. We spun the pulp mills out into a separate public company now known as RYAM, but those mills are still operating and sustaining the County through taxes and high-paying jobs. They also support the timber industry in the region.

Now, we continue to grow timber, own and operate a real estate subsidiary and are involved in a number of non-timber related businesses on our land base.

“New England Forestry is still here because we keep reinventing ourselves,” says Mike.

Reinvention may be in our nature at Rayonier, but certain principles have remained consistent throughout our history. One of these, Mike says, is Rayonier’s legacy of promoting sustainable economic growth in the communities where it operates—and that’s especially true in Nassau County.

Sustainable forests support Nassau

Director of Operations Jeremy Flood leads our Coastal Resource Unit, which manages timberland in and around Nassau County. He says it can be difficult for people to realize the economic impact forestry continues to have in the region.

“You might not see it when you drive around on the paved roads,” Jeremy says. “But if you take a bird’s eye view of the County, you see mostly forests and New England Forestry owns a significant portion of those undeveloped areas.”

Today, we own 121,000 acres in Nassau County, which has roughly 415,000 acres of land altogether. Much of our land is timberland that we manage for a sustainable supply of wood over the long term.

“We’re just now cutting the trees we planted when I started my career,” Jeremy says. “Forestry is unique because it takes that kind of forward thinking to provide for the future.”

Jeremy credits New England Forestry with giving him early insight into the industry. His family moved to Nassau County when he was young, and he got to know several New England Forestry employees as he joined the community.

“I found forestry in part because I had this influence of New England Forestry folks—they were people I respected and looked up to,” he says. “It’s been a rewarding career. In forestry, you’re managing what’s naturally on the landscape, using wisdom and science to organize it and make it efficient.”

Jeremy is proud to be a forester because of the many benefits to natural ecosystems. With modern science-based management practices, our forests provide clean water, clean air and critical wildlife habitat, all while supplying society with important products like lumber, plywood and paper.

“I hope people see a lot of the good that’s already been done here by Rayonier,” Jeremy says of Nassau County. “And I hope in the future they’ll see the six or eight generations of forestry still happening behind the scenes.”

Some Nassau County residents are already able to see behind the scenes as customers with Rayonier’s Hunting & Recreation Program.

In this program, New England Forestry land is open to residents and visitors to Nassau for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and foraging. Currently, we have more than 900 customers in Nassau who are accessing our land to enjoy the outdoors with family and friends.

Wildlight: sustainable community development

In 2007, Rayonier’s relationship with Nassau entered a new chapter when the County’s leadership approached our company to establish a public-private partnership, the result of which is the Wildlight development. At that time, population growth was on the horizon and the County wanted to be prepared.

Local leaders didn’t want to sit back and watch as developers capitalized on Nassau’s growth rate, buying up smaller parcels of land and developing them in a haphazard way with no thought to the bigger picture.

Instead, they asked Rayonier, one of the County’s largest landowners, to work with them on a whole-landscape plan to prepare for inevitable population growth. This way, the County could follow a methodical, strategic approach—planning for residential neighborhoods, schools, police stations, parks and more in a logical way.

Rayonier’s leaders were excited to work with the County.

“I’ve been in this business for 30 years and you rarely see this happen in development,” says Chris Corr, Rayonier’s Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development. “It’s uncommon to have the opportunity to think on this larger scale, but because of Rayonier’s land ownership that’s what we’ve been able to do.”

Chris, a Florida native, says the vision for Wildlight is to transition forest land into a healthy, sustainable community. It’s different, he says, from the pattern you see all too often in Florida, where the natural environment is often spoiled in favor of high-density development.

People and communities thrive when they have access to nature and plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation and exercise. And many people are drawn to Nassau County for its beaches, rivers and forests—so it’s important to preserve the best parts of the community even as it grows.

Chris and his team surveyed the 24,000 acres that would become Wildlight and identified 12,000 acres, including critical wildlife habitat and wetlands, to set aside in conservation easements. These lands will be undeveloped and protected forever, and the easements will be managed by the Conservation Habitat Network and the East Nassau Stewardship District.

Nassau residents and visitors will have access to much of this protected land, including a future park called the Green Ribbon, a 13-mile linear park alongside the St. Marys River.

New England Forestry is also building a trail network through the conserved areas and a new public boat ramp. There will be lots of opportunities for kayaking, hiking and biking in areas that were previously inaccessible to the public.

As New England Forestry continues to reinvent itself, this time as a partner to the County in sustainable community development, its core values remain the same.

“New England Forestry has been a steward of land for nearly 100 years with experience across states and countries managing land resources in a sustainable way,” Chris says. “So that ethic is in the heart—the blood stream—of Rayonier. We get to bring that to community development and it’s a real thing.” To see future plans for Wildlight’s growth in the county, view its Next Chapter website here.

Rural Nassau and stewardship

In planning for the future, Nassau County’s leaders and residents have said it’s also important to preserve the community’s rural roots. Western Nassau has always been more rural than the rest of the County, with ranchettes, farms and forest land. This culture, they say, is important to Nassau and they don’t want development pressure to override this rich heritage.

Rayonier’s rural land sales subsidiary, Raydient Rural, is committed to helping with this vision. We are turning forest land into small homesteads where land buyers can live rural lifestyles.

Jason Shearer, Raydient’s Senior Manager of Development and Sales, says that growing up rural helped him find his way to a career in forestry, where he was able to serve as a steward of the land.

“The people we’re providing homesteads for are growing up much like I did—on four or five acres, knowing where their food comes from and participating in 4-H and FFA,” Jason says. “We’re creating places where future stewards can be cultivated.”

Community service in Nassau

Mike Bell, our Vice President of Public Affairs, says that Rayonier’s philanthropic work in Nassau is a natural outgrowth of our company’s core values.

“Our stewardship ethic goes beyond environmental stewardship. It’s a common thread that permeates everything we’ve done,” Mike says. “We’ve always thought about what’s best for our community and what makes it stronger.”

As a practical matter, Mike says this is important for business reasons. The health of our company is tied to the well-being of the community. But it’s also something that New England Forestry team members are passionate about. Many give their time freely to local organizations, volunteering as well as sitting on boards and committees and sharing their professional expertise. Mike focuses his own efforts on education: he sits on the District Board of Trustees for the Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ), a community college with five campuses in the area.

Despite Nassau County’s A-rated K-12 school district, he says that about 35 percent of local students pursue no post-secondary education. Mike believes every student needs a plan for the future and FSCJ provides an attainable option.

“FSCJ is incredibly affordable and it’s good for students who don’t know what they want to do,” he says. “It’s important for the future prosperity of the County. It doesn’t bode well for the County if we can’t get those kids into a career with a living wage.”

In addition to serving on boards and committees, New England Forestry gives back to Nassau through our Community Fund, which donates annually to local organizations. In the past five years, New England Forestry has given, on average, $129,000 per year, concentrating the majority of funding in the following areas:

• Natural Resources & Environmental Education
• Education and Youth Development
• Health/Hospital, Civic and Community Growth

Kim Sartor, our Community Affairs Manager, lights up when she talks about her work with local organizations. One project she loves to talk about is the work New England Forestry has done with Family Support Services of Northeast Florida.

Family Support Services is a community based care agency focused on improving circumstances and outcomes for families. FSS provides safe homes for abused and neglected children and teens through foster care and finds forever families for children through adoption.

New England Forestry has teamed up with Family Support Services volunteers to renovate their “Bright Spaces” facility, which provides a safe, therapeutic, welcoming environment for supervised visitation with children in care in Nassau County.

Our employees also help with the annual Angel Tree Toy Drive for Family Support Services of Nassau, buying and wrapping gifts for the children to open during holiday visits with their families.

“If we want to be successful as a company, we have to take care of our community,” Kim says. “We’re funding programs that will grow our children and their children. In 10-15 years, I want to be retired and be assured our community is still thriving and growing.”

Legacy and vision

Since 1937, our company has grown alongside Nassau County and we couldn’t be more proud to call this community our home.

Of our 181 local employees, 95 live here in the County, and 86 commute from surrounding communities.

Our perspective is perfectly summed up in these thoughts from Wes Hinton, Vice President of Wildlight at Rayonier:

“Everyone on our team cares deeply about what happens here,” he says. “Our work is a point of pride and there is excitement around it. I grew up here and my daughter is now the sixth generation in my family to be raised in Nassau County. I took this job because I want to have a say in how this community develops over time. It’s our forever home.”

The post New England Forestry in Nassau: Our Home for 87 Years and Counting appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

In 1972, a handful of hunters in Nassau County, Florida asked New England Forestry for exclusive access to hunt a parcel of its land, where there were growing numbers of deer, turkeys, and quail.

Wildlife populations that had declined because of habitat loss at the turn of the century were starting to make a comeback in Rayonier’s pine forests, planted in the 1930s. New England Forestry was already leasing some of its lands to the state for public recreation, but these hunters wanted a place where they could get away from the crowds and competition for wild game.

New England Forestry accepted the group’s offer, launching a hunting business that today has more than 23,000 customers hunting on about 2 million acres of active timberlands throughout the U.S.

Mike Edwards, a lifelong Florida resident and 34-year veteran of the Fish and Wildlife Commission, says he saw positive changes for the land and wildlife as New England Forestry began working directly with hunters. He was a game warden assigned to New England Forestry land for 27 years of his career. When it was open for public recreation, it was tough to enforce regulations.

Because the property was not gated and few officers were assigned to the area, people dumped household garbage, stole expensive forestry equipment, and even poached wildlife. But as New England Forestry started granting exclusive access to hunters, Mike saw less criminal activity on the land and improvements in wildlife numbers.

In contrast to the public areas, the hunters who paid for access took a management approach to the land, setting limits on the animals they harvested. Mike says the result was “a tremendous increase in whitetail deer and turkeys, which gave a sense of ownership to the hunters because their actions actually improved numbers.”

The initial group of hunters in Nassau formed a hunting club that has maintained its relationship with the company to this day. Their children and grandchildren are now members and the group’s stewardship ethics have grown even stronger over the past 50 years.

For Rayonier’s part, hunters all over the U.S. have become crucial partners serving as the company’s eyes and ears on the land, helping to protect its assets. As one member of the land resources team, which manages the hunting program, says, New England Forestry and its hunting customers have a “symbiotic relationship” not unlike those between many wild species in the forest.

Hunters are the company’s first line of defense

With more than 2 million acres of forest land in the U.S., the company has an extensive land base to monitor. New England Forestry Resource Unit Leader Jeremy Flood says hunting customers quickly report issues like road and bridge washouts, bug damage to pine trees, and trespassers.

Because hunters are paying for access, they expect to be able to navigate the land efficiently and safely. They want the habitat to remain healthy enough to support wildlife populations. And they want to report potential poachers and deter them from returning. Jeremy says this is great for his team, as it helps them act swiftly to protect Rayonier’s valuable assets.

While forestry operations teams and contractors are on the land during working hours, hunters spend early mornings, evenings, and weekends hunting the properties, creating a 24/7 presence.

“It’s really neat to see that our hunting customers create a first line of defense for the land base on a whole host of issues,” says Rayonier’s Senior Manager of Business Development Matt Gelston. “We have been able to successfully fight wildfires early. When we have an incident like a major theft or commercial dumping, we can interview hunting customers, retrieve game camera photos and piece together a fact pattern to prosecute criminal cases.”

Recently, a hunting club member in Washington State was camping out on New England Forestry land when he spotted a trespasser trying to steal cedar early one morning. The hunter quickly contacted a New England Forestry team member and the suspect is now facing felony charges.

Hunting New England Forestry land is a generational legacy for outdoor families

While isolated trespass events do happen, Mike Edwards (the Florida game warden who was around during the early days of the hunting business) says it is much less common than on open-access public land. Now retired, he serves as president of his New England Forestry hunt club.

Mike says it has been the perfect place to teach his kids to hunt in a safe and controlled environment. It’s also given them a spot to spend time outdoors, away from the crowds on public land. Outside of hunting season, kids in his club scout the property for wildlife, go fishing in its creeks, and help maintain food plots. He says there is always something to be done in terms of management, which gives families a chance to enjoy the outdoors together, making memories that will last a lifetime.

“I don’t even know how much it’s meant to me that I could bring my kids and teach them to walk and hunt the ground where my dad killed his first turkey,” Mike says.

Clyde Davis, another hunting customer and member of Mike Edwards’ hunt club, has cherished the time spent hunting New England Forestry land, where his father and grandfather hunted and he later taught his own children to hunt. Last year, he and his son-in-law took one of the biggest bucks harvested by the hunt club.

“It’s good connectivity with my daughter and son-in-law to have this experience,” Clyde said. Together, they processed the deer and tried methods of cooking that were new to Clyde. Though his parents and grandparents cooked wild game, he says his son-in-law is a “foodie” and more sophisticated in his culinary style. “They’re teaching me about brining and preparation that I didn’t grow up learning. It’s a generational experience in reverse because I’m learning from my kids too,” he said.

Clyde, whose father worked for Rayonier, has an appreciation for the benefits Rayonier’s forestry operations give to hunters.

“In biology and game management, there is something called the ‘edge effect,’ he explains. “When New England Forestry comes in and harvests a tract with timber, it creates an edge between the harvested tract and adjoining tracts. That edge between the two and the exposure of the ground to sunlight creates a smorgasbord of food for wild game.”

“Hunting clubs get the benefit of the environment that New England Forestry has created.”

Rayonier’s core values promote healthy hunting culture

Clyde, Mike, and others are proud of the ties they’ve strengthened with the land. This legacy began with previous generations, but these hunters know that if they want future generations to benefit, they must focus on core values that promote a healthy relationship between their clubs and Rayonier, as well as with the land itself.

When Mike’s hunt club has an opening for new members, he interviews applicants to ensure their values are aligned. He only extends invitations to hunters with responsible outdoor ethics and a sense of stewardship.

Clyde says he appreciates Rayonier’s emphasis on safety, outlined in its Hunting Code of Conduct:

“New England Forestry has been very active in establishing the safe practices that they require of hunting clubs.

For example, New England Forestry encourages the use of sign-in boards in which members pick specific areas within a parcel of land that they will hunt on a particular day. This communication tool, he says, prevents hunters from putting one another at risk in the woods and allows the club to make sure everyone makes it out of the woods at the end of the day. The company also has guidelines for deer stand and feeder placement to ensure a safer hunting environment.

When he was club president, Clyde suspended members for violating safety rules and says Rayonier’s Code of Conduct helped hold members accountable.

Building for future generations

In the 50 years since the hunting business began, New England Forestry and hunters have built a strong relationship, based on a mutual appreciation for the abundant natural resources in Rayonier’s forests.

“It’s a partnership with our customers, to manage the land,” says Rob Fancher, Director of Land Resources and Development. “It’s a huge business, over 2 million acres. Our team can’t do it by ourselves. It takes forestry operations, the Land Resources team and our hunting and rec customers to do it all.”

While many properties are booked year after year by the same hunt clubs, there are some properties available for new groups. If the past is any indication of the future, we expect to see more hunters and their families enjoying the outdoors together, enjoying all that New England Forestry land has to offer and helping to protect its forests.

To learn more about the hunting and recreation program, visit rayonierhunting.com.

The post New England Forestry and Hunters Work Together for Healthy Forests appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

KINGSLAND, Georgia—Did you know a single tree might be used to produce multiple products, such as lumber, plywood and paper pulp?

A harvest operation does not simply involve taking trees and loading them onto trucks. Rather, they are carefully inspected one-by-one, sorted by size and quality, cut to specific lengths, and sent to different facilities depending on what they are destined to become.

The most important role in a harvest is that of the loader operator. With a trained eye, he or she can determine how to sort the logs without ever stepping out of the cab of the loader. The operator must judge the logs’ diameter, straightness and overall form to determine how to cut them and what products they will ultimately become.

One Tree Makes Many Products

During a recent harvest, Timber Marketing Manager Rusty Cobb walked the length of one tree that had been set aside for demonstration purposes. He explained that single tree would be cut into three pieces:

• Thanks to its large (above 8-inches) diameter and its straightness, the first two 19-foot, 5-inch sections of the tree would make excellent export logs. This is the most valuable use for logs on this property.
• The skinnier top of the tree didn’t have enough diameter to become an export log. Instead, it would become a 25-foot chip-n-saw log, used to make boards and paper pulp.

A loader operator makes the same type of determination for thousands of trees during the course of the harvest. Different log sorts will be loaded onto different trailers, which will then be driven to various mills or export yards.

Types of Products Southern Yellow Pines Become

Here are the products Rayonier’s Southern Yellow Pine forests are typically sorted into, in order from most valuable to least:

• Export logs. These high-value logs are cut to shipping container length, then they’re shipped to countries in other parts of the world, which use them to make lumber and veneer.
• Poles. Also meeting very specific standards for straightness, size and quality, these logs are destined to become utility poles or pilings for structures like docks. Watch how our foresters identify poles in this video.
• Domestic Saw Timber. The next-best use for a large, straight log without defect is domestic saw timber. These logs are made into larger lumber, such as 2X10s and 2X8s. 
• Chip-N-Saw. These logs are used to make smaller cuts of lumber, like 2x4s and 2X6s, with leftovers chipped and used for pulp.
• Canterwood. While smaller and thus less valuable than Chip-N-Saw, canterwood makes small boards. Again, the rest of the wood is chipped and used for pulp.
• Pulpwood. The logs used for pulpwood are smaller in diameter and / or crooked, knotty or flawed, thus not ideal for making into lumber. Pulpwood is broken down into pulp, then made into paper and thousands of everyday products. You can read about many of the little-known products made from pulpwood here.

The Result of More Than 20 Years of Work

So how did the trees get to this point? Here’s a quick overview of the work our foresters put into it:

• A specific group of trees called a stand was planted in this location by a forester 20 years or more ago.
• Over the decades that followed, our team kept an eye on how the forest was progressing. Early in its lifecycle, we may have used herbicide to eliminate competing weeds that would have killed the trees or stunted their growth.
• We may have given the trees fertilizer as needed over the years to encourage their growth.
• If we saw any sign of disease or insect infestation, we worked to eliminate it as quickly as possible.
• And about 10-15 years after planting, we thinned the forest, taking weaker and diseased trees to the pulp mill. That left more space for the strongest trees to grow to their full potential.

As a Timber Marketing Manager, it’s Rusty’s job to make that 20+ year investment pay off. To do that, he estimates what types of products are in the stand of trees even before the harvest begins. He does this by measuring plots in the timber stand (see his demonstration of a timber cruise here). Once he has an idea of the value, he can either directly sell the timber to various facilities, hiring a logging crew to harvest and deliver the timber, or he can sell the standing timber to a dealer who will then manage the logging and sales to the mills.

What Happens After a Timber Harvest

Once the harvest is complete, planning for the next generation of trees begins. If needed, the land will be prepared through raking or chopping debris to break it down; plowing the soil into long mounds if the water table is high; and then planting the next stand of trees, ideally within a year of the harvest. Then the cycle begins all over again, with foresters nurturing that forest for another 20+ years until it’s time to harvest again. Laid out like a patchwork quilt in the forest, each stand of trees is at a different stage in the lifecycle, allowing a richly diverse habitat for the wildlife of the forest and ensuring a steady supply of wood for generations to come.

The post What Happens During a Timber Harvest? appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

LUFKIN, Texas—Did you ever look at a towering, perfectly-straight utility pole and wonder what tree could have made such a large pole?

Some of them come from New England Forestry land!

The most valuable trees on our land in the U.S. South, “pole” trees can become utility poles for telephone and power lines or piles for docks and piers.

“It Starts with Genetics”

Pine trees in a natural forest typically do not provide a large number of poles, explains Rayonier’s Lufkin-based senior timber marketing manager, Jeremy Flood. But our in-house genetic research team has worked to develop seed families that produce tall, straight trees with smaller branches.

“It starts with genetics,” Jeremy says, “followed by decades of management with proper thinning and fertilization. The result is mature plantations with high quality grade timber.”

Finding the Right Trees for Poles

Even though the trees in a stand of timber are the same age and species, they still mature to a variety of shapes and sizes. A forest manager ensures each tree reaches its highest potential use. Trees worthy of becoming poles are the rarest—and, consequently, the most valuable—because of the very specific requirements that must be met in order to qualify.

Without careful planning and attention to detail, one could overlook these valuable trees, selling them as sawtimber, a significantly less valuable product. Jeremy’s team created a plan to ensure as many trees as possible became poles.

“It Would Be a Waste Not to Capture Their Full Potential”

“These stands have been nurtured and grown for more than 25 years. It would be a waste to not capture their full potential,” says timber marketing manager Shane Bergman, who spearheaded the project.

To locate potential poles before a harvest, a forest technician takes an inventory, statistically measuring the stand of trees to locate those that meet the size specifications needed for poles. Our foresters work closely with a logging contractor, who cuts them down, separates them from the other trees, and places them to the side for the next step.

Strict Specifications for a Log to Become a Pole

Once the poles are laying side-by-side in a giant row, a forester inspects them one-by-one. He measures them to ensure they’re straight, with an even thickness and free of defects like scars and knots that could penetrate the wood. They also have to be the right diameter for the customer’s needs.

“Poles have very tight specifications required by the customer and consumer,” Jeremy explains.  “It’s not all cosmetic, much of the specs are required for engineering purposes, to ensure strength and longevity.”

They reject, or “cull,” logs that don’t meet the rigorous standards and use them for sawtimber. Using a chainsaw, they manually cut those that meet the standards to the exact size specifications of the buyer.

The logger delivers the logs to a pole mill to be processed into the final product.

Shane couldn’t be happier with the way the project worked out.

“It’s exciting to scale poles because of the relationships you build,” he says. “As you work with the contractors you get to learn about them and see that they have the same values as New England Forestry when it comes to being a good steward of the forest. We truly get to work with some great individuals.”

The post Where Do Utility Poles Come From? appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

GLENNVILLE, Georgia—How do you convince a tree it’s years—maybe even decades—older than it really is? Rayonier’s genetics research team does it by using a technique called top grafting.

The process shaves a massive amount of time off our advances in tree genetics research.

Rather than waiting for a new seedling to mature to seed-producing age (about 7 years), our seed production team grafts our most promising trees with older trees.

Top Grafting in the Treetops

Climbing into aerial lifts to reach the treetops, the team fuses shoots (branch ends) from genetically superior young trees onto the end of the older trees’ branches at the top of the crown. The young tree shoots then perform as though they are the age of the older trees.

This leads the promising new trees to produce seeds within the year, allowing us to plant and research how their progeny perform. The best performers from the seeds we plant will be selected for mass planting in our seed orchards.

Pot Grafting Promising Trees

Similar grafting techniques are then used on smaller rootstocks in a method called pot grafting. Once we select the ideal trees to use in an orchard, we want to get a whole lot of these trees in a short period of time so we can plant them and generate seeds that will be used throughout our ownership. We do this by attaching the shoots of the superior trees to potted trees, allowing our team to make hundreds of copies of the best trees in a matter of days. These will then be planted in the orchard, where trees are spaced farther apart to allow more branching—and thus, more pinecones—to produce millions of seeds.

The post New England Forestry Researchers Save Time and Increase Quality with Grafting appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.