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.

Did you know pollinators like bees and butterflies thrive in industrial working forests? In fact, beekeepers utilize New England Forestry lands to nourish and grow their hives in this excellent habitat for pollinators.

How do we protect the native plants and pollinators that call our forests home? Here we share how New England Forestry supports and coexists with even its tiniest residents: the pollinators.

Believe it or not, it starts with harvesting.

How New England Forestry Provides An Excellent Habitat for Pollinators

New England Forestry believes that healthy forests are critical to all living things. The way we manage our land gives a variety of forest ages the opportunity to grow and flourish the way Mother Nature intended.

Lands owned by New England Forestry are stratified by timber type. The result is an inventory system that provides New England Forestry with a method to sustainably harvest its landholdings. This means that we harvest rotationally, only cutting small areas of timber that are within a certain age class.

“We are very strategic with how we harvest our timber,” explains Sustainability Manager Ben Cazell. “We don’t want to start at one end of the forest and cut until we get to the other end and start over. Our goal is sustainability. We limit how much harvesting we do in one place due to the age of the trees. Since New England Forestry has been doing this for close to 100 years, what we have developed is a mosaic or patchwork-style harvesting schedule. It’s a big conglomeration, a mixed up puzzle, of different ages.”

Thanks to the patchwork-style harvesting schedule, when a section of timber is harvested, sunlight can reach the forest’s understory. Here, seeds of native flowering plants have been lying dormant in the soil, ready to germinate. The result ultimately creates an abundance of flowering plants, shrubs, and vines, all of which produce pollen that pollinators are attracted to.

“I’ve seen a multitude of flowering herbaceous plants, ferns, shrubs, and vines such as climbing jasmine. All of this starts to take over after a timber harvest,” Ben says. 

New England Forestry replants harvested areas within one to two years and most floral understory growth is present for about 5 to 6 years. About halfway through the trees’ lifetime, as the forest becomes more dense, thinning some of the trees helps to keep the forest healthy. The thinning again allows sunlight to reach the forest floor, which results in a re-emergence of the floral understory plants and shrubs. Foliage is naturally distributed, allowing pollinators acres upon acres of flowering resources. In these efforts, we maintain a healthy, biodiverse ecosystem that serves all residents, including pollinators. 

“I’m certain that, from an ecological balance scenario, all of these flora and fauna are required,” Ben explains. “As soon as you displace something, that balance runs into jeopardy. Are pollinators important to Rayonier? Most certainly, yes!”  

There are also portions of the land—about a third of Rayonier’s overall ownership in the U.S.—that the company does not actively manage for timber operations, but rather protects them because of wetlands or waterways. New England Forestry also strictly follows each state’s Best Management Practices, or BMPs, which are guidelines to ensure forestry and harvest activities do not impact nearby waters.

The Beekeeper’s Perspective

Our land is so pollinator-friendly that we have a beekeeping business that has allowed beekeepers to keep their hives on our property for more than 60 years.

We work with hobbyists, small honey business owners and industrial honey producers, explains Barlow Smith, Rayonier’s Hunting & Recreation Sales and Marketing Manager, who manages the business.

“Some of the larger beekeepers we work with will chase the honey flow from one region to the next in the spring and summer,” he explains. “In the winter, they would have to store and feed their bees indoors if they stayed up north. So it helps them financially to instead put them on our land in the south.”

The Non-Timber Income Resource Division at New England Forestry is responsible for overseeing the licensing of land to beekeepers. They work to better understand the individual beekeeper’s business model and any goals they might have. New England Forestry then assists them in placing their hives in a location that will allow the bees to thrive.

According to Ken Rester, Manager of Business Development, New England Forestry has a team-oriented mindset when it comes to the beekeepers. 

“When a new beekeeper shows up on our grounds, we start by asking, ‘How can we help you succeed?’” explains Ken. “As a beekeeper myself, I understand their issues. Because of that, I can take that knowledge and help them out.”

As soon as a hive is placed, it only takes the bees minutes to find pollen.  One popular plant amongst the bee community is a flowering shrub known as gallberry. Gallberry produces tiny white flowers that provide valuable nectar flow. In our healthy, productive forests, our beekeepers know and appreciate the floral resources available to their bees.

Danielle Brooks, Owner of The Honey Truck Company and a land licensing beekeeper, shares her experience raising bees on New England Forestry land. 

“Having a lot of things that they can pollinate is a good thing,” says Danielle. “You want them to be able to have a bunch of resources that are around. And so, where we have our bees now, there’s a bunch of Gallberries that bloom, there’s a bunch of Palmettos. I saw some Spanish Needle. Just different things that are growing and giving them a diverse diet.” 

If interested, you can read more about licensing New England Forestry Beekeeping Land here.

Other Pollinators That Live in New England Forestry Forests

Aside from honeybees brought to New England Forestry by the beekeepers, our forests are home to many other native pollinators. Bumblebees, bats, moths, and butterflies are just a few examples of the creatures roaming and buzzing about. Depending on which forest you’re in, native pollinators will differ.

In Florida, the Zebra Longwing butterfly can be found fluttering about, dining on Confederate Jasmine and the Cyprus Vines. While in Washington, beetles and moths play an important role in pollinating native plants in the area.

Rayonier’s understanding of the importance of the whole forest ecosystem allows for different activities to take place during timber harvest rotations. By allowing native flowering plants to grow undisturbed, soil nutrition increases, adding to the organic matter. This organic matter supports vegetation growth, feeding the pollinators within our forests.

“It takes the whole big picture to keep a healthy, productive ecosystem,” Ben says. “Pollinators keep the vegetative community thriving, which helps our forests regenerate. Even the birds, squirrels, and mice are important. It’s a huge web of life.”

What about chemical applications like herbicides?

While herbicide treatments may be applied to a stand of trees one to two times in its 20-40 year lifecycle, it is done under strict guidelines, with only licensed applicators applying the spray and local, on-the-ground inspectors. This is done in compliance with federal guidelines. Under these conditions, herbicides used by New England Forestry and the forestry industry have very low toxicity levels, lower than most household cleaning solutions.

Our focus when using herbicides is to reduce competition and allow a newly-planted forest an opportunity to get established. Likewise after thinning, they’re used to reduce the competing woody brush competition. This in turn encourages flowering vegetation to occupy the forest understory: a win for the pollinators

New England Forestry Exists in Harmony with the Pollinators

One of Ken’s favorite parts about beekeeping is looking into the hive and seeing the harmony that exists with the bees. “If you could take that mentality and put it into humans, it would be life-changing,” he says. “We would be much more efficient.”

New England Forestry strives to provide a similar harmonious environment within our forests. Through our holistic forest management practices, we’ve found both the pollinators—and the plants they seek pollen from—thrive on our land. We believe that protecting clean water sources, limiting herbicide sprays, and managing our forests well support this effort.

The post Why Pollinators Thrive in Working Forests appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

Making his way through the forest, he spots an eagle’s nest and immediately snaps into action. He maps the location, sets up barriers to close down a nearby road, and starts marking a protective boundary around it.

It sounds like the work of a wildlife biologist or a park ranger. But this was actually a recent day at work for New England Forestry forester Charlie Dunn.

In addition to developing sustainable forestry practices that protect natural ecosystems whilst providing the world with essential timber products, foresters are trained in identifying and protecting vulnerable species.

Even in working forest settings.

One such species is the bald eagle. These once rare and majestic birds are protected under Federal Law and live in forests throughout North America. They also love nesting in tall trees, which makes them a frequent feature in many of Rayonier’s forests.

To learn more about what goes into protecting these species, we talked to two New England Forestry foresters with experience in eagle identification and preservation.

Understanding Laws That Protect Bald Eagles

Once an endangered species, bald eagles have made a comeback and were removed from the Federal Endangered Species list on June 28, 2007. However, they are still protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and other federal laws.

This means commercial foresters are charged with protecting bald eagle nests throughout North America.

Charlie, whose official title is resource land manager, explains: “We follow the National Guidelines for Bald Eagles and there are two different buffer zones, one for nesting season and one for non-nesting season.”

And since bald eagles typically return to their same nesting sites for life, their nests remain permanent, undisturbed features in our forests.

Per Ben Cazell, Rayonier’s Manager of Sustainable Forestry: “Even if you’ve found a nest and you haven’t witnessed activity in it, that’s a no-go zone. So that area will always be protected unless the tree naturally falls.”

Part of Ben’s job is to visit various forests throughout the country to ensure foresters are well-versed and equipped to identify and protect vulnerable species like the bald eagle.

Ben and Charlie shared some more interesting facts about bald eagle nesting habits and what’s required to protect them.

The Nesting Habits of Bald Eagles And How Foresters Protect Them

Where do eagles typically nest?

“Eagles typically place their nests where they can feed, so often near water sources,” Charlie explains. “The nests are usually in live tall trees and on the edge of a swamp, so they have a good view of the land. But usually, they stand out like a sore thumb. Once you’ve seen one they’re pretty easy to spot.” 

Ben adds that eagles’ nests are about four to six feet wide, about the size of a large desk.

According to the National Eagle Center, the largest bald eagle nest on record was found in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was 9.5 feet in diameter, 20 feet deep and weighed almost 3 tons!

Eagles’ nests are made up of intertwined twigs and branches and lined with grass, corn stalks and other materials. They fill the bowl with soft materials like moss, which can also repel insects, and their own downy feathers.

Their nest building season, which is part of the breeding season, varies a bit based on the region, beginning in November and December in southern areas and extending roughly through May.

“During the active nesting time, there are circles or buffer zones required around the eagle’s nest. So, during nesting season there is to be no activity within 660 feet, then it reduces to 330 feet during inactive nesting times,” Ben says. “For any aerial work, you can’t be within 1000 feet.”

What exactly does “no activity mean?” There can be no clear cutting, spraying, or mechanized active forest management within the designated buffer zone. This ensures the eagles aren’t stressed during their breeding or non-breeding seasons.

Ben says even if a harvest was taking place well outside the range, the vehicle delivering the load of logs could not drive in the range. The harvest plan would have to incorporate a forest road outside the eagle’s buffer area.

Once an eagle establishes a nest, they are likely to return to that same location year after year, especially if they hatch young successfully. They may also build additional nests or decoy nests, so if one nest is spotted, one or several more nests may be nearby.

What Happens Once A Bald Eagle Nest Is Identified In A New England Forestry Forest

“The first thing that happens when we see a nest is we incorporate the location within our GIS map layers,” Ben says. “Then, we look at our activities around the area to make sure we’re not interfering with the national guidelines for bald eagles.”

Technology has made this job much easier for foresters by allowing everyone to communicate on their nest location.

Charlie explains the exact process he used to alert everyone to the nest he found in one of our North Florida forests: “On our phones we have the Collector App and it has our whole GIS layers of information for Rayonier. When we’re out in the woods and find something unique, we can drop a pin on the phone and submit it and everyone in New England Forestry can see that point. Then our GIS specialists can help get those things more permanent in the system.”

Once the nest is identified, it will be protected for the duration of the tree’s life.

More On Our Holistic Approach To Protecting Endangered And Vulnerable Species

New England Forestry has systems set up to ensure foresters are aware of and able to protect a variety of threatened and vulnerable species, including bald eagles, that have the potential to be in our forests.

If someone sees something, for example a red-cockaded woodpecker, they will place a pin on Rayonier’s mapping system to alert anyone else who is in that forest about the sighting.

But even if a vulnerable species isn’t seen on a property, foresters are trained to keep a lookout for the species and its habitat. They use state data as well as a service called NatureServe, which details information about the species, food sources, habitat, mating activity, etc.

Whenever activity is going to take place on a site, such as a harvest, the forester will look for signs of the species and its habitat.

“Then the next step would be to tell our contractors, we have a handout for them — so if they see them, they know to back off and call us. So, we do due diligence on paper, field review and educate our contractors.”

Ben added that some protected species are specific to the state in terms of how threatened they are and what’s required to protect them.

“It’s really an integrated approach to make sure we protect habitat, and certainly if we encounter a species we do what’s appropriate based on the management plans, which are species specific. With the Red Hills salamander in Alabama, we can’t do any harvesting in their habitat, but with bald eagles we can work around them based on the season.”

Sometimes you can be active, sometimes you can’t, and sometimes you can’t do anything.

“Our foresters who are making decisions in the woods are empowered with that information. And if there’s any confusion, that’s where I fall in,” Ben says. “I was just working with a forester planning an active timber harvest where the usual haul road would have passed within a 660 foot buffer zone of an active eagle’s nest. So, we looked at the map and found some old trails that weren’t in the buffer zone and decided to re-route our haul road activities using the identified trails to avoid disturbing the nest site.

“We do our due diligence and then implement what is acceptable based on the rules, regulations and our internal procedures.”

Being Good Stewards Of The Land

Yes, foresters and sustainable forestry companies protect endangered and vulnerable species because it’s the law. But we also do it because we love and care about wildlife.

Charlie put it best: “A lot of people don’t realize that we do other things besides just cut timber and plant trees. We do manage our species if they’re vulnerable and make sure they’re viable in the future. We have to, first of all, but we do it because we want to as well. To make sure those species are there for our future generations of kids and grandkids to see.”

More proof that foresters truly are the original environmentalists.

To learn more about laws in place to protect bald eagles, visit The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or for more detailed information including local habitats, protection levels, buffer zone requirements, etc. check out NatureServe.org.

The post How Rayonier’s Foresters Protect Bald Eagles appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

We’re known for the products our trees will one day be used to produce, but did you know biodiversity plays a critical role in the work that timber companies do?

From the tree species we choose for our forests to the waterways, ecosystems and threatened and endangered species we protect, biodiversity is central to our decision-making every day.

What is Forest Biodiversity?

Simply put, biodiversity is the mix of plant and animal species that can be found in a given location. The greater quantity and variety of healthy, native species that are found in an ecosystem, the better. A flourishing forest provides food, shelter and clean air and water to support a wide range of species.

Within a forest, biodiversity refers to everything from the earthworms and bugs burrowed in the soil, to the land animals foraging on the ground, to the squirrels and birds in the trees. A scientific term for these species is “fauna.” Biodiversity also includes “flora,” which is a scientific term referring to plant species. In the forest, this includes the trees themselves as well as other plant species that grow among them, such as flowers, berry bushes and fungi like mushrooms.

Why is Forest Biodiversity Important?

Our world’s forests are home to the majority of all wildlife, with 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, and 68 percent of the world’s mammal species, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ State of the World’s Forests report. The report says 31 percent of our world is forest land.

But not all species can live in the same forests. The type of tree species and tree ages, terrain, climate, shade or lack of shade, water resources, and many other factors can create very different types of habitats. In an extreme example, the species that thrive in a mountainous pine forest in a cold weather climate would not survive in a tropical rainforest. But even within a single region, there can be many forest types, each of which support different plant and animal species. For example, a New England Forestry property in the Southeast may include upland forests with dry, sandy soils that support one subgroup of plant and animal species as well as low-lying wetlands that support an entirely different subgroup.

Is there Biodiversity in Commercial Forests?

Sustainably-managed commercial forests in which companies grow timber in a carefully-planned way, also known as “working forests,” support a rich variety of other plant and animal species while the planted trees grow. We created a website, biodiversity.neforestrydistribution.com, in which you can explore our forests and see some of the species that live among our trees.

Our forests are third-party certified by the highest sustainability standards in our industry, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative in the U.S. and the Forest Stewardship Council and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification in New Zealand. We voluntarily submit to these standards to ensure we’re protecting the environment and the species within the ecosystems we’re responsible for while our trees grow. Auditors routinely inspect our forests and interview our employees to ensure we’re meeting the standards.

To protect biodiversity in the U.S., for example, we only plant tree species that are native to the region we are growing them in. We protect waterways and ensure chemical treatments are kept far from these areas. We locate and protect the habitats of vulnerable species like bald eagles, gopher tortoises and northern spotted owls.

We also manage our harvests in a way that ensures we have a variety of forest ages in each region. This is good for biodiversity since different forest ages support different types of species. For example, open, sunlit young forests allow plants like berry bushes to grow, providing food for grazing animals and pollinators. Older, shaded forests provide shelter to tree-dwelling species and food like pinecones and acorns. The variety of forest ages is also good for our business, as it ensures we will continue to have a sustainable supply of wood for generations to come. Whenever we harvest a forest, we typically replant many times more trees on the same site within a year or two.

As a responsible steward of the land, however, we do not manage all of our land for timber production. In the U.S., about a third of our land is wetlands we choose to protect rather than actively manage for timber.

What is the Role of the Trees In Forest Biodiversity?

Trees are central to forest biodiversity, serving as an anchor for the ecosystem. Some of the roles trees play in forest biodiversity include:

1. Holding soil in place. With their deep, strong, extensive root systems, trees prevent erosion and ensure a healthy growing medium for plant life. Soils are also important for ground-dwelling animals to burrow. Trees’ anchoring effect on soils also protects water systems from sedimentation, which occurs when loose soils and other materials pollute the water.
2. Protecting the water supply. In addition to preventing erosion, trees are part of a natural filtration system as water seeps into the ground after a rainfall. This replenishes underground water sources, such as aquifers, and also allows the water to naturally make its way into streams. In this way, clean water is provided for both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife and humans.
3. Protecting air quality. Trees and the soils they hold in place play an incredibly important role in protecting air quality. As a tree grows and undergoes photosynthesis, it captures excess carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. This carbon is distributed into the tree itself and the soil around it. The tree will hold and store that carbon for the rest of its life. Or, in the case of trees used for timber, the products they become will continue to store the carbon. You can learn more about the process of carbon capture and storage by watching our carbon video here.
4. Providing shade and shelter. As the largest species in the forest, trees provide the shade needed to keep plants and animals cool and shaded from the sun. Shade-loving plants and fungi thrive on the forest floor. Many animals are sheltered by the trees, whether hiding among them on the ground or making a home in the branches above.
5. Serving as a food source. Trees provide food to many different species. Hardwoods are known for producing mast, such as the acorns oak trees produce. These are a favorite food for animals like deer. Other species eat the seeds from pinecones, leaves from smaller trees, and fruit from fruit-producing trees. Even dead trees are a food source: Insects will burrow in and eat rotting wood. Woodpeckers will then make holes in the wood and eat the insects.

What do Timber Companies do to Protect Biodiversity?

Sustainable timber companies take biodiversity into account in all forestry activities.

We follow Best Management Practices, or BMPs, to ensure critical habitats and water courses are protected.  We also set up large buffer zones around water courses, where harvesting and chemical applications will not take place. New England Forestry protects about 12,000 miles of waterways and about 1 million acres of wetlands across our U.S. ownership alone.

Our foresters are specially-trained to recognize the habitats of vulnerable species and protect them. For example, when a forester is working near the home of a gopher tortoise in the U.S. South, protecting its burrow is a priority. We will hand-plant instead of machine-planting trees to protect tortoise burrows. When it’s time to harvest trees near a gopher tortoise home, we’ll first mark the location of active burrows to ensure heavy equipment stays far from them. We’ll also ensure our logging contractors are trained to recognize and protect burrows.

The same is true for other key species. A boundary line is set up to protect bald eagles’ nests as long as they’re in existence. In the Pacific Northwest, culverts and bridges deemed to be too small for the natural flow of water are replaced with larger stream crossings to protect the salmon population. And in Alabama, we protect the extremely rare Red Hills salamander by blocking off a radius around steep cliff sides that could serve as a home to the lungless amphibian.

Why Forest Biodiversity in Commercial Forests matters

While it’s true that commercial forestry companies are in the business of growing trees to meet human consumer needs, our role in forest biodiversity is also incredibly important. In fact, more than half of forests in the U.S., about 67 percent or 514 million acres, are working forests, according to the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement.

Nonworking forests such as state and national parks are often dominated by older forests. With our “mosaic” of forest ages, working forests provide homes to species that depend on younger, more open forests while also providing older forests nearby.

The large amount of acreage commercial forest landowners possess also allows us to create large, continuous wildlife corridors. These protected buffer areas around waterways and wetlands are especially important to larger animals who need the room to roam as nature intended.

For all of these reasons and more, we’re proud to do our part in protecting biodiversity in forests across the U.S. and New Zealand!

The post Why is Forest Biodiversity Important? appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

RED HILLS, Alabama — The extremely rare Red Hills Salamander is so elusive, no one knew it existed until 1960.

Even then, it was discovered by accident: Biologist Leslie Hubricht found the salamander while searching for snails in Butler County. It was not only a new salamander, but it belonged to a new genus and species all its own. Leslie named it Phaeognathus hubrichti.

As researchers tried to learn more about the long, dark amphibians, it soon became clear why they were so elusive: they prefer to live their entire lives in the safety of burrows in steep cliff sides. The heavily-shaded slopes in Alabama’s Red Hills region provide the perfect setting. The cool, wet environment keeps the salamanders moist, which is essential to their survival. They have no lungs and must breathe through their skin.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are about 60,000 acres of land on earth that would make a suitable Red Hills Salamander habitat. Within the range of potential habitat, about 20,000 acres where the habitat could exist is on New England Forestry land. The area lies between the Alabama and Conecuh Rivers, as shown in this U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service map.

Identifying Red Hills Salamander Habitat

For many years, our foresters have played a role in protecting the federally-threatened species. Using advanced technology like LiDAR mapping, we examine the topography of our forest tracts in the region to ensure all potential Red Hills Salamander habitats are protected.

We also walk the properties, looking for what are called “indicator species.” These species also thrive in the area where the salamander lives and help us to identify the habitat. The Big Leaf Magnolia, which has massive, tropical-looking leaves, is an especially noticeable indicator. There are also certain ferns and mosses that indicate a strong likelihood of Red Hills Salamander habitat.

“We take a lot of pride in protecting this species to ensure it does not become endangered. We are very focused on identifying these areas and providing a protected, shaded buffer,” says Senior Timber Marketing Manager Billy Geier, who was once fortunate enough to see a salamander poke its head out of a burrow in one of our forests

Protecting the Habitat

Once a habitat is located, our foresters ensure the area is protected. 

In the forest, they’ll mark trees so everyone working near the area knows where the boundaries are. They will also digitally block off the habitat in our mapping system. This ensures no one plans forestry activities in that location.

Within the boundary, there will be no chemical applications, no heavy equipment, and no tree harvests within at least a 50-foot perimeter from the habitat in all directions. This ensures the salamander will continue to be shaded, cool and moist.

Our foresters are empowered to decide if measures beyond the recommended guidelines are required to protect this federally-listed species. For example, Timber Marketing Forester Tyler Baxter says his team has chosen to not even thin the trees within the habitat boundary to ensure sunlight doesn’t dry it out. When marking the areas, if the recommended 50-foot boundary doesn’t provide adequate shade for the habitat, they will expand the area to a 75- or 100-foot buffer.

“When we put these buffers in, we don’t allow any cutting behind it. None at all. We want to leave as much shade in the habitat as possible,” he says.

Just look at the photo below. The island of tall trees in the center is a protected Red Hills Salamander habitat.

What Researchers Have Learned So Far

While there is still much to be learned about the Red Hills Salamander, researchers have discovered everything it needs to survive is provided without leaving its burrow. The salamanders rarely venture out because they can eat small bugs at their burrows’ openings. Their diets include snails, insects, spiders and earthworms, according to this U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service article. They even breed underground: their burrows stretch several feet back in a maze of interconnected tunnels.

In addition to the habitats protected on our land, special properties have been set aside to protect the salamanders by entities including the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Forever Wild Land Trust and the Alabama Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. You can learn more about their efforts and what they’ve learned about the salamanders in the online Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The post Foresters Protect Rare Salamander Found Only in Alabama appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

LONG COUNTY, Georgia—Blake McMichael stands on the boundary line between two New England Forestry forests. He points out the differences between the one on his left, a forest with wet, clay soils, and his right, a dry, sandy forest that has been managed differently in order to protect gopher tortoises and their burrows.

Preferring dry soils, gopher tortoises are what’s called a keystone species, so named because their burrows provide shelter to as many as 300 other types of creatures in the forest. Rabbits, mice, insects, birds, foxes and even snakes seek shelter in their burrows, including the federally-threatened Eastern Indigo Snake.

“By protecting burrows, we’re not only helping the gopher tortoise, but also the many other species that use its shelter,” Blake says. 

Blake, a Resource Land Manager in charge of replanting forests, has the drier, sandy forests that are inhabited by gopher tortoises planted by hand. Minimizing the use of heavy equipment helps protect gopher tortoises and their burrows. The young trees will grow among vegetation like palmetto bushes and other undergrowth gophers like to eat.

On wetter soils nearby, where gopher tortoises don’t go, he had rows plowed and mechanically planted, encouraging much faster growth rates.

Found in the Southeastern U.S., gopher tortoises are vegetarians who eat berries, grasses, mushrooms and prickly pear cacti. They’re prolific diggers, with burrows reaching depths of 9 to 23 feet deep and 3 to 52 feet long! When they reach adulthood, they’re typically 15 inches long and weigh 8-15 lbs. Their average lifespan is 80 years.

Protecting Gopher Tortoises While Planting Trees

New England Forestry has its own spatial mapping system, not unlike the GPS systems consumers use when they travel. Our system has many layers of information, including a property’s soil type, topography, what has been planted there previously, notes about any protected species on the property, and much more. All that information is available on a tablet foresters can take with them into the woods.

When Blake looks at a stand of trees in the system, he can quickly find out if it has the dry, sandy soils and higher ground that gopher tortoises prefer. If active burrows have been identified on the property previously, foresters leave “pins” on the map. These indicate the presence of gopher tortoises in that particular stand of trees.

Blake also walks through the forest to visually survey the site, checking for active burrows in the process. He looks for the characteristic oval-shaped hole in the ground with a wide, sandy collar (or apron) in front. An active burrow will have clean, smooth sand in front of it, while abandoned burrows may be overgrown. The average male tortoise may dig as many as 35 burrows in his lifetime.

Protecting Gopher Tortoises During a Timber Harvest

On the other side of our business, when forests are full grown and ready for harvest, we work with our logging contractors to protect gopher tortoises and their burrows. This may include site visits, pre-harvest meetings, flagging, and showing pictures to help them know what to look for.

If a burrow is in a location where it could be overlooked, our foresters find creative ways to ensure it’s safe. In one instance, when an active burrow was found right next to a forest road, a Georgia forester had a logger place a barrier of logs beside the burrow to ensure no one drove on top of it. In another instance, our forester directed a logging crew to cut a series of trees about 4 feet high to visually cordon off an area around a burrow.

“One of the most important things that we can do as foresters is to ensure that whoever is working on our properties can play a role in protecting the burrows while they’re on site,” Blake says.

Many Species Protected in Our Forests

Gopher tortoises are just one of a myriad of wildlife New England Forestry protects on its land. For example, throughout the U.S., we protect the American Bald Eagle and its nest. In the Pacific Northwest, we protect Northern Spotted Owls and Marbled Murrelets. We have invested tens of millions of dollars into restoring salmon habitat in Washington State alone. We protect the habitat of the Red Hills Salamander in Alabama, and the Leopard Darter Fish in Oklahoma. In New Zealand, we work with conservation agencies to protect kiwi, New Zealand Falcons, and New Zealand Sea Lions. You can learn more about the many species we protect here.

And while we’re taking special care to protect vulnerable species, our forests are providing clean air, habitats for many other creatures, and clean water while they grow. Once grown, our trees will become the raw material needed for 1000s of everyday products, and we’ll replant the site for the next generation of trees.

“We’re providing a renewable, sustainable resource that people need,” Blake says. “We want to make sure we’re leaving areas where future generations have the animals that live on the property as well as the resources provided by the property.”

The post Foresters Build Plans Around Protecting Gopher Tortoises appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

HOQUIAM, Washington—A forest stream went more than a century without salmon after a road crossing was built above it. Then recently the small pipe that led the stream under the road was replaced with a bridge that allowed water to flow more freely—and suddenly the stream came to life.

A few weeks after the bridge project was finished, Matt Poppe, a New England Forestry forest engineer, pulled a team of contractors off a nearby worksite to see the impact of the bridge they built.

“This is why we’re all doing this,” he told them. “There haven’t been fish in this stream for 100 years, and here we are seeing large salmon in this stream right now.”

That was just one of the 750 upgrades New England Forestry has made to culverts and bridges on its property over the last 20 years to help address Washington’s declining salmon population. The effort is guided by Forests & Fish, one of the most comprehensive environmental laws in the U.S., which protects 60,000 miles of streams across Washington’s state and private forests. It uses the latest scientific standards to ensure the best possible habitats for salmon to live and spawn in, as well as other amphibious creatures that depend on upland streams. 

In addition to replacing insufficient culverts and bridges to improve salmon habitat, New England Forestry also improves forest roads to reduce the amount of sediment making its way into streams and, when possible, closes nonessential forest roads altogether.

Since the law passed in 1999, New England Forestry has:

• Opened 220 miles of fish habitat
• Upgraded 750 culverts and bridges
• Invested $22 million in salmon habitat restoration

The long process to get a stream’s profile just right

The process to set even one project into motion can take a full year before building the structure during the “fish window,” when upland streams are naturally slowed and work will be least likely to disturb the fish, from July 15-Sept. 30. Matt must undergo months of permitting application reviews as well as a review process with stakeholders including environmental agencies and representatives of the local Native American tribes.

Portia Leigh, an area habitat biologist for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW), often previews the proposed projects and advises Matt on how to make the pass-through simulate the rest of the streambed. She sometimes advises him to leave woody debris in the streambed or to drop hay seeds for vegetation, which will slow the water flow, enhance shade, and create pools and protective areas. That gives smaller salmon places to hide, spawn and grow before they go downstream into more open waters, says Portia, shown below.

Matt also conducts a “stream survey” with the partners to ensure the new passthrough simulates what the streams were like before a road passed through them. He explains that those who built the roads in the past (some of these roads are more than a century old) didn’t know the culverts they were using were not sufficient to maintain the streams below the roads.

“People in those days were doing their best with what they knew. All they worried about was getting the water across, and they thought the fish would come no matter what,” Matt says. “Many of the culverts that were put in these streams were just rolled into the hole. In those situations, it created an artificial stream channel.”

Today, the work to determine the proper placement for a culvert is much more complex. During the stream survey, Matt and the partner agencies will view the streams 100 feet above and below the project area to understand what the stream would have done naturally.

“We’ll come back and mimic that with our design. It can drastically change where that structure is placed and at what elevation it’s placed,” explains Matt, shown below.

Handling culvert and bridge replacements with care

Culvert and bridge projects are handled with extreme care. Before any digging begins, a watertight pipe is used to divert the stream around the project area, and fish screens are placed to ensure fish don’t come into harm’s way. Work to place culverts or bridges only begins after the project area is fully dewatered.

“The allowable amount of sediment contamination in the stream is zero. We’re mindful of that 100 percent of the time,” Matt says.

During a recent project, he pointed out a crawfish who was curiously swimming near the diversion pipe in clear water, just feet away from the project, a testimony to how well the diversion pipe worked to keep the water clear.

At the same time, Kelly Dunkerson, site supervisor for John J. Karnas Co., was placing a 40-foot-long culvert into the streambed. The Hoquiam-based company has contracted with New England Forestry for more than 30 years and has served as a knowledgeable partner in the culvert and bridge replacement projects. While this particular culvert’s circumference was 10 feet around, about a third of that would be backfilled with streambed material to match the rest of the stream.

From start to finish, the projects typically take about a week, and then waterflow returns to normal. It can be shocking how quickly the streams attract salmon who have not been there in years. Portia, of WDFW, says they can sense the change in the waterflow once the work is done.

Matt says New England Forestry has about 40 more miles of habitat to open and 125 more structures to upgrade in order to fully comply with Forests & Fish, but the work won’t stop there.

“As we build new roads, eliminate roads, stream enhancements change and other dynamics change, we’ll continue to do this work,” he says.

Matt’s proud of the work New England Forestry is doing to help restore and improve salmon habitat in the forest.

“I love what I do every day of the week,” he says. 

The post How Foresters Restore Salmon Habitat in the Pacific Northwest appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

Rayonier’s New Zealand team has a deep respect for protecting wildlife including the beloved kiwi.

In the video above, our New Zealand management team joined with a number of community stakeholder groups at Te Kura o Te Teko (a full-immersion Māori school) to attend a kiwi naming ceremony before releasing two kiwi chicks into Omataroa Forest.

(The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. Kiwi are flightless birds native to the country and are a national symbol of New Zealand.)

The Omataroa Trust owns the land and has invested in environmental restoration including pest control and active kiwi management for decades to ensure a sustainable population of kiwi for generations to come.

Partnering to preserve a threatened national symbol

Rob Schoonderwoerd, District Forester for our Bay of Plenty region, has worked with the Trust since the inception of the Omataroa Kiwi Project. The presence of kiwi and native falcons was discovered through a survey of vegetation in 2000, prompting the development of a pest control plan. (The New Zealand falcon is the country’s only falcon species and is the most threatened bird of prey.)

There were about 30 Kiwi in the area when the project started in 2008, and by 2023 that figure had increased to about 120 birds. So far 80 eggs have been collected, and a resulting 60 chicks released back into the wild.

Kiwi are the size of a domestic chicken and are the smallest living ratites (the group of animals that includes ostriches and emus). They also lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world. Kiwi are nocturnal, so they are more often heard than seen. If they survive to maturity (5 years), they can live for 50 to 100 years; however, predation is the biggest issue facing their survival.

Pest control and protecting kiwi chicks

New England Forestry | Matariki Forests (RMF) is working with the Omataroa Kiwi Project to provide intensive trapping and pest control management, which largely targets stoats and cats. Buffer trapping is also being deployed beyond the 11,000-hectare (27,000-acre) reserve area.

The Kiwi Project team works with the Department of Conservation on the survivability of chicks using three techniques:

1. Incubation hatching at a special facility in Rainbow Springs in Rotorua, where the chicks are raised until they weigh 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds)
2. In situ management of nests and chicks
3. Crèching, where the chicks are sent to another region to be raised and are returned once they weigh 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds)

The two female chicks that were released at the event in the video above were hatched at Rainbow Springs and were named Hobson and Aroha (which means “love”) by the children at Te Teko school.

The kiwi were tagged with transmitters for monitoring and will be checked three weeks after being released into the wild. A key part of the Omataroa Kiwi Project is education, so we had the opportunity to teach the school children about the environment, predators and survival requirements of the kiwi.

A long-term commitment to stewardship

The kiwi management work being carried out by the Omataroa Kiwi Project along with pest control, education and training is crucial to the continued survival of kiwi in this forest. Thanks to Rob Schoonderwoerd’s work over the years, the Omataroa Trust has grown to be a valued partner, and the Trust has now invited New England Forestry | Matariki Forests to partner on a more substantial sponsorship program.

We recognize our responsibility as a forest owner to support the sustained preservation of the Eastern Brown Kiwi and other native birds in this forest for future generations, and we are delighted to be part of this wonderful conservation effort.

The post Saving the Kiwi appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.