Texas: 2,800 acres of forestland “protected” as a “working forest”
Times have change in the timber economy. It used to be that paper and
lumber companies needed to own millions of acres of forestland to
manage, or more often mismanage, supply costs at a profitable level.
But in the past decade major tax incentives, combined with major
investors getting out of the stock market, we’ve made selling
forestland the best way for paper and lumber companies to make money.
And what benefits industry even more is that they can now reframe the
whole notion of preservation, which use to mean no logging, with a
new version of “working preservation” which means business as usual
for industrial logging. 
They call this kind of conservation: “working
forest preservation.” And what are they preserving? Well, most often they
are preserving the production of lumber as more important than the
production of essential ecosystem services. And their advocates are
happy to tell you is that you really can have the best of both worlds.
But is that really true? Well some day it’d be great if we could live
in a world with credible ecologic accounting standards? See here:
–Editor, Forest Policy Research
Conservation Fund, Texas Forest Service and The Campbell Group, LLC,
announced today a conservation milestone: the completion of Texas’
first Forest Legacy project, the protection of more than 2,800 acres
of forestland adjacent to the Turkey Creek Unit of Big Thicket
National Preserve.
The Forest Legacy Program, funded by the USDA
Forest Service, works with state agencies and local landowners to
protect environmentally important forests that are threatened with
conversion to non-forest uses. Texas competed nationally with 90 other
projects and was one of 35 selected for 2008 Forest Legacy funding.
The project also received strong support from Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Kevin Brady, who helped secure
the program in Texas. The Conservation Fund, through a grant from the
Brown Foundation, provided remaining funds needed to complete the
transaction. “I was delighted to hear the announcement that the Turkey
Creek Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve had been chosen by the
Forest Service as one of the 35 projects selected for a 2008 Forest
Legacy grant,” said Hutchison. “I also applaud the work of The
Conservation Fund, the Brown Foundation, and The Campbell Group in
their help with this effort to add valuable forestland to the Big
Thicket. The Big Thicket is an important natural resource to the state
of Tex- as, and I am proud to lend my support to this important
initiative.” The state of Texas used the funds to purchase a working
forest conservation easement on the property. Under the conservation
easement, Crown Pine Timber 1, LP, a private forest managed by The
Campbell Group, LLC, retains ownership of the land as well as the
right to manage their land as a sustainable working forest. At the
same time, the easement serves as an important buffer to Big Thicket
National Preserve, provides open space and recreation opportunities
and preserves habitat for a number of plant and animal species. Texas
Forest Service will monitor and enforce the conditions of the
easement. http://www.dibollfreepress.com/news/2009/0114/front_page/005.html
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