Sustainable Forest Issues

The following questions (#55-71 in the Study) are intended to be addressed by this section of the Listening Study. If new questions or discussions arise that relate to forest and plantation issues, they are welcome here.

55. What is a "sustainable forest"?

56. Is there an acceptable way to verify that a forest was sustainably harvested?

57. Should we not cut any trees at all?

58. What is "old growth timber"?

59. Is old growth being cut for paper use?

60. Are there enough forest lands meeting an acceptable definition of "sustainable" to supply the paper industry?

61. What content standards are necessary to call a paper "made from sustainably harvested fibers"?

62. How can paper manufacturers account for "sustainably harvested fibers" if they buy market pulp?

63. How much of the timber cut goes into making paper?

64. Is there an optimal amount of tree fiber that should go into paper?

65. What are the benefits of using tree fibers in paper?

66. What are the impacts of forestry?

67. Do forest practices differ around the country, and does that make impacts regional?

68. How can a purchaser verify that a paper meets an expectation that it was sustainably harvested?

69. Are genetically engineered trees appropriate for papermaking?

70. What is the percentage of paper fiber coming from natural forests vs. tree plantations?

71. Are tree plantations a good alternative to forests?

As we gather more responses to these questions, we will prepare a report to be available here.

Please send us your comments!