From a distance, the broken tops of the 20-year old Douglas fir trees looked like small pointy tan-colored flags interspersed among the green needles of the lower branches. I was looking across a ravine through a section of forest that had been set up as an experimental test site by Starker Forests, but the November 2014 ice storm disrupted this 40 year experiment by layering on inches of ice through two days of freezing fog. With the branches heavy, a moderate wind was all it took to snap the tops, bringing them crashing to the now debris-covered forest floor. The owners of this tree farm now face a dilemma that illustrates the challenge of growing trees. Few farming activities carry the same gauntlet of risks as growing a crop intended for harvest in 60 years. Insects, fire, ice storms, wind storms, changing market demands, and changing regulations make the actual prospect of harvest highly uncertain. What you plant today, won't pay back for two generations if it pays back at all. And yet, we depend heavily on our tree farmers for their patience, their vigilance, and their faith that somehow it's all going to work out. Our economy depends on the success of foresters to grow trees. Most of us live in houses made of wood, use paper made from wood and utilize furniture made of wood. Our atmosphere depends on trees that convert CO2 to Oxygen, sequestering carbon in the process. Our clean water comes primarily from forests. And many of us take solace in the scientifically documented health benefits of a walk in the forest. Unless we make it worthwhile for owners to keep forests in tact, they will turn them into some other use...which means fewer trees in the future providing us the benefits I just listed. At the World Forestry Center, we are looking forward... over the next century, finding ways to connect people to the forests of the future. What a privilege it is to participate in this audacious endeavor.

Eric Vines

Executive Director