Wood Alternatives

In the past three years, economic and environmental forces together have prompted  producers, such as Minnesota's 3M Incorporated, and Heartland Fiber Corporation to actively develop and promote the use of nonwood fibers for pulp and paper manufacture.  Projects such as ReThink Paper at Earth Island Institute have worked hard to educate and  advise consumers to revisit nonwood fiber sources as the pulp input to their  manufacturing, which were the norm until the 1890's.  Before wood pulp became widely  used in the late 1800s, agricultural plants were the dominant source of fiber.  Cotton, straws, and hemp - the paper used to draft the Declaration of Independence - were the fibers of choice.

There is no shortage of nonwood fiber material in this country.  U.S. farmers annually  generate an estimated 280 million tons of excess agricultural fiber, suitable for paper making .  Generally these fibers are known to be puled with higher fiber yields   an wood and require fewer chemicals to be processed, less water, and energy.  Farmers would benefit from new income from those residues that would otherwise be burned.  There would be new opportunities for value-added rotational crops; new uses  for over 65 million acres of idle farmland in the United States, such as is widely found in
the State of Minnesota; and new replacement options for declining industries, such as  tobacco. These benefits to farmers and the environment cannot be fully realized as long  as logging subsidies give an unfair advantage to wood at the expense of nonwoods and the  American farmer.

In 1996, the American Farm Bureau announced its support for industrial hemp.  And in a  letter to Colorado legislators, International Paper wrote: “IP’s interest in industrial hemp stems from logging shortage of wood fiber in North America and the resultant need to develop new sources of fiber.”
The California Rice Growers Industry Association, which faces a moratorium on the burning of rice straw, is strongly advocating use of rice straw in pulp manufacture for newsprint.  In 1996, a successful trial run using Smurfit Newsprint Co. appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Oregonian, Sacramento Bee and other major papers.
           These recent events indicate the proven potential of agricultural substitutes for wood in paper.  Most importantly this data indicates that America can deep both its farmers and pulp and paper mills alive and well.  But we must move quickly to ensure that the U./S/ develops these capacities soon, as not to be left behind by neighboring countries. Canada is already developing these industries with diverse sectors such as automobile makers, like Ford and Chrysler.

While it is in the public interest to protect public forestlands from logging, private forestlands can be managed for productive uses following the principles of ecoforestry. Ecologically responsible, local decision making about forest use is critical to the practice of ecoforestry.  The basic principles of ecoforestry ensure that all plans and activities  protect forest functioning over time.  Numerous citizens organizations, such as the Public  Forestry Foundation of Eugene, Oregon, sponsor and organize training in ecologically  responsible forest use.
 
Zero-Cut, the effort to end logging on public lands, is fast becoming the most promising strategy
for forest protection in the U.S.  While summing up their goal in a simple phrase, Zero-Cut
proponents have developed a sophisticated analysis of the ecological, economic, and social costs
of public lands logging, and of the benefits and opportunities that would follow and end to such
practices.

In 1997, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) and Congressman Jim Leach (R-IA)
responded to the public's call for an end to public land logging by introduction the National
Forest Protection and Restoration Act (NFPRA).  Intended to save taxpayer money, reduce the
deficit, cut corporate welfare, and protect and restore America's natural heritage, the Act
eliminates the commercial logging program on federal public lands and assists communities
dependent on this program with economic recovery and diversification.

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