With a $23 billion wood and paper products industry in South Carolina, it might not be surprising that there’s a Greenville-based organization dedicated to preserving the state’s working forests and the communities that depend on them.
What might be surprising is that organization’s mission is national in scope, and its creation was prompted by the U.S. and Canadian governments as part of a settlement in a decades-old timber trade dispute.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities has been working for almost two decades all over the country to ensure the nation’s working forests are sustainably managed.
This work not only produces environmental benefits but helps support the timber industry and, through that support, the people and communities that rely on working forests for their livelihoods, according to Pete Madden, the endowment’s president and CEO.
Trade troubles
The endowment is a nonprofit public charity born out of the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement between the U.S. and Canada stemming from a trade dispute between the two countries over timber pricing.
As part of the agreement and at the request of both governments, the endowment was created with $200 million in funding to support its mission.
Madden said people don’t usually tend to think a trade dispute could create a meritorious, long-term initiative, but the endowment was set up in perpetuity to use the proceeds from its initial capital to fund the work of sustaining the nation’s working forests.
He said in the 18 years since the endowment’s inception, it has awarded more than $100 million in grants nationwide to “advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests.”
This work is important to the state and national economies considering the forest products sector supports about 2.5 million jobs nationally and generates an estimated $128 billion in annual payroll, according to Alicia Cramer, the endowment’s chief operating officer.
Market changes
One of the challenges to keeping the American forestry industry healthy is the changing nature of demand for timber-based products, Madden said.
For instance, with the explosion in electronic communication in recent decades the demand for paper has slumped.
These market forces contributed to the closing of paper mills in Canton, North Carolina, and North Charleston and Georgetown in South Carolina, Madden said.
He added that mitigating the negative impact of losing such major employers on their surrounding communities is why the endowment works with forest products industry partners and government agencies to identify and develop new products and markets for those products.
In Southern states such as South Carolina, species like the loblolly pine grow exuberantly and have been a mainstay of the state’s timber industry. By helping identify and support markets for that timber the endowment aims to provide incentives for landowners to keep their land producing a sustainable, marketable product rather than sell off that land for development, Madden said.
“A tree doesn’t care about West Texas crude prices or a war in the Middle East,” he said. “It keeps on growing.”
That’s why the growing demand for cross-laminated and mass timber products for the construction industry is a promising development for the nation’s working forests, Madden said.
With companies like Timberlab in Piedmont in southern Greenville County pioneering precision mass timber fabrication for the building industry, the endowment works to keep forestry a vibrant part of the U.S. economy.
Toward that end, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities announced in November it was making $6.5 million in funding available for impact investments for projects supporting three primary focuses:
- Forests: Support working forests and the use of sustainable forest management practices for the health and retention of U.S. forests.
- Communities: Work with trusted partners within rural forest-reliant communities to build economic prosperity and resilience.
- Markets: Support forest industry processes and products, both traditional (e.g., paper mills, sawmills) and emerging (e.g., biochar, carbon).
The endowment will release a request for proposals in January with a proposal deadline of March 11, 2025.
For more information, visit usendowment.org.
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities fast facts
- Established in 2006 and based in Greenville with $200 million in initial funding.
- Endowment has grown to $270 million with more than $100 million distributed in grants so far.
- Works to promote the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.
