Wow, what a wonderful sight it would be to drive down a country road lined by exotic bamboo canes instead of those mundane old pine trees! 

 

Absurd statement?  You bet, but a recent article I came across on “building green” boasted how bamboo walls, cork floors and wheat board cabinetry in a new office building were considerable improvements over the traditional materials, presumably some of them made of wood, because these materials were from renewable resources that could be harvested every five years.   All of these products were reported to be manufactured within 500 miles of the building.   

 

Pardon me if I, as a proud North Carolina Tree Farmer, get a little perturbed about a “green building code” that fails to recognize that trees, a product grown right here in North Carolina, offer the highest “green factors” of any product on the market. 

 

Trees provide the raw materials for building supplies and over 5,000 products Americans use every day at an unrivaled environmental impact at all phases of production. 

 

Scientists estimate that lumber manufacturing consumes just four percent of the energy used by all raw material manufacturers while steel and concrete manufacturers consume 56%.  A steel stud requires 21 times more energy to produce and releases more than 15 times the sulfur dioxide than a wood two-by-four and producing concrete emits up to three times more carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons than lumber production.  Yet, public opinions polls constantly show that the public believes brick is more environmentally friendly than wood! 

 

The life cycle of a tree contributes immensely to our environment by providing clean air, water, wildlife habitat and immeasurable aesthetic and recreational values over a 20 to 60 year period - not a five-year rotation as with crops such as bamboo or a one-year rotation of row crops such as wheat.  Besides, I have yet to see a squirrel collecting nuts under a bamboo stalk or a woodpecker nestled into a wheat field!  Trees act as pumps, essentially taking the minerals and contaminants out of our water supply through their root system.  While it grows, the average tree takes in 1.4 pounds of carbon dioxide and gives off 1.0 pound of oxygen for every pound of wood grown during the process of photosynthesis. 

 

This carbon is stored in the wood of the tree - called carbon sequestration – meaning that the tree will trap this carbon until it burns or decays.  By harvesting trees for lumber products, the carbon cannot re-enter the atmosphere.  While scientists debate the issue of Global Warming, the removal of carbon from the atmosphere has been identified as the first step towards slowing the phenomenon.  It is amazing that this fact is lost on the green building codes. 

 

“No green building standard today adequately addresses the carbon stored in wood products or the value in substituting wood for fossil-fuel intensive materials.” – Bruce Lippke, Ph.D., University of Washington, California Forests Magazine.    

 

In addition to providing savings on energy costs, providing our cleanest water and air and storing carbon, trees provide an aesthetic value to our state that can only be measured in terms of “quality of life.” 

 

Like most landowners, I grow my pines and hardwoods for various reasons, but at some point in the future, my trees will be harvested for a profit to justify the initial investment and land use of my property.   Otherwise, all my current efforts would be hard to justify to my children, my grandchildren and ultimately, myself.          

 

This scenario is the basis for our tremendous forests in North Carolina.  We have 17.6 million acres of forestland, covering 58% of the state.  Roughly, 90% of those forests are privately owned and private, non-industrial individuals, like me, own nearly 78% of our forests.  We plant trees because we are confident they will provide future income and years of enjoyment for our families.    

 

As it stands now, my Tree Farm is an oasis of sorts from the growth of Winston-Salem.  It provides countless joys for my family and real environmental benefits to my fellow North Carolinians.  When the time comes when my trees are mature and my descendents are looking for a market for my trees, I hope there will be people who value wood cabinets, hardwood flooring and lumber in their homes.  It will prove to confirm that my initial investment was worth it.    

 

So can we really have a “green building code” that in the end does not encourage the planting of trees? 

 

I don’t think so, but let’s put it another way…

 

If you are going to be driving down the road bordering my farm, do you want to look out on a stand of pines or a wall of bamboo?

 

Ultimately, as a consumer and a taxpayer, you have the power to influence the land-use and ultimately, the environment, in our state by the choices you make when you open your wallet or purse.  Help plant a tree – use wood products and let’s make sure our “green building codes” are truly good for the environment. 

 

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Dr. Robert Cooper, is a former Chair of North Carolina Tree Farm Program.  He and his wife, Jean, reside on their Tree Farm in the Winston-Salem area.