| Contact Information | Date |
|---|---|
| For Immediate Release Contact: David Richert 276.228.2879 |
Mar. 12, 2008 VDOF-08009 |
Clean Air Isn’t Really Free
Blacksburg, Virginia—Virginia’s forest landowners have been providing clean air and clean water to friends and neighbors free of charge for hundreds of years. On March 20, 2008, the Blue Ridge Chapter of the Society of American Foresters and the New River-Highlands Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council will host a forum to explain how landowners could be compensated through the emergent ecosystem services markets.
The featured speaker will be Buck Kline, a senior-level forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry and member of the Society of American Foresters. This forum will be held at the Inn at Virginia Tech beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event is free, but space is limited. Those wishing to attend or interested in learning more about this event should contact David Richert by calling (276) 228-2879 or emailing david.richert@dof.virginia.gov.
Kline, who spent the past two years researching options for rewarding forest landowners who provide ecosystem services, said, “If forest landowners could receive an annual payment in return for ecosystem services, Virginia’s rapid rate of forest land conversion to other uses could be reduced. Since 2001, Virginia has seen an average of 27,300 acres of forest land converted to other uses. That’s a loss of a quarter of a million acres of forest land in a decade.”
Jennifer Gagnon, a Virginia Tech forestry extension specialist and event co-organizer, said, “Although Virginians don’t have to ‘pay’ for the clean air, clean water, or sequestered carbon that forest ecosystems provide, these ‘ecosystem services’ are not free. This upcoming forum will highlight emerging opportunities for forest landowners to receive income for land management actions that provide certain ecosystem services.”
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The Virginia Department of Forestry protects and develops healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians. Headquartered in Charlottesville, there are Forestry staff members assigned to every county to provide service to citizens of the Commonwealth. VDOF is an equal opportunity provider.
With nearly 16 million acres of forest land and more than 184,000 Virginians employed in forestry, forest products and related industries, Virginia forests provide more than $29 Billion annually in benefits to the Commonwealth.
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