It's a strange thing being environmentally conscious in the Southern United States. I've noticed that many of my peers will wax lyrical about the redwoods out west, or the Amazon rainforest. And yet there are wetland forests that are every bit as important right under our noses. In fact, I can pull up to many a strip mall here in the Triangle area and right behind it I'll find small patches of primordial-feeling swamp that are busy providing clean water and air, storm mitigation, wildlife habitat and other services to my community. Yet these treasures of the South are both too often forgotten and largely unprotected.
A new report from my friends at Dogwood Alliance (disclosure: I just joined the board) aims to change that narrative, providing—perhaps for the first time—a calculation for just how much the wetland forests of the Southern United States are worth left standing, rather than being chopped down, chopped up and shipped off as fuel for so-called "renewable energy" in Europe.
The report—entitled Treasures of the South: The True Value of Wetland Forests—aims to put a dollar figure on the various things that these remarkable forests do for us. As the infographic above lays out, the top-line figure is eye-popping: Wetland forests that stretch from Texas to Virginia, and from Florida to Missouri, are currently worth $503.8 billion left standing. Here's how that value comes about:
—29.9% of the total, $150.9 billion, comes from wetland forests ability to protect us from extreme weather, such as the floods and hurricanes which have plagued the South in recent years.
—25%, of $126 billion, comes from tourism, recreation and aesthetics—aesthetics being the impact that beautiful views have on property prices and neighborhood/regional desirability.
—22.9%, or $115.4 billion, is assigned to water filtration and waste water treatment, a particularly valuable service given quite how many of us Southerners (upwards of 20% in VA, NC and SC) rely on well water at home. (The report notes that efforts to purchase a forested watershed saved New York City and Boston billions of dollars in terms of water treatment.)
—14.4%, or $72.8 billion, comes from food and pollination, with a farms near riparian watersheds significantly out-producing those that aren't thanks to the increased presence of pollinators.
—7.4%, or $37.4 billion, is assigned to ecosystem services such as air quality, regional climate regulation, erosion control and soil formation. (Their value for global climate regulation is embedded throughout these various values.)
—Meanwhile, wetland forests' value in terms of raw materials which includes (but is not limited to) timber is only 0.3% of the total, or $1.4 billion. Wetland forests are a particularly poor choice for timber, when compared to upland pine forests, because their trees are often hollow, gnarly or diseased, and gaining access to them is considerably more challenging.
All in all, Dogwood argues, the lesson is pretty clear: Logging wetland forests is a waste.
© Now, I'm not going to argue that this report is definitive. Not am I going to deny my—nor Dogwood's—biases. We like forests. And we believe they should be protected. But it's pretty hard to argue that a system which PRIMARILY values forests for their value for timber, and largely fails to reward forest owners and managers for the other very real and important benefits that forests provide, is in strong danger of missing the boat.
That's why Dogwood Alliance is advocating for a bold, region-wide conservation scenario in which our wetlands are invested in for more than just timber, where an additional thirteen million acres of wetlands are protected, where landowners are compensated for ecosystem services, where any logging of wetlands is selective and leaves the canopy at least 66% intact, and where riparian buffers are expanded to 150 feet. Pursuing such a strategy would, according to Dogwood, increase the value of our wetlands by $45.3 billion. If you'd like to make this happen, please consider joining me in becoming a Forest Defender, or send a message to your governor that southern wetlands need protecting.
And finally—in all this talk of money—let's not forget that some things are priceless, as I hope these stories from Dogwood and our friends remind us:
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