Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/990149
palletcentral.com PalletCentral • May-June 2018 31 natural low-intensity fires, leading to overly dense forests choked with small trees and brush. These overstuffed forests become fuel for harmful megafires, which hurt people, water, and wildlife. Science-based, sustainable tree harvest for wood products on public and private lands can help bring some of these overstuffed forests back to a healthier condition. Forest products that are traditionally underutilized, such as salvage lumber and small diameter trees, need demand to create sustainable markets. Durable uses such as pallets and crates present an excellent opportunity for this woody thinned material. We like to see timber uses, such as wood pallets, that increase the value of sustainably harvested, lower value timber so more effective forest management can be implemented that improves overall forest condition and health in the future. What are some of the key challenges to improving the health of our nation's forests? Finding markets for thinned, low value small diameter trees is a major challenge, and The Nature Conservancy is working with partners in local forest collaboratives around the country to help find durable solutions. Another challenge is the wildfire crisis— our nation's 10 biggest fire years have all come since 2000. This is not normal, and our federal forest agencies currently don't have the support they need to both fight megafires and, at the same time, restore forests to help make them more resistant to and resilient to megafires. Currently emergency firefighting takes away resources that are needed to care for forests: we are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and will continue to precipitously fall behind until we get a fire funding fix. Further, international trade volume and complexity is ever "We like to see timber uses, such as wood pallets, that increase the value of sustainably harvested, lower value timber so more effective forest management can be implemented that improves overall forest condition and health in the future." –Christopher Topik, PhD Director of Restoring America's Forests at The Nature Conservancy. iStockphoto.com/MLiberra