Canada/U.S. Report Results of Enhanced Activity to Address Forest Health
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SCFor IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 25, 2014)
On behalf of its partners in Canada and the United States the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today released the first report (2013/2014 Year End Report, English;2013/2014 Year End Report, French) of results of enhanced cross-border collaboration to address forest health issues affecting the second greatest forest expanse in the world – the combined forest estate of Canada and the U.S.
“While cooperation among our two countries and especially forest scientists and forest managers in both has a long-history, the enhanced collaboration and the positive results showcased in this report point to the importance and benefits to the forests and people of both nations when that cooperation is more strategic,” said Endowment President Carlton Owen. “As we’ve seen with recent cases involving Ebola, it is vitally important that people focus on cooperation and rapid sharing of information to effect positiveresults. The forests of North America are benefitting from just such collaboration.”
The report features work in five focal areas – markets, fire, pests, inventory, and international – with results of initial work as well as priorities for future activity. Among results to date:
- Markets: Environmental product declarations were completed for particleboard and medium density fiberboard;
- Fire: Developed a coordinated approach to the sharing of wildland fire fighting resources;
- Pests: Enhanced collaboration to respond to spruce budworm outbreaks in the Eastern parts of the continent;
- Inventory:
- International: Sharing and coordination of information for the 2015 Global Forest Resource Assessment report due in 2015.
The report is designed to update collaborators and interested parties on both sides of the border aboutspecific actions that have resulted from two “summits.” The Canada/U.S. Forest Health Summit II was held March 26-27, 2013 in Ottawa, Canada, and followed the first-ever such convening a year earlier in Washington, DC. Nearly 50 senior forestry officials from both the public and private sectors across Canada and the U.S. participated in each meetings designed to develop specific recommendations on ways that the two countries could enhance efforts to address forest health on both sides of the border.
A first-generation continuous map of North American above-ground forest biomass and above-ground carbon; and
The Endowment served as the convener for both of the Canada/U.S. Forest Health Summits and took the lead in drafting the final reports from each session.
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For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic,transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
