Diverting the Ouachita River to sell our forests to China
Rivers, mountains, and forests were once considered sacred, a majestic blessing on the planet we call Earth. The Incas revered Pachamama, a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. In Tibet, the highest mountain on Earth is Chomolungma, Goddess Mother of the World. People find spiritual comfort in Mother Earth.
The life source for the Ouachita people is known today as the Ouachita River, used to provide fresh water for wood mills and a sewer for the Crossett Koch Brother’s Georgia Pacific paper mill – cancer alley.
Timber factories
In a 2016 article, “From seedlings to sawmills,” our US Congressional Reps. John Boozman and Bruce Westerman defined the economic challenge for Arkansas family farms. They said, “at current industry levels, the growth of trees is exceeding the removal of trees at a rate of 17 million tons per year providing a glut of trees that is overcrowding our forests.”
Seeing forests as timber factories is an outdated, inadequate, and limited worldview, where humans, “superior beings,” own the rivers and the forests. Clear cutting the forests for money ignores the harm to the environment, tourism, and everything else. Foresters see trees as renewable resources and ignore the climate crisis, pretending seedlings will grow.
The China deal
Clark County forest owners have been waiting for a windfall. Gov. Hutchinson has traveled the world with pictures of rivers and forests. A whale of a deal was signed on November 2015 with China’s Shandong Sun Paper. Chairman Li, pound-per-pound one of the wealthiest people, promised to build the world’s largest fluff mill in Gum Springs, Arkansas. Li failed, and instead wants a massive $1.8 billion wood mill to export linerboard to China. The new mill needs more water and a wastewater treatment plant. Arkansas plans to change the course of the Ouachita River and pay for the plant.
Forest owners would be captive suppliers for the mill. To reduce trucking expenses, the forests near the mill would get low stumpage rates, say $5 per ton of trees, with a delivery schedule set by the mill. This would be a one-time payout for a 50-year investment, like selling prime rib at hamburger prices.
Gov. Hutchinson once said, “Chairman Li is an extraordinary businessman and a tough negotiator.” That is a red flag. China has lost thousands of rivers and is investing $100 billion planting forests to deal with a raging climate. In addition, with 66 billion trees, the Green Wall of China is an attempt to hold back the Gobi Desert sandstorms.
China is treating America as a third world country. Outsourcing gave America cheap products made by slave labor, purchased by the unemployed. Reverse outsourcing is the result of sending factories overseas and fighting never-ending wars. Arkansas is not alone, China’s Foxconn manufacturing facility in Wisconsin could cost taxpayers $4.5 billion in tax credits.
A better deal: clean jobs, clean environment, healthy economy
In 2016, tourists spent $7.6 billion in Arkansas. Those expenditures resulted in almost 66,000 direct jobs for Arkansans in travel and tourism, with many more indirectly employed. Tourism was down in 2017. What is Arkansas doing to improve the tourist experience?
Forest owners have the right to be compensated for their investment. Coal-fired plants and other polluters pay forest owners an increasing amount per year to preserve the carbon stored in the forest. The Dogwood Alliance has participated in several programs and found carbon offsets work best when done as a collective, say 5,000 – 10,000 acres. The cash flow starts on day one and continues every year.
“The history of every Nation is eventually written in the way in which it cares for its soil.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.
Arkansas has all it needs to shine as the Natural State and a top tourist destination, the envy of America.
Dr. Luis Contreras
The road damage caused by hundreds of daily truckload deliveries to the mill would be significant:
1. The access roads to the mill would be used by ALL the logging trucks making deliveries, from any logging operation
2. The damage increases proportional to the weight of a truck. An 80,000 lbs truck, makes significantly more damage than twenty 4,000 lbs vehicles, for example.
“Road planners say that the toll is even higher, that it would take close to 10,000 cars to equal the damage caused by one heavy truck. … The impact of these trucks is most dramatic in states that have allowed certain industries–coal, for example, or logging or steel–to use trucks loaded beyond even the state weight”
http://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/Too-Big-The-Road.html
This is a surprising result. Logging trucks create stress when turning, braking or changing direction due to the load on the truck concentrated on 18 wheels.
Clark County taxpayers will pay for road repairs again and again, with quick repairs having a short life. At some point new roads and additional lanes will be paid by the locals
Some have said the Clark County roads were “designed for heavy trucks.” False, the Arkansas Highway Department sets the specifications for Arkansas Highways. Public scales are used to stop truckers exceed the max load.
The revenues from carbon offsets would provide a fund to help transition loggers and truckers
Why make Arkansas look like Michigan? How many tourists spend a week in Flint?
Without forests, why would anyone visit Arkansas?
When trees are cut down – a process known as deforestation – the land soaks up less carbon. Since this increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the effect of deforestation is expressed in terms of emissions.
Emissions from deforestation contribute to global warming. Deforestation – along with other changes in land use – is responsible for 180 billion tonnes of extra carbon in the atmosphere since 1750, a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report concluded.
That’s about half as much carbon as emissions from fossil fuels and cement production combined, and a third of the total emissions from human activity.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/seeing-the-wood-for-the-trees-scientists-find-a-better-way-to-measure-carbon-locked-up-in-forests
Today, with the ice caps melting and the sea lever rising, standing forests are priceless.
If you own a forest, congratulations, you made a wise investment.
Here is how to get the best financial return
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1544046-entrevestor-initiatives-could-benefit-local-woodlot-owners
This is how forests work
Dogwood Alliance, the leading Southern Forests protection organization, has participated in several forest carbon offsets programs. Their findings show best results for forest collectives, say 5,000 – 10,000 acres.
The cash flow from carbon credits starts on day one and increases as the price of carbon emissions goes up.
Unlike timber sales, carbon credits provide predictable cash flows, and incentives to plant additional trees in fertile lands. Oregon, California, and British Columbia have embraced carbon trade markets.
Please visit the Dogwood Alliance site, the best source of smart forest thinking
https://www.dogwoodalliance.org
Privately owned forests provide many benefits to the Natural State: habitats for native plants and wildlife, abundant clean air and water, reduced damage from flash-floods and wind storms, and a natural cooling haven.
Forest owners have the right to be compensated for the benefits from their investments. In fact, these forests have been cutting greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants and other polluters, free of charge. Putting a price on carbon is an essential first step to mitigate the climate crisis.
Forest carbon offset programs provide fair compensation to standing forest owners. Polluters pay forest owners a set amount per acre per year as carbon sequestration credits, from not cutting down their trees.
Carbon offsets are a new forest product, the opposite of clearcutting.
Carbon offsets create financial incentives to leave trees growing and protect forestland.