The Bush Administration’s recent decision to scuttle the so-called Roadless Rule, protecting nearly 60 million acres of national forests, leaves governors to manage the lands in their own states. It is a plan that some conservationists say will leave this land, “up for grabs,” spoiling streams for fishing and back woods for hiking and hunting. With nearly 80% of the world’s original old growth forests lost or degraded by logging, can we afford to sacrifice the last old trees for notepads and paper towels?

• With less than 5% of the world’s population, the US consumes 30% of the world’s paper.
  
• Although the northwest is traditionally considered the mainstay of the logging industry, heavy logging is also practiced in the southeast, one of the most ecologically diverse landscapes in the US.
  
• 70% of the fiber used by the pulp and paper industry is generated from virgin wood only 5% of America’s virgin forests remain.
  
• Paper industry products: diapers, copy and printer paper, stationary, paperboard packaging, cardboard, catalogues, and bestsellers 95% of paper used by US publishers is made from virgin fiber.
  
• Over 100 million trees worth of Junk Mail arrive in American mailboxes each year.

The American Forest and Paper Association data indicates that more than half of paper used in 2003 by the US was recovered for recycling. Conservationists say that recycling is an important step in maximizing our paper use. Can greater gains be made by switching from a wood based paper industry altogether? What is the potential for “tree-free” sources of paper from hemp, kenaf and leftover agricultural waste like corn and rice husks?

• A single acre of hemp can produce as much usable fiber as four acres of trees.
  
• One paper mill in Alberta, Canada exclusively uses organically grown cereal straw as pulp agricultural wastes are seen by some as an enormously promising resource for paper making.
  
• Some kenaf promoters see the production of kenaf for paper not only as a way to save forests, but keep small, family farmers on the land as a low input crop with an ever increasing demand.

Do we really have to build roads into pristine public lands for hard to harvest trees? Who will benefit from these new rules? Why are so many people opposed to opening these lands? Can lumber and paper companies be more efficient? What are some treeless alternatives to wood pulp? Why aren’t they on the market? Who would benefit from these changes? How much recycling is “enough”? Is recycled paper as good as virgin paper? What can we do to stop all the junk mail? Can we save the forests for the trees?

For more programming on this topic, check out the three part “A World of Possibilities” radio series on paper use and consumption HERE.