A conversation about conservation

Milford – The green movement and its global impact brought Peter Pinchot to the Pike County Builder’s Association meeting last week. Pinchot, grandson of U.S. Forest Service founder and Pa. Governor Gifford Pinchot, made a 6,000 mile journey, with his associate Garret Siegers, in the hopes of making a new connection. He’s hoping that connection will result in profound economic and environmental benefits between the Delaware River Highlands of Pa. and the eastern coastal mountains of Ecuador. Speaking to the group, Pinchot explained that Ecuador is experiencing the highest rate of deforestation in all of Latin America. Government regulations cannot be enforced, and hundreds of families are cutting down their forests at alarming rates. Not because they are careless of the environment or trying to make a lot of money, Pinchot said. They are deforesting because they are just trying to survive, with the average family living on less than $2 a day. “In the tropics, you can’t avoid dealing with chronic poverty if you want to preserve anything. People live on the land, and you have to make it work for them,” he said. In trying to find a practical solution to this problem, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation began a project whose ultimate goal would be a sustainable wood industry in Ecuador, by opening up markets in the United States, specifically in this region. The institute, armed with the necessary research and knowledge from a long pilot project which ended six months ago, is ready to get into the market and facilitate the establishment of this industry. Pinchot estimates that 50,000 board-feet leave the Ecuadorian water shed each month, while only about one-tenth of that lumber is being processed. “That’s what we want to change, by legal and sustainable management,” he said. The main obstacle is dealing with tropical forestry, which is very diversified. In any given 300 acre farm, there may be over 100 tree species, Pinchot said. The Ecuadorian market only uses about five species. The rest have little value. The forests go through a process called “high-grading.” This scenario is the basic mechanism contributing to the loss of the forests, he said. The premise of the project is dependent on the creation of a market to support this wide range of wood. One way to do this is by engineered multi-layered flooring, which would have a first layer of high value and two bottom layers made out of wood with no known value. The result would be a whole product at the value of the top layer. The same can be done with doors and other products. With the wood now supporting this new market, less will be harvested, more revenue will be generated, and more forests survive to cleanse our atmosphere. “This has never been done in any community forestry project in the world. We are trying to do something that has caused the failure of countless millions of dollars of forestry projects which have failed to find markets for those species and then wound up destroying the forests instead of protecting it,” Pinchot said. Samples of Ecuadoran woods were distributed. Pinchot asked the group about the relevancy of green construction in the area. “Everything is going more and more green,” commented one builder. “We see it to a large extent driven by the homeowner, and its growing significantly,” added another. “With green building, we have to do something because it is coming all around us,” said another. Pinchot said the project is actively seeking advisors. The purpose of meeting was to gather professional opinions about the samples. Builders spoke of concerns about installation procedures and performance testing including water and scratch resistance, stability, finishes, hardness, and durability of the wood, all of which Pinchot said will be tested. For the most part, the idea was well received, for both the economic and environmental benefits. The crucial point is having a product that local builders would be confident selling. “The logistics of getting the wood here is not a problem. The make-break point is whether people like it aesthetically and whether it functions properly,” Pinchot said. “The proof is in the pudding. We have got to get them down on a couple of floors and see what they look like in a couple of years,” affirmed one builder. Garret Siegers of the Jatun Sacha organization of Ecuador, which is partnering with the Pinchot Institute on this project, said that if everything goes well they could start supplying wood to their distributor, which will use it to make products for this market, in about 6-8 months. Siegers said these products would become conversation pieces. “We could literally have a photo of the framer bringing the rough sawn logs out of the forest, dripping wet, with his horse dragging them behind him… to a certain demographic, I think that would be a pretty cool thing,” he said. “The green wave is growing, and everyone is getting out their surf boards to ride it,” Siegers said.