A solution to jobs and economic growth is in the woods

One of the keys to Donald Trump’s electoral success was his focus on putting Americans back to work. He’s committed to helping rural Americans who lost good paying manufacturing jobs find new, comparable ones. Now, as president, he is continuing to push for solutions to unemployment and underemployment.

As the president translates his campaign promises into economic policies, many ideas are being vetted. One part of the answer lies in our forests and with the 22 million hard working rural families who own and manage most of the forests in Georgia and one-third of the forests across the country. We have a tremendous opportunity to put our rural lands and rural Americans back to work.

Key to this effort will be President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture, our former governor, Sonny Perdue.

Perdue is no stranger to helping put our rural, forested lands, and the people that live in them, to work. He owns and manages his own woodlands right here in Georgia. And, because America’s forests fall under the purview of the Department of Agriculture, he will be a key player in forest policy development.

We can help President Trump grow the nearly one million direct jobs across the country in the forest sector. And, according to a new southern forests study by the American Forest Foundation, when the government adopts policies that put our family-owned lands to work, it has the added benefit of helping protect wildlife habitat. Working forests, it turns out, help revive the wildlife populations that are or could soon be on the list of endangered and threatened species.

Our lands in Bleckley County are an example of how this can work. In 1986, my wife and I purchased land from a forest products company and established Gully Branch Tree Farm. Over the past 30 years, we have worked to improve our land. By taking steps to actively manage, our land is healthier and the mix of wildlife that lives within in it is more diverse. Today, we have created a forest environment where animals and plants live and thrive.

To pay for these improvements, we regularly harvest trees and biomass from our American Tree Farm System certified lands and sell the materials to local mills. Our wood provides jobs in mill communities and helps the local economy. To give Georgia’s rural economy a boost and improve our forests, more rural land owners need to actively manage their forests. This is where President Trump and his team have a critical opportunity.

First, Trump’s team can lift the regulatory barriers that are currently stopping people and governments from using forest products. They can also help open new markets for these products. While it may seem counterintuitive, when there are strong markets for wood and biomass, forest owners can better keep their forest land intact and working for all of us.

Second, most forest owners don’t have a background in forestry. Therefore, it is critical that landowners have the support structure, much of which will need to be reauthorized in the upcoming Farm Bill, to keep working for us and their rural communities.

Finally, President Trump and Congress can look at the tax code. We need a simpler tax code which promotes economic growth, but also recognizes that managing woodlands is a complicated, risky, long-term proposition. It is unique compared to many other assets and income sources. The tax code should encourage and support woodland ownership.

With the right policy pieces in place and the supportive Secretary of Agriculture, we’ll have in Perdue, family woodlands can help President Trump revive rural communities in Georgia and throughout the nation.

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 9:50 AM with the headline "A solution to jobs and economic growth is in the woods."