<p>While Congress is often paralyzed by gridlock, federal regulators continue to put out red tape that impacts your company's bottom line, and not in a good way.  During the past two years alone, federal agencies ranging from the Department of Agriculture to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have issued rules whose cumulative effect is to overburden the hardwood sector, which provides high paying jobs in the manufacture of sustainable wood products that store carbon.  Fortunately, Congress has the power of the purse and oversight of federal agencies.  Send a message to your federal lawmakers today and let them know how they can intervene.  Please complete the form on the right.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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Regulatory Avalanche Undermines Hardwood Industry

As a member of the U.S. hardwood industry, I am writing to share my frustration and concern with the never-ending barrage of federal government action that impedes our company’s ability to manufacture sustainable, environmentally friendly building and industrial products, provide good paying jobs in rural America, and support the local, state, and federal tax base.  Examples include:

•	Declining timber sales and timber harvest projects on U.S. forestlands. Pressure from environmental interests that ignore the forest health and fire prevention benefits of managed timber harvests, working in concert with frivolous lawsuits that put immediate stoppage to community coalition planned activities, put pressure on producers located near Federal Forests and have historically relied on materials from those forests to operate.
•	Definitions of Old Growth and Mature Forests on federal lands that fly in the face of science-based forest management practices, lead to greater mortality of our forests, and further limit sustainable forestry practices that support forest health, the forest products industry, and local economies.
•	Federal financial support of voluntary carbon markets which in the vast majority of cases do not account for the significant carbon storage value of products made from sustainable harvest and in many cases further remove potential sources of raw materials from local wood products industry companies.
•	Endangered Species Act designations and actions, particularly around bats impacted by the White Nose Syndrome that curtail forest management activities…activities that U.S. Fish and Wildlife professionals recognize as supporting both bat and forest management.
•	Competitor products that claim to look and feel like real American hardwood are in fact petroleum based and largely imported from China.  Despite U.S. hardwood’s superior environmental story, these products continue to eat into our market share as government officials, the press, and the general public are not well educated about the benefits of using real American hardwood in their home and office settings.

These actions fly in the face of science-based forest management and harvesting practices that IMPROVE forest health and the overall environment.  Managed forests are essential to the growth of healthy, multi-generational forests that provide the needed raw materials for wood products that are 50% carbon by weight.  While standing trees store carbon until their inevitably death, carbon stored in wood products is forever.  As your constituent, I urge you and your peers to take action to support this unique American industry in the following ways:

•	Sign on and support H.R. 6880,  the bipartisan Hardwood Products Access and Development Program, by adding your name to the list of sponsors or working with the Hardwood Federation to introduce a Senate companion bill.
•	Push back on Administration and U.S. Forest Service efforts to define Old Growth and Mature Forests in a one-size-fits-all manner.  Not only is this impossible to do given the vast differences in species and regional growth patterns, it ties the hands of professional foresters who understand the value and importance of forest management as related to forest health.
•	Require clear and demonstrable requirements for including carbon accounting of wood products in any federally subsidized carbon market program implementation.
•	Reform NEPA to streamline permit approval for timber harvest projects and eliminate the onslaught of frivolous lawsuits.

I am happy to discuss these and other concerns with you further.  Thank you.

Contact Congress Today!

Feds Inundate Industry with Red Tape

Message

Dear Office Holder (names will be automatically added on each email),