Page 18 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 2 - Spring 2022

CARBON & CLIMATE / Part 1

‘We’re a Solution’
The Future of Climate Policy, and How to Prepare For It
Dave Tenny, the founding president and CEO of NAFO, the National Alliance of Forest Owners, participated in a panel discussion at the Georgia Forestry Association’s Landowner Summit in January. The following is edited and condensed from his comments.
Q: What does NAFO do?
DT: We try and help policymakers under- stand that the markets that drive our products provide clean air, clean water, habitat and good-paying, real jobs. We want that to roll off the tongues of every single policymaker that has anything to do with anything that we care about. And so we advocate in a way that builds relevance. Relevance means that it’s not about what I want to tell you, it’s about what you want to hear, what you want to understand, what you want to know. And it’s about storytelling. We’re rele- vant with policymakers when our story is so compelling that they want to make it part of their own. And so we’re story- tellers and we drive policy through that.
Q: How do we influence
climate policy? And how
can USDA help?
DT: What do people really know about NAFO’s contribution to climate change? We share our story with policymakers and their staff, key partners and influencers. And the response has always been the same: Wow, there’s a lot there we didn’t know. Take just three data points: 90% of the harvest-providing wood fiber in our country comes from forests that we all manage; those forests are providing 75% of all our forest carbon sequestration nationwide; and they’re providing more than half of all the carbon storage in our country. That’s an
extraordinary story about how managed working forests are making a difference, and that is a wonderful place to start any kind of conversation on policy.
In the Obama administration, climate policy competed with healthcare. Health- care won and climate policy took the second-place consolation prize and then really didn’t go very far. In the Biden administration, climate policy is on top and it’s going to remain there as the first priority of this administration. So that means every agency across the govern- ment is looking for their contribution to climate policy.
What is our number one objective? We’re a solution, so let’s keep a good thing going. Second objective, can we do
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