Page 13 - Georgia Forestry - Issue3 - Summer 2021

TS
The future
of Southern TREES hinges on showcasing their value
By Elizabeth Lenhard
A erial photos of Stanton Springs, an industrial compound near I-20 in Newton County, make for an incongruous image. The development is 1,600 acres of buildings and parking lots nested within woods; a gash
in a sea of green.
Those who view Georgia through the lens of its
forests can see a specter in the lush landscape that surrounds this recently built complex. Inevitably, they know, more of that forestland will be sold to build homes and other community necessities for Stanton Springs’ workers. The trees, in other words, will have to go so humans can move in.
On one hand, this industrial park and the ripples of development it may beget represent the promise of Georgia as a magnet for movers and shakers, workers and families. The Atlanta Regional Commission pre- dicts an influx of 2.9 million people to metro Atlanta by 2050.
“Everyone wants to live here,” confirms Daniel McInnis, shared stewardship coordinator at the U.S. Forest Service. “Our population continues to expand and you need a place for these folks to live, shop, go to church...”
On the other hand, developments like Stanton Springs are the embodiment of a chilling prediction made by the Southern Forest Futures report. The 2013 study by the U.S. Forest Service had this tagline: If the trends and practices of the early 2010s were to continue, the 13-state Southeastern region was in danger of losing 23 million acres of forestland to urban development.
So far, in the 2020s, those trends and practices don’t seem to be reversing course, though we’ll know for sure in 2022, McInnis notes, when the Forest Service will release a study update called the Southern Forest Outlook.
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