Domtar, alongside landowners and partner PRINTING United Alliance, recently completed a tree-planting initiative in the Ashdown, Arkansas, area. This effort followed Domtar’s commitment to plant two trees for each registrant at the PRINTING United Expo, which was held in October last year in Atlanta.
Mark J. Subers, president of PRINTING United Expo, says, “As the printing and packaging industry, with great partners such as Domtar, we can take actionable steps to not only ensure we are following best practices, but to also be proactive. I’m thrilled that the team at Domtar is collaborating with the Alliance to drive this initiative forward.”
The Expo brings together leading media and associations representing market segments across printing and the graphic arts to showcase the latest solutions, technology, trends and education. PRINTING United Alliance is the most comprehensive member-based printing and graphic arts association in North America.
For this tree-planting initiative, we purchased about 60,000 seedlings for last year’s registrants. Those seedlings have been planted in the area near our Ashdown, Arkansas, mill in coordination with local landowners. Late winter is the appropriate planting time, and the seedlings will grow in the coming years, replenishing forestlands in the area.
Here’s a video that tells more about the tree-planting initiative:
Video transcript:
Joey Wallace, Domtar forester: In 2023, Domtar’s Ashdown Mill partnered with PRINTING United Alliance to purchase two trees for every registrant for the PRINTING United Expo that was held in Atlanta, Georgia, last fall. This is phase 2, and we’re happy to see this come to fruition and these 60,000 trees being planted today. We’re looking for a bright future and looking to see what’s in store next.
Doug Moore, senior vice president, Horizon Capital Partners: With 60,000 seedlings, one healthy pine tree — call it mature if you want — can sequester between 13 and 48 pounds of CO2 per year. So if you want to multiply that midground by 60,000 trees, you can do the math, and you are in theory sequestering millions of pounds of CO2.
Eric Rhodes, forester, Ross Foundation: At 435 seedlings to the acre, that’s close to 140 acres that will be planted back by this agreement and the attendees that attended the expo. We are grateful. It’ll make a big difference. That means this land is going to be in timber going forward for the next 35-40 years. It’s not going to be a development with houses on every acre, with lawns that are getting sprayed on a yearly basis. It’s going to be in a state where water is filtered before it enters the stream. It’s going to provide shade, habitat for wildlife, aesthetics. I don’t think there’s a better place for this land to be other than forestland.
Doug Moore: I think it’s important to note that we’ve been doing it all along, before people were talking about carbon and CO2 and everything else. We’re out here, we’re growing trees for pulp and paper, for saw timber for building houses, for railroad ties for the railroad so goods and things can move across it. As far as the folks that attended the conference, they can feel good being a part of that process.
Eric Rhodes: You’ve given back to the environment. You’re using a product that’s not just a one-time use. We can use it, and it can be replaced. That’s what this next stand will do. There’s no shortage of paper. We’re actually growing more timber in Arkansas than what we’re able to cut. The only thing that would help not only the sustainability, is just increase the market. The more paper you use, the more stands that will get planted.
Doug Moore: I think ultimately it comes down to a common-sense approach. At the end of the day, the people who are able to monetize a resource are always going to be the ones to save it. There has never been a species of anything, animal or plant life, etc., that was ever used commercially that went extinct. I think that’s pretty important to note. So, that being said, as long as we make sure, again, that we’re procuring these resources from a sustainable operation, that they’re doing as much as they can.
Eric Rhodes: One interesting thing that I noticed was that the average age for this year, in 2023, for a first-time homebuilder was 37 years old. That lines up perfectly for our rotation age. People who are born this year, in 2024, there’s a pretty good chance that they will use the lumber that was planted this year to build their house, their first house at some point down the road. The 15-year-old thinning lines up with junior high. At that point you use paper products, maybe their high school diploma gets printed from paper that was produced on this stand.
Doug Moore: The take-home is that as long as we’re growing these trees on sustainable tree farms through FSC, SFI, whatever it may be, we’re doing it in the States, you know that it’s coming from a good place, you know that it’s being sustainably produced, farm-procured, etc. and that, at the end of the day, when we’re doing those things, that the resources are plentiful, renewable and provide jobs for millions of Americans and continue in the future. We need a tad more capacity wherever possible in the United States.
Joey Wallace: The longevity of our natural resources doesn’t just happen. It’s partnerships like Domtar’s Ashdown Mill, Printing United Alliance, with our landowner group — the Four States group — doing their job with sustainable forestry and planting these trees back, so it’s not just one person or one entity, but partnerships through all life stages of our trees. So we’re looking forward to the future.
