<br><font size=3 face="Arial">This excerpt from Maryland's new Sustainable
Forestry Act (see e-mail below) would indicate that this new Act provides
another incentive for maintaining private, forested lands in a sustainable
manner. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">"</font><font size=3 face="Consolas">Further,
we recognize the importance of working forests and will ensure that public
policies and market-based incentives help families retain and manage these
forests sustainably.</font><font size=3 face="Arial">"</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">I have some questions for the list:</font>
<ul>
<li><font size=3 face="Arial">In Maryland, do Forest Stewardship Plants
look beyond the trees and take medicinal plants and other NTFPs in account?
</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Arial">Do any of you have material that provides
insight on the merits of including NTFPS in forest stewardship plans?</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Arial">What other states have similar Acts?</font></ul>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">Thanks,</font>
<br><font size=3 face="Arial">-Patricia</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.<br>
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority<br>
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group<br>
US Fish & Wildlife Service<br>
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 110<br>
Arlington, VA 22203<br>
703-358-1708 x1753<br>
FAX: 703-358-2276<br>
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural resources.<br>
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal><br>
</font>
<br><font size=1 color=#800080 face="sans-serif">----- Forwarded by Patricia
De Angelis/ARL/R9/FWS/DOI on 06/05/2009 10:13 AM -----</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Don Outen, Baltimore County Department
of Environmental Protection & Resource Management, asked that we share
the following and attached information about the recently passed MD Sustainable
Forestry Act. Please feel free to contact Gary G. Allen, Chairman,
Maryland Partnership for Sustainable Forestry at </font><a href=mailto:gallenbay@aol.com><font size=2 color=blue face="Consolas"><u>gallenbay@aol.com</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Consolas">
or Don Outen directly at </font><a href=mailto:douten@baltimorecountymd.gov><font size=2 color=blue face="Consolas"><u>douten@baltimorecountymd.gov</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Consolas">
for additional information.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Best regards,</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Meridian Institute</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Sarah Walen, Senior Mediator</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Shawn Walker, Project Coordinator</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Calibri"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">ADVANCING A SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY STRATEGY
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Maryland moves Ahead</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Maryland made significant progress in
the Bay watershed Region with the signing of Senate Bill 549 into law on
May 7, 2009 - the Sustainable Forestry Act of 2009, sponsored by Senator
Roy Dyson.. This Act is designed and intended to realize one goal
- the retention of privately-owned forest lands within the State of Maryland
consistent with and responsive to the 2007 Forestry Conservation Initiative
signed by the Chesapeake Bay Council in December 2007.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">In short, the cure for the ills plaguing
our coveted Chesapeake Bay can be found in our trees. And Maryland
clearly recognizes this fact with the enactment of the Sustainable Forestry
Act of 2009*indeed, an historic Act which should serve as a model worthy
of emulation not only within the Bay watershed, but from a national perspective
as well. As noted by Maryland*s State Forester - Steve Koehn on February
24, 2009 before the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs
Committee</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">- *The eyes of the Nation*s forest community
are focused on Maryland. What you [as lawmakers] do on this bill
will resonate throughout the country...hopefully, you will pass the bill.*
With less than 6 hours remaining in the 2009 Session, the amended
Senate bill cleared the House of Delegates with no changes.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">A key argument for moving the bill emanated
from the Chesapeake Bay Council*s issued Directive No. 06-1 entitled, Protecting
the Forests of the Chesapeake Watershed, on September 22, 2006 which reads
as</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">follows:</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">*Retaining and expanding forests in the
Chesapeake Bay watershed is critical to our success in restoring the Chesapeake
Bay. Forests are the most beneficial land use for protecting water
quality, due to their ability to capture, filter and retain water, as well
as absorb pollution from the air*a reduction in forest area leads to a
disproportionate increase in nitrogen loads to our waterways.*</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Then on December 5, 2007, the Chesapeake
Bay Council issued *A Call to Action* by building on its earlier decision
to underscore the importance of promoting sustainable forestry within the
Chesapeake Bay watershed. Why? The case was made officially
clear by the Council on this date:</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">*Chesapeake forests prevent millions of
pounds of nitrogen and other pollutants from reaching the Bay each year.
While trends vary locally, the watershed has lost 100 acres of forest
land per day since the mid-1980*s. Every acre of forest converted
to other uses means more nutrients entering the Bay, making it more difficult
to mitigate development impacts and resulting in additional loss and fragmentation
of forest habitat. If this forest loss continues, nitrogen loads
alone will increase by 1,300 pounds per day to the Bay. As citizen
and governmental agencies work to implement actions to reduce the flow
of nutrients and sediment from agriculture, developed lands, and watershed
treatment plants, their overall success is threatened by the loss of our
watershed*s greatest natural filter: its forests. In fact,
the public will spend billions of dollars on technological replacements
for the services that forests provide naturally for free - such as drinking
water filtration, flood control, storm water management, energy and greenhouse
gas and air pollution control.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Retaining and expanding forests across
the watershed is a cost-effective strategy for reducing pollution now and
maintaining caps on nutrients in the future. An investment in sustainable
forestry will not only help address water quality issues, but other challenges
such as climate change, sprawl and energy independence.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Therefore, it is our intent to maximize
the area of forest by discouraging conversion of the most valuable forests
and giving priority to forest in land conservation programs. Further,
we recognize the importance of working forests and will ensure that public
policies and market-based incentives help families retain and manage these
forests</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">sustainably.*</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Without a healthy, sustainable forest
system, it is an indisputable fact the Chesapeake will never heal as envisioned
by the 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act, the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement,
the 2007 Forest Conservation Initiative, Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal
Bays Trust Fund and the Governor*s Climate Change Commission. Our
forests are vanishing because of development pressures attendant to population
growth and poorly planned sprawl development. And, because 76% of
our forests are owned by private landowners, promotion of sustainable forestry
through responsive public policy must motivate and educate these individuals
about the importance of and implications affiliated with sound land-use
decision making.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">What to do? </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">With its enactment, what does this historic
Act actually accomplish?</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">First, the Act recognizes the environmental
and economic importance of sustainable forestry through a Declaration of
Policy, among other things, to the Chesapeake Bay and rural Maryland consistent
with and responsive to the 1998 Water Quality Improvement Act, Chesapeake
2000 Agreement, the 2007 Forest Conservation Initiative, and the Chesapeake
and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Second, the Act promotes outreach to forest
landowners to develop and implement Forest Stewardship Plans - a plan that
sets forth land use objectives consistent with the will of the landowner
- through the Forest Conservancy District Boards [one in each county].
At present, only 1 in 4 forest landowners has adopted such a land-use
guiding blueprint.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Third, the Act promotes renewable energy
development from woody-biomass via the existing 10% *green* power goal
for the Executive Branch; long-term Power Purchase Agreements as envisioned
by the Governor per his remarks made at the MACO summer convention in Ocean
City; and futuristic carbon credit, carbon sequestration and cellulosic
ethanol development from a policy-related perspective.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Fourth, the Act promotes sustainable forestry
from a local zoning perspective by encouraging local governments - not
mandating local governments - to be more pro-forestry conscious in their
decision-making.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Fifth, the Act speaks throughout about
the importance of an Agro-Forestry alliance consistent and responsive to
the findings and recommendations of the Incentives for Agriculture Task
Force (Chapter</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">289 of the Acts of 2006) via its October
2007 Final Report to the Governor and the General Assembly.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">This is made especially difficult because
76% of Maryland*s 2.4 million acres of forested lands are owned by private,
non-industrial landowners who can exercise their private property rights
to dispose of or management such lands at will. Development pressure
is real. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Compounding these trends is the realization
of Maryland*s prevailing fiscal condition, meaning, millions of additional
dollars are not available to help conserve Maryland*s vanishing forests
through desperately needed financial incentives. In short, Maryland*s
forests are truly at risk and the enacted Sustainable Forestry Act of 2009
will help mitigate this dilemma through creative strategies today that
will produce measurable dividends to Maryland*s *green infrastructure*
tomorrow.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">The Partnership for Sustainable Forestry
is an alliance of forestry, business and conservation organizations whose
primary objective is to promote the prudent and sustainable management
of Maryland*s rural and urban forest resources through advocacy, education,
awareness and collaboration*.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Consolas">Chairman, Maryland Partnership for Sustainable
Forestry, Gary G. Allen. </font>
<br><a href=mailto:gallenbay@aol.com><font size=2 color=blue face="Consolas"><u>gallenbay@aol.com</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Consolas">
</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Calibri"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Calibri">__________________________________<br>
Shawn Walker <br>
Project Coordinator | Meridian Institute <br>
1920 L Street NW, Suite 500 <br>
Washington, DC 20036, United States <br>
+1.202.354.6450 phone <br>
+1.703.509.2396 mobile <br>
+1.202.354.6441 fax <br>
shawnwalker@merid.org <br>
www.merid.org<br>
<br>
</font><img src=cid:_1_07FFEE6807FFEB04004F0D33852575CC alt="Meridian Institute: Connecting People to Solve Problems">
<br><font size=2 face="Calibri"> </font><tt><font size=2>_______________________________________________<br>
</font></tt>