As of Aug. 11, the state of Texas had lost at least $5 billion worth of crops and cattle to the current drought that is choking the U.S. South. That number has surely grown since, and is likely to continue growing across the entire region, hitting everything from peanuts and cotton to trees.
Those trees are especially troubling, because forests provide hundreds of thousands of jobs across the South. They provide not only billions of dollars worth of timber and paper products every year, but also perform a dizzying array of “ecosystem services” that keep other industries alive.
In addition to filtering and purifying water, for example, forests curb erosion and naturally regulate the timing and amount of water flows, which helps lessen flooding during heavy rainstorms.
The World Resources Institute (WRI) recently published a series of six papers outlining the ecosystem services that southern forests deliver, as well as emerging programs that offer economic incentives for keeping those services flowing.
We’ve posted three of these on our web site, Ecosystem Marketplace.
The first, Beyond Timber: New Economic Opportunities for Southern US Forests, outlines the three basic ways that forests help keep water folowing:
- By naturally filtering water, forests can reduce drinking water treatment costs. For example, New York City famously saved billions of dollars in water filtration costs by conserving the forests and natural landscapes of the Catskills instead of paying for a new water filtration system.
- By curbing erosion, forests can keep sediment and excess nutrients out of waterways. For instance forest buffers near streams can prevent nitrogen from entering waterways at approximately one-third of the cost per pound of nitrogen relative to wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
- By filtering water through its porous soils, a forest can minimize wastewater treatment costs. For example, according to the Army Corps of Engineers a forest or forested wetland can filter water at approximately one-seventh of the cost per thousand gallons than can conventional wastewater treatment systems.
The second, the US South can Protect its Water by Paying to Protect its Forests, dives more deeply into the vital role that forests play in keeping water flowing. This is critical, because two thirds of drinking water in the United States comes from rain that is filtered through forests, from where it flows to streams, lakes, and reservoirs.
Indeed, cities around the world have followed New York’s example and learned that it’s more economical to pay for the maintenance of forests than it is to invest in costly filtration equipment. In the past few years, we’ve seen such payment mechanisms implemented in the US city of Denver and the Mexican city of Zapalinamé, among others, and the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam is moving in that direction as well.
Finally, last week, we posted What Woodland Owners Should Know About Forest Carbon Offsets In The US South, which outlines the risks and opportunities that southern forest owners face when looking to earn money from carbon markets by either planting or preserving trees.