Opinion | Prioritize Michigan forest sustainability through NEPA reform

From a young age we are taught the significance of one of Mother Nature’s most amazing resources: trees. They touch almost every aspect of our lives.  So smart planning and prioritization of efforts to sustain Michigan’s forests should be a top priority.  Unfortunately, common-sense forest management practices have fallen victim to the red-tape of one law that once was a pillar of environmental excellence, is now an obstacle to projects necessary to preserve this vital industry: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Ratified in the 1970s under President Nixon, NEPA was a first of its kind effort that requires agencies in charge of giving the green light to our nation’s infrastructure projects to incorporate environmental considerations on private and public projects of all sorts, ranging from the expansion of our nation’s ports and highways to forestry management projects.

NEPA is critical to Michigan because of our economy’s reliance on the state’s natural resources, particularly our vast and ever growing forests. Michigan's forests play a major role in the state's economy, as citizens use sustainable forest products every day, consuming 800 million cubic feet of wood products each year. As director of the Michigan Sustainable Forest Initiative and Forest Policy, responsible for environmental protection goals for the forestry industry, I think it’s important that our members can operate in a regulatory environment that balances our customer demand while allowing us to establish a clear and sustainable future.

Unfortunately, over the past decade evidence shows that NEPA has evolved, and now hinders infrastructure development more than it helps. The Trump administration’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently conducted a series of studies to better understand just how government agencies are to conduct these environmental impact statement (EIS) and assessments. According to the CEQ, the average EIS took 4 1/2 years to complete, with 25 percent taking more than six years. These documents averaged 586 pages in their draft form and increased by 14 percent in length by the time it was finalized, often years later.

Moreover, the CEQ found the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to be an agency that could especially benefit from NEPA reform. Per a 2018 CEQ study, the USFS was responsible for 276 environmental impact statements from 2010 to 2017, more than any other federal agency and eight times as many as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for assessing and approving energy infrastructure projects like pipelines and export terminals. In the same period the USFS approved projects that harvested on a meager 0.1 percent of National Forest lands.

CEQ found the regulation to be acutely bloated and cumbersome when guiding the evaluation of projects (its core responsibility). But the current status quo established by NEPA is unacceptable and Michigan’s foresters need the reforms currently up for public consideration by CEQ if we are to continue to achieve responsible forest practices, wood procurement and harvesting throughout Michigan.

Without effective NEPA guidelines like a reasonable two-year time limit, page limits on environmental analysis and clear definitions to help manage agency scope, Michigan’s forest industry, including loggers, paper and lumber producers, and landowners, will suffer economically. For a long time the forestry industry has been an economic boon for Michigan by annually contributing $20.3 billion to the state’s economy, supporting 96,000 jobs and a subsequent $5.2 billion in labor income for Michiganders. But years-long delays spurred by NEPA review are hurting our members and communities that rely on consistent harvest and production schedules. Additionally, a consistency in these schedules is critical to the state’s forest sustainability programs. Currently, Michigan forests are growing 2.7 times more wood than is being harvested. For the hundreds of industry companies in Michigan it is disheartening to see opportunities lost to years in regulatory purgatory, particularly in an industry so ripe for expansion.

With growing forest lands it is vital that NEPA and the USFS green-light projects in short order; a nimble regulator is an effective regulator. The proposed reformations to NEPA do not disable the USFS’ environmental review but places an added emphasis on urgency for a regulation that has grown cumbersome. The Michigan Forest Production Council and our national affiliates are eager to see NEPA reform operationalized so that sustainability efforts and industry members can get back to working in tandem.