Categorized | Environment

HFIA promotes healthy, productive forests

MEDIA RELEASE

The Hawaii Forest Industry Association (HFIA) forestry awareness campaign focuses on Hawaii’s forests as components of sustainable agriculture with economic, environmental and social benefits.

The campaign’s name and tagline provide a succinct indicator of the project’s purpose: Healthy and Productive Forests, A Growing Part of Hawaii’s Future.

Hawaii’s forests are critically important to the health and well-being of Hawaii’s people. Today, our forests are dependent upon the people of Hawaii to maintain their integrity, diversity, and ecosystem functions.

Forests provide watershed, soil, and species habitat protection as well as recreational, educational, cultural, and employment opportunities.

Where appropriate, a return of less productive agricultural lands to more productive forests, while recognizing the importance of planting the right trees in the right places, will help ensure healthy forest ecosystems for generations to come.

Through increased awareness, HFIA looks for support from Hawaii’s policymakers to strengthen quarantine regulations and earmark appropriations for native forest restoration. Community leaders can help through demonstrative leadership and by supporting policymaking and funding for the future health and sustainability of Hawaii’s forests.

Educators can help by incorporating educational materials in curricula and encouraging hands-on learning through field trips to our forests. Students will then become the champions that help ensure Hawaii’s forests are sustained for generations through recognition of the intricate life-giving role forests play.

From growing native plants to cleaning shoes before entering native forests, from exploring Hawaii’s forests first hand and not releasing domestic animals into the wild where they can cause damage to flora and fauna, care of Hawaii’s forests is everyone’s responsibility.

Sustainable forest management is a multi-generational undertaking. With continued dedicated efforts the endeavors of the past will help ensure healthy and productive forests in the future.

There are several websites with valuable information to learn more about Hawaii’s forests:

* www.Hawaiiforestinstitute.org/current-issue/hfi-journal/ – To learn about forest ecosystem services.

* www.Hawaiiforest.org/guide/forestry.html – To learn about forestry in Hawaii.

* www.arbordayHawaii.org – To learn about planting the right tree in the right place.

* www.HawaiiInvasivespecies.org – To learn about avoiding invasive species.

* www.ctahr.Hawaii.edu/forestry/incentive.html – To learn about government incentive programs for tree-planting or forest management on private lands.

* www.ctahr.Hawaii.edu/forestry/ – To learn about starting a forest project on private land.

* www.Hawaiiforest.org/guide/index.cfm – For a list of forestry professions.

(* http://drylandforest.org/dry-forest-resources – For Hawaii’s dryland forest resources.

* www.Hawaiiforestinstitute.org/Hawaiis-forests/healthy-and-productive-forests-campaign/ – To learn more about the Healthy and Productive Forests, A Growing Part of Hawaii’s Future campaign.

About the Hawaii Forest Industry Association

Established in 1989, the Hawaii Forest Industry Association (HFIA) is a nonprofit corporation founded by and for people committed to managing and maintaining healthy and productive forests.

As Hawaii’s recognized forest industry trade association, HFIA, through education, planning, information exchange, and advocacy, encourages the responsible growth of Hawaii’s forest industry. HFIA’s programs promote healthier forests, increased business, and more jobs within the sector.

HFIA has a diverse membership of more than 220 individuals and private and public organizations, including woodworkers, landowners, sawyers, foresters, growers, environmentalists, government officials, and others interested in the organization’s goals.

HFIA promotes a balance of forest land uses ranging from protecting and restoring native forests to managing commercial tree farms.

— Find out more:
www.HawaiiForest.org

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