Oct. 24--I get e-mails from time to time telling me the sender has saved a tree by using electronic communication instead of writing a letter or sending a fax.

As a dedicated and unabashed lover of the outdoors and ecological conservation, I appreciate the sentiment. However, e-mails do not save trees.

The U.S. paper industry has relied on tree farming to supply its raw material for decades.

Tree farming is at least a century old and is a well-developed agricultural science.

Even in colonial times, when the forests seemed to go on forever, Southerners who relied on pitchblende and other so-called naval stores realized that mass removal of precious pines would eradicate their means of income.

Without a doubt, clear-cutting became an epidemic, fired by our expanding nation's need for building materials. But paper was not the culprit.

When modern methods of mass-producing paper became widespread, tree farming came into its own.

The phrase was coined in the early 1940s when the demand for pulpwood -- the basic ingredient in paper -- grew exponentially.

The first certified tree farm was in Washington on the West coast. However, Southern tree growers pushed the limits of growing pulpwood and revolutionized the industry.

The time required to grow trees for market was greatly reduced. Independent tree farmers and paper companies reserved huge tracts of timber and implemented a rotation system where harvests could continue every year. As one stand was being cut, another would reach maturity.

The system supplies all forms of papermaking from newsprint, to stationery, to packaging, to cardboard, to napkins and the like.

Total harvest would wipe out tree crops, and the thousands of people who depended on trees for income -- and depend on them now -- would be financially ruined. Sustainable forestry ensures future paydays.

It didn't take long for tree farmers to realize that their stands directly affected water and wildlife, and careful management also reduced the risk of devastating wildfire.

Indeed, two-thirds of our freshwater supply originates in forests. Family forest owners hold more than 262 million acres of trees, 79 million acres more than the federal government has in trust.

Managed forests have improved hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation, and they're refuges to many threatened and endangered wildlife species.

The much-maligned chip mills have contributed to forest management by making it possible to use all of a tree for pulpwood.

Traditionally, piles of brush would be left to rot or be burned because branches and other residue were not marketable.

Now, virtually everything is chipped for paper production, and replanting is easier.

I remember hearing in school that for every tree cut down for papermaking, two were planted. That's probably accurate today as tree-growing continues to evolve.

It's true that some growers do not remove all of the waste left over from harvesting, but the residue still provides a degree of habitat for wildlife. Nature will take its course in reforestation. It just takes longer.

However, some forest owners clear cut softwood stands to allow hardwoods to develop. Paper production does use hardwood trees, and of course so does the lumber industry, but the time to maturation is significantly increased.

The paper industry was guilty of abhorrent water pollution. Effluent from paper mills once turned rivers and streams black and filthy.

Thanks to science and the Environmental Protection Agency, the situation has changed.

Solid waste is no longer dumped in our rivers. The capture of toxic material such as dioxin has improved to the point where there is only a small fraction escaping into the environment as in times past, and zero emissions is the goal.

It will take many years to wash away the stains from pollution, but there is a new attitude -- prompted in part by law -- that has restored aquatic habitat throughout the nation.

Pulpwood is also a leading export, interstate and international. North Carolina ships tons of wood chips to countries that do not have our forest reserves or our management capability.

Paper is big business. It's also capital-intensive. It takes millions of dollars in investment to turn a profit.

Paper is recyclable. It is biodegradable. It is used in a vast number of products. Wherever cellulose is needed, tree farmers provide pulpwood. They are not about to clear-cut a forest and walk away. Too much is at stake.

Just as Christmas tree growers rotate harvesting so they'll be in business next year, so do pulpwood producers ensure the industry will be sound for generations.

My patch of trees is mostly hardwood. I leave much of it pristine -- letting Nature take its course. But I have to thin the seedlings from time to time to allow easy passing for me, the deer and other critters who think of my stand as home.

The tree farmers who supply the lifeblood of the paper industry constantly thin, replant, cut and replant again on a scale a zillion times more than my feeble attempt at conservation.

E-mails do not save trees. There are perils and scoundrels in our woods, but American paper companies and the many good people who practice tree farming grow more trees than they cut.

Nature and I thank them. I am glad, however, that e-mailers have their hearts in the right place.

Larry Clark is a Record staff writer. Reach him at lclark@hickoryrecord.com.

Note: Some information was gratefully gleaned from the American Tree Farm System, the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, the American Forest Foundation and The Center for Paper Business and Industry Studies, a Sloan Foundation Industry Center.

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