Fast facts
Not all fire is bad.
Fire can be both friend and foe. In the right place at the right time, fire creates environmental benefits, such as reducing grass and brush that serve as fuel for megafires, while also improving habitats for wildlife.
Healthy forests provide clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, diverse products, and more. Fire is a natural process and necessary to the health of many forests.
Forests can recover naturally after a wildfire but sometimes they need a little help. When a fire kills all vegetation and heats the ground, it causes changes to the soil and prevents water from being absorbed or retained, increasing erosion and mudslides. Sometimes allowing invasive species to creep in and take over.
Replanting trees after a wildfire is a key part of forest management.
Forests are home to 80% of wildlife on land. Keeping forests healthy protects the amazing diversity of animals, plants, and insects that call North American forests home. Forest management helps protect habitats across a billion forested acres.
It takes 2 billion pallets a day to move and store goods in the US. Most are made of wood and 95% are recycled into new pallets or other products.
Our friends at Quartz are obsessed with this humble and ubiquitous technology, featuring the wood pallet's role in the global economy as the lo-fi load bearers of the world.
Not only do pallets move the world, they also support healthy forests and strong communities.
Cardboard is the most frequently used packaging material because it is renewable, sustainable, and highly recyclable.
Studies show that trees along streets lead to safer driving. Just another way trees are helping us to reimagine our communities for the better.
Who is part of the forest community?
HINT: It's more people than you think, and probably includes you!
In most forests across the country, sustainable forest management is hard at work, leading to forests of all ages, shapes, and sizes. Check out how the diversity of forests contributes to wildlife habitat, recreation, wood products and more.
