Enviva Provides Special Donation Towards Forest Conservation in North Carolina
The donation to the N.C. Tree Farm Program was made in honor of Enviva’s 15th anniversary.
Enviva, the world’s largest producer of sustainably sourced wood pellets, recently made a sizeable donation to the North Carolina Tree Farm Program (NCTFP) to keep the state’s forests healthy and productive.
The donation was made in celebration of Enviva’s 15th anniversary and provides funding for a future tree farm workshop.
The company chose to supplement its annual support to the NCTFP because of its vital role in enhancing the quality of America’s forestland. The NCTFP is part of the American Tree Farm System® (ATFS), a network of 74,000 family forest owners sustainably managing 19 million acres of forestland across the U.S. The ATFS has provided forest landowners with the tools they need to sustainably manage their forests for the past 75 years.
Upon accepting the gift, NCTFP Executive Director Leslie McCormick acknowledged Enviva’s commitment to displacing coal and growing more trees and to providing a cleaner energy alternative to fossil fuels. Enviva has sponsored the program for years, providing annual financial support as well as volunteering staff foresters.
“We have about 900 landowners currently enrolled in our program who are sustainably managing nearly 230,000 acres of certified forests,” McCormick said. “We appreciate the support from our forestry volunteers and our corporate sponsors such as Enviva. These partnerships are one of the keys to our success today and going forward as we try to keep North Carolina’s forests healthy, abundant, and productive.”
Along with McCormick, Enviva sustainability foresters Lauren Killian and Laurent Kosakowski attended an event to celebrate the NCTFP donation.
As part of its commitment to help grow more trees, Enviva partners with federal and state agencies, conservation organizations, consulting foresters, and other forest products companies to assist private forest landowners across the Southeastern U.S. with their forest stewardship.
“These forests also provide the starting point for countless valuable forest products that Americans use and enjoy every day, such as furniture, paper, and construction materials, to name a few,” said Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Enviva. “Enviva is proud to work with organizations such as the NCTFP who share our same values and mission: keeping our forests healthy, productive, and abundant for generations to come.”
In addition to Enviva’s direct support of private landowner groups, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund is designed to assist in the conservation of tens of thousands of acres of sensitive bottomland forests in the Southeastern United States. The program, administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, has committed to award $5 million in matching-fund grants over 10 years to nonprofit organizations to permanently protect ecologically sensitive areas and preserve working forests.
To learn more about Enviva and sustainably sourced bioenergy, visit www.envivabiomass.com and follow www.facebook.com/envivabiomass and Twitter @EnvivaBiomass.
