Thank you, Rhonda.
I'd also like to thank the Arkansas chapter of the Nature Conservancy for inviting me to speak here today. This is a very important region to Weyerhaeuser and I'm always glad to have an opportunity to see so many of our outstanding employees who work here.
One measure of this area's importance to Weyerhaeuser is the support we've received from the Arkansas congressional delegation. I would especially like to thank Senator Blanche Lincoln for her effort in attempting to equalize the tax rates among timber owners.
Today, "C" corporations such as Weyerhaeuser are taxed at higher tax rates than companies holding timber under different ownership structures. This puts "C" corps at a competitive disadvantage.
Senator Lincoln recognizes this discrepancy and has been a tireless advocate for a tax structure that treats all timber owners equally.
It has not been an easy process, but Senator Lincoln has stood firm in her conviction. The people of Arkansas are fortunate to be served by such a principled and strong leader.
It's also a pleasure to be part of an important event for the Nature Conservancy, an organization we've supported since 1974.
Over the past 30 plus years, we've partnered with the Nature Conservancy on many important projects that include the purchase and management of ecologically important areas in our operating states.
Here in Arkansas, that has included supporting the Conservation Forestry Initiative. On a national level, we've been a strong supporter of the International Leadership Council and other industry-related initiatives.
Our partnership is understandable given our mutual belief in the power of trees and stewardship of the surrounding land and environment.
Like the Nature Conservancy, we believe that our work includes protecting the planet for both people and nature.
That's what I'd like to talk about today!
We believe that trees can be a significant part of the answer to many of the challenges facing people and our planet today.
But in a day where "save a tree" seems to be the solution to every environmental issue, I'd like to spend some time countering that notion and explain how "using a tree" can be an even better approach.
Finally, I want to outline some challenges facing us as we seek to unlock the potential of trees.
While some are environmental hurdles, we face other -- perhaps larger -- obstacles as well.
So let me start by discussing our belief in the power of trees.
This shouldn't be too much of a stretch for many of you since this is a room filled with people who believe in the power of trees.
Therefore, let me ask you: "What can a tree be?"
There are obvious answers.
In a backyard, a tree can be a place for a swing or a tree house. Or, perhaps it provides shade on a summer afternoon.
Maybe it's one of many in a city park that's home to picnics or concerts. In a forest, a tree is habitat for birds, insects and small mammals.
Our industry has turned trees into the wood for your homes, paper for your books, magazines and shipping boxes.
You can buy fresh produce at the grocery store that was delivered in cost-effective, recyclable packaging.
"What can a tree be?"
It can be many things.
For 108 years, my company, Weyerhaeuser, has looked at trees as the very thing that defines us.
We were founded on trees and trees have remained core to everything we do.
We have studied them, nurtured them, grown them, harvested them and replanted them -- time and time again.
After more than a century of a close relationship with our forests, you might think that trees no longer surprise us or capture our imagination.
But they do.
And, so today, we find ourselves asking again, "What can a tree be?"
Although you'll find that question in our ads, it is not an advertising slogan.
It is a state of mind.
It's a challenge that invites us at Weyerhaeuser to open our minds to the countless possibilities in wood, fiber and land.
It's a promise to our shareholders, customers, employees and communities. It's a promise that we will develop and invent new uses and products from the renewable resources on our land.
"What can a tree be?"
It's a contract with society. It's a contract to manage incredible resources -- trees and the land on which they grow -- in a sustainable way.
It's a statement that inspires us and gives us optimism and confidence in the future. It says that the answers to many of today's challenges are in the trees we grow.
Fulfilling this promise, however, requires us to look at trees in a new way.
Yes, a tree can become a house, books, shipping boxes, diapers and newspapers.
But we believe a tree can be much more. It can be medicine, clothing -- even energy.
In late February, we signed an agreement with Chevron creating a new joint venture called "Catchlight Energy."
This groundbreaking joint venture was formed to develop the next generation of renewable cellulose-based transportation fuels.
Catchlight relies on non-food fiber to provide a solution for a world concerned about sustainable energy.
Initially, Catchlight plans to use switchgrass grown beneath the trees in our Southern timberlands as feedstock.
In the future, it could use other forms of cellulosic fiber to create fuel.
This joint venture combines the ingenuity, research and technology of two great companies -- Weyerhaeuser and Chevron -- to help meet the world's needs for energy.
We bring the capability to grow large quantities of feedstock and our research knowledge of cellulose fibers.
Chevron adds refining, distribution and marketing capabilities.
In case you're wondering about the name Catchlight, it refers to photosynthesis, the powerful chemical reaction that creates the feedstock we will use.
This amazing process was one of the first science lessons you learned in school: How a plant took carbon dioxide from the air and transformed it into oxygen and stored energy in the fiber through a chemical reaction fueled by sunlight.
To us, it's a solar-powered manufacturing process so important that we featured it on the cover of our annual report this year. To us, it's the formula for future success.
There are other ways we could unlock the potential in trees to create energy-saving products.
For example, today when most of us look at a Kraft mill, we think only of the pulp it manufactures.
But what if we changed the way we view those mills?
What if we stepped back and said these are really chemical plants that happen to make pulp?
What if we looked at the byproducts of that process as sources of chemicals for use in fuel and other applications?
Or, what if we developed new uses for wood fiber that could make cars more fuel-efficient?
We can and we did.
Today, it's possible to produce carbon fiber derived from byproducts of the pulping process to make lighter automobile parts.
"What can a tree be?"
In our minds, there is no limit to the answers to that question. But society does place limits on the potential of trees, which brings me to my second point today.
When we decided to tell the story of photosynthesis in this year's annual report, we did so for a reason.
A science challenged media often portrays saving a tree as an environmental virtue.
This mistaken belief is based on the notion that we're running out of trees and that using wood is bad for the environment.
That belief is dead wrong.
First, we are not running out of trees in North America.
Each day, the North American forest industry plants more than 1.7 million trees.
Our foresters, some of whom are in this room, are leaders in this effort.
Last year alone, Weyerhaeuser planted more than 170 million trees. By replanting more trees than we harvest, our industry has helped America's forestlands increase by 12 million acres since 1987.
So, we actually have more forests today than we did 20 years ago.
Second, wood is a sound environmental choice. Each mature tree removes about 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year from the air.
But more important, that carbon dioxide remains stored in products made from wood.
Every year, more than 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide is stored in long lived wood products.
Put another way, for every one million acres of forest we manage, we sequester about 370,000 metric tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide that remains locked in the products that we manufacture.
That's equivalent to removing 68,000 cars from the road every year.
Whether it's a basic 2 x 4 used in framing a house or engineered lumber in a floor system, products we make from sustainably managed forests offset some of the negative consequences of our industrial age.
At a time when the world is looking to the power of green and green power, we have an answer.
But will society see trees as the answer and the possibilities they hold?
It is right to work to save endangered rainforests or majestic old growth such as the California redwoods.
Both play important roles in the ecosystem and are irreplaceable.
It is also right to protect forests endangered by unsustainable logging practices.
The problem today, is that smart, logical thinking that is applied to saving those trees is applied to all trees.
A steel stud is somehow viewed as more environmentally friendly because a tree wasn't cut down to produce it.
Yet, few stop to think about the many tons of carbon dioxide created to produce steel.
How is that better for the environment than the carbon sequestration properties of a wood stud made from a tree that has already been replaced?
That's just the start.
Anything that is made from petroleum today could conceivably be made from wood-based cellulose fiber.
Not only would this lessen our dependence on foreign oil, it's better for the environment.
For example, many disposable wipes sold today are made from petroleum and don't break down easily in landfills.
Our scientists have created a material that lets you chose a product to soak up spills that is stronger, softer and is biodegradable.
More important, unlike petroleum, this product comes from a renewable resource -- wood.
So, I ask the question again: "What can a tree be?"
It can be the answer to many questions if we have the wisdom to look past the sound bites and at real science. If we do, we can see that sustainably grown trees are the answer.
I'd like to finish today by discussing one more challenge facing all of us today as we seek environmental solutions.
Earlier, I mentioned the importance of seeking our solutions through sustainably managed forests and the need to protect against illegal logging.
These are incredibly important issues, but ones that get lost in unnecessary debate.
We have spent much of the last decade squabbling over which sustainable certification is best.
As someone who has studied all of them, I can tell you that there are few differences between them. SFI, FSC, CSA, PEFC all seek to achieve the same thing and they are all successful.
Unfortunately, the similarities between them and their achievements are lost in some of the competitive rhetoric surrounding them.
Today, at least 90 percent of the world's forests are not certified to any system. These are the forests that are at risk.
It is time we turn our energies and focus away from academic debates over which certification method is best, and instead work together to bring all the world's forests up to sustainable standards.
This is the only way to ensure that the world continues to have access to the wonders of trees while protecting wildlife habitat, water purity and biodiversity.
Through certification, we release the potential in trees today and protect forests and the ecosystem for the future.
I owe you a "thank you" for your patience and I'd like to close by asking you once again: "What can a tree be?"
In response, I'd hope that you'd say it could be anything our minds imagine.
But it will take a society willing to see that using trees is the answer and a people that understand the science of why that's true.
Thank you.
