"Print Grows Trees" Education Campaign Launches in North America

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2011 -- A new consumer education campaign entitled "Print Grows Trees" dispels the misconception that by using use less print on paper, trees are saved. Facts show that supporting print on paper actually gives landowners the financial incentive they need to keep America's woodlands safe from development and managed in a sustainable manner to contribute important ecosystem benefits such as water, wildlife and carbon sequestration.

Sponsored by the Education Fund of Printing & Graphics Association MidAtlantic (PGAMA), "Print Grows Trees" connects consumers to the private landowners who control almost 60 percent of America's woodlands. Age, demographics and financial pressures are causing these landowners to sell or transfer land at an alarming rate, and an average of 4,000 acres of forest is being converted to development daily.

"This is a pro-print message that helps consumers appreciate the renewable nature of paper from a new perspective," says Steve Bearden, Chairman, PGAMA and President, Linemark Printing of Upper Marlboro, Maryland. "The realization that the wood-for-paper equation actually allows landowners to grow more trees, and to manage woodlands in a more sustainable manner, is contrary to popular thinking, but it's an important realization. When these woodlands start to vanish, they take with them all of the ecological benefits we're basically getting for free. We have to support the landowners to continue to get those benefits."

"In a world bombarded by electronic images and media," says Bearden, "many forget the value of print to our society. It contributes in economic, social and environmental ways that have not been clearly represented to the public. 'Print Grows Trees' concentrates on the environmental, because the misconception that if we stop using print we'll save trees, has had a critical impact on not only the print industry, but also on the private landowners who are the keepers of America's trees. We just want people to make their communications' decisions based on facts."