Texans have long known the benefits that forests provide to landowners and society.  Recently, awareness has developed of the many ecosystem services that forests provide in addition to the wood products that are derived from these important lands.  These services include carbon sequestration and storage, water purification and buffering of seasonal extremes in water flow, and providing diverse habitat for rare animal and plant species; as well as recreation and aesthetic amenities.

In the past, most of these services have not been accounted for financially and there has been concern that much of this “natural capital” is wasted because of this undervaluation.  Recently, efforts have been made in various parts of the world to capture and enhance the financial marketability of ecosystem services.

Traditionally, forests have provided income to landowners through the sale of raw material for forest products, such as saw logs that are sawn into lumber and wood fiber that is pulped and made into paper.  The purpose of the ecosystems services program is to provide an impetus for developing ecosystem services markets in Texas and thus provide an additional source of forest income for Texas landowners.  This additional income will hopefully provide incentives for landowners to maintain their land in forests.  This is becoming more important as growth and development pressures increase statewide.