Georgia’s forestry industry is a victim of its own success.

Thanks to advanced genetics that result in fast-growing tree growth and a favorable climate, Georgia is home to the nation’s largest forestry state, a $42 billion industry that supports 143,000 jobs.

But as many pulp and paper mills close due to strong foreign competition, demand for wood is falling. As a result, wood prices have fallen to levels not seen since the 1970s.

This dynamic is behind the initiative to find new markets for Georgia’s oversupply of wood, using innovative clean energy industries ranging from clean aviation fuel to mass timber construction and batteries for electric vehicles.

“Georgia is in a unique position,” Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services in Albany, told members of a state Senate investigative committee on Aug. 13. “We can create jobs and tax revenue and position Georgia as a leader in the transition to a green economy.”

The Georgia Senate Committee on Forestry Innovation was created this year to explore ways the state can encourage investment in sustainable forest products that will generate future demand.

Committee Chairman John Kennedy (R-Macon), president pro tempore of the Senate, said he saw one of those options during a government-sponsored trade mission to France last year: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a biofuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 85 percent compared to traditional petroleum-based jet fuel.

The European Union requires commercial aircraft to burn at least 6% SAF starting in 2030. This percentage will be gradually increased each year until it reaches 70% in 2050.

One company operating in Georgia, Lanzajet, already produces 120 million gallons of SAF per year, Andres Villegas, president and CEO of the Georgia Forestry Association, told the investigative committee.

But much more is needed. Villegas said that by 2030, 3 billion gallons of SAF will be needed to replace fossil fuels in commercial aircraft, and 35 billion gallons of SAF will be needed by 2050.

Another innovative use of wood that is still in its infancy is mass timber construction of multi-family housing or office buildings, where wood replaces more carbon-intensive materials such as concrete and steel. The first commercial building in Georgia to be built from mass timber is in Atlanta’s Ponce City Market and is made from the wood of the Southern Yellow Pine grown in rural Georgia.

“Through these types of projects we can connect the city and the countryside,” said Villegas.

Researchers are also exploring ways to convert pine wood into electric vehicle battery anodes, key components of battery cells. The state has invested $3 million in that research, said Tim Lowrimore, executive director of the Georgia Forestry Commission, a state agency that works to protect and conserve the state’s forest resources.

The committee of inquiry will hold several meetings in the summer and autumn to discuss how the state could promote the innovative use of wood products.

The General Assembly has become increasingly reluctant to approve tax credits to support various industries in recent years because of the loss of tax revenue. But tax credits offer an opportunity to open up innovative markets that would create new jobs in the forestry industry, said Sen. Russ Goodman (R-Cogdell), a member of the investigative committee and chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Protection Committee.

“We are growing 50% more trees than we use,” Goodman said. “We need to create markets.”

Lowrimore said the state could do more to promote mass timber construction by using the technology to build public buildings.

“Why doesn’t every public entity at least evaluate (solid wood)?” added Larry Spillers, chairman of the Georgia Forestry Commission and an arborist who owns 2,000 acres of land mostly in Crawford County.

Spillers said state policymakers, in their rush to promote innovative uses for Georgia’s wood, should not forget existing forestry industries. For example, pulp mills could be retrofitted to produce sustainable aviation fuel, he said.

“We can support our existing businesses,” Lowrimore told the committee members. “But we also have the capacity to do more. … To get where we want to go, you as leaders have to be committed to making it happen.”

The committee is expected to present its findings to the full Senate by December 1.