Every day - regardless of where we live and whether we realize it or not - we rely on forests. 

More than giving us clean air to breathe and clean water to drink, forests give us food, shelter and products essential to our modern lives. Yet, just as many kids think that food comes from the grocery store, we are disconnected from the origin of these invaluable benefits we need for our everyday survival, comfort and progress: Georgia's 22 million acres of privately owned forestland.

This photo essay traces those benefits back to the source and shows how they get from the forest to your home.
It all starts at a nursery - like IFCO Seedlings in Moultrie - where seedlings are grown. Seedlings come from the seeds of a pinecone, and the most common seedling species to grow in Georgia are longleaf pine and loblolly pine. The nursery uses genetics and scientific methods to make sure that the seedlings will grow into a healthy and mature trees and be less susceptible to insect infestations, drought and other possible threats as they grow.
After months of being closely tended at the nursery, the seedling is sold to a landowner and planted in the ground. Typically, the landowner has recently harvested the plot and prepared the land for another rotation of trees, making sure the soil is rich in nutrients for the new trees.
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Photo courtesy of Rayonier
There's more to growing trees than just planting them in the ground, whether the growers are private citizens who own timberland passed down from generation to generation or a company that manages hundreds of thousands of acres of forests. Prescribed fire is used to clear the ground of thick brush that can divert nutrients from the trees and can fuel a potential wildfire. Landowners like Rayonier use advanced techniques and equipment such as drones to monitor the trees' growth and health and the forest's health as a whole.
The trees grow taller as they age and mature. Meanwhile, they provide oxygen for us to breathe, clean the water that we drink, allow us to recreate and connect with nature, and provide a rich habitat for wildlife. They also sequester carbon and help mitigate the effects of climate change as they grow.
Not all timber harvesting is done through clear cuts, and it's a very infrequent disturbance to the ecosystem. Harvesting of trees takes place two to three times over the 40-50-year life cycle of the forest. Throughout those years, smaller, low-value trees are thinned out to restore the health of the forest and help the remaining trees grow. Once the stand is fully mature, the trees are harvested, sorted and transported to the mills. As shown in this photo, a clear cut doesn't necessarily mean that the whole property is harvested - stands are harvested on a rotating basis to maintain the ecosystem's health and sustainability.
One of the two types of mills where timber goes after being harvested is a pulp and paper mill, like this one operated by Graphic Packaging in Macon. Here, younger and smaller-diameter trees are turned into a wide array of end-products through a two-step process. First, the harvested timber is turned into large rolls of raw paper (like the one pictured) through the pulping process. These large rolls are then processed in a number of ways to specifically create the paper containers, cardboard boxes for cereal and many other paper products we use daily.
At sawmills - like this one operated by Canfor in Thomasville - older and larger-diameter timber is cut into different sizes of dimensional lumber by high-tech equipment that delivers pinpoint precision and ensures that the highest-grade product goes to the marketplace.
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There are obvious forest products that we rely on every day - the paper we print on, the cardboard boxes that deliver our online purchases, the lumber we build our homes with. But there are others, like nanocellulose (a byproduct of the pulping process) in our cellphone and computer screens, and wood pellets (a byproduct of the sawmill process) that can be used for heating, cooking and power. What these forest products have in common is that they all sequester carbon that was captured while the tree was growing, which helps mitigate carbon emissions throughout the products' life cycle.
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Photo by Stephen B. Morton
We may not see working forests in our daily routines. Our commutes might not be on highways lined with seemingly endless rows of trees. Our homes might be in suburban developments. Yet, no matter where in Georgia we live, we all directly benefit from and heavily rely on our state's working forests and forest products industry for our everyday survival, comfort and progress. And, as consumers, our preferences for forest products over plastics or other less-sustainable alternatives helps ensure that our 22 million acres of forestland continue to provide the myriad benefits - both economic and environmental - of our state's most abundant and most sustainable natural resource.
Alan Mothner is a former nationally recognized photojournalist whose work for the Associated Press and Reuters news agency has been featured in magazines and newspapers throughout the world.