There are more than 12 million barrels of bourbon in Kentucky.

Wood from white oak trees is a key part of these barrels as roughly 50% of Bourbon's flavor and 100% of its brown color come from white oak wood.

The White Oak Initiative is a coalition made up of various industries and environmental preservationists that has come together to make sure that future generations have access to the trees.

White oak represents about 20% of the American hardwood that's four that's logged each year, but it's the most economically powerful species in the forest.

The White Oak Initiative is a coalition of organizations that have a fundamental vested interest in the proliferation of White Oak for the long term.

So anybody from obviously the bourbon and spirits industry to the flooring industry, to the Wild Turkey Federation, to the American Forestry Association, because white oak is such a vital component of not only our our bourbon industry, but the flooring and and the lumber industry that we have the trees and we have there's plenty of wood and plenty of white oak.

It's a matter of how old they are.

The issue isn't, you know, ten, 20 years out, we've got a sufficient supply.

We're looking 50 to 100 years down the road because a tree can be 60 to 100 years old before it gets into a barrel.

So it's that regeneration process and that that's what the White Oak Initiative is really focused on is making sure that the future growth of the forest is there.

So it looks like the make up of the forest now that helps maintain the natural beauty of it and the natural, you know, the people who want to preserve and be in the woods and outdoors people and things like that.

The commercial ization part of it kind of keeps that all, you know, that economic engine motoring on and make sure that everybody has, you know, like I said, a long term outlook on it.

We basically sponsor, you know, forestry management programs so that a landowner can come and meet with somebody and have a plan for how am I going to manage this?

You know, because over, you know, over 70% of the hardwood forest in America are privately owned.

So I need to meet with that landowner and say, look, this is a management program for you long term, generationally, that you should be using on your land to make sure that that that future is secure.

When you look at it generationally, you say, okay, for this generation, fine, what about one or two generations down the line?

And like I said, when it when a tree can be 80 to 100 years old, you have to look at it.

The work that's being done today.

Most of us will never see the fruits of that labor.

How long does it take to make a, you know, a bottle of whiskey?

And, you know, people might say four or five years, whatever.

And it's like, well, could be 80 to 100 for that, that Ed Gordon to turn it into a tree that basically, you know, we're going to utilize in a barrel.

The White Oak Initiative hopes to secure 3 million forested acres of white oak trees in the central hardwood region of the U.S. by the year 2032.