Newsletter Stories


Saturday, 01 November 2003
An Update From the Forest

By FSC-US staff foresters Bill Wilkinson and Greg Blomstrom


Tribal Land CertificationThrough a major effort by the Intertribal Timber Council, Pinchot Institute and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, eight tribes in the US have proceeded with full certification assessments. An additional 27 Tribes went through scoping assessments. These assessments were part of the information collected for the Indian Forestry Assessment (which happens once every ten years), which is required by law. The Indian Forest Management Assessment Team completed the last assessment in 1993 for the Intertribal Timber Council, and the results are available on the ITC web site. Currently most of the assessments are complete or nearly complete and these Tribes are in the process of signing certification contracts. Several of the Tribes are probably well known to most of you. The Tribes completing certification assessments include; The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs in Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, the Confederated Salish and Kootneai Tribe in Montana, the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona, the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, the Spokane Tribe of Washington, the Red Lake Band of Chippeaw Indians in Minnesota and the Ft. Bidwell Indian Community in California. We salute these Tribes for pursuing certification.

Progress On Addressing The Needs Of SLIMF’s (Small And Low Intensity Managed Forests)Non-industrial private forestland (NIPF) comprises 58% of the forestland in the US (291 million acres). Much of this land is managed at low intensity, indeed in the South about 77% of hardwood NIPF land is managed at low intensity, while in the Pacific Northwest 75% of the Douglas-fir/hemlock forests on NIPF lands are managed at “custodial" intensities.

Small low intensity managed forest (SLIMF’s) landowners face major barriers to becoming certified. From our viewpoint, the major barriers to SLIMF owners seeking certification in the US is the cost of the assessments and audits, and the fact these properties often do not produce revenue on a per acre basis as high as found on commercially managed forests. To address these barriers, FSC International has organized a technical committee, which includes Phil Guillery, from the FSC-US Board and Eric Palola from the National Wildlife Federation, to propose changes in FSC policy to encourage certifying SLIMF acreage. The proposal contains an international definition of small and low-intensity. The proposed definition of small is forests up to 2,500 acres. In the US nearly 20% of certified properties are less than 2,500 acres. The proposed definition of low intensity would apply to properties cutting less than 20% of mean annual increment AND cutting less than 675 MBF/year from the property, regardless of size.

Of course defining small and low intensity does not in-and-of-itself reduce barriers to certification. FSC International is proposing changes specific to SLIMF’s that ought to lower the cost of assessments by (among other things): requiring less scoping, adoption of a “checklist" style report documenting the results of the assessment, less peer review of the assessment “checklist", fewer site visits for auditing purposes during the certificate period, and a less formal public summary document detailing the assessment results.

Recently a pilot test of proposed assessment and certification policy changes specific to SLIMF’s was initiated around the world by FSC International. One pilot test was conducted in the US on the FSC recertified Vermont Family Forests. The results of this pilot test and others showed costs could be reduced by 20-50% if FSC International adopts these new policies.

When adopted, the SLIMF’s recommendations would allow FSC-US to set its own definition of small and low intensity within a range of values. In addition, FSC-US could/would revise its regional standards to reflect scale and intensity considerations appropriate to SLIMF’s. FSC International is considering these policies this month and is expected to implement many of the changes by early next year, which should help lower the barriers to certification in the US.

DOD/DOE IndicatorsFSC-US is opening a 60-day public comment period to receive comments on our draft National Indicators for Certifying Department of Defense and Department of Energy lands within the US. The comment period will close on December 15, 2003. The purpose of these National Indicators is to provide certifying bodies with guidance on assessing and certifying Department of Defense and Department of Energy forestlands. Once approved by the FSC-US Board and FSC International, certifying bodies will use these indicators, in addition to already approved regional standards. Please submit comments on these indicators to Greg Blomstrom, Forest Analyst, FSC-US, via email at gblomstrom@fscus.org or via mail at 39-1/2 South G. Street, Arcata, CA, 95521.