Newsletter Stories


Sunday, 01 August 2004
Appalachia and Ozark-Ouachita Standards Accredited by FSC International

On July 07, 2004, the Standards Committee for the FSC International (FSC-IC) Board of Directors accredited the Ozark-Ouachita and the Appalachia regional standards. Due to the hard work of Dr. Jeff Stringer, Working Group Coordinator for the Appalachia standard, and Kent Landrum, Working Group Coordinator for the Ozark standard, the Appalachia standard was accredited for five years while the Ozark standard was accredited for three years. During the next year, FSC staff and the working group coordinators will be working to meet the conditions issued for each of the standards.


The Appalachia standard went through substantial public review during the fall and winter of 2003 as stakeholders expressed concerns about several indicators. Those concerns led to a second public review period. In the Ozark-Ouachita region, several indicators have different requirements depending on whether a property is in the Ozark or the Ouachita portion of the region.

According to the requirements of the FSC Accreditation Manual, certification assessments within the regions will now have to ensure that forest operations are evaluated against the requirements of these new standards.

If certificates have already been issued within the region, these new standards will take precedence over any locally adapted generic standard previously used by the certification bodies in that region. Certificate holders will have a maximum of one year to comply with the new regional standards.

The Standards are available on the FSC-US web site (www.fscus.org) and the corresponding accreditation reports are available on request from the FSC-US Arcata office at            707.825.0485      . Within the US, eight of the nine regional standards are now accredited by FSC International, with only the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) standard remaining to be accredited. The MAV standard has been approved by the FSC-US Board of Directors and is pending FSC-IC endorsement.