Newsletter Stories


Friday, 01 April 2005
Standards Review Process: Update

The independent review of all nine FSC regional standards in the U.S. has begun (see News & Views, December 2004). The review is being lead by Gary Dodge, an independent consultant for FSC-US. Dodge will be reaching out to several stakeholders to gain feedback about how to conduct the standards review and to understand their concerns about the FSC regional standards.


Dodge has fifteen years of professional experience in biology and conservation, including program design, program management, and scientific research. He has been the principle investigator and ecological researcher for the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, and also worked for three years as an international communications associate with Conservation International in Washington, DC.

 Dodge has worked as a biological technician for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota, the National Park Service in California and Alaska, and the Forest Service in California. Between 1989 and 1991 he worked as a conservation manager for the Peace Corp in Honduras.

Dodge has a B.S. in cognitive/ computer science from UC San Diego and an M.S. in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland.

Conditions Closed on Regional Standards 
FSC-US recently received notice that FSC International Center (FSC-IC) has closed all conditions applied to the Lake States and Northeast Standards. The aim of the conditions is to improve the technical merits of the regional standards. Prior to February 2005, the only fully accredited standard approved by FSC-IC was the Rocky Mountain Standard.

In addition, FSC-IC has also closed all but one of the conditions to the Southwest and Southeast standards. In the case of the Southeast standard, the remaining open condition is a requirement that FSC-US provide further guidance on clearcut sizes. In the Southwest, the open condition requires clarification of language regarding customary use rights, which has been referred to the entire FSC International Board for resolution.

FSC-US also expects that most of the open conditions for the Pacific Northwest, Appalachia and Ozark standards will be nearly or completely approved by FSC-IC during the coming year.

The revised standards will be updated in early January 2006 and posted on the web site at that time. For the time being, certifiers and forest owners and managers should continue to use the standards on the web site.