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FOREST
CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY
What Is
Green Forestry? Boise Cascade Certifies
300,000 Acres
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Forest
Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.
http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation
Portal
http://forests.org/links/ -- Forest
Conservation Links
12/02/01
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY by Forests.org
Forest
certification is a splendid idea that holds great potential to
minimize
environmental impacts and maximize the sustainability of
forest
management. Forests.org strongly
supports forest
certification
standards that guarantee forest products do not come
from
ancient old growth forests and management practices are based
upon
requirements for upscale forest sustainability.
There
is a battle being waged, between certification standards backed
by the
traditional timber industry and those backed by establishment
environmental
groups, which threatens to make forest certification
meaningless. Below is timber industry PR regarding how
the American
Forest
& Paper Association has certified Boise Cascade timberland in
Northeast
Oregon. This is not very
reassuring. Do not confuse
sustaining
timber production with sustaining forest ecosystems, and
all
their species, structure and functions.
Meanwhile the Forest
Stewardship
Council (FSC), the alternative backed by many
environmentalists,
is compromising environmental principles to gain
market
share.
Forest
certification schemes less rigorous than the Forest
Stewardship
Council (FSC) are a scam. Industry
sponsored
certification
schemes are green-dressing to legitimize business as
usual
over-exploitation of forests. Under
such programs the
industrial
forest paradigm remains unquestioned.
There is no change
in the
scale and intensity of commercial forest management - the root
cause
of forest diminishment and non-sustainability.
Even
FSC certification condones continued widespread first time
industrial
logging of most of the World's remaining ancient old-
growth
forests. While FSC is clearly
preferable to the other bogus
certification
schemes, it may not be realistic to expect consumers to
differentiate
between various certifying groups.
Particularly when
FSC is
failing to provide a sufficiently environmentally rigorous
alternative.
Forests.org
strongly supports certifying forest products as being
free of
commercially logged ancient old-growth forests. Commercial
scale
logging of primary forests is NEVER sustainable or
environmentally
sensitive. Truly rigorous claims of
environmental
desirability
would only certify small and medium scaled community-
based
eco-forestry activities in ancient forests, secondary natural
forest
management, mixed species plantations on degraded lands, and
promote
the use of alternative fibers and building materials.
Labeling
a forest product as being "green" requires nothing less.
The
forest conservation community is being had.
On the important
matter
of whether logging ancient old growth forests is
environmentally
acceptable and worthy of being labeled as green, all
the
certification standards fail. Because
of this, FSC is failing to
differentiate
itself from bogus alternatives. Another
promising
concept,
crucial for global ecological sustainability, is in danger
of
being made meaningless as compromised environmentalists compromise
rather
than remaining vigilantly green.
g.b.
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TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Boise Cascade Certifies 300,000 Acres of
Forest Land in
Northeast Oregon
Source: Copyright 2001 PR Newswire
Date: November 19, 2001
BOISE,
Idaho, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Boise Cascade Corp. (NYSE: BCC)
today
announced results from an independent, third-party audit to
certify
approximately 300,000 acres of timberland located in the
company's
Northeast Oregon Region.
The
audit, performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, certified Boise
Cascade's
full conformance with the American Forest & Paper
Association's
(AF&PA) Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFISM) Program
standards
and confirmed conformance with the company's own Forest
Stewardship
Values and Measures. Boise Cascade timberlands in western
Oregon,
Idaho, and Washington were audited earlier in the audit cycle
and
were found to be in conformance with SFI standards. The northeast
Oregon
audit examined forest management practices on timberland owned
and
managed by the company and on private and public land where the
company
harvests standing timber, as well as the region's wood
procurement
system.
Observing
portions of the audit were 14 representatives of Boise
Cascade
wood products customers, four media representatives, and
three
members of the independent Forest Stewardship Advisory Council.
The
advisory council is comprised of seven nationally recognized
natural
resource experts who have agreed to advise Boise Cascade on
ways we
can enhance our forest stewardship.
The
PricewaterhouseCoopers audit report identified a number of good
management
practices, where performance was judged to be above
average
for the industry, and opportunities for improvement, where
procedures
could be better documented and standardized to improve
management
practices.
The
PricewaterhouseCoopers audit team included technical experts in
forest
engineering, forest planning, silviculture, range management
and
wildlife management. Auditors interviewed Boise Cascade staff,
contractors,
Oregon Department of Forestry employees, and neighboring
landowners.
They also inspected office processes and numerous sites
in the
forest.
"Having
independent experts audit our forest management practices is
an
excellent way to show our customers that they are buying wood
products
from a company that manages timberlands against rigorous
environmental
standards," said Robert Messinger, Northeast Oregon and
Idaho
Region timberlands. "The audit also allows us to establish a
benchmark
for our own goal of continuously improving our forest
management."
The
AF&PA's SFI Program is a comprehensive system of principles,
objectives,
and performance measures that integrates the sustainable
growing
and harvesting of trees with protection of wildlife, plants,
soil,
and water quality.
Boise
Cascade Corp., headquartered in Boise, Idaho, is a major
distributor
of office products and building materials and an
integrated
manufacturer and distributor of paper and wood products.
The
company also owns or controls 2.3 million acres of timberland in
the
United States. A leader in sustainable forestry, Boise Cascade
uses
third-party audits and an advisory council of independent
experts
in its Forest Stewardship Program to ensure the protection of
wildlife,
plants, soil, and air and water quality. Visit the Boise
Cascade
web site at http://www.bc.com .
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Conservation Portal at URL= http://forests.org/
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