State Forests in Northeast Gaining Certification

On January 21 the State of New York gained SmartWood certification for all of its “multiple-use” public forest lands. These are state forest lands outside of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves that are managed for timber, wildlife, water quality, and recreation—a total of more than 700,000 acres (283,000 ha). In so doing, the state joins Pennsylvania and Minnesota in certifying significant parcels of state land based on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the State of Maine is also considering FSC certification for all state-owned timberlands—approximately 470,000 acres (190,000 ha).

While New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is also involved with the American Forest and Paper Association’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), they chose the more stringent FSC standards for certification of their own lands. In part this is because SFI did not have a third-party audit option when the state initiated the process two years ago, according to Jennifer Meicht of DEC. (Third-party auditing is an option today—see

EBN