Forestry experts to talk sustainability, certification at workshop Thursday in Columbiana
Updated Jan 14, 2014 ; Posted Jan 14, 2014
Eagle Creek in the Sipsey Wilderness in Bankhead National Forest (AL.com/File Photo)
By Jon Reed | jreed@al.com
COLUMBIANA, Alabama -- Foresters, loggers and landowners in Alabama will get a chance Thursday to learn about a program that could help them get recognized for their efforts to take care of their woodland and maybe open up new markets for timber sales.
The Alabama Forestry Commission will present information about forest certification programs Thursday during a daylong workshop at the Alabama 4H Youth Development Center in Columbiana.
Forest certification, in which an independent agency determines that proper management practices have been used when trees are cut, is a fairly new concept in the industry, according to Chris Isaacson, the executive vice president of the Alabama Forestry Association, a nonprofit industry trade group. He said the programs started to catch on in Alabama about a decade ago when customers of mills began asking about the way the trees were harvested.
"Their customers began to ask questions about where is your wood coming from, are you using trees in your paper-making process that are coming from sustainably managed forest," he said.
Today, about 35 percent of Alabama's 21 million acres of forest land is certified, he said.
There are three major forest certification programs in the U.S., but only two are common in Alabama. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative, which is more for large, corporate foresters; and the American Tree Farm System, which focuses on smaller, private landowners.
Both programs make sure landowners are managing their forest land in a responsible way, Isaacson said.
"It's recognizing that a forest is more than just trees," he said. "It consists of the wildlife that lives in the forest, the trees, water that's either flowing through or begins within that forest, as well as the soil. Good forest management recognizes that there are multiple resources within a forest and the management decisions and the actions that are taken are designed to conserve and protect those resources while they are being used."
The main difference between the two programs, Isaacson said, is who they're aimed at. The SFI program provides large, corporate investors with a labeling for wood that demonstrates it was sustainably grown and harvested. That labeling, he said, has become almost an industry standard, with companies like The Home Depot and Lowe's putting more emphasis on buying lumber and wood products from certified forest land.
The SFI program is almost an industry standard for the large companies that control big swaths of forest land. While that can be costly and time-consuming for the landowners -- mostly what Isaacson called institutional investors, or firms that provide returns to pension funds or stockbrokers -- it ensures access to the buyers who care about sustainably grown wood.
The American Tree Farm System program provides smaller landowners with access to those same markets, Isaacson said.
While certification provides access to a specific market of buyers, Isaacson said it doesn't necessarily mean the timber will fetch a higher price.
"In some areas there is a premium that's paid for wood that comes from certified forests. To my knowledge that's not happening here in Alabama," he said. "If a landowner is trying to sell his timber or her timber, that landowner may have an access to a market where certified timber gets a premium."
Lea Anna Meadows, the assistant division director for forest operations at the Alabama Forestry Commission, said there's potential that certification could become more valuable as consumers demand more and more sustainable products.
"There's not a huge incentive for people to certify their land, but we feel like down the road it may be coming," she said. "This concept is market-driven."
Isaacson said his organization helps with both programs, and anyone who is interested can contact the Forestry Association at (334) 265-8733.
Meadows said the workshop Thursday will focus on a lot of forest management practices that are important beyond being part of certification.
"The main reason it's a good thing for any forest manager is that with good forest management everybody wins," she said.