The worldwide movement to give Third Party Certification to forests that manage and harvest timber in a future oriented "Sustainable" manner, has come to private forestry here in Wisconsin.  Industry leaders from across the nation met in Green Bay, July 23-25 1997 to discuss the current status of the program, and work to encourage sustainable management on  our nations most important forests: private ownerships.

The conference - "Certifying Hardwoods, Understanding the Issues" - was sponsored by the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association, Lake States Lumber Association Education Inc. and the American Forest and Paper Association.  Nearly 100 representatives from across the wood industry attended the meeting.

Growing public awareness of forest destruction and degradation has led many consumers to demand that their purchase of wood and other forest products will not contribute to this destruction, but rather help to secure forest resources for the future.  In response to these demands, certification programs of wood products have proliferated in the marketplace.  The Forest Stewardship Council is an international body which accredits certification organizations in order to guarantee the authenticity of their claims.  (Forest Stewardship Council,  Feb. 1996)

The first program feature was a tour of the Menominee Tribal Enterprise forest, one of the first forests in the region to receive third party certification of their long term sustainable management.  Head forester Marshall Pecore explained to the group their management goals of producing the "Maximum quality and maximum quantity of timber products while always increasing the natural diversity of native tree species.  We support our sawmill industry with the natural output of the forest.  With our approach, the forest dictates what comes to the Neopit sawmill, the mill doesn't determine what is harvested." 

A stand of high quality hardwood trees marked for harvest was the backdrop for their presentation.  The largest and best quality trees (18-24 inches in diameter) were reserved for future harvests, but about one third of the poorer, defective and suppressed trees were painted for selective removal.  Piles of pulpwood, sawbolts and sawlogs were all decked by the road from the cutting of the adjacent stand.  Full utilization of each tree and minimum damage logging is required of all logging crews on Tribal land.

Foresters described the process of marking the stand.  Each tree is assessed for it's vigor (growth rate) and it's risk of growing it until the next harvest in 10-15 years.  High quality trees are grown to large size (24"-36"+ diameter) as long as their vigor is strong and the risk of growing the tree until the next harvest is low.  Lesser value trees are removed periodically to allow future crop trees room to grow to their full potential. Harvest totals are averaging about 24 million board feet per year from this 220,000 acre forest, and the standing inventory of timber is constantly growing in volume and quality. 


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