As a private forest owner, manager, and consultant, I initially doubted that  Certification would  have any significant effect on small private forest land.   

Here are the major  reasons that most private forest owners do not manage their timber in an active manner:  In the past, stumpage prices have been too low to make forestry a profitable business.  When people have had timber that was merchantable, they have in general received poor treatment by the timber buyers and individual loggers in the forest products industry.  Government programs have been on the whole counter productive and emphasize that timber production doesn't make economic sense - so we must subsidize forestry to encourage forest owners to manage their timber.

Fortunately, things have changed!!  Timber prices have exploded recently and forest management is now a very profitable business on a growing number of woodlots.  The industry realizes it has a major PR problem and is giving loggers training to do a better job for forest owners.  Government programs are being cut and will have little impact in the future.

The forest products industry needs to insure that the timber buyers and loggers that represent them to the individual forest owner are treating landowners fairly, paying them what their trees are really worth, harvesting in a responsible manner that protects the land and future productivity of the woods, and leaving the job in good condition. 

While market prices are well established, all parties are well informed in all dealings, and business is done in a profit oriented manner from the moment when logs are delivered to the mill - there is no market price for standing trees on private land and business dealing at the ground level are very one sided as most forest owners are not as knowledgeable as someone in the harvesting business.  The vast majority of timber buyers attempt to buy trees at as low a price as possible to increase their personal profit.  This is the real world, this is the obvious truth, yet it is the one reason the timber industry will never gain full cooperation of private forest owners.  Only if the industry had easily obtained price information for forest owners, and all timber buyers treated forest owners with equal fairness and respect, would they truly encourage forest owners to do their best to manage their forest.  And the logging crew would have to follow in the same spirit. 
                                           
Now that the timber industry is quickly running out of wood they are beginning to talk about these things, but it will take a lot more than talk to convince skeptical forest owners who have experienced problems in the past.  This is the bottom line in forest management.        Next page