Sustained forests; sustained profits
Sustained forests; sustained profits
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The following are the best current understandings of the Forest Stewardship Council's principles and reflect the direction that the staff intends to move the forest and the related resources:
PRINCIPLE 1. COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND WILDLAND
Forest management as recommended and practiced by staff of Lasting Forests includes respect for all applicable laws of ___________ County(s) of ___________ State and all relevant international treaties and agreements of the U.S. Staff seeks to comply with all FSC principles and criteria and where it may, by oversight or lack of knowledge, have failed to meet these standards, will make strong corrective and adaptive action.
Staff is seeking a grant or other support to allow us to assemble the laws, rules, and regulations relating to forestry and to place them in a user-friendly format at their primary web site. There, clients may review the laws or seek relevant key words or phrases relating to potential local conflicts, conditions, or provisions. As soon as the legal base is available, it will be announced in this section of the document.
Criterion 1.1. To meet Criterion 1.1, staff seeks to respect in its actions and recommendations all national and local laws and administrative requirements. To do so, staff have studied:
To achieve Criterion 1.2, we typically ask the land owner direct questions about payment of all legally prescribed fees, royalties, taxes, and other charges. The answers indicate that all have been paid and the landowner has initialed each question indicating a true answer given to the best of his or her ability.
To achieve Criterion 1.3, the staff has encouraged and recommended adherence to the following treaties:
To meet Criterion 1.4, staff agrees that with FSC staff it will seek to evaluate conflicts between laws, regulations, and FSC Principles and Criteria, and to resolve these conflicts for purposes of certification.
Criterion 1.5 is: "Forest management areas should be protected from illegal harvesting, settlement, and other unauthorized activities."
Illegal harvests are achieved by:
PRINCIPLE 2. TENURE AND USE OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Long-term tenure and use rights to the land and forest resources shall be clearly defined, documented, and legally established.
Understanding any land unit is difficult and requires continual study to see its history from any perspectives and many time periods.
Mosby once said that geology for foresters was primarily to develop a concept of time and history, not rocks and minerals.
Diamond and Giles presented an analysis of the pre-settlement vegetation of the region of Virginia. Diamond ( ) developed a model of pre-settlement people suggesting the land and conditions of life of people soon after the Pleistocene glacier retreated (10,000 bp).
We are developing a general forest history of the region.
A copy of the deed has been acquired and made a part of the forest record.
The owner has initiated a voluntary statement that the title is held with all customary rights and lease agreements.
Criterion 2.2. We are unaware of any local communities having tenure or use rights to the land.
Criterion 2.3. We are developing a mediated process for resolving any disputes over tenure claims and use rights.
PRINCIPLE 3. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS
The legal and customary rights of indigenous peoples to own, use, and manage their lands and resources shall be recognized and respected.
To our best knowledge, there are no indigenous people involved with the lands being managed.
PRINCIPLE 4. COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND WORKERS' RIGHTS
Forest management operations shall maintain or enhance the long-term social and economic well-being of forest workers and local communities.
To meet Criterion 4.1, we engage in forestry with a primary objective of providing and maintaining employment. One of the benefits we claim from our work is enhanced local employment and the financial gains and tax stability provided to the local community.
We are planning to provide a loggers' training program and to seek to develop a loggers' cooperative that will improve conditions, safety, and financial well-being of these people.
Criterion 4.2 states that "Forest management should meet or exceed all applicable laws and/or regulations covering health and safety of employees and their families."
Staff is seeking a grant or other support to collect all applicable laws and regulations. We shall place these at a web site for reading and for searching for key words and phrases.
We have instituted a daily "safety session", an effort to raise the consciousness of all field staff for safe work during the day. These last 3 to 5 minutes and address one or more techniques to improve or encourage safe practices.
We are investigating creating a newsletter called The Healthy Forester, as a means to encourage healthful living for all members of the families of our staff, clients, employees, and interested citizens. A unique health "score" will be attempted to be related to a progressive health insurance program for employees and their families.
Criterion 4.3 is believed to be satisfied by a letter to all employees stating at the time of their employment their rights "to organize and voluntarily negotiate with their employees" (as guaranteed, Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organization). A copy of this letter and these conventions is made available at no cost to employees on LastingForests.com.
Criterion 4.4 is addressed throughout Guidance sections. Staff of Lasting Forests maintains a substantial library on social aspects of wildland management. Its staff has published extensively on social dimensions of wildland management. Staff are charter members of the Human Dimensions in Wildlife Management organization. Consultation is maintained with social and economic interests among the faculty of the Virginia Tech College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.
A standard practice of operations is to send letters to all adjacent land owners before work begins.
To satisfy Criterion 4.5, Staff can only pledge, as in the past, to take all measures and mechanisms feasible to avoid losses or damage to the legal or customary rights, property, resources, or livelihood of local people. Where this may not be possible, staff shall attempt, with whatever offended parties that may emerge, to develop and employ appropriate mechanisms for resolving the grievances and providing fair compensation or alternative livelihood.
PRINCIPLE 5. BENEFITS FROM THE FOREST
Forest management operations shall encourage the efficient use of the forest's multiple products and services to ensure economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social benefits.
Criterion 5.1. Forest management should strive toward economic viability, while taking into account the full environmental, social and operational costs of production, and ensuring the investments necessary to maintain the ecological productivity of the forest.
This profound criterion is achieved within Lasting Forests in an algorithm described in Guidance and elsewhere. In includes:
Staff computes a unique potential annual income from four strategies presented to each client. Strategy 1 is single sales, either as pulp or as sawlogs. Strategy 2 is a species-specific sale of pulp and saw logs. In Strategy 1 and 2 there are many years without income. In Strategy 3, income from deer hunts and springtime hikes, managed by Foresters Inc., are presented. In Strategy 4, the potential of Lasting Forests is presented. Totals are presented for a 50-year planning period along with likely net present-discounted values for each strategy.
Strategy 4 includes wood sawing, seasoning, sales, product development, and intensive wildland use for profit-oriented recreation such as hikes, camping, horse and bike trail use, seasonal greens, craft products, wildflowers, wildlife watching, select game enterprises, pond fishing, stream fishing, tours, and memberships.
Criterion 5.3. Forest management should minimize waste associated with harvesting and on-site processing operations and avoid damage to other forest resources.
Staff seeks to create a well-informed group of operators that take quality products from the forest and seek to return land to a highly productive state for the future. This is done by training sessions and by field supervision.
As part of Criterion 5.1, we seek to maintain ecological productivity by processing tops to retain site quality and to stabilize soil.
All harvests are seen as design work and are made with the desired future forest as an objective.
Staff works with potential producers and manufacturers to develop new products for which tops, low grade, and small size woods may be used.
Skidding is carefully designed with appropriate "bumper trees" and lanes to reduce negative influences. "Damaged trees" are planned and removed last as part of usual harvest operations.
"Physical injury" is carefully separated from "financial loss" or "esthetic loss", i.e., damage. The cost-effective future forest is the desired entity and Staff are careful to assure reseeding or re-forestation at desired rates per acre. (Seedling, when injured by harvest operations but when they are in excessive numbers, are not considered damaged unless the future stand is under-stocked.
Work is carefully monitored so that timing can increase reproduction (e.g., on scarified areas) or reduce impacts (e.g., by avoiding wet periods). Impacts to other resources, for example, critical nesting/breeding periods for wildlife, are reduced by careful scheduling of harvests, road building and other operations and land use.
Criterion 5.4. Forest management should strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product.
Staff seeks to maintain forests by demonstrating and publicizing the many products, services, employment "slots" and gross economic product for the region. The diverse enterprise-related forest-based work of the Staff includes that within Lasting Forests, including:
Staff of Lasting Forests has developed a list of forest services. These are largely ecological, the services to people provided by forest ecosystems. See the Guidance section on "Ecological Services."
It has developed detailed watershed analysis systems ready for application.
In Guidance, watershed analyses are provided estimating the contribution of the client's forest to the water budget of the area. Among the information provided (and unavailable readily or cost-effectively elsewhere) is runoff, storage, site-specific precipitation, flood plain estimate, moisture index, fog drip, and evapotranspiration. Changes in these are presented for planned/proposed harvests.
Since watersheds and fisheries are usually highly weighted stated benefits devised by clients, improvements in these elements of the land can improve the R value. Continual pressure is brought to improve this value on the way to avoid a perfect R* of 100.
Criterion 5.6. The rate of harvest of forest products shall not exceed levels that can permanently sustained.
This profoundly difficult-to-achieve criterion is presented by FORESTERS, INC. as 4 computed strategies called forest regulation strategies, but they are intended to relate to the many objectives (stated and hidden) of the clients.
Strategy 1 - Area Regulation - equal areas are cut within every 5 years to achieve a 100-year rotation (a period in which every designated-as-productive area is harvested once).
Strategy 2 - Volume Regulation - An equal volume is harvested within each 5-year period. This is typically the estimated minimum total annual increment on all designated-as-productive areas.
Strategy 3 - Biodiversity Regulation - A modified area regulation, this strategy maximizes present net worth seeking to achieve in the end, equal areas, in all age classes within each type. The result is evenness within each forest type, a condition that produces a maximum Shannon-Weiner index of biodiversity. While proximity and juxtaposition and interspersion criteria may be interesting, they are irrelevant because they change with each small-tract-harvest.
Strategy 4 - Zeta Regulation - described in Giles (1978) and developed by Waldon (1988), the Zeta regulation combines all relevant products - wood, water, wildlife (some 40 species) - into a joint benefit production function and stabilizes that production by regulating the area and time of each harvest.
Presentation of the 4 strategies allows full-scale, comprehensive analyses of the options and differences for the client/decision makers.
Alternative strategies are being developed for the small-forest owner for whom elaborate regulation strategies and inappropriate. (Thousands of small forest tract owners may liquidate their stands simultaneously in a few years and produce a condition in which no harvests can be made for many years.)
PRINCIPLE 6. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Forest management shall conserve biological diversity and its associated values, water resources, soils, and unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, and, by so doing, maintain the ecological functions and the integrity of the forest.
Staff operates on the premise that a forest is a resource and thus each one has a human dimension, implying that it may benefit people (deserving or not). As a resource, every use (even human presence) may cause change that may have influence on the natural system or on other users. We thus operate on the basis that every action in the forest does cause change, but that these changes may be viewed and analyzed as good or bad depending on conditions - the very essence of any natural resource (valued energy or matter in time, in a place, with a variety dimension). Thus, we hold that "environmental impact" is negative and only one side of the consequences of change. For example, when a tree is cut down it may result in good conditions for sparrows, bad conditions for tree squirrels.
Staff has rejected creating a computer produced list of the significant lumped consequences (about 120) of a tree-harvesting project on an owner's tract. Only the owner (with social rules, guides, and directives) can determine whether the harvest and the resulting conditions are "good." Only the owner (with legal guides) can determine whether the likely net effects over 50 or more years will, in total (or perhaps on average) be judged to be "good."
A harvest that has no measurable negative ecological influence may result in bankruptcy. Few would argue that condition is "good", at least not sustained forest management. As in its history, Staff continues to attempt to minimize these acts and consequences on private lands that are viewed by non-land-owners as undesirable or ugly.
Assessment of environmental impacts shall be completed - appropriate to the scale, intensity of forest management and the uniqueness of the affected resources - and adequately integrated into management systems. Assessments shall include landscape level considerations as well as the impacts of on-site processing facilities. Environmental impacts shall be assessed prior to commencement of site-disturbing operations.
To meet Criterion 6.1, Staff only works on projects in land-use plan, i.e., The Trevey. The The Trevey provides instructions for projects that are needed and that have net positive effects on achieving a large responsible set of objectives for an ownership. The Trevey, itself, meets all of the now-conventional needs of an EIS and AE (without the federal provisions for extensive, costly, and largely functionless public comment already gained in other ways).
As a general overview, Staff believes that forests of the region have been abused and mismanaged by several criteria, that is they now exhibit substantial environmental impact (e.g., high grading, stream channel deepening, inappropriate type conversion, accelerated erosion) and all of our current activity is likely to overcome to some degree those past impacts, then move the forest to high level sustained production of benefits to landowners and citizens.
The assessment includes landscape-level considerations in that:
Reserve areas and ancient forests (see the The Trevey section by that title) are created. Age of stands is often more important to endangered species than having land "set aside." The latter process allows it to grow out of the greatest condition for the endangered species. We actively manage land for species found on each tract and encourage them on contiguous tracts where conditions may be appropriate for management at a larger scale than the proposed harvest area.
We use modern logistic regression and other techniques to delimit areas where there are listed species. Where they occur in a proposed harvest area, we consult the species recovery plan and use the best knowledge available to help us participate, if possible, in that recovery.
We have posted hunting and other laws and regulations on the web and within The Trevey where we list site-specific hunting, fishing, and trapping laws.
A collecting permit from Staff or the land owners is required. Taking rare species, of course, is only allowed under state and federal permit.
Criterion 6.3. Ecological functions and values shall be maintained intact, enhanced, or restored, including (a) forest regeneration and succession; (b) genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity; and (c) natural cycles that affect the productivity of the forest ecosystem.
Staff believes that forestry requires that planned regeneration must accompany logging if forestry is being practices. We develop plantations on select sites (see Principle 10, to follow). Otherwise we seek a silvicultural procedure that achieves the appropriate forest type for each site for the lowest cost.
Forest succession and transition phases in the mid-Atlantic are fairly well known. Staff continues to study these, but to operate on principles that suggest the most likely old-age dominant tree types on each forest type. Where possible, we encourage that progression to site-specific old-age trees common to a specific site.
In many areas we manage for specific products in short rotations, mindful of the need to replace nutrients lost in wood extraction.
We use databases descriptive of the plants and animals of each forest, then supplement these with field observations and maintain a record of richness. Richness is the number of biological forms in each of 10 categories.
We use the modified Simpson Index of diversity and an expression of equitability in each of the above 10 categories when data are available.
We believe the slope of the negative logarithm (well-known as the q distribution of stems to foresters) is a useful representation of desired species abundance. (We do not want equal numbers of all species, but many of some and only a few of others.) Thus, while we report the Simpson Index, maximum when abundance is equal in all species, we also use Q*, the negative logarithm on use conventional statistical procedures to obtain a least-squares value for how well the data fit the distribution hypothesized to be desirable.
We do detailed GIS gap-analyses to locate unique site and study each one where biological deficits occur and where communities or species need protection. (See Criterion 6.4.)
In May, logging projects will remove plants and replant them in select spots.
We use temporary exclosures in some areas to protect plants and soil immediately after logging.
We are mindful of meta-population phenomena and seek new understanding of these concepts as they relate to forest practices. Our harvest strategies include constraints on juxtaposition and nearness of harvest areas to other areas. We retain corridors or thin wooded areas where possible but, at present, we do not believe there is ample evidence to support claims for the biological and genetic value of such retention strategies.
Staff are members of organizations that report monthly on research on forest regeneration, succession, ecosystem genetics, biodiversity, and ecosystem flows and cycles. They are continually seeking to integrate these new findings into the practices on the land.
We use a nutrient cycle descriptor for each area. A computer model produces a report for each forest relating current best-available-knowledge to proposed harvests and the future system.
Criterion 6.4. Representative samples of existing ecosystems within the landscape shall be protected in their natural state and recorded on maps, appropriate to the scale and intensity of operations and the uniqueness of the affected resources.
GIS maps are prepared of each forest. One map or layer shows named ecosystems. Another shows ancient forests (described elsewhere in this document). Another shows Bailey ecoregions. Another shows Kuchler vegetative groups. Another shows alpha units, potentially-unique 10m x 10m areas.
A landscape-scale layer is developed showing major ecosystems and where each is protected.
Criterion 6.5. Written guidelines shall be prepared and implemented to: control erosion; minimize forest damage during harvesting, road construction, and all other mechanical disturbances; and protect water resources.
Written guidelines based on state forestry "best management practices" are available on a web site. These include:
The above procedures and policies are followed carefully. All such activities are performed with supervision of a certified pesticide application specialist.
Criterion 6.7. Chemicals, containers, liquid and solid non-organic wastes including fuel and oil shall be disposed of in an environmentally appropriate manner at off-site locations.
Arrangements have been made for disposal at the municipal land-fill of Montgomery County. (See the letter of authorization.)
Criterion 6.8. Use of biological control agents shall be documented, minimized, monitored and strictly controlled in accordance with national laws and internationally accepted scientific protocols. Use of genetically modified organisms shall be prohibited.
The criteria is carefully followed. Staff (each member personally and collectively) pledges not to be involved in using genetically modified organisms. (See the letter from the President.)
Criteria 6.9. The use of exotic species shall be carefully controlled and actively monitored to avoid adverse ecological impacts.
The criterion is carefully followed. (See the statement on exotic wildlife by Giles containing company attitude on exotics. If exotics (plants or animals) are used, a rationale, monitoring, and recovery-to-pre-introduction conditions will be written by FORESTERS, INC. and approved by the landowner.
PRINCIPLE 7. MANAGEMENT PLAN
A management plan - appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations - shall be written, implemented, and kept up to date. The long-term objectives of management, and the means of achieving them, shall be clearly stated.
Criterion 7.1. The management plan and supporting documents shall provide:
Criterion 7.2. The management plan shall be periodically revised to incorporate the results of monitoring or new scientific and technical information, as well as to respond to changing environmental, social and economic circumstances.
Criterion 7.3. Forest workers shall receive adequate training and supervision to ensure proper implementation of the management plan.
Criterion 7.4. While respecting the confidentiality of information, forest managers shall make publicly available a summary of the primary elements of the management plan, including those listed in Criterion 7.1.
The Trevey, the document in which this section is presented, is believed to treat in detail all of the above listed provisions (and more) for a management plan. Omissions and inadequacies are continually addressed.
PRINCIPLE 8. MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT
Monitoring shall be conducted - appropriate to the scale and intensity of forest management - to assess the condition of the forest, yields of forest products, chain of custody, management activities, and their social and environmental impacts.
Criterion 8.1. The frequency and intensity of monitoring should be determined by the scale and intensity of forest management operations, as well as the relative complexity and fragility of the affected environment. Monitoring procedures should be consistent and replicable over time to allow comparison of results and assessment of change.
Monitoring is viewed by Staff as part of feedback within a general system context. Measures are made, compared to objectives, and action taken to adjust and adapt the system to achieve the objectives better. Each process differs for each area. Methods are computer produced as function of available data, distributions, variance, desired confidence, magnitude of potential change and natural or expected change, levels of acceptable accuracy, skills, and cost.
Criterion 8.2. Forest management should include the research and data collection following indicators:
Using proprietary software, yields are monitored. Reports are proprietary but will be displayed to properly authorized officers of FSC.
Studies are conducted on:
The chain of custody of wood is maintained to the main road. In the future, additional products marking and software may enable more lengthy contacts with the specific forest products.
Criterion 8.4. The results of monitoring shall be incorporated into implementing and revising the management plan.
Indeed, monitoring and assessment results are included within The Trevey. The plan is readily available at a web site and is undergoing continual revision, editing, updating. Data collected are processed and summary statistics are used directly within the system.
Criterion 8.5. While respecting the confidentiality of information, forest managers shall make publicly available a summary of the results of monitoring indicators, including those listed in Criterion 8.2.
Summary results of monitoring efforts are to be displayed on the appropriate web sites.
PRINCIPLE 9. MAINTENANCE OF NATURAL FORESTS
Primary forests, well-developed secondary forests and sites of major environmental, social or cultural significance shall be conserved. Such areas shall not be replaced by tree plantations or other land uses.
Criterion 9.1. Trees planted in natural forests may supplement natural regeneration, fill gaps, or contribute to the conservation of genetic resources. Such plantings shall not replace or significantly alter the natural ecosystem.
Where we plant trees, they will supplement natural reproduction. Such planting is likely to be rare.
Criterion 9.2. The use of replanting as a technique for regenerating stands of certain natural forest types may be appropriate under certain circumstances. Guidelines on the acceptable intensity and spatial extent of tree planting will be addressed in national and regional forest management standards to be approved by the FSC. In the absence of national or regional standards, guidelines developed by the certifier and approved by the FSC will prevail.
Guidelines are being developed and will be submitted to the FSC.
PRINCIPLE 10. PLANTATIONS
Plantations shall be planned and managed in accordance with Principles and Criteria 1- 9, and Principle 10 and its Criteria. While plantations can provide an array of social and economic benefits, and can contribute to satisfying the world's needs for forest products, they should complement the management of, reduce pressures on, and promote the restoration and conservation of natural forests.
Criterion 10.1. The management objectives of the plantation, including natural forest conservation and restoration objectives, shall be explicitly stated in the management plan, and clearly demonstrated in the implementation of the plan.
The objectives of the plantation that be proposed are included in The Trevey in the Plantations section. In the field, it will be clear that the concepts used of tree species selection, stock selection, spacing, pattern, planned thinning, pruning, fire control, access, and vegetation control.
Criterion 10.2. The design and layout of plantations should promote the protection, restoration and conservation of natural forests, and not increase pressures on natural forests. Wildlife corridors, streamside zones, and a mosaic of stands of different ages and rotation periods, shall be used in the layout of the plantation, consistent with the scale of the operation. The scale and layout of plantation blocks shall be consistent with the patterns of forest stands found within the natural landscape.
Intensive effort is made by Staff to meet this criterion. The small scale of most private landownerships makes this a difficult criterion to achieve and to demonstrate well.
Criterion 10.3. Diversity in the composition of plantations is preferred, so as to enhance economic, ecological and social stability. Such diversity may include the size and spatial distribution of management units within the landscape, number and genetic composition of species, age classes, and structures.
Differences in small plantations when plantations are computer selected, usually requires selection of suboptimal alternatives. We do recommend this alternative selection when the consequence is selecting plantations no more than 5% less productive than the computer-selected optimum.
Criterion 10.4. The selection of species for planting shall be based on their overall suitability for the site and their - appropriateness to the management objectives. In order to enhance the conservation of biological diversity, native species are preferred over exotic species in establishing plantations and restoring degraded ecosystems. Exotic species, which shall be used only when their performance is greater than that of native species, shall be carefully monitored to detect unusual mortality, disease, or insect outbreaks and adverse ecological impacts.
Staff makes recommendations consistent with this criterion.
Criterion 10.5. A proportion of the overall forest management area, appropriate to the scale of the plantation and to be determined in regional standards, shall be managed so as to restore the site to a natural forest cover.
Natural forests are included in all forests. In the rare event of extensive plantations, all streamside areas are dedicated to natural forests.
Criterion 10.6. Measures shall be taken to maintain or improve soil structure, fertility, and biological activity. The techniques and rate of harvesting, road and trail construction and maintenance, and the choice of species shall not result in long term soil degradation or adverse impacts on water quality, quantity or substantial deviation from stream course drainage patterns.
The measures to be taken are outlined in the The Trevey section on Plantations.
Criterion 10.7. Measures shall be taken to prevent and minimize outbreaks of pests, diseases, fire, and invasive plant introductions. Integrated pest management (modern pest damage management) shall form an essential part of the management plan, with primary reliance on prevention and biological control methods rather than chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Plantation management should make every effort to move away from chemical pesticides and fertilizers, including their use in nurseries. The use of chemicals is also covered in Criteria 6.6 and 6.7.
Site selection, the right trees on the right sites, are fundamental within IPM. Optimum spacing is the next most important operating principle. It reduces stress on trees related to competition for, or inadequate supplies of moisture, light and nutrients. Fire management is addressed in that system.
Mammal and bird damage is addressed under Vertebrate Damage Management System.
Criterion 10.8. Appropriate to the scale and diversity of the operation, monitoring of plantations shall include regular assessment of potential on-site and off-site ecological and social impacts, (e.g., natural regeneration, effects on water resources and soil fertility, and impacts on local welfare and social well-being), in addition to those elements addressed in Principles 8, 6 and 4. No species should be planted on a large scale until local trials and/or experience have shown that they are ecologically well-adapted to the site are not invasive, and do not have significant negative ecological impacts on other ecosystems. Special attention will be paid to social issues of land acquisition for plantations, especially the protection of local rights of ownership, use, or access.
Staff of the Lasting Forests monitors plantations like other forest stands. It agrees with, supports, and will satisfy the criterion.
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Last revision January 17, 2000.