FSC Certification and the Small Landowner |
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FSC-US recently took the opportunity to pose a number of questions to Mark Adams, the founder of the Cook County Sustainable Forestry Cooperative. The co-op is based in Hovland, MN with member properties being in close proximity to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The co-op promotes sound, ecologically based forest management, local processing and sale of the products of its members’ forests. The co-op helps members manage their forests and market their products based on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification standards. Mark has been a leader in working with Co-op members and other family forest owners in northern Minnesota to get their land certified under the FSC system. Q: Please tell us about your work. I have been living in northern Minnesota since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1974 and operating Horse Forest Management as a business since 1978. I have had numerous contracts and positions with the Forest Service including bridge building, trail building, freighting—all within the Boundary Waters wilderness area. Also, I have worked in a number of positions as a wild land fire fighter, logging contractor, including sensitive areas and archaeological sites, tree planting, timber stand improvement and general construction. I have been a consultant for sustainable forestry, low impact logging, non timber forest products, low impact living and an instructor for horse logging, chainsaw safety, directional felling and primitive tools. I also studied forestry at Kent State, Ohio and Colorado State Universities. Q: Engaging small landowners has been a challenge for FSC and for all certification programs. Do you think this is a challenge because of standards or because of the forest products marketplace? In my experience, standards, as expressed in the FSC Principals and Criteria, are not the problem. In fact we use them as a recruitment tool. Auditing can be a burden, especially if Principle 7 and 8 (management plans and monitoring) are not followed closely. “Appropriate to scale” is a critical concept for the landowners I work with. Market problems seem to fall into two categories. First, target the right market; organic, tree hugging, granola eating, skinny skiers own a lot of land. Pick the low hanging fruit first. Second, the big boys—private industry and state forestry—have been poisoning the well. They know that most standing inventory is tied up in private non-industrial forests and they want to get their hands on it. They offer ‘free management plans’ that consist primarily of a timber harvesting plans. Also, they perpetuate the myth that landowners who don’t want an industrial scale timber harvest don’t want to manage their land. We have found that our targeted market is very interested in managing for non-timber forest products and low impact short rotation multiple entry timber harvests. In a related issue, industry is lobbying for legislation that makes small scale traditional harvesting, no matter how good, impractical. Costs associated with management is also somewhat of a factor for engaging small forest owners. Q: FSC has tried to make it easier for small landowners to come into the FSC system. Has the Small and Low Intensity Managed Forest (Family Forest) program helped? To be honest, SLIMFs [known as the Family Forest Program in the U.S.] by that name has not trickled down out here in the hinterland. However, I think a SLIMFs program, scaled for very small operations and landowners, and if prominently offered would really help with recruiting and especially with retention. FSC Group Certification offered by the Community Forestry Resource Center has been a big help to us. Q: Do you feel that 1000 hectares is too large for defining family forests? In most cases, 1000 hectares or even 1000 acres represents a considerable financial investment. In that case it is probably perceived by the owner(s) to be primarily that—a financial investment, not unlike stocks or bonds. As such it should be managed for a financial return. This is not a large industrial forest and perhaps should get some kind of consideration as a small forest under FSC. However, this size of forest is most often going to be more land than one person can manage by themselves in the sense of physical work required. Satellite Imaging, GIS, GPS, and an accountant are all tax write offs at that scale. On the other hand 100 acres, or even 100 hectares can be walked around before breakfast. When you get down to 40 or 80 acres, you are looking at an investment that a factory worker, school teacher, or firefighter could aspire to. At that scale it could be managed by one person on weekends and during vacation. Sure it may be recreational, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to manage it right and it doesn’t mean they can’t turn a profit. Especially if they manage for some non-timber forest products or a couple thousand board feet of lumber, add value on site, and market locally. This is the sort of thing green housing builders following LEED standards would fight over. On 1000 hectares you can most likely pull off a couple hundred cords of pulp a year and not make a dent in your growth. At that scale you might get a pulp contract with a mill. On 40 acres a truck load a year might be workable but you’re not going to get a contract. If I walk into a bank with a deed for 1000 hectares and want to borrow the money to buy a skidder and a sawmill, no problem. Try that on 40 acres and it’s a different story. Q: Does certification need the small landowner? If FSC did foster a relationship with small landowners they could have a very large membership base that would be capable of doing a few things that might enhance FSC’s image in the marketplace, such as: peer to peer education; local sales; knowledge of the woods personally, not virtually; living on the land or visiting it often which leads to an awareness of change (i.e. invasive species, drought, insects); putting a local face to FSC; understanding community and landscape issues with out a study group; having a smaller footprint , encouraging community through cooperation; developing creative solutions for unique problems, especially in areas with microclimates and diverse stand types; relaying information to the top of the chain that only ears in the community, boots on the ground, and eyes on the weather can perceive. FSC is not just about land it’s also about people. If you control 100,000,000 acres you are a threat. If you have 100,000,000 members you are a movement & one hell of a market. Also in this newsletter  The Collins Pennsylvania Forest
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