Acquire and Maintain Third-Party Certification

Forest Certification is the voluntary, independent assessment of an organization's forest management activities and operations undertaken for a particular area of forest. Independent forest certification has been developing since the early 1990s, driven by market requirements for quality assurance, community concerns about sustainability issues, and policy makers seeking to balance environmental, social, and economic considerations in natural resource management. Once a forest has been awarded certification its wood products can be identified as being sourced from a sustainably managed forest.

The Natural Resources Management Department is committed to the standards of sustainable forest management as defined in the objectives and performance measures of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and/or the principles of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). To this end the department will seek and maintain independent third-party forest certification to the FSC and/or SFI standards. To achieve our commitment to FSC and/or SFI we will design, implement, and establish a sustainable forest management system (SFMS). Through our SFMS we will:

• Identify the environmental, social, and economic impacts of our activities.
• Plan our activities to minimize or prevent unintended impacts to the ecological condition and values before we commence work.
• Establish operating procedures to ensure that activities are conducted in accordance with best management practices and defined operating criteria.
• Supervise and inspect all field activities to ensure that operating criteria and best management practices are met.