On September 20, the Executive Board of the Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNF) voted to expand its pioneer efforts in the area of forest harvest practice certification in Maine to collaborate with and include similar efforts throughout the Northeast. States currently active in the collaborative effort are Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. TCNF is currently working to bring the programming to New Hampshire loggers and looks forward to bringing Vermont and New York into the organization in the near future.
TCNF is a 501(c)(3) conservation organization driven by a vision to enhance the health of Maine?s working forests through exceptional accountability. The Trust promotes a non-regulatory, market-based forest management paradigm built on equal partnerships among five key certification stakeholders: Master Logger Certified Companies, Consulting Foresters, Small Landowners (numbering 111,000 in Maine), Researchers, and Certified-Product Retailers.
The Master Logger Certification program, initiated in 1999 in Maine, is a voluntary opportunity for loggers to have their forest harvest practices observed, evaluated and certified to a set of rigorous standards based on the standards of the world?s top forest certification systems. It was the first program in the world to recognize loggers? practices in the woods as critical to the development of sustainable management regimes through providing an independent, third-party recognition of loggers who harvest responsibly. The Maine Master Logger standards measure performance related to: documenting harvest planning, protecting water quality, maintaining soil productivity, sustaining forest ecosystems, managing forest aesthetics, ensuring workplace safety, demonstrating continuous improvement, and ensuring business viability.
The Maine program prompted the development of forest harvest certification programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachussets, and the Canadian Atlantic provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. In 2006, Maine gained recognition from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) ? an international, independent certification system ? through securing certificates for Controlled Wood, Chain of Custody, and Group Management Certificates.
Pulp, lumber and energy markets have provided additional value to the Master Logger Certification designation as these markets increasingly seek products that can be verified as having been harvested, handled and sold responsibly. As forest harvest certification programs are developed throughout the northeast, reciprocal recognition of a common standard across state lines is key for both purchasers seeking assurances of ecological responsibility and for loggers who are taking leadership roles in ensuring responsible harvests. The collaboration leads to an effective regional certified ?woodbasket? that creates efficiencies in running the certification programs, promoting and monitoring certified products, and meeting the demands of markets that operate at the regional, national, and international scale.
The accountability that comes along with Master Logger Certified status is also of value to landowners who can rely on the Master Logger code of ethics that each certified company signs to ensure the health of the forests that they work in for the next generation. Master Loggers are also focused on working closely with landowners, accurately documenting their objectives, and creating harvests that reflect the multiple uses and multiple values that forestland owners may have for their properties.
The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands will establish regional office headquarters in New Gloucester, Maine in November.
Contact:
Katherine Albert, Director of Harvest Certification
Northeast Master Logger Certification Program
kate@tcnef.org
(207)436-0400
