Cascadia Scorecard News
June 2004

Over the next year, a half dozen people in Olympia will decide the fate of forests in Washington vast enough to fill Mount Rainier National Park nearly nine times over. The Board of Natural Resources-the governing body that sets policy for the state's forests-is currently writing a plan that will guide the management of the state's two-million-plus acres of forests for a decade.

And in Oregon, state foresters are writing a long-term plan for the 100,000-acre Elliott State Forest in southern Oregon. Controversy is brewing over harvest rates for the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests: They are caught in the crossfire between a recommendation by the legislature to maximize cutting, and a voter's initiative-the Tillamook 50/50-that would permanently put half of those forests off limits to logging.

But Oregon and Washington can avert a potential donnybrook between greens and the timber industry with a voluntary, market-based solution: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. FSC certification-created in 1993-is the most rigorous and independent standard for forestry. The FSC label guarantees consumers that their wood products come from sustainably managed forests, where old growth is left standing and workers aren't subject to job-market whiplash.

Six other states have already won FSC certification for some or all of their state-owned forests. But so far, not a single acre of state-owned forests in Oregon or Washington carries the label.

Private industry has also realized that FSC certification is smart business. At last count, some 42 land managers in Washington, Oregon, and California (which together fall under the FSC Pacific Coast Regional Standards) run certified logging operations on an array of holdings.

And in April, Washington's own Potlatch Corporation became the first publicly traded company in the nation to earn the FSC label when it won certification for all 668,000 acres of its Idaho forest holdings. Now Potlatch is eyeing certification for an additional 700,000 acres in Minnesota and Arkansas.

Nearly 500 US companies including Home Depot, Lowe's, and Lumberman's are "chain-of-custody" certified, which enables consumers to purchase retail lumber that is guaranteed to come from an FSC-certified forest. In 2003, Home Depot realized a 65 percent growth in sales of FSC-certified wood.

To strengthen the local FSC market, staff from Washington Environmental Council, Seattle Audubon Society, and Northwest Natural Resources Group are working with Dunn Lumber and the Environmental Home Center in Seattle to ensure that FSC wood products stay in stock. They're also encouraging consumers to support businesses that sell FSC products. Find out more about Washington Environmental Council's initiative and FSC lumber at www.wecprotects.org/forests/fscpromotion.cfm.

More information:
Sightline's forests indicator
Forest Stewardship Council
Comments by Sightline to Washington State about forest management
Comments by Sightline to Oregon State about forest management