Koochiching County this month was issued a Forest Stewardship Council certificate, a designation it can use in marketing wood-based products coming from its lands.
The certification identifies Koochiching as using sustainable forestry practices, and it can use this.
The FSC is an international forest management standard that demonstrates the county is practicing sustainable forestry practices and allows for market labeling of products coming from those forests with this designation.
“For us to keep up with regional and state markets, it was important to obtain this and to achieve what we’ve achieved,” said Dennis Hummitzsch, Koochiching County land commissioner.
“There is a high degree of accountability expected,” he said. “It’s a good thing, too.”
This certification, along with similar forest management designations, are becoming more common in the wood products marketplace, he said. The county is also certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, another forest management standards program, giving the county dual certification and further marketability.
Both certifications are internationally recognized, Hummitzsch noted, but said that they are “slightly different and can be used in different marketing strategies in different market places.”
In announcing the recent certification to the county board, Commissioner Wade Pavleck credited Hummitzsch with recognizing the value of the designation.
“We didn’t want either,” said Pavleck of the board’s earlier feelings about the certifications. “(Hummitzsch) was right. He made the right call.”
The county has been SFI certified for about one year, and Hummitzsch said that he has not seen a marked difference in timber sales due to the county’s involvement in the program.
“The future isn’t really known,” Hummitzsch said about how the programs will affect the county. But he said many forestlands in neighboring states and competing markets are also certified under these programs.
Without these designations, the county could miss out on business from mills looking to meet quotas of wood produced under these programs.
The FSC program did not change many of the county’s forestland practices, according to Hummitzsch, but did create “more costs and more work for forest management.”
In order to comply with the program, Hummitzsch said that the county had to hire an auditor to ensure that it was following the standards. Annually, the county will undergo an audit process with FSC to prove that it meets the certification benchmarks.
The FSC standards include: prohibiting conversion of forests or any other natural habitat, respecting international workers rights, respecting human rights with particular attention to indigenous peoples, prohibiting the use of hazardous chemicals, following all applicable laws, and identifying and appropriate management of areas that need special protection such as cultural or sacred sites, habitat of endangered animals or plants.
Koochiching County was joined in the Counties Sustainable Forestry Cooperative with Beltrami, Carlton, Clearwater and Crow Wing counties. This cooperative together earned the FSC designation. Hummitzsch said that working together made the process more efficient for all involved.
“The cooperative with the other counties greatly reduced the costs, and the process was about 25 percent what it would have been if we’d done it alone,” Hummitzsch said.
The FSC is an independent, non-profit organization, begun in 1993, which was created to promote responsible management of forests throughout the world. FSC is nationally represented in more than 50 countries around the world.
