California: Collins Companies
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FSC Certified Forestlands in California, Oregon, and Washington
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When the Collins family began cutting its northeastern California timberland
in the 1940s, its mature forests were home to eagles, owl, and osprey.
After sixty years and enough logging to build a city the size of Oakland,
the Collins forest still accommodates all of those species, still contains
as much timber as stood there when logging began, and still attracts locals
for camping and picknicking.
What’s the secret to Collins’ ability to sustain its lumber mill, its
jobs, and its wildlife? Once a decade, Collins foresters measure the volume
of timber on their land to ensure that they are not cutting more than
grows back. And they take pictures in more than 500 spots across the landscape,
to see how the woods are changing under their management. The foresters
decide how much wood the mill can have, instead of the mill telling the
foresters how much it needs.
Collins uses its steady supply of logs to support a stable community in
the town of Chester, near Lake Almanor 50 miles northeast of Chico. By
buying their FSC-certified wood at Earthsource, you can be part of this
story as well.
Oregon: Warm Springs Forest Products Industries
The shift to certified forestry received a big boost this year with FSC
approval of 430,000 acres maintained by the Confederated Tribes of the
Warm Springs. Located on the eastern slope of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains,
the Tribes have operated the for-profit Warm Springs Forest Products Industries
for nearly 40 years.
But recently, the sluggish forest products market has had the Tribes looking
for new ways to capitalize on their vast landbase. And in January they
earned the right to carry the FSC logo on their Douglas fir framing timber.
“It demonstrates to the public that an operation is well managed, and
it has the potential for adding value to forest products in the marketplace,”
says Larry Potts, Sawmill Manager for Warm Springs.
Now, certified Warm Springs lumber is hitting the shelves of Portland-area
Lumbermens stores, and is the material of choice at Villebois, a mixed-use
community planned by Costa Pacific Communities in Wilsonville.
Washington: Fort Lewis
When you think of sustainable forestry, an army base isn’t what first
leaps to mind. But the training grounds at Fort Lewis, between Tacoma
and Olympia, demonstrate that ecological and military security can go
hand in hand. Every year, loggers harvest enough wood to build between
400 and 1000 three-bedroom homes. By cutting selectively, the army maintains
the landscape in the wooded condition it needs for battlefield training,
says forester Gary McCausland, who has worked there for thirty years.
In 2002, the forest achieved FSC certification for its brand of good forestry
on its 43,000 acres of timber.
The Army’s style of management is good for the ecosystem, too, and provides
critical habitat for such endangered creatures as spotted owls and bald
eagles. Not only does that call for bigger and older trees, McCausland
says, but it also means that he has to consider the health of soil fungi
that feed the squirrels, which in turn feed the owls. A side benefit:
by harvesting smaller trees and controlling underbrush, the Army aims
to reduce the risk of major fire spreading into neighboring towns.
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