What’s better when it comes to responsible forestry certifications — FSC or SFI?

That’s like asking: What’s better, an apple or an orange?  Both are good for you, but they bring completely different strengths and weaknesses to the table.  Having access to both fruits results in a healthy body. Having access to both FSC and SFI makes for an overall healthier forest resource.

Now, before you accuse me of being wishy-washy, let me provide a little perspective:

First, evaluating and comparing forest management practices is far more complex than, say, comparing gas mileage among automobiles. Forestry is both an art and a science, the practice of which varies depending on the type of forest, species of tree, climate and geographic conditions and many other factors.

Next, it’s important to remember that our federal, state and local governments have had extensive rules and regulations in place governing timber harvesting and other aspects of forest management long before either of these certification programs were developed. Irresponsible forestry practices on any sizable scale were largely extinguished from the U.S. landscape a century ago.

It’s also important to note that both large and small commercial forest owners typically have a vested interest in managing their forests in a responsible manner for the long-term, without “pressure” from outside parties.

So, you ask, if wholesale improvements weren’t necessary in the management of America’s forests, what do the FSC and SFI programs accomplish?  A great deal, actually.

Both programs have done an outstanding job of helping forest owners “prove” their compliance with responsible forestry publicly by establishing a list of criteria they must meet, and establishing processes through which to document their performance and subject it to third-party review by independent experts. The programs’ auditors also help forest owners improve their management practices by making recommendations from their years of experience, and pointing out possible improvements that a landowner can sometimes overlook in the course of his day-to-day activities.

FSC has done a yeoman’s job of raising consumer awareness of responsible forestry and demand for certified products, especially within the paper industry.

SFI in turn has excelled in encouraging sustainable forestry among smaller, family forest owners.

It may come as a surprise to you, but only 10% of American forests have been third-party certified as meeting either the FSC or SFI standards. This doesn’t mean the vast majority of American forests are managed irresponsibly. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It’s simply reflective of the fact that approximately three-quarters of the forest landowners in the U. S. are relatively small, family forest ownerships — people who, in most instances, simply can’t afford the significant costs of the third-party certification and audit processes.

SFI does an outstanding job of by requiring its certificate holders like Finch Paper to provide family forest owners with education and outreach programs to help them manage their lands in the most responsible way. SFI also audits our wood procurement practices to ensure that sustainable forestry is a strong message and is consistent with our buying practices.

I’m pleased to say that Finch foresters have been engaged in landowner outreach such as this for far longer than we’ve had SFI certification. I’m even more pleased to tell you that many family forest owners often meet and even exceed the standards that would be required of them under a third-party certification audit.

What’s better — FSC or SFI? The more important question is: Are they working together for the long-term health of our nation’s forests? That answer is a resounding yes.

Winter is by far the most productive time of year for timber harvesting in New York’s Adirondack Region. The frozen ground allows for easier access to harvesting equipment, and minimizes any disruption to the ground. As you can see from this photo, taken by Finch forester Erin O’Neill, the equipment is able to travel across the snow pack without touching the surface of the ground itself. Finch Paper and other responsible forest managers take advantage of the winter weather to build wood inventories in advance of the spring “Mud Season,” when harvesting activities virtually come to a standstill.

This forest is used for wood products, wildlife habitat, and recreation. Urban planning typically divides communities into distinct areas, such as residential, industrial, a downtown business district, and recreational parks. The uses of these areas are typically not entirely compatible with one another, making separation the wisest choice for quality of life.

Such distinctions are not necessary — nor practical — when it comes to forests.

Forests are a true multi-purpose resource. For more than a century, Finch Paper has managed forests that provide wood for paper and lumber AND homes for a wide diversity of wildlife AND four-season recreational opportunities for people AND clean air and water. Each of these individual uses offers distinct benefits on their own, while complementing each other in many ways.

When you walk into a working forest (one that is actively managed for timber harvesting), you’ll see deer browsing on the berries and grasses that only grow when select trees are removed, allowing sunlight to reach the ground. Around the bend, you’ll find families hiking, kayaking or simply enjoying a few hours away from the hustle and bustle of their workaday lives. Not far from there, foresters and loggers work together to selectively harvest trees so that those same families have paper and furniture when they return home and in the years to come.

The reality is that there’s no reason to segregate forests for different uses, and there’s simply not enough forestland to do so. Multiple-use forestry is the model that works best. With forests, you CAN have it all.

Years ago, logs arrived at Finch Paper’s mill via the Hudson River. Not by boat but by floating (or rushing) down the historic channel, by the thousands, in what were referred to as “river drives.”  Finch and other mills marked their logs with their own unique symbols before they were sent downriver. When they arrived in Glens Falls — then the center of New York’s logging and lumber industry — the logs collected behind a man-made barricade, where they were sorted by owner. The wood “cookie” shown here, a cross-cut of a log,  features a collection of the branding marks used by Finch over the years, the most widely used being the pound sterling mark that looks like a cursive L.

Do you know where your paper comes from? With Finch Paper, there are no surprises.

Our mill is located on the edge of the famed Adirondack forest in Upstate New York, and that’s no coincidence. Our founders built the company here back in 1865, utilizing the plentiful, renewable wood supply to support, first a sawmill, and 40 years later, our paper mill. We’re still working in those forests today.

In fact, more than 70% of the wood we use to make Finch Paper still comes from within New York State. The remainder comes from forests in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and southern Quebec—and all of it is third-party certified. We call these forests our “Wood Basket.”

The closer we source our wood, the lower the costs and the smaller our environmental footprint (just consider the alternative of trucking wood across the country, or transporting it from nations halfway around the world.) Making products from sustainably-grown, local wood also provides local jobs and tax revenue.  It simply makes a lot of sense to keep our Wood Basket close to home.

The popularity of the phrase, “Save a Tree,” has resulted in broad misunderstanding that trees are harvested for paper and paper alone.

In reality, we don’t cut trees just to make paper. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say there’s not a single more multi-purpose raw material in the world than a tree.

Just consider the utility of a single, typical quality 40-foot Hard Maple:

The bottom eight feet of the trunk, with its straight lines and no branches or knots, will be used for “veneer” — the thin layer of high-quality wood that is often affixed to a lesser quality wood to form the surface of a cabinet or door. This is by far the most valuable portion of the tree.

The next eight-foot section, typically somewhat lesser in quality, will be used as a “saw log” and converted into lumber for furniture, flooring, etc.

The next 16-foot section, including the larger branches, is relatively low-quality “pulp wood,” and will be used to make paper or for residential firewood.

Finally, the uppermost portion of the tree will likely be chipped up for biomass  (industrial fuel).

One tree. Four different products. That’s what I call a great value—and smart utilization.

Finch Paper doesn’t make just a few specific grades of paper that carry a certification for responsible forestry. All of the papers we make are certified to the standards of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) program, and many are certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

All of the fiber used to make our paper is certified to the SFI standard. This includes the wood harvested from the certified forests our professional foresters manage, as well as wood that we buy on the open market.

Our mill needs more wood than Finch-managed forests can supply. So we have to look to our procurement foresters — who purchase wood from private landowners and logging contractors—to take on a tremendous responsibility. It’s their job to ensure that the privately-owned forests we buy wood from are being cared for in a responsible manner.

As part of our SFI compliance, our procurement foresters:

• make regular inspections of these forests to ensure that both landowners and harvesters are complying with Best Management Practices (BMPs) for water quality and forest health;
• educate landowners and harvesters about sustainable forestry practices to help protect wildlife habitat, threatened species, air and water quality, and the overall health of the forest;
• document the origin of ALL the wood used in our paper and attest that it does not come from endangered or environmentally sensitive forests, like Canada’s Boreal Forests or South American rainforests.

Perhaps most significantly, Finch Paper pays a premium for wood if the landowner chooses a professional forester to help them manage their land AND hires a certified timber harvesting crew. Not only do we have our feet planted firmly in the forest when it comes to responsible forestry, we put our money where our mouth is.

The Adirondack forest is a veritable treasure chest of nature’s knickknacks. This brief video shows you a little something I found a few months back during a walk along the northernmost portion of the Hudson River, where Finch foresters have managed lands for more than 100 years.

With the arrival of winter here in upstate New York, the demand for wood is heating up.

It’s an often-overlooked fact, but more than twice as much wood is used for residential firewood in New York State than is used to make paper. According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, approximately one million cords (or 2.6 million tons) of firewood is harvested in New York on an annual basis. By comparison, Finch Paper and the other integrated paper mill in New York State combine to use 1.1 million tons of pulpwood per year.

Pulpwood and firewood are essentially interchangeable; generally it is the poor-quality wood cut from the mid-section of the tree. (The long, straight trunk of the tree has a much higher value and is used for lumber or furniture.) As prices for gas and oil rise, the demand for firewood increases, as does the competition for that wood.

It’s just another great example of how “Trees are the answer” to so many of society’s needs — a wonderfully useful and, most importantly, renewable, resource since the beginning of time.

It is generally thought that forestry certification programs in the United States have led to dramatically better forest management. In my experience, that’s not the case. Most often, forest owners who have chosen to certify their lands to the standards of FSC and/or SFI have, by and large, always managed their forests in an exemplary manner.

Now, before I go any further, let me state unequivocally:

Finch Paper is a big proponent of forest certification programs. We are one of the very few paper manufacturers that still employs professional foresters and manages forestland. And we were one of the first in our industry to embrace FSC and SFI certification, earning the Forest Management and Chain of Custody certifications from both of these preeminent organizations.

But whenever someone asks me how these certifications have improved our work in the forest, I have to say they really haven’t — or at least, not in the way you might think. Finch foresters are using many of the same responsible, science-based forest regeneration techniques, and requiring the same responsible practices on the part of timber harvesters, as we did before we began the certification process. What certification did was open our eyes to the world. While auditors were evaluating our practices, our forestry team was asking (or should I say, interrogating) them about what practices others were using. If we found a better management idea, we shamelessly copied it into our plan.  We asked so many questions during our first audit, you would have a hard time telling apart the auditor from the auditee!

The certification process also has helped us develop documentation practices that are far more detailed, and it provides a helpful peer review process to ensure that our forestry practices are meeting the latest scientific standards.

Overall, the greatest benefit of certification programs here in the U.S. is to provide the public with an independent, third-party confirmation that forest managers like Finch Paper are doing what we say we are. And for that reason, I heartily encourage paper buyers and end users to specify FSC and/or SFI certified products.