Allison Welde is SFI Director, Conservation Partnerships and Communications, and identifies areas of potential collaboration with conservation groups and other SFI stakeholders.

The Wildlife Habitat Improvement  Practices program at Clemson University, is one of nine projects awarded funding earlier this year as part of SFI’s Conservation and Community Grant Program.  The goal of the Clemson program is to research and share wildlife habitat improvement practices, inform SFI Standard Objectives for wildlife management, and help other forest landowners implement activities to improve wildlife habitat.  Through this program, Clemson aims to foster greater understanding, acceptance and support of responsible forest management by the general public.  As part of their outreach efforts, Clemson recently launched a new website which provides background information and updates on the project achievements.

Clemson University students majoring in forest resources, wildlife and fisheries biology, and environmental and natural resource management are a key component in the success of the SFI-funded project.  This fall, 42 undergraduate students enrolled in a Wildlife Management class are working with project co-directors to establish and sample a series of vegetation plots in demonstration sites to evaluate the effects of select silvicultural practices on wildlife habitat.  Two graduate students enrolled in the course are also helping to develop a plan to have the Clemson forest certified to the SFI Standard.   By participating in the project students are gaining a better understanding of integrated forest and wildlife habitat management,  as well as the requirements and goals of the SFI program.  The SFI project has become an invaluable teaching tool that is enriching the education experience of students majoring in natural resource management and related fields.

The Wildlife Habitat Improvement  Practices program is not only researching best forest management practices, but will demonstrate lessons learned to those who can benefit from learning about improved management activities, including forest landowners, forest managers, foresters, wildlife biologists and conservationists who are interested in integrating wildlife habitat improvement practices into forests managed for timber products. Upon completion of the research, Clemson and its partners, including SFI, will host a field day to demonstrate their findings to landowners and managers, taking the next step to inform new practices that benefit wildlife, meet SFI requirements and assist in gaining public support for responsible forest management.

Check out the Clemson Wildlife Habitat Improvement Practices program’s new website and keep up to date with the great work going on there.

Allison Welde is SFI Director, Conservation Partnerships and Communications, and identifies areas of potential collaboration with conservation groups and other SFI stakeholders.

The BC Ministry of Environment Ecosystems Branch in partnership with the South Coast Conservation Program (SCCP) recently completed a technical review of grizzly bear habitats along British Columbia’s (BC) Pacific Coast. Noted coastal grizzly bear ecologist Grant MacHutchon was contracted by the BC Ministry of Environment Ecosystems Branch, with financial support from SFI to aid in the project. Approximately 1200 grizzly bear habitats were reviewed in the mid-coast portion of the project area along the BC coast. Some of the habitat areas were adjusted in size, shape or location because of new classifications or previous errors. This work has created a substantially more accurate and improved map and database of grizzly bear habitats on the mid-coast of BC. In turn, this information is currently being used by forest planners and others involved in the ecosystem management in this part of the BC coast region to reach a balance between humans and the environment.

The SCCP has been using grant funding from the SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program to develop materials and tools to identify and protect habitat and populations of forest-dependent plant and animal species at risk on 40.7 million acres/16.5 million hectares of forest on BC Pacific Coast, including grizzly bears. The core goals of this project are to bring together SFI-certified companies, including those owned by First Nations, government and conservation interests, to collaboratively develop material and tools to protect habitat and populations of at risk forest-dependent animal and plant species.

SFI’s Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program fosters partnerships between organizations interested in improving forest management in the United States and Canada, and responsible procurement globally.

It’s fitting that the themes for our 15th Annual Conference, is Power of Partnerships.  The world of responsible forestry and certification is so immense there is not a lot one organization can do on its own. The conference is set to explore the many ways collaboration leads to improved forest management, education & outreach efforts and implementation of the SFI Standard.

If you take a look at our conference agenda you will see we have lined up local and international speakers who will talk about partnerships yielding benefits for the forest products marketplace, communities, First Nations, and government agencies throughout North America and globally. Keynote speaker Linda Coady, Distinguished Fellow, University of British Columbia and Vice-President of Sustainability, Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee will talk about Certification, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability – The Next Generation.  We’ll also be making some exciting announcements.

We will be posting video from conference speakers as well as pictures from the event on our Annual Conference webpage – so check it out if you are not able to join us in Vancouver and take part virtually.

Nadine Block, who focuses on Government Outreach for SFI,  headed to the USGBC Federal Summit. The Summit was held at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center May 18-19. Check out her coverage of the event below.

The USGBC Federal Summit in Washington DC last week was a great opportunity to promote SFI forest certification and certified wood products in green building and to display the groundswell of support that has been built to end LEED’s FSC-only stance.  We have gathered 5,700 petition signatures (ipetitions.com/petition/leed), a multitude of letters, articles and opinion pieces, and many other signs of support (sfiprogram.org/leed/). These have come from a whole host of voices including builders, elected officials, scientists, professional foresters, green building organizations, family forest landowners, conservation groups, architects and many more.

Participating in the Summit built on this momentum.  I hosted a “Knowledge Bar” which provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the SFI name and label to the 700+ participants at the Summit. It also provided a great venue to engage participants one-on-one in a dialogue about the role of forest certification in green building rating systems. I talked with participants about the credibility, strength, and scope of the SFI program. Many were impressed with what the SFI program does and appreciated our concern that the LEED rating system is not inclusive of all third-party forest certification systems.

More and more people are learning about SFI and why LEED should be open to all credible forest certification standards.  Our efforts are building a strong force.  The USGBC Federal Summit not only showed this, but it also added to what we’ve built. Let’s keep the ball rolling.

Talk about a rewarding start to 2010! We just launched our new standard – check out the summary of significant revisions on our website and our news release with all the details.

You’ll see our new standard improves conservation of biodiversity, recognizes emerging issues such as climate change and bioenergy, and expands logger training in North America. It has made our fiber sourcing requirements stronger, and complements SFI activities aimed at avoiding controversial or illegal offshore fiber sources.

The review that led to the new standard certainly demonstrated the power of our partnerships – kudos to everyone involved.

We also began 2010 as the largest single forest certification standard in the world – more than 180 million acres (73 million hectares) are certified to the SFI forest management standard in North America.

Our new standard, our expanded partnerships and our growth mean we are in a great position to keep leading the push for improved forest practices and more certified forests.

This puts us in a position of responsibility that we take very seriously. We may not certify forests outside North America but our work definitely has a global reach, and a global impact. We cannot act alone, but we certainly can remain leaders in helping raise awareness of the value of forest certification.

In 2010, we’ll be reaching out to anyone who cares about forest management to work with us – not to promote one standard but to show how credible forest certification can make a difference. I hope you’ll join us.

Kathy