The fall 2006 issue of the Woodland Steward introduced the idea that forest certification was coming to the forests of Indiana. At that time, few if any forests were certified to any standard and our forest products industry had little interest in certified products. As of the fall 2008, lots of things have changed. The state forests are now certified to the standards of both the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Most classified forest lands are certified by the American Tree Farm System (ATFS). More opportunities for certified forest lands and forest products are on the agenda for this fall, directly benefiting the classified forest lands and forest products industry.

The Division of Forestry has contracted with Scientific Certification Systems to conduct an initial review leading to the FSC certification of the classified forest lands. The Division plans to seek certification of these lands under a “group” certificate. This means that the Division will cover all the direct certification costs for the thousands of small landowners, making it feasible for landowners with as few as 10 acres of classified forest to become certified. Each classified forest landowner will be given the option to become a group member – FSC certification is entirely voluntary on the part of the landowner. The initial review of the Classified Forest & Wildlands Program is scheduled during the month of October. Soon after that, each classified forest landowner will be given the opportunity to “opt out” of the group.

Why would a landowner choose to participate in FSC Group certification? There are lots of reasons:

• FSC certification at no cost to the landowner;

• certification provides assurances to consumers that the forest products they buy came from properly managed lands;

• certification provides the opportunity to supply certified forest products to the industry, potentially increasing the income from timber sales or increasing demand for the forest products they sell;

• certification provides “job satisfaction” in knowing that you are properly caring for the forest resource for future generations.

Landowners who choose to participate in the FSC group certification process must allow their lands to be visited by foresters with the Division of Forestry and Scientific Certification Systems. Of the thousands of landowners enrolled in the program, only about 60 will be randomly selected for an initial review. A “surveillance” review will be conducted each year on about the same number of lands, so the possibility of your land being selected for a review is small. Most landowners enrolled in the program are proud of their lands and would welcome the opportunity to show what proper Hoosier forest management is all about.

Another initiative by the Division of Forestry is directed toward loggers and the primary forest products industry. The Division is working with Scientific Certification Systems to conduct a review and develop a Group Chain-of-Custody (CoC) FSC certificate. This group certificate works much like the FSC group certificate mentioned earlier; the Division will hold and manage the group certificate for the benefit of any loggers and small primary forest products industries which choose to participate. The Division covers most of the costs; each participating company meeting certain qualifications will only need to pay the annual licensing fee of a few hundred dollars rather than the thousands to seek CoC certification on their own.

Like all certification programs, participation in group CoC certification is entirely voluntary. The benefits to a logger or sawmill to be FSC CoC certified are many. The primary reason to seek certification is to purchase or process certified trees, logs or lumber that originated on FSC certified lands. Without the CoC certification, companies cannot sell products with the FSC label. The demand for FSC certified finished products from consumers, and for FSC certified raw materials from manufacturers, continues to increase. Indiana has FSC certified forests and many FSC certified secondary manufacturers seeking raw materials, but not enough certified loggers and sawmills to meet their needs.

The Division hopes to meet this need by making CoC certification economically feasible to many of our smaller companies. If certification goes as planned, Indiana will soon be a leader in forest certification. An estimated 7500 landowners with 500,000 acres of forest land will be FSC certified in addition to the existing 150,000 acres of state forests. Consumers will have the opportunity to buy FSC certified products that were properly grown, harvested, hauled, processed and finished entirely by Indiana landowners and businesses.