REDWOOD

Redwood Forests Certified
for Sustainable Harvests

Four of every five acres of commercial redwood forest are now independently certified as well managed and harvested on a sustainable basis. The major redwood lumber mills and landowners have completed independent third-party certification of their redwood forestlands. As a result, over 1 million acres, approximately 80 percent of the available redwood commercial forest are certified under one of the two most widely recognized certification programs: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI SM ) program.

There are 1.74 million acres (1) of Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests on California’s north coast. About 26 percent, or 450,000 acres of these forests are preserved in national, state and municipal parks, national monuments and other administratively withdrawn lands (2) where harvesting is prohibited.

Of the remaining 1.29 million acres where harvesting can take place, approximately 1.03 million acres (3) (80 percent) are currently being well managed according to independent third-party certification programs.

Forest certification provides consumers with assurance that the redwood products they purchase have been harvested in an environmentally sound manner. The basic tenants of certification programs include:

sustainable forestry
prompt reforestation
protection of water quality
enhancement of wildlife habitat
minimizing the visual impact of harvesting
protection of unique sites
improvements in wood utilization
These voluntary third-party certification programs are in addition to the mandatory requirements of California’s Forest Practices Act, recognized as the most thorough timber harvesting regulation in North America. Section 913 of the Forest Practices Act requires that any company owning commercial forests greater than 50,000 acres prepare a Sustained Yield Plan. These plans must project an equal balance of growth and harvest over a 100 year period while ensuring sustainability of all forest resources, including wildlife, watershed and soil.

References:

1 U.S. Forest Service Inventory and Analysis, Pacific Northwest Forest Range and Experiment Station, Portland Oregon reporting 1,244,000 acres with a plurality of redwood trees and another 496,000 acres with redwood present. (See also Fox III, Lawrence, “A Classification, Map and Volume Estimate for the Coast Redwood of California,” 1988, revised Oct. 1989, Humboldt State University, Arcata, Calif., with California Department of Forestry; reporting a plurality of redwoods on 1,663,000 acres and occurring on another 287,000 acres.)

2 Solinsky, Frank and Dean, Consulting Foresters, Trinidad, “Acreage and Volume of Coast Redwood Timber in Public Ownership In California”, Sept., 1990. (More recently withdrawn acreage added.)

3 Forest Stewardship Council, www.fscoax.org. American Forest & Paper Association’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI SM) Program, www.afandpa.org/forestry/sfi or www.aboutsfi.org.

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