October 14, 2005 -
Ruttger’s Sugar Lake Lodge, Grand Rapids
Findings from University of Minnesota Professor Mike Kilgore’s research, “Developing a Certification Framework for Minnesota’s Family Forests,” was the subject of lively debate at the October 14th conference: Third-party Certification of Minnesota’s Family Forests: Getting it Done.
Participants in the Grand Rapids meeting included over 60 family forest owners, industrial and public land managers, county and state officials, and environmentalists. The goal of Kilgore’s research effort was to explore strategies and develop recommendations for increasing the amount of certified family forest land in Minnesota. His work will inform implementation of a Third-Party Certification Pilot Project, funded by the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCMR), in Aitkin, Cass, Itasca, and St. Louis counties.
Kilgore led a lively dialogue on why family forest certification matters to the forest industry, the resource, and forest-dependent communities .Based on surveys of Minnesota loggers and landowners and of best practices here and abroad, he also shared his findings on factors that contribute to and detract from family forest certification. Kilgore’s recommendations for increasing certification of family forest lands in Minnesota included pursuit of opportunities to group certify family forest lands enrolled in the Sustainable Forestry Incentives Act (SFIA) to significantly expand family forest owner enrollment in SFIA support for efforts to establish a state master logger certification program, identification of more targeted messages keyed to family forest land owner motivations and values, and a focus on the largest land holders.
Participants also heard the perspectives of experts on family forest certification from other parts of the world. Auvo Kaivola, Secretary General of the Finnish Forest Certification Council, as well as presenters from Oregon, Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan and Norway, talked about the successes and challenges of certification efforts underway in their regions.
Lessons learned throughout the day included:
1) Minnesota can not adopt the practices of others doing third-party certification, but we can adapt them to our unique forest resource, forest industry, political context and other conditions;
2) We need to develop the right messages for communicating to family forest land owners. This is not a mater of “spin” but rather understanding what will benefit them and what incentives will encourage them to certify;
3) Greater ongoing investments in family forest land management outreach and education are needed to meet today’s challenges of forest resource management. Minnesota has much to learn from successful models, including public-private partnerships that are in place in other states and countries.
At day’s end, Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation, reminded participants that third party certification offers a “double bottom line” of sound stewardship and economic viability for the industries that depend on certified product. Certification of privately held forest lands will help sustain the resource, strengthen the forest industry and build community.
>Agenda
>Speaker Bios
>Abstracts
>Evaluation
Presentation Materials
Keynote Presentation
A View from Abroad (.pdf file)
Criteria for Group Certification (supplemental .rtf file)
Auvo Kaivola, Secretary General, Finnish Forest Certification Council
Presentation on Research Results
A Framework for Third-Party Certification in Minnesota (PowerPoint Slide Show file)
Dr. Mike Kilgore, Dept of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota College of Natural Resources
Presentation
Third-Party Certification: Perspective from Oregon
(.pdf file)
Jim Paul, Policy & Program Development Unit Manager, Private and Community Forests Program, Oregon Department of Forestry
Other Regional Approaches
Katie Fernholz, Forestry Program Manager, Dovetail Partners, Inc. Moderator
Certifying Family Forests - the Wisconsin Approach (PowerPoint Slide Show file)
Bob Mather, Director, Bureau of Forest Management, Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources
Family Forest Certification - Other Regional Approaches (PowerPoint Slide Show file)
Warren Suchovsky, Owner, Suchovsky Logging, Inc., Stephenson, Michigan
Maine's Forest Certification Initiative (PowerPoint Slide Show file)
Henry Whittemore, Director, Governor's Certification Initiative, Maine Forest Service Department of Conservation
Moving Forward with Third-Party Certification Pilot Project: Plans and Prospects
Minnesota Logger Education Program (.doc file)
Dave Chura, Executive Director, Minnesota Logger Education Program
LCMR Project 09b - Third-Party Certification of Private Woodlands (PowerPoint Slide Shoe file)
Bob Stine, Associate Dean, Cloquet Forestry Center, University of Minnesota
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