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The CAF has all the earmarks of a healthy forest: diverse stands, a mixed age mosaic, a significant percentage of “late successional” (or old growth) stands, well-protected watercourses, and abundant wildlife. The entirety of the Collins Almanor Forest is managed under all-aged silviculture, primarily single-tree selection.

“I’ll put our 94,000 acres up against any forestland in the state in terms of forest health, public or private,” Collins Pine Forest Manager Jay Francis says proudly.

According to Francis, the Collins Pine yield per acre is only slightly lower than SPI’s, and their operating costs are slightly higher, translating to a difference in cost of only five to ten percent on average. In many cases there is no difference at all.

"I don’t even understand the pure economics of that,” he said. “Those stands have been thinned and left in a free-to-grow state. Why would you want to go back to ground zero and start over? Some of those trees are just getting to the point where they’re really starting to put on some good growth. We have a lot of land adjacent to SPI. On some I can agree with their methods. On some I shake my head and wonder why.”

In the judgment of the SCS Evaluation Team, Collins Pine Company’s management of the Collins Almanor Forest serves as an outstanding example of exemplary, well balanced industrial forest stewardship in the Pacific Coast region of the United States.

A Better Model

by Pride S. Wright

CLEARCUTTING IS A controversial topic in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, and yet the controversy has done little to restrain the appetite for lumber and other wood products. At the end of the day, clearcutters can’t profit from clearcutting without the cooperation of the buying public, and we are that buying public. There is little point in objecting to clearcutting if we don’t spend equivalent energy to curb our consumption of wood products, support environmentally preferable alternatives when available, and insist upon buying lumber that is harvested in an environmentally sound manner.

Sierra Pacific Industries, the most notorious clearcutter of them all, claims it cannot be financially viable without the use of widespread industrial clearcutting. Does this argument hold water? And as a consequence, are the 1.5 million acres of SPI-owned timberland and the dozens of impacted rural Northern California communities living in their midst doomed to suffer the far reaching consequences of clearcutting: the destruction of fragile ecosystems, the degradation of watersheds, threats to wildlife and habitat, and the undermining of local economies? Or is it possible there’s a better model, one that allows for both profitable logging and ecosystem integrity?

Imagine a biodiverse, multi-layered, canopied, self-sustaining forest supporting great blue heron rookeries, black bears, rubber boas, bald eagles, and naturally healthy meadows, streams, rivers and a lake. It’s open to the public with a mixture of improved and unimproved recreation sites. Big Trees State Park, you ask? No, we’re actually talking about Collins Pine’s 94,000-acre Collins Almanor Forest (CAF), a working industrial forest near Chester in Northern California.

“I’ll put our 94,000 acres up against any forestland in the state in terms of forest health, public or private,” Collins Pine Forest Manager Jay Francis says proudly.

Collins Pine was the first privately-held forest products company in the United States to be comprehensively evaluated and independently certified by Scientific Certification Systems in accordance with the strict rules of the Forest Stewardship Council.

Collins Pine was also the first North American forest products company to grow, manufacture, and market FSC-certified lumber, particleboard, and specialty plywood while implementing sustainable practices throughout their operations. They exhibit a top to bottom environmental ethic that extends far beyond harvesting timber selectively. For example, they became the first timber company in America to implement the principles of The Natural Step (see sidebar), an international environmental organization dedicated to shifting people and businesses away from linear, resource-wasting, toxic-spreading methods of materials handling and manufacturing toward cyclical resource-preserving methods.

“Certification is based on more than just light entry and gentle touch forestry,” Francis explains. “There are three key elements to the FSC certification process: timber sustainability, ecosystem management and environmental sensitivity, and economic and community stability. We’re also evaluated on our practices towards employees and the community. Our goal is to support not only a community from generation to generation, but also to support and enhance a healthy forest ecosystem that is open to recreation, yet protects wildlife habitat with the same dedication as we protect our trees.”

One might assume that, from the standpoint of the consumer, the net result of all these good intentions would be some astronomically priced gourmet lumber. So how does the retail price of FSC-certified lumber from Collins Pine compare with that of clearcut lumber?

To put this in a context, lumber generally accounts for approximately twelve percent of the cost of a new home. The use of FSC-certified lumber would result in an increase in the total construction cost of a typical frame home of between one and two percent. That’s a small price to pay considering the many benefits, not the least of which is the health of the Sierra Nevada ecosystem.

Most environmentalists are willing to concede that small clearcuts (one to two acres) can be appropriate in certain very clearly defined circumstances. It is SPI’s use of industrial clearcutting as their primary harvesting technique and not as a site-specific remedy that has outraged much of the public. SPI’s well-publicized plan is to clearcut 70 percent of their 1.5 million acres and convert it to tree farms over the next several decades. Francis is not rigidly opposed to clearcutting as a silvicultural tool, although Collins Pine does not utilize it. But what percentage of a forest landscape can you denude, burn, spray with herbicides, and convert to tree farm before you begin to inflict substantial damage on the ecosystem?

“A minor portion of the ownership,” he says. “Maybe a maximum of somewhere between five and ten percent. And to me that’s still a pretty high number.”

I asked Francis about the controversial Upper San Antonio Creek Timber Harvest Plan, which includes 49 clearcuts averaging 18 acres in size immediately above the Sierra community of Arnold and straddling a stream that feeds a domestic drinking water supply.

“I don’t even understand the pure economics of that,” he said. “Those stands have been thinned and left in a free-to-grow state. Why would you want to go back to ground zero and start over? Some of those trees are just getting to the point where they’re really starting to put on some good growth. We have a lot of land adjacent to SPI. On some I can agree with their methods. On some I shake my head and wonder why.”

As we mentioned, there’s considerably more to FSC certification than simply not clearcutting. One of the requirements of FSC certification is a healthy balance sheet. Companies are required to avoid the kind of debt load that might tempt them to liquidate inventory at an unsustainable pace or utilize techniques like clearcutting. In the mid-1980s, Red Emmerson and SPI borrowed more than half a billion dollars to enable them to begin their timberland buying spree, using their mills as collateral. Many observers believe their heavy debt load is responsible for their insistence upon clearcutting.

As consumers, we need to commit ourselves to reducing the total consumption of wood products while simultaneously multiplying the demand for FSC-certified lumber. The amount of timberland managed under FSC certification will climb only if owners of uncertified forestland see an economic advantage in certification. We can help create the economic incentive by demanding FSC-certified lumber. We also need to demand clear product identification at the retail level so consumers can readily distinguish between clearcut lumber and lumber from sustainably harvested forests. Call or write your neighborhood lumberyard and tell them you’re willing to pay the additional five to ten percent for sustainably harvested lumber. If you’re in the process of building a new home, insist upon FSC-certified lumber. If you’re a contractor, offer your clients the option of using FSC-certified lumber as a moderately priced premium upgrade. The surest way to stop widespread clearcutting is to redistribute the demand for lumber in a manner that prevents those who clearcut from profiting from it.

THE FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL is an independent, international, member-based organization that provides consumers with an assurance that the wood they use comes from forests managed in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The FSC is the only forest certifying organization in the world endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund, the Wilderness Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rainforest Alliance, and the World Resources Institute.

For more information on Collins Pine and how you can get FSC-certified lumber, check out www.collinswood.com, or call 800/329-1219.

Report Card

Excerpts from the Forest Stewardship Council’s official certification evaluation of the Collins Almanor Forest, comprised of 94,000 acres located within Plumas and Tehama Counties, in northeastern California:

General Conclusions and Discussions

• CAF management’s commitment to maintaining late seral stage composition and structure across the entire ownership was quite evident. This awareness was obvious in upland sites as well as riparian zones, old growth stands and other biologically sensitive areas. Collins management style continues to provide important aspects of habitat connectivity while not causing fragmentation.

• The CAF and Chester Division are part of Collins Pine, which has a management philosophy and long-term record of financial stability and sustainable forest management. The organizational structure and company philosophy insulate CAF operations from pressure to practice non-sustainable forestry.

• There is a lack of debt or speculative log and stumpage purchases which might bring outside pressure to violate sustained yield practices.

• The company has a general policy of open public access to the CAF, subject to selective road closures when necessary for public safety and resource protection. Public use areas are protected and enhanced. Consumptive uses are controlled with a permit system.

The Natural Step

The Natural Step (TNS) is an international environmental organization founded in 1989 by the Swedish cancer researcher and physician, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robért. Its objective is simple: to get individuals and businesses to conserve natural resources by moving away from wasteful, toxin-spreading methods of materials handling and manufacturing processes. Decisions are evaluated against four scientific principles and four system conditions.

The four scientific principles are:

• Matter and energy cannot appear or disappear

• Matter and energy tend to spread spontaneously

• Material quality is in concentration and structure of matter

• Net increases in material quality on Earth are generated almost entirely by sun driven, photosynthetic processes

The four system conditions are:

• Does the action reduce the use of finite mineral resources?

• Does the action reduce the use of long-lived synthetic products or molecules?

• Does it preserve or increase natural diversity and the capacity of ecocycles?

• Does it reduce the consumption of energy and other resources?

Actions—not slogans

Collins Pine began the TNS training in 1997 at Collins Products LLC, their composite plant in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Since then, they have systematically introduced these principles to their other facilities. Each project they undertake is weighed against the short- and long-term economic impacts and the Four System Conditions.

By 1998, they had completed the process of certifying their forests in California, Pennsylvania, and Oregon under the principles and criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council. Their next step was to examine the long-term environmental effects of their decision making in every aspect of their business practices. To that end, Collins embraced the concepts of The Natural Step, a process they call their “Journey to Sustainability.”

Adopting the principles of The Natural Step was a direct extension of Collins Pine’s desire to achieve the full integration of sustainable practices into all of their business operations. They hope to inspire their customers and colleagues to do the same.

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