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Pamplin Media Group
Thursday, August 15 , 2013
C2
SUSTAINABLE LIFE
Sustainable
Life
Some politicians, such as U.S.
Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, say
the green building exclusion for
SFI could punish Oregon’s tim-
ber industry, because it’s the pre-
dominant certification system
here, with 3.2 million acres com-
pared to 566,929 acres for FSC.
Many academics and govern-
ment foresters are avoiding the
fight, arguing that both certifica-
tion systems improve forest prac-
tices and can reasonably claim to
promote forest sustainability.
But the two camps have decid-
edly different notions of forest
sustainability.
Greenwashing?
The FSC uses a more robust
conservation-based approach to
preserving forest ecosystems,
says Bob Van Dyk, forest policy
manager for the Wild Salmon
Center in Portland.
FSC’s national board includes
leaders of the World Wildlife
Fund and The Nature Conser-
vancy, and it’s endorsed by the
Sierra Club and Greenpeace.
In contrast, the SFI is tailored
to support the ongoing use of
forests to produce timber. Sup-
porters argue that if forests
produce ongoing jobs in the
woods and revenues from tim-
ber-cutting, that thwarts pres-
sure to convert forest lands into
subdivisions or other develop-
ments.
“The key to this whole thing is
we have generations of wood
coming up for our kids,” says Bob
Luoto, an SFI board member
from McMinnville who runs a
logging and trucking company.
Though both certification sys-
tems arguably help preserve for-
ests, the differences between the
two are large enough to drive a
log truck through.
Differences are clear cut
The FSC, as it applies in Ore-
gon, generally restricts clear-
cuts to 6 acres, saysMike Clough-
esy, forestry director for the Or-
egon Forest Resources Institute,
a Portland agency created by the
Legislature that’s funded by the
timber industry and designed to
nurture it.
SFI allows clear-cuts that can
average up to 120 acres —which
canmean one clear cut of 2 acres
plus another of 238 acres — says
Ryan Temple, president of Sus-
tainable Northwest Wood, a
Southeast Portland lumber yard
that only sells wood that meets
or exceeds FSC standards.
FSC bans persistent and haz-
ardous pesticides and herbicides,
Temple says, while some are per-
mitted under SFI. Tetrazine, a
known carcinogen banned in Eu-
rope and by the FSC, is sprayed
by helicopter in Oregon forests
certified under SFI, he says.
“That herbicide ends up in a
stream,” says Steve Pedery, con-
servation director for Oregon
Wild in Portland. “That may be a
salmon-bearing stream. It’s prob-
ably a stream that drains into
somebody’s water supply.”
FSCbars the use of genetically
modified organisms, which are
allowed by SFI.
FSC also forbids converting a
forest from a diverse ecosystem
into one planted with a single
species such as Douglas fir,
which is permitted by SFI.
Critics say SFI merely sets
standards that timber operations
inOregon alreadymust meet un-
der the Oregon Forest Practices
Act.
“It’s just a straight-out agricul-
tural model and not a biological
or ecological model,” Van Dyk
says.
Initially at least, SFI was
“straight greenwashing” de-
signed to give the timber indus-
try “green cover,” Van Dyk says.
“As I look at lands that are man-
aged in Oregon under the SFI
brand, I’m not comforted that
there are strong conservation
standards.”
However, he acknowledges the
system has improved over the
years in response to criticism.
Pedery says SFI may bring
“marginal improve-
ments” to forest manage-
ment in some cases, but
he thinks the greenwash-
ing label is fair. “The im-
pression given to the con-
sumer is they bought a
sustainably produced
piece of wood for their
home,” he says. “I don’t
think anyone should look
at it as a green seal.”
Industry view
SFI supporters say en-
vironmentalists don’t
get that timber compa-
nies must earn profits to
keep the industry thriv-
ing here. For timber
companies to be competitive in
Western Oregon forests, Luoto
and other SFI supporters say,
they need to rely on clear-cut-
ting and herbicides.
Clear-cutting is a cheaper
way to harvest timber. Spraying
herbicides on the cleared land
allows companies to replant
with Douglas firs that grow
without competition from other
trees and shrubs. Douglas firs
won’t regrow if they don’t get
sunlight, Luoto says.
“In Western Oregon, espe-
cially in the Coast Range, it’s re-
ally hard to manage for produc-
tion without any use of herbi-
cides,” Cloughesy says. “When
the industry manages (forest
land) under SFI, they manage it
as a plantation.”
Without clear-cutting and
herbicides, he says, Oregon
companies couldn’t compete
with their counterparts in New
Zealand, Chile and China.
When a consumer sees an
SFI-certified product at a store,
they are assured the tim-
ber company met Ore-
gon’s strict laws to pro-
tect wildlife, streams
and other environmen-
tal assets, Luoto says.
While that may mean
they didn’t exceed Ore-
gon standards, he says,
Idaho, Georgia and other
states have more lax en-
vironmental laws. Since
SFI has one national
standard, that means
lumber sold at a local
Home Depot, produced
by Portland-based Stim-
son Lumber Co. from
Idaho timber land, met
Oregon’s higher stan-
dards, Luoto says.
SFI also requires indepen-
dent audits of forest practices,
something not required by Ore-
gon to assure its laws are fol-
lowed, Luoto says. SFI also re-
quires loggers and foresters to
undergo 32 hours of training,
including sessions on state envi-
ronmental requirements, Luoto
says.
SFI also undergoes periodic
reviews of its standards, and
will come out with revisions in
2015, Luoto says.
Temple says the SFI label and
its lower standards creates
“market confusion” for consum-
ers, but he doesn’t view it as
greenwashing. “It’s more the
notion of ‘we’ll replant; we want
to make sure that there’s always
trees there,’ ” he says.
“SFI is a step in the right di-
rection,” Temple says, while
FSC might be three steps in the
right direction. “There’s room
for continuous improvement in
any system like this.”
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Wood:
SFI boosts forests as plantations
■
From page 1
One-of-a-kind
lumber yard only
stocks wood that
meets FSC rules
There’s no need to scruti-
nize the fine print to assure
you’re buying sustainably
cut timber at the inner
Southeast Portland lumber
yard run by Ryan Temple.
Every piece sold at Sustain-
able Northwest Wood must
meet or exceed the standards
set by the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC), the world’s
most respected “green seal”
for wood products. Half the
wood comes from Oregon, and
Temple enjoys telling personal
stories about the origin of his
inventory, much as restaura-
teurs do when serving local
meat and produce.
Shoppers at the 7,500-square-
foot lumber yard a few blocks
south of OMSI might find cedar
cut from a Girl Scout property
in Stevenson, Wash., a Nature
Conservancy site in Willapa
Bay, Wash. or from the city of
Forest Grove’s watershed.
None of the plywood con-
tains urea formaldehyde, so it
won’t release carcinogenic
fumes.
The bulk of the inventory
was cut by major Oregon tim-
ber companies such as Rose-
burg Forest Products or Collins
Companies, in forests andmills
where they’ve committed to
meet or exceed FSC standards.
Some comes from small opera-
tions like family-run Zena For-
est Products west of Salem.
Sustainable Northwest
Wood offers butcher block ta-
bles, landscape timbers and
other products made from ju-
niper, which has grown out of
control in Eastern Oregon
and needs to be pared back to
enable environmental resto-
ration. Temple is part of a
concerted campaign to create
a market for juniper products.
The nonprofit Sustainable
Northwest opened the lumber
yard four and a half years ago
at the peak of the Great Re-
cession. Temple says it was
quite a risk, as it’s the only
exclusively green lumber
yard of its kind in the country
that he knows. Sustainably
harvested wood generally
costs about 10 percent more,
he says.
The five-employee business
is now turning a profit, with
$1.5 million in sales for 2012-13,
up 25 percent from the prior
fiscal year.
Temple estimates 10 per-
cent of the wood sold in Ore-
gon is now FSC-certified. “If
you asked me the same ques-
tion five years ago, the answer
would have been 1 percent.”
— Steve Law
Sustainable
Northwest
Woods does
most of its
business with
contractors, but
anyone can walk
in and buy wood
such as these
artsy planks,
which some
customers use
to fashion desks
and tables.
PAMPLIN MEDIA
GROUP: JONATHAN
HOUSE
■
Sustainable Northwest
Wood: 225-A S.E. Division
Place, Portland
503-239-9663
www.snwwood.com
■
Forest Stewardship
Council: us.fsc.org
■
Sustainable Forestry
Initiative: sfiprogram.org
■
ForestEthics critique of SFI:
forestethics.org/sustainable-
forestry-initiative