American Tree Farm Question

[Phorester]

I feel that forest landowners are forced to participate in some sort of forest certification only if they want more money for their trees or they feel there is some prestige in belonging and want that.  Example; every once-in-awhile a landowner will come into my office and say "I'd like one of those Tree Farm signs to put up".  When I explain that it's recgonition of belong to the Tree Farm System and not just handed out to everybody, some join and eventually do enough on their property to become a certified Tree Farmer, or they are just not interested in getting that involved.

If a landowner values being independent and is not looking for every cent he can get for his trees when he sells some, he doesn't have to join.

[Samuel]

Still need to inspect a certain % of the land base to see if they are following their certification. If nothing else I guess, call it part of a peer review of the member. I

Forest Certification depending on the scheme you are certified to receives an external third party review from your certifying body each year, as well the company is required to conduct an internal assessment against themselves.  This is true for the big 3, FSC, SFI and CSA. This is mandated as part of the protocol requirements.  We ourselves hire out the internal audit to a contractor to ensure we are getting the best picture of whats going on and we post all of our audits (internal and external) as further transparency to what we are doing/achieving.  If you are bored, feel free to review some of the reprots that are located at http://www.dmi.ca/about_dmi/dmi_in_alberta/prpd/certification/audits.html