CertifiablyOre$on €rown

By Bob Maurer Swanson Group Glendale, Or.

f-tER-ti-fy (sur'te f() v. l. to con-

\-, firm formally as true, accurate. or genuine, esp. in writing b. to guarantee as meeting a standard.

Cer-ti-fi-ca-tion (sur'te fi ka'shen) n. the act of certifying.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that certification is one of those industry bttzz words that appears to be on everyone's agenda. Speakers at conventions address it. roundtable groups discuss it, marketers embrace it, builders applaud it, retailers try to figure out how to buy it, and manuf'acturers scratch their heads and ask, "Isn't this what we've always done?"

But the bottom line is that no mat- ter where you stand in the food chain, certification is going to affect the way you do business. Because the concept of certifying the forest products industry and the subsequent finished products they generate is one that has not only caught on but is here to stay and will continue to grow in importance.

Yet there are still a lot of pressing questions concerning the execution and administration of these programs, such as: Who will bear the cost? What is the difference-if any-in the various programs? Is there an appreciable value in the finished goods? And-perhaps most important-are we really doing anything different in the woods or are we just creating a paper record to verify we've done our jobs properly?

Unfortunately, much of this confusion can be credited to the competing certification bodies themselves and other environmental associations who all claim to have our natural resources best interests at heart, yet point fingers at each other and disagree on what constitutes basic standards of sound forest practices. One would think that if the industry is doing a better job of maintaining sustainable growth, harvesting in a more responsible way, being the good stewards of the land as they claim they are, then ALL parties

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To them, it's a dream

To you, it's a sound business

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