TCNEF wins FSC 2019 Leadership Award

ATLANTA - The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNEF) has been named a recipient of a 2019 Leadership Award from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for its work administering the Northeast Master Logger Certification Program and managing an FSC-certified group of family woodlands. The awards were presented in conjunction with the 2019 Greenbuild International Conference and Expo Nov. 20, where former President Barack Obama gave the keynote address.

An FSC Leadership Award is a prestigious honor, bringing international recognition and visibility to a recipient. TCNEF was among 13 recipients this year. Past recipients have included The Nature Conservancy, Proctor & Gamble, The World Wildlife Fund Global Forest and Trade Network, and Staples, Inc., among many others. FSC Leadership Awards celebrate forest owners, builders, architects, retailers, paper mills, manufacturers, environmental organizations and many others who contribute to the movement toward responsible sourcing and forest management.

“From biodiversity and carbon storage to a sustainable supply of wood and fiber, people are waking up to the importance of responsibly managed forests to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges,” said Corey Brinkema, president of the Forest Stewardship Council U.S. “This year’s FSC Leadership Award winners demonstrate that we can conserve forests, fight climate change and protect wildlife habitat, even as we use forest products every day,” he added.

Ted Wright, Executive Director of the TCNEF and the Northeast Master Logger Certification Program, accepted the award in Atlanta Wednesday, Nov. 20 on behalf of the Trust.

“This award goes to and recognizes the exemplary forest professionals that have opened their operations to thirdparty certification through the Trust’s groups since 2003,” Wright said. “By recognizing and encouraging responsible timber harvesting we are increasing the amount of sustainably harvested wood in the market. The Trust also believes that responsible timber harvesting will ultimately benefit rural areas that are dependent on a wood economy, while balancing the world’s growing demand for wood products with the crucial need to preserve our forests for the future.”

TCNEF was nominated for the award by NEPCon, an international non-profit organization and leading provider of sustainability certification services including direct provision of Forest Stewardship Council™, Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture, and other sustainability certification services.

The Northeast Master Logger Certification Program was created in 2001 by the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) as the first in the world point-of-harvest certification program, offering third party independent certification of logging companies’ harvesting practices. In 2003, PLC created The Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands (TCNF) to administer the program with the broader goal of “enhancing the health of working forest ecosystems through exceptional accountability” throughout the Northern Forest region.

Since then, 18 states have approved templates for implementation of the program and it has also been adopted as a model in other countries. For the past two years, TCNEF has led a national effort to promote the program. In addition to administering the Master Logger program, TCNEF administers an FSC® -certified group of family forest landowners throughout New England and New York. Under this arrangement forest landowners can inexpensively gain access to FSC® group certification. TCNEF is the administrative body that holds the FSC certificate and has overall responsibility for compliance with the FSC® Northeast Regional Standard. TCNEF also administers an FSC® -certified group of Chain of Custody that provides an information trail, established and audited according to rules set by FSC, for Master Loggers and wood products companies to ensure that wood comes from certified forests.

The Forest Stewardship Council, the world’s most trusted forest certification, is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes environmentally sound, socially beneficial, and economically prosperous management of forests. FSC was created in 1993 to set the standards by which forests are certified, offering assurance to consumers and businesses that the wood products they buy originate from well-managed forests. More than 5,000 companies and nearly 160 million acres of forestland are certified under FSC in the United States and Canada. For more information visit www.fsc.org