New York State Forest Lands Face SmartWood Review

National Wildlife, August, 1998

Specialists from NWF's Northeast Natural Resource Center in Montpelier, Vermont, are evaluating forestry-management practices on 700,000 acres of New York state forest lands to determine if they balance timber production with wildlife habitat conservation.

If they meet the test for sustainable management, the forests will be eligible for special certification from NWF and the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program. Such certification alerts buyers and the public that timber and wood products from those forests were produced using the most environmentally sound methods. NWF already has certified more than 100,000 acres of private and public forest land in New England through its collaboration with SmartWood.

The New York project, conducted in cooperation with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, is focusing only on "working forests," open to logging as well as hunting, fishing and other recreation uses. No park land will be included.

"This is one of our biggest and most complicated projects to date, but also one of the most exciting in terms of tapping New York's potential to push a real, on-the-ground awareness of what sustainable forestry means," says Alan Calfee, NWF forester.