WVFA Mountain State Forestry Winter 2020-21

www.wvfa.org Winter 2020-2021 | West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry 23 SFI Goes a Step Further As part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the West Virginia SFI-State Implementation Committee monitors these reports to fulfill some of the dozens of standards to achieve SFI-Certified status. Weyerhaeuser, WestRock, Pixelle Specialty Solutions, take these monthly reports seriously and if necessary, provide the training and onsite assistance to logging companies to improve operations. Non-compliance is a serious issue for an SFI Certified company to maintain SFI Certification. We see a 92% compliance rate statewide on all logging operations. Loggers are getting the message clear. We strive for 100%. We are focusing our training and assistance on the 8% that falls short. With 34% of all non-compliance being skid trails and the site not reclaimed in a timely fashion, SFI company foresters will be focusing their efforts on those issues. It is noteworthy one of the areas of exceptional compliance is operating in streams, so important to protecting the clean water we share. The people of West Virginia need assurance that our forest harvesting is done with the utmost care to protect off-site and in most cases onsite erosion and sedimentation in our stream and rivers. We are continually improving our training. Logging is a dangerous and challenging business. Safety and environmental protection are keys to operating successfully. W V L O G G E R S C O U N C I L N E W S