Through a pilot project, forests managed by several states and universities, were assessed for certification by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Panelists representing assessment and management organizations will discuss the lessons learned through these “dual assessments." In all, eight panelists will discuss the projects in the State of Maine, where 480,000 acres of Public Reserve lands were assessed, and in North Carolina, where the forests of Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources were assessed. The organizations in North Carolina undertook the effort collectively through the Southern Center for Sustainable Forests (SCSF). All participants performed a stepwise evaluation of the certification process, scrutinizing the rigor and applicability of each certification system in the context of their particular management regime. The results of this process are being used to show how the two systems differ on the ground, how they can be improved, where they are useful for public and/or university forests, and finally how these institutions can use this experience for educational outreach to private landowners.

The first set of comments will consider why the three member institutions of the Southern Center for Sustainable Forestry and the State of Maine, elected to pursue a pilot certification on their forestlands. Their comments will also describe the certification process from the perspective of the land managers (e.g. preparation, demands on personnel, public response, etc.) The second set of comments will given by the auditors from SmartWood and The Plum Line. They will include a summary of the assessment on SCSF-member lands, and a discussion of unique issues that arise on these types of holdings from the perspective of the FSC and SFI programs. The final set of comments will discuss how certification can be used as a tool in the management of Public/University forests—and conversely, how research and public land-management institutions can improve tools like certification.

The panel will be followed by a full day field tour with the auditors and managers to field sites in Duke and North Carolina State University Forests in the Raleigh/Durham area. Auditors from The Plum Line and SmartWood will discuss key issues in the SFI and FSC assessment reports using specific onsite examples. Similarly forest managers from Duke and NCSU will discuss the field audit from their perspective, focusing on the unique challenges of a research and teaching forest.