CLIMATE MITIGATION – AFFORESTATION

Performance Measure 2.1. Certified Organizations shall promptly reforest after final harvest.

Performance Measure 2.2. Certified Organizations shall have a program to minimize chemical use required to achieve management objectives while protecting employees, neighbors, the public and the environment, including wildlife and aquatic habitats.

Performance Measure 2.3. Certified Organizations shall implement practices that protect and maintain forest and soil productivity and soil health.

Performance Measure 2.4. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect forests from damaging agents, such as environmentally or economically undesirable levels of wildfire, pests, diseases, and invasive species, to maintain and improve long-term forest health, productivity, and economic viability.

Performance Measure 2.5. Certified Organizations that deploy improved planting stock, including varietal seedlings, shall use best scientific methods.

Performance Measure 3.1. Certified Organizations shall meet or exceed all applicable federal, provincial, state and local water quality laws and meet or exceed best management practices.

Performance Measure 3.2. Certified Organizations shall implement water, wetland, and riparian protection programs based on climate, soil type, terrain, vegetation, ecological function, harvesting system, state best management practices (BMPs), provincial guidelines and other applicable factors

Performance Measure 4.1. Certified Organizations shall conserve biological diversity.

Performance Measure 4.2. Certified Organizations shall protect threatened and endangered species, critically imperiled and imperiled species (Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values), and natural communities, and old-growth forests.

Performance Measure 4.3. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect ecologically important sites in a manner that takes into account their unique qualities.

Performance Measure 4.4. Certified Organizations shall apply knowledge gained through research, science, technology, field experience and the results of monitoring of the effectiveness of conservation-related programs to manage wildlife habitat and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity.

Performance Measure 5.1. Certified Organizations shall manage the impact of harvesting on visual quality

Performance Measure 5.2. Certified Organizations shall manage the size, shape, and placement of clearcut harvests.

Performance Measure 5.3. Certified Organizations shall adopt a green-up requirement or alternative methods that provide for visual quality.

Performance Measure 5.4. Certified Organizations shall support and promote recreational opportunities for the public.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

Performance Measure 9.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address opportunities to mitigate the effects associated with its forest operations on climate change.

Performance Measure 10.1 On the forests they own or manage, Certified Organizations shall limit susceptibility to undesirable impacts of wildfire, promote healthy and resilient forest conditions through management techniques, actions and/or policies, and support restoration of forests following wildfire damage.

Performance Measure 10.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving government agencies, SFI Implementation Committees, Project Learning Tree, or other partners, engage in efforts to raise awareness of and take action towards benefits of fire management and minimization of undesirable impacts of wildfire.

Performance Measure 2.2. Certified Organizations shall have a program to minimize chemical use required to achieve management objectives while protecting employees, neighbors, the public and the environment, including wildlife and aquatic habitats.

Performance Measure 2.3. Certified Organizations shall implement practices that protect and maintain forest and soil productivity and soil health.

Performance Measure 2.4. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect forests from damaging agents, such as environmentally or economically undesirable levels of wildfire, pests, diseases, and invasive species, to maintain and improve long-term forest health, productivity, and economic viability.

Performance Measure 2.5. Certified Organizations that deploy improved planting stock, including varietal seedlings, shall use best scientific methods.

Performance Measure 3.1. Certified Organizations shall meet or exceed all applicable federal, provincial, state and local water quality laws and meet or exceed best management practices.

Performance Measure 3.2. Certified Organizations shall implement water, wetland, and riparian protection programs based on climate, soil type, terrain, vegetation, ecological function, harvesting system, state best management practices (BMPs), provincial guidelines and other applicable factors

Performance Measure 4.1. Certified Organizations shall conserve biological diversity.

Performance Measure 4.2. Certified Organizations shall protect threatened and endangered species, critically imperiled and imperiled species (Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values), and natural communities, and old-growth forests.

Performance Measure 4.3. Certified Organizations shall manage to protect ecologically important sites in a manner that takes into account their unique qualities.

Performance Measure 4.4. Certified Organizations shall apply knowledge gained through research, science, technology, field experience and the results of monitoring of the effectiveness of conservation-related programs to manage wildlife habitat and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity.

Performance Measure 5.1. Certified Organizations shall manage the impact of harvesting on visual quality

Performance Measure 5.2. Certified Organizations shall manage the size, shape, and placement of clearcut harvests.

Performance Measure 5.3. Certified Organizations shall adopt a green-up requirement or alternative methods that provide for visual quality.

Performance Measure 5.4. Certified Organizations shall support and promote recreational opportunities for the public.

Performance Measure 9.1 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address the climate change risks to forests and forest operations and develop appropriate adaptation objectives and strategies. Strategies are based on best scientific information.

Performance Measure 9.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address opportunities to mitigate the effects associated with its forest operations on climate change.

Performance Measure 10.1 On the forests they own or manage, Certified Organizations shall limit susceptibility to undesirable impacts of wildfire, promote healthy and resilient forest conditions through management techniques, actions and/or policies, and support restoration of forests following wildfire damage.

Performance Measure 10.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving government agencies, SFI Implementation Committees, Project Learning Tree, or other partners, engage in efforts to raise awareness of and take action towards benefits of fire management and minimization of undesirable impacts of wildfire.

Indicator 2. Development of criteria and implementation of practices, as guided by regionally based best scientific information, to retain stand-level wildlife habitat elements such as snags, stumps, mast trees, down woody debris, den trees and nest trees.

Indicator 3. Program to individually and/or through cooperative efforts such as SFI Implementation Committees, support diversity of native forest cover types and age or size classes that enhance biological diversity, by incorporating the results of analysis of documented diversity at landscape and ownership/ tenure levels, to ensure the contribution of the managed area to the diversity of conditions that promote biodiversity.

Indicator 6. Identification and protection of non-forested wetlands, including bogs, peatlands, fens and marshes, and vernal pools that are ecologically important.

Indicator 8. Consider the role of natural disturbances, including opening size, structural retention, the use of prescribed or natural fire where appropriate, and forest health threats in relation to biological diversity when developing forest management plans.

Performance Measure 4.2. Certified Organizations shall protect threatened and endangered species, critically imperiled and imperiled species (Forests with Exceptional Conservation Values), and natural communities, and old-growth forests.

Indicator 1. Program to protect threatened and endangered species.

Indicator 2. Program to locate and protect known sites of flora and fauna associated with viable occurrences of critically imperiled and imperiled species and ecological communities, defined as Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value. Programs for protection may be developed independently and/ or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees and may include Certified Organization managers, cooperation with other stakeholders, or use of easements, conservation land sales, exchanges, or other conservation strategies.

Indicator 3. Support of and participation in programs for the conservation of old-growth forests in the region of ownership or forest tenure.

Performance Measure 9.2 Certified Organizations shall individually and/or through cooperative efforts involving SFI Implementation Committees or other partners identify and address opportunities to mitigate the effects associated with its forest operations on climate change.

Indicator 1. Based on best scientific information, Certified Organizations shall identify and address opportunities to enhance the climate benefits associated with forest management operations on the forests they own or manage via effective implementation of the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard requirements such as: a. Objective 2 – Forest Health and Productivity; Objective 10 – Fire Resilience and Awareness; and/or other silvicultural or operational practices to enhance the climate benefits associated with their forest operations.

Indicator 2. Based on best scientific information, Certified Organizations shall identify and address opportunities to enhance ecosystem resilience for the forests they own or manage via effective implementation of the SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard requirements including: a. prompt reforestation or planned natural reforestation as per Indicator 2.1.1; b. adequate regeneration and appropriate actions to correct understocked areas, and c. evaluation for afforestation of areas that are not ecologically important, and d. protection of desirable or planned advanced regeneration during harvest and the retention of vigorous trees during partial harvest.