Open Letter To The Highlands Coalition and Other Supporters of the “Forest Stewardship” Bill

DEP Rejection of Forest Stewardship Council Certification Guts Essential Safeguards Used To Garner Support

• One of the key principles that allowed many [conservation] groups to throw our support behind the bill was the concept of forest stewardship certification by the independent Forest Stewardship Council. So that remains the key component that assures us that some of the issues that have been brought up today [are addressed].  ~~~ Emile Devito, PhD, NJ Conservation Foundation (and Trustee of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance)

• We have a Natural Heritage Committee …comprised of some of the most preeminent wildlife biologists, naturalists, forest ecologists in the state … and they debated this bill for over a year. And what they came up with is a position paper. What it required to support this bill was really one thing: and that is that a forest stewardship plan for State owned land be certified by the independent Forest Stewardship Council. ~~~  Testimony of Eliott Ruga, Highlands Coalition, to the Assembly Ag. & Natural Resources Cmte. 6/10/13 (listen)

Readers know that DEP recently rejected the Forest Stewardship Council certification process contained as an essential safeguard in the controversial  proposed “Forest Stewardship” bill.

The FSC standards and certification process were the only reasons many in the NJ Conservation community agreed to support the bill.

FSC certification was viewed as an essential safeguard to prevent damaging commercial logging of NJ forests. The sponsors of the bill repeatedly assured critics that FSC would prevent abuses.

Because DEP has opposed FSC certification and will not enforce FSC standards and nothing in the bill requires DEP to do so, I am urging my colleagues to take emergency action and publicly withdraw their support for the bill.

This would include contacting the bill’s sponsors and issuing a public statement. Now!

Such a move is extremely important and must happen immediately, because the bill is scheduled for Assembly floor vote on Monday.

The bill already has cleared the Senate and this is the bill’s last stop before the Governor.

Here is my letter to the Highlands Coalition, who reluctantly  backed the bill only due to the FSC certification provision:

Julia and Eliot – as you may know, in a June 10 letter, DEP rejected FSC certification – given this position, would the bill pass, they will not enforce FSC standards or participate in the FSC certification process.

Nothing in the pending Forest Stewardship bill requires them to do so or provides for mandatory compliance with FSC standards (which are voluntary, and only implemented via the non-binding FSC certification process).