Forestry-Practice Showdown: PALCO v. Humboldt Redwood Co.
Mike Dronkers / Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2012 @ 9:17 p.m. / Environment , Humboldt , wildlife
With the PALCO/Maxxam days fading into the rearview mirror, how are the new owners, Humboldt Redwood Company [HRC], doing by comparison?
Tobias Schultz of Scientific Certification Systems [SCS] discussed HRC's forestry report card with KHUM this week.
SCS, often used by the Forest Stewardship Council to ensure sustainability, is the independent forestry auditor hired by HRC.
Read the SCS findings here. It's crazy, almost unbelievably so. You'll see a spectrum-defining contrast between the PALCO and HRC. According to Schultz, "HRC is probably the best case in forestry you can get."
A bit of background on Schultz: he's a scientist specializing in the Life Cycle Assesments of products, which is the overall environmental footprint of a given product from its construction and use until its eventual abandoment. He was a recent guest on KHUM's Coastal Currents a few weeks ago, discussing the minutiae of surfing's carbon footprint, down to the wax on the board. He thinks big about the little things.
Full KHUM Interview with SCS' Tobias Schultz:
If the SCS results seem dreamy, here's EPIC's take:
"The findings presented by SCS comparing the MAXAAM controlled PALCO with the currently operating Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) confirm that HRC forest practices are light years ahead of what was happening on those forest lands during the Hurwitz years. Though some serious issues of concern remain with HRC, there is no question that the company has made a phenomenal transition from the liquidation forestry of MAXAAM/PALCO. What is more, staff at EPIC have great respect for the manner in which management at HRC is willing to engage with our organization, and other local environmental advocates, when addressing concerns about timber harvest plans and other issues."
Clearly, HRC's successes have been made easier by the state of the forest they acquired. Schultz adds that these certification results are unusual.
"Lumber from HRC is about the best product we've seen because usually you can't have actual recovering occurring when you're making most products. You're not going to be making the environment better when you're making a surfboard that just can't even conceivably happen. What HRC is doing, and they are a special case, is actually causing this recovery -certainly a special case. "
Read the full interview, transcribed below:
