Midyear Report to the Governing Board
To: Ira Adelman, President AFS
From: Steve Rideout, President, Fisheries Management Section
Date: February 22, 2003
I. Action
Action requested: Approve a motion to endorse the intent of the
Sustainable Forestry Initiative and specifically seek to have an AFS
member elected to the External Review Panel and develop a process,
through the Fisheries Management Section and Divisions/Chapters, to
participate in “on-the-ground” certification reviews, and propose
improvements in SFI’s riparian and road standards.
Recommended Motion: Move that the American Fisheries Society write
a letter to the President (or appropriate officer or director) of the
American Forest and Paper Association expressing support for the
intent of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Further, the letter
should indicate that we believe the Initiative could be strengthened
by a) electing an American Fisheries Society member to the SFI
External Review Panel, b) seeking active AFS participation in
on-the-ground certification reviews and c) improving SFI riparian and
road standards.
Minority View: Not Applicable
Background for Motion: See the attachment to this report, a memo
from Section member Tom McMahon to Steve Rideout, Section President.
II. Outcome or Accomplishments as Relevant to Strategic Plan
Charge or Annual Program of Work: No specific charge or program of
work defined.
Outcome and Accomplishments Organized by Major Goal in Strategic
Plan with the appropriate subgoal referenced from the attached listing
from the attached diagram.
Information Transfer and Outreach
We have contributed to the 4th World Fisheries Congress (see
additional info below), an activity that supports subgoal 3.1
We are introducing a Request for Funding process through our
Section’s Web Site thanks to the efforts of Fred Janssen, with great
input from President-Elect Dave Willis, Past President Tim Hess and
Secretary-Treasurer Dirk Miller. This will provide a common format and
vehicle for receiving requests and prevent the sometimes last-minute
crush that comes during our Annual Business Meeting. This supports
subgoal 3.1
Membership Services
Past President Tim Hess is taking the lead on developing a
symposium entitled “Utilizing the New State Wildlife Grants and
Landowner Incentive Program(s) to Improve Habitat for Fish and Other
Aquatic Species in Decline” supporting subgoal 2.2
Section members voted to support the travel costs for an
international member of the Section to attend the 4th World Fisheries
Congress. Section Past-President Tim Hess oversaw the successful
application of FMS Section Member Robert Arlinghaus from Germany to be
sponsored at the 4th World Fisheries Congress this May by support of
his travel. This was in addition to the Section’s contribution of
$2500 to the WFC. This supports subgoal 1.3
Aquatic Stewardship
AS 1.1 The Section was asked to review the Sustainable
Forestry Initiative of the American Forest and Paper Association (ASPA).
Section Member Tom McMahon (Montana Chapter) led the review and
provided an analysis for AFS consideration (see attachment). Aspects
of his recommendations have been incorporated into a proposed Action
Item and Motion as provided in the beginning of this report.
In March, our Section will once again be a sponsor of the
International Salmonid Habitat Enhancement Workshop (15th this year).
Section Past-President Don Duff will be actively involved in the
Workshop to be held in March in Salt Lake City following the Annual
Meeting of the Western Division – AFS. This activity supports
subgoals 1.4 and 3.3 as well as subgoal 2.3 for Information Transfer
and Outreach.
III. Financial Status (provided only to Society Financial
Officer and will not be copied and distributed in the briefing book)
To be provided by Secretary-Treasurer Dirk Miller.
Attachment
Review of Sustainable Forestry Initiative
To: Steve Rideout, AFS Fishery Management Section
From: Tom McMahon, Montana Chapter
RE: AFS and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
Steve, I have read the SFI Standards document and consulted with a
two AFS fishery biologists who are employed by the timber industry and
are familiar with the SFI. Both industry biologists, who wished to
remain anonymous, have had involvement with SFI and had some very good
suggestions for leveraging SFI to provide sustainable protection for
aquatic resources. Based on this information, here is a general view
of SFI and some recommendations for future AFS involvement.
1. The SFI is very impressive in its scope and a wonderful idea in
theory from a resource conservation standpoint. The program's emphasis
on independent verification of standards, training, research, and
evaluation I believe is very commendable, and is a model plan of how
we could actually achieve sustainable resource objectives. The number
of well-known companies that give purchasing preference to certified
SFI products is impressive, including such names as Hallmark, Kinkos,
Home Depot, Lowes, and Staples, futher highlighting potential impact
of truly sustainable practices. As one industry biologist noted, "I
believe this is the largest forest certification system in the world,
in terms of acres certified. Given the large number of forested acres
that are being managed under this certification system, constructive
participation by AFS would seem to be a good way to advance some of
the society's (AFS) habitat management and conservation objectives."
2. Specifically to fisheries, I did find section 4.1.3.12 of the
report on riparian areas a bit vague, and less detailed than other
objectives dealing with reforestation. It seemed that there were no
'standards' other than following current state BMPs and some general
wording about the 'protection of riparian areas', so it was difficult
to know how this is implemented and if they have some specific
standards for buffer strips. From an aquatics perspective, too, the
lack of road standards was a concern as well, so the issue of
sedimentation, in my view, was not addressed adequately. However, one
reviewer pointed out that "I believe your observation about a lack of
specificity in some of the standards is appropriate. But I believe one
of the primary objectives of the certification effort was to ensure
compliance with the voluntary BMP standards for those states without a
forest practice law, which actually includes most states. So even
though the standards often lack specificity, they often do have a
beneficial effect. Also, even in OR and WA, which have pretty strong
forest practice regulations, the SFI process does require
consideration of some elements that fall outside of the current rules.
For example, the SFI process has recently added some standards for
rare plants and plant communities."
3. The membership of the External Review Panel suggests a
commitment to include a balance of viewpoints and constituencies.
Among the board members were representatives from fish and wildlife
academia, Wild Turkey Federation, Conservation Fund, Wildlife
Management Institute, Ruffed Grouse Society, and a USFS fish and
wildlife biologist from Alaska, Winifred Kessler. The membership
appears broad, but conspicuous by its absence, is a more aquatics
oriented member. There is also the question of how influential the
board is with regards to setting and evaluating SFI Standards; that is
an issue that would have to be addressed by someone with more intimate
knowledge of on-the-ground performance of SFI program. But our initial
assessment suggests an effort by SFI governing board to include an
active voice for conservation concerns. One reviewer further noted a
positive development in terms of SFI 'independence' and perhaps
'credibility' since SFI has become a separate entity from the American
Forest Products Association, so the connection with a forest industry
lobbying group has been substantially reduced.
In summary, all three of us agreed that having AFS support and
active involvement in SFI has a lot of potential from an aquatic
conservation viewpoint. However, we all agreed that a AFS involvement
not just be a vote of support or non-support, but rather AFS
participation be used in a positive way to enhance "aquatic
sustainability" through several different mechanisms including
participation on the External Review panel, participation in
on-the-ground certification reviews (perhaps through Divisions and
Chapters), and improvement of SFI riparian and road standards.
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