Voluntary Certification -
The American Tree Farm System
By Bob Simpson
National Director
The American Tree Farm System
Edited by Steve Nix, About Forestry Guide
Part Two - Tree Farm Standards
Standards for Tree Farm certification are developed and housed under the auspices of the American Forest Foundation. Standards and performance measures are crafted through participation of multi-stakeholder groups in a series of national meetings. They are reviewed periodically by a third party independent committee that reports its findings and recommendations to both AFF officers and the Tree Farm National Operating Committee.FIND YOUR STATE TREE FARM COMMITTEE
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Tree Farm currently has two levels of achievement: Pioneer and Certified. Pioneer standards and procedures reflect the beginning level of Tree Farming. Certified is the highest level of achievement and has more stringent standards. A series of general standards apply to both Pioneer and Certified levels. Specific standards and procedures for each level are summarized below and general standards are presented in a subsequent section.
Pioneer Tree Farm Standards and Procedures
The program goal of Pioneer Tree Farm status is to establish communications with non-managing forest landowners to motivate them to work toward Tree Farm certification by implementing excellent forestry on their woodlands. To obtain Pioneer status, the landowner must have written forest management recommendations developed by a qualified forester and jointly signed by the forester and landowner. These recommendations are not as comprehensive as the management plan required at the Certified level. Each Pioneer Tree Farm must meet Certified standards within 1-5 years or lose its Pioneer status.
Certified Tree Farm Standards and Procedures
Certified Tree Farm status is the next level of Tree Farming. To obtain Certified status, the landowner must have a written Tree Farm plan that documents the landowners goals, production of renewable crops of forest products, and protection of soil, water, range, aesthetic, recreation, wood, fish and wildlife resources. The plan must be crafted to meet the landowner's specific forest management objectives, be developed by a qualified forester and jointly signed by the forester and landowner. While the plan must address the above listed areas, it does not have to be a long, complicated document.
The landowner must follow through on the plan elements by on-the-ground implementation of the forest management practices on a significant portion of the certified land in order to maintain Certified status. Accomplishment of 30% or more of the recommended practices within the first three years is considered significant. Accomplishments are documented through inspections by the forester and reports to the State Tree Farm committee. A formal reinspection must occur within 5 years of the certification to verify plan implementation in order to maintain Certified status. Properties are then reinspected on a five-year rotation. Failure to demonstrate continued compliance with the standards results in decertification by the State Committee.
National General Standards for Tree Farms
Generally, only privately owned and managed forestlands are eligible for Tree Farm certification. However, some categories of private lands may qualify if they are owned as school forests, municipal or town forests or municipal and town watersheds. All ownership types must include production of renewable crops of forest products in order to be eligible. Areas devoted to growing Christmas trees can be certified if they are well managed, as well as forests being well managed for maple syrup production.
The minimum size considered for Tree Farm status is 10 acres and the area must predominately support a medium or better stocking of commercial forest trees. Sites of smaller size can be considered by State Committees if the areas have special merit. Fields, treeless bogs, lakes, brush land, home sites or other non-forested areas of 5 acres or more must be addressed in the Tree Farm plan but are not actually counted in the Tree Farm acreage. The goal is to have all forestland owned by a single owner managed according to the Tree Farm plan; however, owners may certify their main ownership first and then add additional tracts later as they are placed under management.
Forest management practices implemented by the landowner must enhance the health and productivity of the forest while protecting soil, water, range, aesthetics, recreation, wood, fish and wildlife resources (see attached standards and performance measures). The specific suite of management practices implemented will vary by landowner based on the Tree Farm size, forest characteristics, and management objectives. Three generally applicable categories of practices are protection, regeneration and harvesting.
Protection. Forest practices must protect the woodland from damaging effects of fires, diseases, insects and destructive grazing, and ameliorate the effects of damaging weather. Specific practices might include: constructing fire lines and fire control ponds; disposal of high fire hazard logging slash; fencing to prevent overgrazing; removing over-aged, diseased, insect-infested or weather damaged trees; establishing stands of mixed species and ages; establishing water bars and other erosion control measures; special management of stream side zones; and implementation of Best Management Practices in all activities.
Regeneration. Landowners must provide for prompt restocking of desired tree species on harvested areas and afforest idle areas where tree growing is the land use objective. Regeneration can be accomplished by natural seeding, sprouting, direct seeding, tree planting or any combination of these practices. Site preparation should be implemented to assure that regeneration is successful by removing residual or competing vegetation.
Harvesting. Landowners must be willing to harvest trees and other crops in order to participate in the Tree Farm program. Harvest practices must maintain or improve forest productivity, health and growth while protecting the associated resources. Harvest practices should be prescribed based on tree conditions, tree types and anticipated reforestation method and desired species. Clear cutting, shelterwood cuts, thinnings, improvement cuts, and precommercial thinning are all acceptable harvest practices as long asimplemented properly.
State Tree Farm Standards
State Tree Farm Committees can develop more specific, written state standards for certification that are tailored to their specific situations. These standards can be more specific than the national standards, but must be fully compatible with national standards. Proposed state standards must be approved by the National Tree Farm Operating Committee. Only those state standards that are clearly written within national parameters will be approved.
Further Reading:
The American Tree Farm System
Find out about the 70,000 people who influence 95 million acres of trees.The American Forest Foundation
"Conserving today...preparing for tomorrow."About Certification
About sites on forest certification
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