Pjerrou said she was horrified by the condition of the woodlands. But Dean and Mendocino Redwood chief forester Mike Jani vigorously objected. The company is cutting a third less than did Louisiana Pacific. It is rigorously managing streams to protect endangered coho salmon, decommissioning old roads and rejecting large clear-cuts for smaller group cuts and selective tree thinning. Dean said the company's goal is to obtain sustainable forestry certification from a group affiliated with the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization that oversees sustainable forestry projects.
Certification is a lengthy process.
Hammel said that certified wood still comprises only a small part of the world's lumber and timber sales, but that it is growing by leaps and bounds. And because its products are certified, the company hopes to receive top dollar. Fisher family members say sustainable harvesting is a sound investment approach. John Fisher, a partner with Sansome Partners, the family's investment firm, said the economics of it are what attracted the family into the timber business in the first place. Indeed, the family has hinted that it is considering expanding its holdings and purchasing an additional 200,000 acres of timberland put up for sale about two weeks ago by Georgia Pacific, another large wood-products company.