For the three areas in which standards have been established, a quick review of the standards shows that they are not geared towards evaluating the performance of individual landowners. Rather, they are directives to various state agencies or statewide aggregate goals. The standards must ensure that harvest levels are permanently sustainable and that landowners are maintaining adequate habitat for all native plants and animals. The goals and indicators must be adopted through a public process. Those individuals evaluating whether or not the landowner has met the specific goals and indicators must be experts in their fields and completely independent of the landowner being evaluated.
Independent certification offers great promise for improvement of forest practices in Maine.
However, before public money in the form of tax credits is used to support certification, it is important that the certification program meets the above standards. Thank you very much for your consideration of our comments. Copyright 1999- 2000 Natural Resources Council of Maine. All rights reserved.