Environment

Wood is the cleanest and most energy efficient building material available. It consumes less energy in its manufacture than steel, concrete or plastic, and it is biodegradable. Private forest land produces timber for the thousands of wood products we use each day.

The Private Forest Landowners Association (PFLA) members make the following commitments for forest operations on their private land:  

• Ensure that the safety of forest workers and the public is always the primary concern in any forest practice.
• Understand that conservation of natural resources benefits society as a whole.
• Meet all applicable laws governing environmental performance.
• Conduct forest harvesting and silviculture operations in a manner which protects the key public environmental values of water quality, fish habitat, soil productivity and critical wildlife habitat.
• Ensure that downstream users of water will not be significantly impacted from forest management activities.
• Seek expert advice where proposed operations pose a potential risk to the environmental values to be protected, and consider such advice in the development of operational plans.
• Cease operations should their continuance pose a significant threat to the environmental values being protected, and immediately undertake appropriate remediation actions to minimize undesirable impacts.
• Apply Best Management Practices in the planning and implementation of forest land management operations.
• Achieve successful forest renewal following harvesting.