On October 25, 2013 the Rain Forest Alliance’s SmartWood™ forest certification program awarded Spray Lakes Sawmills (SLS), Forest Management Agreement Area (FMA), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC^®) certification.   SLS has been in pursuit of attaining FSC^® certification since 2010.  The Forest Management Agreement area and northern timber quota consists of approximately 300,000 hectares of Crown land.  The SmartWood™ auditing team assessed the company’s sustainable forest management system against the FSC^® Canada’s National Boreal Standard.  The Forest Stewardship Council is an international not for-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. SLS is very proud to have received the FSC accreditation, at the same time, maintaining certification is an ongoing effort that requires outreach with stakeholders, hard work and continual improvement.

Upcoming Protected Areas Design Workshops

Spray Lake Sawmills is currently identifying interested parties to begin the process of creating a protected areas network within the geographical context of its FMA. On November 14, 2013 we hosted a Protected Areas Design Workshop and posted the results at https://hm06e1.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/November-14-PA-Workshop-summary.pdf.  To learn about the progress we are making, we suggest subscribing to our BLOG. For those interested in participating with the protected areas projects, we would like to hear from you and welcome your participation. Feel free to send your completed questionnaire (see https://hm06e1.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Questionaire.pdf)  to our email or physical address listed below. We are hoping to have received the completed questionnaires and RSVP’s by February 21, 2014. Our next protected areas workshop is scheduled for February 27, 2014 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM at our Cochrane office.

Thanks for your time and we are looking forward to hearing from you soon.