Notes From The Field
The 2016 third-party field assessments with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) concluded on June 22nd. This year, eight states were visited: Arkansas and Texas for the Southern Regional Certificate, Pennsylvania and Vermont for the Northeast Regional Certificate, and California, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming for the West-Central Regional Certificate. Thank you to all of the state committee members and volunteers who helped make this process a success.
While we await the final Continuous Improvement Report from PwC, I would like to share some initial observations from the field. The review of the management plans for the properties visited showed that the vast majority of them were very well done. The assessors were pleased to see that many of the plans were easy to understand, in-depth, and provided a clear action plan to meet the landowner’s objectives. However, there were some findings issued against plans that did not meet the ATFS 2015-2020 Standards requirements.
As a reminder, during routine inspections please review the landowners’ management plans to ensure that they are up to date and reference all of the required elements, including the presence or absence of Threatened and Endangered Species, Special Sites, and Forests of Recognized Importance, as well as the references that were used in these determinations. A quick and easy way to update a landowner’s plan is with the completion of the ATFS 2015-2020 Addendum.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the assessment, management plans, or the addendum. Thank you for all that you do for the Tree Farm program!
Sincerely,
Kristina Duff
