Controlled Wood Club
MixedWood LLCImplementation Support for FSC Controlled Wood
NRA Specified Risk – Habitat
Old Growth Forests
Old growth forests are important in maintaining biodiversity, values for society (recreational and spiritual), and ecological services such as carbon sequestration and soil quality. In addition, they also harbor highly valued timber resources. These habitat characteristics are important to a number of rare species that depend upon western U.S. old growth forests, including Northern Spotted Owls, Marbled Murrelet, and American marten, along with much lesser-known species of land snails, mollusks, and amphibians.
Old growth forest is generally considered to be rare, but how rare depends on the part of the country being considered: in the Pacific Northwest (including Northern California), the estimate is that old growth constitutes approximately 6% of the existing forest. A comprehensive spatial inventory of old growth forests across the entire US does not exist, although a few localized inventories have been completed.
MixedWood Mitigation Resources
MixedWood Fact Sheet (Electronic & Print)
Suitable for electronic and print distribution to suppliers, landowners, and interested stakeholders. Includes a general description of the Specified Risk subject with links to mitigation actions and additional information.
Current Version: v4.0
Revision Update: December 2022
Reviewed: December 2022
MixedWood Additional Resource Package
A collection of downloadable resources for information and mitigation recommendations.
Updated with new resources: 5/19/2020
FSC Mitigation Options & Resources
for Old Growth Forests
FSC US has created a number of map-related resources to assist a certificate holder in determining if their supply area overlaps an area of specified risk. Click on the map to view larger and to save for your own reference.
FSC offers spatial data layouts by request, as well as a list of counties that overlap specified risk areas. You can find more information about those here.
This document provides lists of organizations, regional programs, collaborative partnerships, research groups, and universities, or agencies who are working on issues relevant to Old Growth Forests. The documents are provided as resources for certified organizations as they seek to implement mitigation options. The lists will continue to be updated as new information is identified.
For a complete list of mitigation resources for multiple/all specified risks, you can read more here.
FSC released Controlled Wood Regional Meeting Reports for each region which can be found under each applicable region tab on our site. These reports contain the final mitigation options, along with background information on the Regional Meetings and the mitigation option development process. They are meant to assist a certificate holder in implementing control measures and mitigation options.
MixedWood created a PDF document excerpt of Annex 2 and Annex 3 from these Regional Meeting Reports for each Specified Risk.
– Annex 2 lists Mitigation Options by Specified Risk Topic
– Annex 3 provides a Specified Risk Overview, why FSC designated each as a High Conservation Value (HCV), in-depth identified threats and concerns, and more information about what FSC would like to achieve with your help.
Download Annex 2: Mitigation Options and Annex 3: Specified Risk Overview for Old Growth Forests
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