I got a ‘head’s up’ from a colleague in the Lake States.
FSC-IC has a draft Advice Note in the review process that deals with rules that forest landowners have to follow when they grow seedlings in nurseries. This isn’t new, of course, it’s been talked about for some time. Here in the US, where forest landowners don’t typically grow their own seedlings, but buy then from outside suppliers I’ve never considered it a big deal.
My colleague’s note made me read the advice note again more closely. It took several readings (the thing is unusually badly written) to realize that there could be trouble here. It seems to set rules for any nursery that supplies seedlings to an FSC landowner, including “nurseries that are outside, not adjacent to and not embedded within…areas submitted for FSC certification.” Really?
Read it for yourself: ADV-20-007-17 Draft 1-0
FSC has extended the comment period on this for another couple weeks. I intend to provide some input.