Blandin Foundation To Host Forestry Conference

Blandin Foundation's Vital Forests/Vital Communities initiative will hold a conference titled Getting it Done! on Friday, Oct. 14 at Ruttger's Sugar Lake Lodge near Grand Rapids.

"This is an opportunity for everyone in our area who cares about the future of our forests and forest-based industry to learn more about what we can do locally to help maintain a competitive forest industry and ensure the long-term sustainability of our forests," said Bernadine Joselyn, the foundation's director of public policy and engagement.

According to Joselyn, an added sense of urgency and a major incentive for certification comes from the global marketplace, where end users are demanding certified products from primary and secondary manufacturers. The goals of the conference are to build support for developing a certification framework for Minnesota's family forests and explore challenges and opportunities for implementation; inform Aitkin, Cass, Itasca and St. Louis county stakeholders about plans to implement certification efforts on private forestlands; and enable Minnesota to become a national leader in certification of private non-industrial land.

Featured speakers will include University of Minnesota professor Dr. Michael Kilgore, who will present his foundation-funded research findings and recommendations on increasing the number of private forests under certification, and University of Minnesota associate dean Dr. Robert Stine, who will describe plans to implement Kilgore's findings with funding from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources.

Participants will also hear about promising practices and approaches to family forestland certification from Auvo Kaivola, secretary general of the Finnish Forest Certification Council, as well as from Oregon and Washington state foresters.

For more information about the conference and the foundation's Vital Forests/Vital Communities initiative, visit the Blandin Foundation Web site.

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