Can green-certified lumber make it?
Some foresters say environmental management doesn't reap extra profit

by Jane Braxton Little
from High Country News

BRANSCOMB, Calif. - Art Harwood spent several million dollars and many months in the mid-1990s to certify his sawmill for producing "green" lumber from responsibly managed forests of redwood and Douglas-fir. It was an investment he believed would yield financial returns later.

"Later's come, but the returns haven't," Harwood says now.

He's one of many sawmill and forest owners across the country who are wondering when they will reap economic advantage from opening their woods, mills and pocketbooks to the systems of forest certification (HCN, 5/8/2000: After the fall). So far, most have not earned higher prices for their products.

To read the entire article go to:
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=11301.