First Certified "Sustainably Harvested" Plywood

Sustainably harvested wood resources just took a giant leap forward with the first certified sustainably produced plywood. Springfield Forest Products of Springfield, Oregon, and Trus Joist MacMillan provided materials for the roof of an environmental prototype store in Lawrence, Kansas. The store, being built by the retail giant Wal-Mart, is dubbed “Eco-Mart.”

The lumber for Eco-Mart was procured through The Timber Source, Inc., a Burlington, Vermont company specializing in sustainable timber. Logs for the plywood all came from a site near Eugene, Oregon. The harvest was monitored by the Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy. A forester from the Rogue Institute worked together with a forester for the landowner, marking every tree on the site for cutting or leaving. Most of the largest trees were left standing, in what resembled a “commercial thin,” according to Jim Worden of the Rogue Institute. The harvest was carried out with the long-term health of the forest, in all its diversity, as a primary goal.