file - Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch

kpmg
Sierra Pacific Industries
November 2007
In August 2007, an audit team from KPMG Performance Registrar Inc. carried out a third party surveillance and
scope extension audit of Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) forestry and procurement Operations under the
Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) Program. This Certification Summary Report provides an overview of the
process and KPMG’s findings.
Background
The implementation of an SFI® system assures the public that the Company
is conducting forest management under a globally recognized standard for
sustainable forestry approved through the PEFC Standards framework. The
SFI standard consists of 13 broad forest management and wood
procurement objectives, each of which has a number of indicators that must
be met in order to achieve verification requirements.
Sierra Pacific Industries Operations
SPI is the largest private forest land owner in California and its operations
currently encompass approximately 1.7 million acres of timberland
throughout northern California. The land ownership pattern consists of both
large contiguous tracts of land and a significant number of smaller noncontiguous tracts. The private timberland operations are managed by the
Company through eight separate field operations. Planning and research
staff are also located at the main office in Anderson, California.
SPI operations in Washington State currently include sawmills with
procurement operations in Aberdeen, Burlington and most recently
Centralia. Additional1y, SPI owns 147,000 acres of private timberland
(The Hamilton Tree Farm) in the northwest portion of the State and a seed
orchard situated on Whidbey Island.
Audit Objectives
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Findings – Sierra Pacific Industries surveillance audit
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The following audit objectives were included within the scope of the audit:
•
•
An SFI surveillance audit to evaluate the Company’s conformance with the
requirements of the 2005-2009 version of the SFI standard.
An extension of the scope of the certification to include procurement operations
for the new Centralia, Washington sawmill.
A number of supplementary indicators were also used to help assess the intent of the
SFI indicators and performance measures. This audit built on the findings of the
2005 and 2006 audits of the Company under the 2005-2009 version of the SFI
Standard.
SFI Audit Results
Major non-conformances
0
Minor non-conformances
0
Opportunities for
Improvement
4
The Audit Process
•
•
•
Audit Team – The audit was conducted by a two-person audit team comprising
one member of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and one biologist.
Both team members were Environmental Management System (EMS) lead
auditors.
Surveillance Audit – The surveillance audit involved on-site assessments of
forestry program planning, implementation and monitoring in California and
Washington as well as procurement practices at the Company’s Anderson and
Shasta mills in California and Burlington mill in Washington.
Scope Extension Audit – The scope extension audit involved on-site assessment
of the Company’s procurement operations for the new Centralia mill.
Major non-conformances:
Are pervasive or critical to the
achievement of the SFI
objectives.
Major non-conformances
must be addressed
immediately or registration
cannot be achieved /
maintained.
Minor non-conformances:
Audit Conclusions
The Company’s land management and procurement operations meet the
requirements of the 2005-2009 version of the SFI standard in all material respects.
Overall performance against the SFI objectives was very strong. No nonconformances and 4 opportunities for improvement were identified. As a result,
Sierra Pacific was recommended for continued registration to the SFI standard and
the Company’s SFI registration was extended to include procurement operations for
the Centralia sawmill in Washington State.
Good Practices
•
Effective harvest planning for visually sensitive areas along the I5 corridor.
•
Increasing retention of black oak in clearcut units in California (particularly
significant in light of research results showing their importance as natal and
maternal denning habitat for Pacific Fisher).
•
Good selection of retention areas in clearcut units in California.
•
Increased focus on sharing identified concerns across districts to aid broad
implementation of preventive actions.
•
Well organized and effective procurement program at the Shasta mill.
Are isolated incidents that are
non-critical to the
achievement of the SFI
objectives.
All non-conformances require
an action plan within 30 days
and must be addressed by
the Operation.
Opportunities for
Improvement:
Are not non-conformances
but are comments on specific
areas of the SFM System
where improvements can be
made.
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Findings – Sierra Pacific Industries surveillance audit
•
Increased use of trees grown from improved seed, continued rapid planting of
sites and improved spacing of planted trees.
•
Strong evidence od due diligence in fire preparedness and response (e.g., aerial
patrols; wide use of weather stations and weather data by contractors; use of a
fire coordinator across the Redding, Lassen and Stirling districts; etc.).
•
Implementation of early herbicide treatments on the Hamilton Tree Farm in
2007 to reduce the need for multiple future treatments.
•
Implementation of progeny testing and roughing program at Whidbey Island
Seed Orchard to promote genetic gains in Douglas-fir. 100% of Douglas-fir
planted is grown from improved seed. The operation is planning to implement
similar genetic improvement programs for Western hemlock at the seed orchard
in the future.
Opportunities for Improvement
The following opportunities for improvement were identified during the audit:
•
There is currently no formal tracking of overall usage and trends of herbicide
application to support continual improvement objectives.
•
Field assessments indicated that overall fire preparedness was satisfactory.
However, the following isolated issues were noted:
•
The fire policy requires district managers to keep a record describing the
reason for declaring "hoot owl" restrictions. However, from a due diligence
perspective, the rationale for not imposing hoot owl restrictions is likely
more relevant.
•
Significant variability was noted between Licensed Timber Operators and
districts in the timing and frequency of fire weather measurements /
recordings as well as in the level of detail recorded in the weather data log.
•
The fire policy does not explicitly address requirements for stumpage
purchases.
•
In contrast to fee lands, notice of violations issued for stumpage purchase sites
do not have a formal routing to the Resources Vice President for review and
preventive action as necessary.
•
There is an opportunity for the Burlington operation to fine tune its
procurement program to address the following identified weaknesses:
•
The cover letter which accompanies the SPI log purchase confirmation
suggests the use of resource professionals but does not recommend the use
of qualified logging professionals (e.g., WCLA certified contractors).
•
The operation does not have a formalized process for periodically
determining and documenting the volume, proportion etc. of wood procured
from qualified logging professionals (i.e., WCLA certified loggers).
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Historic railway grade identified
during planning and protected
during harvest operations
One of the permanent weather
stations installed to help the
Company monitor and forecast
fire hazard conditions
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Findings – Sierra Pacific Industries surveillance audit
•
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Although interview evidence strongly suggests that the operation purchases
only a small proportion of its procured volume from sales that are exempt
from Forest Practices Act permitting (i.e., Class I forest practices), the
operation does not formally track this volume.
An example of increased post-harvest
timber retention in a visually sensitive
area
Contacts:
Mike Alexander, CEA (604) 691-3401
Chris Ridley-Thomas, CEA (604) 691-3088
This report may only be reproduced by the intended client Sierra Pacific Industries,
with the express consent of KPMG. Information in this issue is of a general nature with
respect to audit findings and is not intended to be acted upon without appropriate
professional advice.
© 2007 KPMG. All rights reserved.
Through KPMG PRI, KPMG’s forestry group is accredited to conduct ISO 14001, CSA-SFM and SFI certification. The group brings forestry, biology and
environmental management systems expertise to the auditing of sustainable forest management initiatives.