Share:
House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 2, 2015 10:44 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Kathy L. Rapp |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Resolution Recognizing Friday, June 5, 2015, as PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative Day in Pennsylvania |
| I will be introducing a resolution in the very near future recognizing Friday, June 5, 2015, as PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative Day in Pennsylvania. A RESOLUTION Recognizing Friday, June 5, 2015, as PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative Day in Pennsylvania. Whereas, in October 1994, the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) announced a landmark program for its membership - the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®); and Whereas, the Pennsylvania SFI Implementation Committee (PA SIC) was formed in 1995 and began meeting monthly in State College. It was quickly decided that the Hardwood Lumber Manufacturers Association of Pennsylvania (now the Pennsylvania Forest Products Association) would organizationally house and provide administrative support to the newly formed SIC; and Whereas, the guidelines required that AF&PA members not only practice sustainable forestry on their own lands, but also include efforts to educate loggers and nonindustrial landowners, making it a challenge to develop the SFI program in a state where the majority of private forest lands were not owned by industry, but rather held by more than a half-million nonindustrial private forest landowners; and Whereas, the early focus of the SIC was on establishing a logger training program, educational outreach to landowners and the public, and developing a Best Management Practices (BMP) monitoring system for measuring success; and Whereas, more than 7,000 individuals have participated in the logger program over the last 20 years, with approximately 700 maintaining a current training status each year and some loggers having completed more than 100 hours of total training; and Whereas, over 26,000 landowner outreach packets have been distributed, while this information has been more accessible to a wider audience through the PA SFI website; and Whereas, the benefits of the training program were further recognized and bolstered when the Bureau of Forestry adopted a policy in 2007 that required all commercial timber harvesting activities on the state’s 2.2 million acres of forest lands be led by an SFI trained logger. More recently, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has also recognized the benefits of the training program and encourages its loggers to also participate; and Whereas, people of all ages and backgrounds from across the U.S. and Canada came together last month to break the Guinness World Record for the most trees planted in one hour by small teams. Organized by the national Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI), more than 200,000 trees were planted simultaneously in 28 different communities. Two groups of representatives from industry, the PA Bureau of Forestry and other groups were part of this effort in Pennsylvania, which included 45 planters and 3,957 trees planted on the Moshannon State Forest and 56 planters and 3,366 trees planted on the Tuscarora State Forest; and Resolved, that the State House of Representative designate Friday, June 5, 2015, as PA Sustainable Forestry Initiative Day in Pennsylvania. Please join me in cosponsoring this important resolution. |
Introduced as HR375