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Kent Goodyear, director of market connections for Ecotrust’s Forestry program is on the leading edge of creating innovative marketing partnerships for FSC-certified wood—and applying a career’s worth of know-how to the cause. When he studied law more than 30 years ago, FSC certification was still a long way off. When Goodyear began working at a plywood manufacturer shortly after graduation he quickly learned how sorely needed it was. “Sometimes I think the forest industry has been and still is its own worst enemy,” says Goodyear, when he thinks about the problems associated with overharvesting. “Even law-abiding forestry operations are allowed to overharvest, since the state forest practices laws don’t go far enough in protecting our streams and forest diversity.” He now uses his 30 years of experience in the industry to lead Ecotrust’s efforts to link landowners, mills, lumberyards, and customers to support the uptake of FSC certification in the Pacific Northwest.

Ecotrust, a fifteen year old nonprofit conservation organization based in Portland, Oregon, works outside of the “conservation as usual” model by striving to demonstrate examples of economically vibrant, ecologically-minded, and socially equitable development and resource use. They engage and test market forces to demonstrate how this brand of “triple bottom line” sustainability can work in the real world. In addition to its Forestry program, Ecotrust houses programs in Food and Farms, Fisheries and Native Programs.

“We believe that enduring conservation will only work when local people can meet their needs and local economies are viable. At the core of it all, we encourage the notion of people relating to where they live, and trying to live in a sustainable manner,” says Goodyear. “This is the underlying principle that makes FSC a valuable conservation tool in my work.” In partnership with its sister organization, Ecotrust Canada, Ecotrust’s influence reaches from the San Francisco Bay to the Gulf of Alaska—a region they define as Salmon Nation, the historic home range of the wild Pacific salmon.

Ecotrust is tackling the challenge that many NGOs face today: practicing what they preach. Whether that’s selecting wood when they renovated their building in Portland, or selecting paper for their advertising efforts, they walk the talk. When Ecotrust’s building, the Natural Capital Center, was LEED certified in 2001, it was difficult to find the FSC-certified wood for the extensive renovations. Success required developing a close relationship with the contractor, patiently seeking out new sources of wood, and insisting on what they truly wanted. Ultimately, 76% of the building’s new wood is FSC-certified, and the difficulties in finding it caused Ecotrust’s Vice President for Forestry and the Ecotrust Natural Capital Fund, Bettina von Hagen, to launch a program to make it easier for others to achieve such a goal.

“Communities are struggling, trying to survive, but it doesn’t need to be that way,” Goodyear observes. One major success Ecotrust helped catalyze was the FSC certification awarded to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs. Given the tribe’s values related to the sustainability of their forests, Ecotrust helped them to adopt a long-term view and Warm Springs engaged FSC as a conservation tool. The wood flowing from their lands and mill are the cornerstone of Ecotrust’s efforts to bring smaller landowners into cooperatives, make more volume available, and bring other mills into the FSC chain-of-custody.

In Bend, Oregon, where the housing market is growing fast, Ecotrust, in partnership with Warm Springs and several other FSC certificate holders, has been successful in getting Miller Lumber to stock FSC-certified Douglas Fir framing lumber. By “priming the pump,” in a high-volume market, where some supply was available to make it a viable proposition, Ecotrust has demonstrated that FSC-certified wood can be a feasible option for value-conscious consumers. Miller Lumber’s owner, Charley Miller, says support from his customers, as well as from Warm Springs and Ecotrust, has helped affirm his decision to stock his yards with FSC-certified lumber. “It’s part of a circle,” Miller says. “We all want to see well-managed forests.”

The recent launch of the LEED for Homes standard will continue the development of an even stronger FSC market and causes Goodyear to be optimistic about the future of FSC. “Big automated mills and over cut forests are not a formula for sustaining jobs and communities,” he says. “Local production, milling, distribution, and sales are all much better options.”

Using this local approach, Ecotrust aspires to create enough momentum to draw in larger producers and expand distribution channels. Over time, this will demonstrate that responsible forestry can succeed, despite the challenges of state forest management laws to institute good practices.

This article is part of the following newsletter: December 2005

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