Finch Paper
Finch Paper continues responsible forestry education with the debut of two novel Web site elements offering instant accessibility to its team of professional foresters: the Finch in the Forest educational blog and the Q&A with Our Foresters page.
Both spearheaded by Finch Paper’s Vice President & Senior Forester Roger Dziengeleski, these newest features are yet another way that Finch provides an up-close and personal look at the forest that stands behind the FSC label.
Beyond the company’s FSC and SFI certifications, Finch is unique in its special collaborative relationships with organizations such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which purchased 161,000 acres of Adirondack forests from Finch Paper in 2007. TNC then hired Finch foresters to continue to manage the lands for them. Finch foresters are managers, or stewards, of the land. It is their ultimate responsibility to ensure the long-term growth and health of the forest, which includes providing wood for society’s needs, a diversity of habitat for wildlife, and clean air and water for everyone.
Because of this passionate dedication and the many stories waiting to be told as a result, Finch established the Finch in the Forest blog to further explain these relationships and certifications.
As the author, Roger Dziengeleski writes a variety of thought-provoking pieces that help reduce the complexity surrounding “green” paper choices as well as those that address the latest industry trends, statistics and practices based on his years of experience with his “feet in the forest” – a phrase proudly touted by Finch Paper as one of the very few paper mills that still manage their own forests today.
Roger leads Finch Paper’s consulting forestry service, helping private and public landowners improve their responsible management of their forest. This blog is a way for Roger, with his extensive technical background, to educate those unfamiliar with the mill’s traditions and practices that date back over one hundred years, but have proven relevant as we enter this new age of environmental enlightenment.
Some of the blog topics to date include: Growing Trees for The Nature Conservancy; Wildlife at Home in Managed Forests; Forest Certification in the U.S.: Rewarding Those Who Do it Right; Firewood Fuels the Wood Market; All of the fiber used in Finch Paper is third-party certified; The Incredibly Diverse, Multi-purpose, Enduringly Useful…Tree; and more.
Finch’s other new Web site element, the Q&A with Our Foresters page, is a place for Finch Professional Foresters to lend their expertise in sustainable, science-based forest management to landowners, including The Nature Conservancy. Anyone from the general public can ask, and access, questions for free and at anytime.
Some great questions that have been asked of these foresters include:
- Many paper products today are FSC or SFI certified. What makes Finch Paper special?
- How many trees do you have to plant to create a new forest?
- When you harvest a forest, how many of the trees do you cut?
- Does Finch Paper ever clear cut forests?
- Does Finch Paper save trees by recycling?
- Does Finch Paper use trees from the rainforest, old growth forests or other endangered forests?
- If timber harvesting doesn’t threaten U.S. forests, what does?
- How did Finch Paper and The Nature Conservancy become partners?
So be sure to visit www.finchpaper.com to ask your own questions, and read Roger’s latest blogs. You’ll soon sense the dedication from the team that carries out these responsible forestry practices by the stories being told and the passion conveyed in each forester’s answers.
