Three different forest certification models are available to family forest owners. This page offers links and information about them.
Certify your land as an individual
How it works: You work with a professional forester to plan the future stewardship of your land. The plan is built around your family’s vision and goals. This process helps you identify ways to improve your stewardship and gives you confidence in your decisions. You agree to comply with certification standards, and your land may receive a periodic audit to verify compliance.
Certification systems:You can get your land certified as an individual under either Forest Stewardship Council or Tree Farm standards. Learn more about these standards at our certification systems & standards page.
How to do it: Contact the Community Forestry Resource Center.
Certify your land as a member of a group
How it works: As with individual certification, you work one-on-one with a trusted, local professional forester to develop a plan specific to your goals and your land. But, the certification applies to a group of landowners, of which you’re a part. The most common type of group is a woodland owner co-operative. Note that you (not the group) retain full control over your land.
The advantages of the group model include less frequent audits on your land and likely lower costs.
- Headwaters Forestry Co-operative, Long Prairie area (email)
- Northwoods Forestry Cooperative, Aitkin Area (email)
- Cook County Sustainable Forestry Co-operative (email)
- Aitkin County SWCD (call (218) 927-6565)
Certification systems: Independent third-party cerfication is available to woodland owner groups through both the FSC and Tree Farm systems. Learn more about certification systems and standards here.
How to do it: For FSC group certification options, contact the groups listed above or the Community Forestry Resource Center.
Click for information about the American Tree Farm System’s group certification program. To enroll your Minnesota land, contact Minnesota Forest Industries at (218) 722-5013.
Hire a certified logger
How it works
You choose to hire a logger who has achieved independent, third-party certification. Certified loggers are audited, and must adhere to published standards in order to retain their certification. As with other certification systems, if an independent, third-party certified logger harvests your timber, you may achieve a marketing advantage when selling the products.
For more info:
To learn more about logger certification, visit our certification systems & standards page. You can find a list of Minnesota Master Logger (MMLC) certified loggers here.
Certification systems and standards
Learn more about certification systems and standards here, or read our family forest certification overview.
