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County Forest Certification

Collectively, county forests in Wisconsin represent the largest public landholding in the state. A cooperative management framework between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the counties provides the opportunity for the county forest group certification program. DNR holds the certificate for 27 participating counties with 2.4 million acres since 2005. Individual counties are free to choose either or both Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) [exit DNR] and Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) [exit DNR] standards. These are the two most widely accepted forest certification systems in North America.

County Forest FSC certificate

County Forest SFI certificate.

County forest assessment reports

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council audit reports identifying strengths and areas of improvement for the Certified Wisconsin County Forest are available for review.

Forest Stewardship Council

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

Twenty-seven of Wisconsin's 30 county forests are currently certificated under the standards of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Forest Stewardship Council or both. Independent, third-party certification means management of the county forests meets strict standards for ecological, social and economic sustainability.

The table below displays the location and acreage of all certified county forest lands in the state.

CountySFI-only
certified acres		FSC-only
certified acres		FSC- and SFI-certified acres
(dual certification)
TOTALS610,62134,7381,756,872
Ashland  40,305
Barron  16,304
Bayfield  178,547
Burnett111,518  
Chippewa 34,738 
Clark  134,822
Douglas  282,969
Eau Claire  52,701
Florence  37,003
Forest  15,285
Iron  175,448
Jackson  122,665
Juneau  18,752
Langlade130,839  
Lincoln  100,843
Marathon30,714  
Marinette230,316  
Oconto  43,832
Oneida  82,870
Polk17,224  
Price  92,279
Rusk90,010  
Sawyer  115,196
Taylor  17,848
Vilas  41,151
Washburn  150,231
Wood  37,823

FSC® PESTICIDES POLICY

With the long-term goal to eliminate the use of chemicals in FSC-certified forests, a revised FSC Pesticides Policy was updated and became effective on April 1, 2024. Full implementation began July 1, 2024.

CHANGES FROM THE REVISED POLICY

  • Need to complete Environmental and Social Risk Assessments (ESRA) to identify whether a pesticide is toxic to the environment and humans in the local environment. ESRA considers not only the hazard of the active ingredient, but also under what circumstances chemical pesticides are used (Risk = toxicity x exposure to humans and the environment).
  • No Derogations/Exemptions process for the use of FSC prohibited highly hazardous pesticides.
  • Revised list of FSC Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHP) [PDF] categorizes HHPs as follows:
    • FSC prohibited HHPs
    • FSC highly restricted HHPs
    • FSC restricted HHPs

ESRA LISTINGS

The Wisconsin DNR in collaboration with UW-Extension have completed ESRA protocol for many of the pesticides commonly used for forest management in Wisconsin.