The Girl
Scout Law challenges every member to “use resources wisely.” This includes Girl Scout council resources as
well. It is our responsibility to
maintain and protect the forests and resources that we manage to ensure sustainability
and success. We hope you will celebrate
the decision to actively manage our resources wisely through sustainable
forestry management.
For
information to share with your girls please see the Life of a Tree handout that
we have put together. This information
may compliment your activities in the Journey – It’s Your Plant Love It.
Verso Paper
Company in Memphis shares our commitment to maintaining and protecting the
forests and resources that we manage to ensure sustainability and success. We
are grateful to Verso for supporting our efforts.
Sondra Dowdell, Communications & Corporate Relations
Manager of Verso presents a donation to Peggy Butze, Director of Fund
Development after a presentation to Verso employees about Girl Scouts Heart of
the South.
Girl
Scouts Heart of the South has hired a professional forestry & wildlife
consulting firm, Mitchell Forestry & Wildlife Services, Inc., to advise us
regarding the best way to sustainably manage our forest resources.
Sustainable
forest management means managing forests to meet the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
By practicing a land stewardship ethic
which integrates the reforestation, managing, growing, nurturing and harvesting
of trees for useful products with the conservation of soil, air and water
quality, wildlife and fish habitat and aesthetics, we have chosen to manage our
forest resources according to the standards of the American Tree Farm System (ATFS).
The ATFS is a program of the American Forest Foundation's Center for
Family Forests and is committed to sustaining forests, watershed and healthy habitats
through the power of private stewardship.
ATFS has established standards and guidelines for property owners to meet to become a
Certified Tree Farm. The standards address management issues such as water
quality maintenance, sound silvicultural practices, and protection of
threatened and endangered species to name a few.
Under these standards and guidelines, private
forest owners must develop a management plan, which has been accomplished,
based on strict environmental standards and pass an inspection by an ATFS
volunteer forester every five years. The
ATFS is also now endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest
Certification schemes (PEFC), which requires the American Tree Farm System
follow internationally accepted third-party
certification
auditing procedures. This endorsement by
PEFC does two things for the Council’s forest resources: It gives assurance to the Council and all its
members that the forest resources of the Council are being managed in a manner
that is responsible and sustainable over time and it puts the Council in a
position to take advantage of any current and/or emerging environmental markets
such as carbon sequestration.