Forests should be managed sustainably

What sets Finch apart is our “feet-in-the-forest” philosophy. Too many paper companies today rely on others to ensure the long-term health of our nation’s forests. For the paper buyer who is concerned about green paper procurement, that disconnect makes it even harder to measure true environmental performance.

Finch, on the other hand, is passionate about practicing responsible forestry itself. We employ our own team of professional foresters who provide forest management services to public and private landowners of all sizes, helping them to keep their lands as forested open space. We personally care for more than 100,000 acres of forest. Among the landowners who entrust us with their lands is the respected conservation organization The Nature Conservancy.

Our concept of a healthy forest is grounded in our belief that environmentally sound timber harvesting is good for society, good for the forest, and good for the wildlife it sustains. Our goal is to keep the forest naturally regenerating itself forever. We remove the poorest-quality trees in stages over a 70 to 150-year period, giving the healthier trees more room to grow and drop seeds for the next generation of forest.  In any given year, we take less than the annual growth rate—less than 4% of the total acres we manage. Our selective harvesting techniques leave 96% of the acres untouched.

We are proud that our forestry practices and the forests we manage are certified to meet the standards of both the Forest Stewardship Council (SW-FM/COC-000253) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program (PwC-SFICOC-293). We’re even prouder that no big changes in our forestry practices were needed to earn these certifications. Essentially, we said here’s what we’ve been doing, and they said good, keep it up.