Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Potlatch Implements Plans To Continue Success For Next 40 Years

While Potlatch Corporation celebrates its 40th year in Arkansas, the company and its employees are implementing plans that will assure its success and sustain its forests for the next 40 years.

This diversified forest products company owns and manages more than 500,000 acres of Arkansas timberland and, at facilities in Warren, McGehee and Prescott, produces pine and hardwood lumber, bleached paperboard and chips for its pulp mill.

More than 1,000 Arkansas employees meet a daily challenge of producing quality lumber and paperboard customers demand while practicing environmental responsibility in their mills and forests. The commitment to environmental responsibility starts with employees in the mills and offices and extends to the communities and classrooms.

In describing the Potlatch `test' on environmental responsibility, one employee noted, "We ask ourselves, `If we owned the land next door, would we think of Potlatch as a good neighbor?'" The answer is found in three areas of environmental assessment: environmental commitment, educational responsibility and forest management.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

Potlatch beleives environmental responsibility goes beyond environmental performance.

Employee involvement and education is the cornerstone of Potlatch's environmental, health and safety compliance program. Their program allows employees at all facilities to determine what actions are needed to meet corporate environmental goals.

Local groups implement procedures for reporting and resolving environmental problems as well as outline the environmental responsibilities of each employee working at that facility.

Each operation is audited by environmental managers, engineers and outside consultants to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. The strength of the program comes from the employees who live with their families in the communities where Potlatch operates.

EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Potlatch is committed not only to assuring healthy forests for future generations, but also assuring that the next generation of foresters has the same commitment to sustainability that Potlatch has today.

Through participation and financial support for Project Learning Tree and economic education about the forest and paper industry, Potlatch is helping to teach the next generation responsible stewardship and the choices and changes they can make to balance jobs with care for the renewable resource that supports those jobs.

Project Learning Tree is a balanced comprehensive environmental curriculum designed to provide students with a hands-on learning experience of environmental issues so that they can make informed, responsible decisions. Its goal is to help students become aware of their presence in the environment, their impact upon it and their responsibility for it.

Working with the Arkansas Council on Economic Education and Master Economic Teachers (MET),

Potlatch has been a lead sponsor in the development of a special economic education curriculum, lesson plans and background materials. The project will be field tested in more than 20 schools this fall and the curriculum will distributed to the state's 312 school districts during the 1997-98 school year. This project will serve as a national economic education model.

FOREST MANAGEMENT

Potlatch approaches forestry with a principle that forests, air, waterways and wildlife remain healthy. They are committed to the American Forest and Paper Association's Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), a set of prinicples that will help assure healthy abundant forests for future generations.

By incorporating SFI principles into everyday practice, Potlatch continues to ensure prompt reforestation after harvest, protect water quality with streamside management zones and use the most appropriate measures and best management practices to assure vibrant forests for the future.

Three significant conservation achievements underscore the Potlatch philosophy to forest management.

In 1994, Potlatch added more than 55,000 acres of internationally recognized bottomland hardwoods to the White River and Cache River National Wildlife Refuges through the Potlatch Land Exchange and Sale. Recognized by the Nature Conservancy as a historic achievement in protecting ecologically significant land, the exchange included habitat for bald eagles, native black bears and a variety of migratory birds.

In October 1995, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Potlatch chairman John Richards announced the Potlatch Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW), an endangered species. The unique Potlatch HCP impacts more than 15,000 acres of RCW habitat on Potlatch owned land and contributes to the recovery of this endangered species.

Recently, Potlatch and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission (ACHC) signed a cooperative management agreement protecting the unique values of The Lost 40, a 40-acre stand of hardwood and pine trees located in southeast Calhoun County. Believed to be a remnant of the south's first forest, it is home to trees that measure more than 120 inches in circumference, stand over 100 feet tall and are more than 140 years old. A "living library," The Lost 40 offers Arkansas foresters and students an opportunity to learn more about the forest lifecycle.

By continuing to build upon a heritage of sound forest management, commitment to community and sustainability for the futture, Potlatch looks forward to the next 40 years in Arkansas.