Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value

The NC SFI SIC is com­mit­ted to pro­mote and con­serve Forests with Excep­tion­al Con­ser­va­tion Val­ue (FECV), defined as crit­i­cal­ly imper­iled and imper­iled species and eco­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties. We believe that for­est landown­ers and for­est man­agers are stew­ards not only of the trees grow­ing on their wood­lands, but also of the oth­er plants and ani­mals that live there. It’s impor­tant for landown­ers to have a thor­ough knowl­edge of their for­est and be aware of the plant and ani­mal species found on their prop­er­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly those that are des­ig­nat­ed ​“imper­iled, crit­i­cal­ly imper­iled, threat­ened or endan­gered.” It is cru­cial for landown­ers, log­gers, and land man­agers to under­stand how their for­est man­age­ment activ­i­ties may impact these species. 

Glob­al con­ser­va­tion sta­tus ranks are assigned to indi­cate the con­ser­va­tion sta­tus of a species and ecosys­tems (eco­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ties, veg­e­ta­tion types, and sys­tems) rar­i­ty. Crit­i­cal­ly imper­iled (G1) or imper­iled (G2) species are glob­al­ly rare, or espe­cial­ly vul­ner­a­ble to extinc­tion. Threat­ened and endan­gered species are list­ed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice the Fed­er­al Endan­gered Species Act and may be also list­ed under state laws; how­ev­er, these species may or may not be list­ed as crit­i­cal­ly imper­iled or imper­iled globally.

It is impor­tant that for­est landown­ers be aware of and pro­mote the prac­tice of sus­tain­able forestry to meet the needs of the present with­out com­pro­mis­ing the abil­i­ty of future gen­er­a­tions to meet their own needs. We can accom­plish this by prac­tic­ing a land stew­ard­ship eth­ic that inte­grates refor­esta­tion and the man­ag­ing, grow­ing, nur­tur­ing, and har­vest­ing of trees for use­ful prod­ucts with the con­ser­va­tion of soil, air and water qual­i­ty, bio­log­i­cal diver­si­ty, wildlife and aquat­ic habi­tat, cul­tur­al resources, recre­ation, and aes­thet­ics in mind.

FECV Assess­ment

Results

The NC SFI SIC Forests of Excep­tion­al Con­ser­va­tion Val­ue Assess­ment eval­u­at­ed all G1 and G2 species and ecosys­tems doc­u­ment­ed by Nature­Serve in North Car­oli­na. The com­mit­tee has pro­vid­ed the find­ings below to be used as a source for edu­ca­tion, infor­ma­tion, and mit­i­ga­tion to ensure their pro­tec­tion across the land­scape. The NC SIC and par­tic­i­pat­ing SFI cer­ti­fied orga­ni­za­tions will use this infor­ma­tion to devel­op train­ing mate­ri­als and pro­grams for wood pro­duc­ers, foresters, log­gers, and for­est landown­ers across the state. 

Imple­men­ta­tion

The NC SFI SIC will work togeth­er with mem­ber com­pa­nies and part­ner­ing orga­ni­za­tions to edu­cate the cit­i­zens of North Car­oli­na about the impor­tance of FECV’s. It is our intent to pro­vide a sci­ence-based process for pro­mot­ing the con­ser­va­tion of forestry-impact­ed crit­i­cal­ly impaired (G1) and impaired (G2) species. Pro­vid­ing key infor­ma­tion to wood pro­duc­ers, foresters, log­gers, and pri­vate landown­ers in the sup­ply chain will help dri­ve con­ser­va­tion of these species and ecosys­tems. This will serve to demon­strate that SFI-cer­ti­fied orga­ni­za­tions are com­mit­ted to con­serv­ing biodiversity.

Annu­al Review

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the NC SFI SIC will annu­al­ly review the lat­est avail­able G1/G2 species infor­ma­tion from Nature­Serve to deter­mine if updates are need­ed. If an update is deemed nec­es­sary, a com­mit­tee of NC SFI SIC mem­bers will then be con­vened to review the over­all state assess­ment and deter­mine if any find­ings war­rant fur­ther actions to mit­i­gate risk to FECV’s or spe­cif­ic species or ecosystems.

Addi­tion­al Resources

• Nature­Serve
• US Fish and Wildlife Ser­vice: Crit­i­cal Habi­tat for Threat­ened & Endan­gered Species
• NOAA Fish­eries: Crit­i­cal Habitat
• NC Nat­ur­al Her­itage Program
• NC Wildlife Action Plan