Principia College
IN-2: Innovation 2

Principia has earned Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC) Forest Management certification from Scientific Certification Systems, one of the world’s leading FSC certifiers and one of FSC’s founding members. FSC provides third-party certification confirming that materials sold as FSC certified are harvested from well-managed forest operations. The FSC certified products include logs, firewood, and maple syrup. Scientific Certification Systems is the leader in environmental and sustainability certification. One of the first certification bodies accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council in 1996, SCS has since certified more than 30 million acres of well-managed forests and 3000 companies in the FSC supply chain worldwide. Principia's trademark license code is FSC-C109754.

A comprehensive Forest Management Plan has been created to meet the strict requirements of our FSC certification. The plan includes a thorough inventory of the distribution and abundance of trees, as well as areas with important conservation characteristics. For example, the data from the inventory suggests that the forest contains far more black oaks, red oaks, and maples (and fewer white oaks) than it did 200 years ago; young oaks and hickories are largely absent from the forest; invasive species (e.g., bush honeysuckle, garlic mustard) have been multiplying in the understory - these observations and many others directly inform our management planning. The forest management plan also includes provisions for identifying and protecting ecosystem services; rare, threatened, and endangered species; economic and social impacts; and environmental impacts. Under Principia's stewardship, forested land has increased by 425 acres and is expected to increase another 50 acres in the next ten years. A Lands Stewardship Officer oversees the management plan for the Biology and Natural Resources Department.