Form own opinion

Your editorial of May 29 titled, “Green No More,” that addresses the recent decision by J.D. Irving to withdraw from the Forest Stewardship Council program, gives the wrong impression about the Sierra Club’s role in the FSC certification program.

Irving did not walk away from the Forest Stewardship Council because of the Sierra Club’s appeal. Despite serious concerns about whether Irving forestry and labor practices met the criteria established by the FSC, the Sierra Club dropped the appeal months ago, in favor of working within FSC’s internal process. It was Irving that walked away from that process, not the Sierra Club. Its reasons for doing so are its own. We would prefer that J.D. Irving remain with FSC and address our concerns.

The Sierra Club is a founding member of FSC. Our relationship with the program extends as long as or longer than any other Maine organization. We are committed to ensuring the success of the FSC in promoting environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable forestry, and have no intention of withholding our concerns or failing to ask for accountability from FSC partners, for fear of landowner unhappiness. That is our job.

Readers had best form their own opinion whether, as the editorial suggested, “FSC … has lost one of its best poster children,” or whether the issues the Sierra Club raises are valid, by viewing our reports and photos of Irving’s Allagash operation on the Maine Environmental Policy Institute Web site at http://www.meepi.org/files02/irvingsum.htm.

Carole Haas

Maine Sierra Club

Portland