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April 26, 2010
Effie Loggers Named State Loggers of the Year
The Minnesota Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Implementation Committee (SIC) named Effie’s Lovdahl and Sons, LLC, as its 2010 Logger of the Year on April 6, during the Minnesota Logger Education Program conference at Fortune Bay Resort & Casino in Tower, Minn.
Lovdahl & Sons Logging, which has operated in Minnesota for three generations, is owned by Brad, Chad and Corey Lovdahl.
“Over the years Lovdahl & Sons Logging has developed a strong reputation for conducting harvesting in a manner that is sensitive to environmental quality and sensitive to land owner objectives,” said Tim O’Hara, coordinator of the Minnesota SIC, which is based in Duluth. “The Lovdahls are highly conscientious loggers who follow sustainable forest management practices during the harvest of timber. They actively promote good forest management by hosting outdoor field trips for elementary students in the Effie/Bigfork area. This is just one of many examples of why the Lovdahl family is such an outstanding representative of the industry, and why they are receiving this award.”
“Lovdahl & Sons is committed to safe and environmentally responsible harvesting practices. They regularly attend continuing education workshops which focus on forest management, transportation, safety and business management,” said Dave Chura, Executive Director of the Minnesota Logger Education Program.
This is the fifth year SFI has named a Minnesota Logger of the Year. At the ceremony, the Lovdahls received a plaque and a $500 award. They will now represent Minnesota at a regional Logger of the Year competition.
Among those nominating Lovdahl & Sons Logging for the award were private landowners and representatives from Boise Paper, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
“Lovdahl & Sons is a respected business in the Bigfork area and has worked with numerous private forest landowners to harvest timber while meeting their forest management and wildlife objectives,” Chuck Hughes, forester for Boise Paper, wrote on his nomination form. “Lovhahl & Sons Logging follows all of Minnesota Forest Management Guidelines and goes above and beyond requirements to ensure that their logging job is superb.”
“The entire operation is top-notch and professional, from road building to the harvesting and processing of trees,” Jeff Sirjord, forester for MN-DNR, stated in his letter of nomination. “The entire Lovdahl crew is to be commended as a fine example of how logging, using modern equipment, can meet and exceed forest management guidelines.”
Independent, non-profit SFI Inc. is one of the largest forest certification programs in the world. Its forest standard is based on principles and measures promoting sustainability, including measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk and forests with exceptional conservation value.
Its 37 SFI Implementation Committees, working at state, provincial or regional levels across the United States and Canada, extend the benefits of the SFI program beyond SFI-certified lands. Committee members support community outreach, promote best management practices and deliver training programs for loggers and forest professionals.
The Minnesota SIC includes representatives from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, SFI certified forest companies, the University of Minnesota, family forest owners, the Minnesota Logger Education Program, Minnesota Tree Farm Program, Society of American Foresters, Wild Turkey Federation and SFI-certified county land departments.
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About SFI Inc.
SFI Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org) that is internationally recognized and among the largest in the world. It is one of the fastest growing forest certification programs with 150 million acres (60 million hectares) of SFI-certified forests across North America. The SFI Standard also includes unique fiber sourcing requirements that promote responsible forest management on all suppliers’ lands and a chain-of-custody certification, which can communicate to buyers how much certified fiber is in a specific product.
The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.
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