Forestry

Forest Certification

MFL Group Forest Certification

Tree Farm Logo
Wisconsin MFL Tree Farm Group Record #007
Certificate #NSF-ISR 1Y544-T1

Lists of MFL - Tree Farm Certified Group Members

Governor Doyle Accepts Certification of Sustainable Management of Private Forestlands
Governor Doyle Accepts Certification of Sustainable Management of Private Forestlands in Wisconsin’s Managed Forest Law Program

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The Department of Natural Resources is the manager of an American Tree Farm System® (ATFS) Group Certification program for non-industrial forestland enrolled in the Managed Forest Law (MFL). ATFS accredited auditors from NSF-International Strategic Registrations verified full conformance with ATFS Standards for Sustainability in May 2005.

The MFL Group is also being audited for certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard. The FSC review will be conducted the week of March 3, 2008. An FSC certification report is anticipated by May 15, 2008. If successful, dual Tree Farm-FSC certification will give additional assurance and allow landowners to market timber under either system. Learn more in a news release [PDF, 17.8KB] about the FSC audit. SmartWood, the FSC audit firm reviewing the MFL program, welcomes comments [PDF, 35 KB] from the public by April 15, 2008.

ATFS recognition of MFL creates the largest group certification program for private landowners in North America. Membership includes nearly over 38,000 MFL orders of designation on 2 million acres. The MFL Certified Group Program is free and entirely voluntary for landowners with 10 to 1,000 total acres under MFL. Large industrial-owned tracts in MFL are not included in the MFL Certified Group, but many are getting certified on their own. Considering the MFL - Tree Farm Certified Group together with State Forest and County Forest land under SFI® and FSC® standards, approximately five million acres (a third of Wisconsin's forested area) are certified under DNR programs.

MFL Program Information

The MFL audit focused on two areas: DNR's administration of the group and quality of management on member land. In regard to the first, the auditors looked at policies and procedures used to accept group members, implement sustainable forestry standards, secure compliance, resolve disputes, and expel members if needed. For the second, four audit teams visited MFL parcels in twenty-two counties during two field reviews in 2003 and 2005.

The following collection of publications, reports and links explain the MFL Certified Group program and how it conforms to ATFS Standards.

Click on any underlined link.

Lists of MFL - Tree Farm Certified Group Members

The MFL - Tree Farm Certified Group includes nearly 38,000 Managed Forest Law Orders of Designation covering 2 million acres of private land. Following are lists of the Group Members' land in Adobe Acrobat file format. To verify if an MFL Order Number is included in the certified group, use the Search tool within Adobe Acrobat Reader to look it up. Enter the nine-digit MFL Order Number including the hyphens in the Search box. You can also browse the lists by county, municipality and legal description.

Note that these lists only designate MFL - Tree Farm Group Members. They do not indicate if the land is open or closed to public access. To protect the privacy of the property owners, the lists do not include landowner names.

Contact

Paul Pingrey - Wisconsin DNR Forest Certification Specialist

Last Revised: Thursday August 07 2008