Green Diamond, US Fish & Wildlife Service Sign Agreement to Protect Fisher in Oregon

Green Diamond Resource Company President Douglas Reed and representatives of the US Fish & Wildlife Service (“USFWS”) last week signed a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (“CCAA”) to protect the fisher, a forest-dwelling member of the weasel family. The Green Diamond CCAA covers nearly 500,000 acres of working forest land in Southern Oregon. It is the first such agreement completed in Oregon.

“We are pleased to be part of a collaborative effort with the US Fish & Wildlife Service to conserve the fisher,” said Douglas Reed, president of Green Diamond Resource Company. “Together we are building a strategy to protect fisher that inhabit our working forest land and develop habitat to aid in continued recovery of the species,” he added.

“The US Fish and Wildlife Service welcomes the continued effort that Green Diamond Resource Company is putting toward the Pacific fisher in this voluntary candidate conservation agreement,” said Paul Henson, Oregon State Supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “With fisher already using their property, Green Diamond is committed to protecting den sites, contributing to needed research and monitoring, and accommodating the possibility of an expanded fisher population through future releases. This is just the latest in a long-term partnership between USFWS and Green Diamond Resources Company throughout the West. Voluntary efforts like this one on private land contribute greatly to conservation of our rare and unique species.”

Green Diamond’s CCAA provides an important link in a regional range-wide effort to protect the west coast population of the fisher. Private landowners in California and Washington are protecting and reintroducing the fisher on their lands and have voluntarily entered into similar conservation agreements. Additional CCAAs in Oregon are expected to be completed later this year.

Commitments to benefit fisher in the Green Diamond CCAA include maintaining operating buffers around den sites; thinning to restore dense stands; growing trees longer to increase carbon stocks and timber volume over baseline levels; retaining carbon in snags and standing dead wood, and managing in accordance with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Standard®. Green Diamond will cooperate with the Service to monitor and protect fisher populations over the 29 year term of the CCAA.

About Green Diamond Resource Company

Green Diamond Resource Company is a privately held forest products company with roots dating back to 1890. Today, the company owns working forest lands in Washington, Oregon and California. A subsidiary, Green Diamond Management Company, provides forest management services in the U.S. South and West. All lands owned and managed by Green Diamond are independently audited and certified for sustainable forest management. More information about Green Diamond’s environmental leadership may be found at www.greendiamond.com.

Contact:

Patti Case – Media Contact – (360) 790-6182

Source: Green Diamond Resource Company