Collins was a half century ahead of the rest of the forest products industry in implementing sustainable practices that protect the integrity of the total forest ecosystem. Our family-owned company continues to be innovative in the ways we carry out this commitment.
Each improvement in the way we manufacture our products and manage our lands is guided by decades of experience and backed by science. Our core purpose, “Helping to Build a Better World,” is our daily reminder of how critical it is for our business practices to protect natural resources.
Our forestry practices ensure that the total forest ecosystem remains healthy, resilient, and diverse.
Our operations support forest treatments, and utilize timber and forest material on a sustained, renewable basis.
Our forest products store carbon, and contribute to the housing and living spaces necessary for a thriving society.
Our forestry practices aim to maintain the productivity, diversity, and resilience of forest ecosystems.
We seek to mimic natural patterns of disturbance and regeneration without the risk: in the west, this means reducing tree density and creating openings through selection harvest and group selections; in Pennsylvania it means mimicking wind-event blowdowns and allowing hardwood regeneration to grow in full sun.
We steward the entire ecosystem, including trees, smaller plants, soils, wildlife, and water.
Our Almanor and Lakeview Forests suffered catastrophic wildfire impact in 2021 from the Dixie and Cougar Peak Fires, and we are working to reforest roughly 60,000 acres by 2030. For each acre to be reforested there must be seed collected and processed, seedlings ordered, burned material cleared, ground prepared, and seedlings planted, all in a tight 2-year timeline. These efforts are focused on restoring each area’s forest canopy and ecological benefits. It will take 40-60 years for any trees to get to a commercially harvestable size.
Increases in carbon dioxide and other pollutants in our atmosphere have spiked an interest in the way forests and wood products store carbon. There is debate about which seral stages grow and store the most carbon, but broad agreement that healthy forests are the earth’s best engine for carbon absorption. We believe that active and sustainable forest management achieves three objectives: maintain lower tree density, allowing consistent absorption of CO2; minimize emission of carbon through tree mortality and wildfire; and bank carbon in long-term buildings and forest products. By choosing to build with wood you are opting to store additional carbon in everyday products and buildings.
When you buy Collins lumber and wood products you are actively supporting sustainable practices in the forest through your purchasing power. If our products are not produced from our own FSC® certified forests, they are from USFS treatment material, resulting from USFS forest management objectives, or other sources that meet the FSC® Controlled Wood standard.
For 30 years, Collins has been recognized with certification by the Forest Stewardship Council®, the highly respected and rigorous sustainable forest management standard, across 100% of our lands.
503.826.5306
800.329.1219
info@collinsco.com
29100 SW Town Center Loop West
Suite 300
Wilsonville, OR 97070-9315
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