Job Posting: Director of Operations – Two Sides North America

“While forest certification has been present in Republic of Korea for the last few years, the current models are not well suited to our national conditions,” continued Ms. Lee, explaining the motivation to develop a national forest certification system in line with PEFC’s international requirements. “As voices urging the implementation of their own certification system, which reflects the distinct characteristics of Korean forests, grew among stakeholders, the Korea Forest Certification Council (KFCC) was established,” Ms. Lee explained. The KFCC has since conducted various activities such as the development of national standards and pilot tests. Applying and becoming a PEFC member was an important step towards the submission of the national system to PEFC. “Furthermore, we are going to apply for PEFC endorsement within this year,” Ms. Lee concluded. “We believe that through PEFC endorsement we can promote and spread sustainable forest management throughout Korea.”

Earlier this month, a crew of Alberta Junior Forest Rangers (JFR) made a big contribution to forest health while learning about one of the most challenging jobs in our industry—tree planting. The Fox Creek JFR crew, composed of eight high school students and two leaders, spent a day planting 2000 pine seedlings at the Huestis Demonstration Forest. The tree planting was guided by one of Millar Western’s Woodlands summer interns, Garreth Carey, who is studying Forest Technology at NAIT. Located within Millar Western’s Forest Management Agreement area, the Huestis Demonstration Forest is a few minutes’ drive northwest of Whitecourt. The site includes a seven-kilometre driving loop with interpretive signs, informing visitors about how a forest can offer recreational opportunities, sustain wildlife, and provide resources for wood products, all while continuing to grow and thrive. Huestis is a working forest, containing cutblocks of varying ages that have been successfully reforested in decades past or are currently being regenerated after recent harvest.

2014 Sustainability Highlights •Verso demonstrated industry-leading safety performance, with a 2014 Total Incident Rate of 1.43, which is approximately one-half the U.S. Paper Industry's last reported average of 2.8 (2013). •The Quinnesec Mill in Michigan was recertified to Star status in the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). VPP recognizes facilities for having safety systems that exceed OSHA standards, a strong safety commitment and sustainable health and safety management systems. •Fifty percent of the fiber Verso used to manufacture its products was third-party certified to a credible forest certification standard and 32 percent of the total paper it sold was chain-of-custody certified. •Carbon-neutral, wood-based biomass accounted for more than 65 percent of onsite energy generation at Verso's mills.