On January 8, 2021, the UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center was notified it had been certified under the Tennessee Nature Conservancy’s Forest Stewardship Council group certification. This certification designation complies with the Forest Stewardship Council’s US Forest Management Standard (ver. 1.0) and is considered the gold standard for forest certification in North America.

The year-long certification process included a new forest management plan for the Center’s entire property and is a component of the long-term carbon sequestration project that falls under the historic Working Woodlands partnership between UT AgResearch and the Nature Conservancy.

This designation requires long-term sustainable management, formal documentation of forest operations, and following an auditable protocol of “saying what you do and doing what you say.” The designation will also allow the Center to market and sell certified forest products from the land base.