Special Sites

100,000

Acres contributed to conservation initiatives in Washington as of 2010

Most of the forests we manage include places with unique environmental, cultural, historical or recreational value. We manage these areas to protect their unique qualities. Protecting forests with exceptional conservation value is part of implementing the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® standard. Eighty-six percent of our U.S. timberlands are included in formal and informal fish and wildlife agreements.

On our land in the United States, we locate and protect imperiled species and natural communities. We preserve selected sites, often partnering with government agencies and conservation groups through conservation agreements and other means. In Washington state alone, as of 2010, we have contributed more than 100,000 acres to conservation initiatives through land exchanges, sales, donations and conservation easements.

In North Carolina, we agreed in 2000 to not disturb 5,650 acres of our land in eight counties to give conservation groups time to raise funds. These lands contain old-growth wetland forests, red-cockaded woodpeckers, bobcat, black bear and neotropical songbirds.

Since then, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy secured grants to buy land or conservation easements, which prevent development. We also donated easements and are preserving some land through the state's natural heritage registry. The protected land includes the site of the Weyerhaeuser Cool Springs Environmental Education Center, which hosts more than 2,500 students and adults each year.

Across Canada, our planning and harvesting guidelines protect areas of high ecological, historical or cultural value. Features such as mineral licks, grave sites, old cabins, and hawk and eagle nests are identified and protected. This process to identify and protect sites includes consultation with aboriginal communities and the general public, review of plans by resource-management professionals in government, and identification in the field by our staff and contractors.