Software Helps Track Gertified Wood

To help its lumber distributors and manufacturers meet and maintain chain-of-custody certification, Computer Associates Inc. has upgraded its Ponderosa Building Materials Software to meet FSC requirements for product traceability, product storage and handling, invoicing, and record keeping.

The system can now track material from the certified source through the entire manufacturing process, calculating material inputs, outputs and any losses, and generating a detailed, upto-date audit of the certified products produced.

FSC requires that material purchased from a certified supplier be accompanied by documentation that includes the supplier's chain-of-custody certification code and FSC claim of the material, be warehoused separately from non-certified stock, and be easily recognizable to staff and separable by its FSC status.

Potlatch Cuts Logging Levels

Potlatch Corp., Spokane, Wa., is reducing its planned timber harvest for 2009 by 18%.

Most of the reduction is centered on its timberlands in Idaho.

The software automatically adds chain-of-custody and FSC claims certification codes for each certified product from suppliers' invoices to resellers' invoices and shipping documents. In addition, Ponderosa handles the record-keeping mandates of FSC, including quantities purchased, quantities sold, invoices, packing slips, FSC training records, and a list of all FSC jobs.

at more favorable prices when housing recovers, and when they do, we are poised to step-up harvest levels."

SOFTWARE has been enhanced to more easily track FSC-certified products.

"While the reduction will directly impact cash flow from operations, it is not in the best interest of the company to sell high quality saw logs at current prices," said Michael J. Covey, chairman, president and c.e.o. "Current markets for softwood lumber remain depressed, which has applied downward pressure on log pricing across the country, especially in the Intermountain West region. We believe these markets will come back

Kenneth Dean Trautman, 79, retired Oregon lumber grader, died May l0 in Medford, Or.

He began his lumber grading career with Elk Lumber Co., Medford, retiring in 1992 from Boise Cascade, Medford.