Registration, certification, and licensing: Creating better timber harvesters

Registration, certification, and licensing programs focused on timber harvesters often spring from isolated negative experiences involving poor forestry practices. Therefore, before voyaging into the occupational regulatory arena, states and provinces should systematically assess the experiences of others' programs (within and outside of forestry) to determine whether such programs will in fact make a positive contribution to the quality of their forest environments and the health of their timber harvesting industry. For researchers, the opportunity to determine whether such programs make a difference (however defined) is especially challenging. However, there is increasing evidence that these occupational regulatory programs, if well crafted, can positively influence the management of forestlands and timber harvesters' occupational activities.