FEDERAL WAY, Wash., Jan. 10 -- Weyerhaeuser Company endorses and will act immediately on changes to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative standard adopted today by the Sustainable Forestry Board. The SFB is an independent non-profit board that sets the requirements to certify managed forests under the 10-year-old SFI standard. The changes were unanimously adopted by the board after a year-long process that included broad public review. Steven R. Rogel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Weyerhaeuser, is a member of the Sustainable Forestry Board. The board includes representatives of environmental organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, The Conservation Fund, and American Bird Conservancy as well as forest-products companies, universities and associations. "The revisions demonstrate SFB's commitment to continuous improvement and maintain the SFI standard as one of the most progressive sustainable forestry standards in the world," Rogel said. Though SFI-member companies may take up to one year to implement the changes, Rogel said Weyerhaeuser will begin immediately. Among the revisions are stronger requirements that call on forest products companies to support conservation of old-growth forests, protect against invasive species, and participate in regional conservation planning. Weyerhaeuser already has policies that cover those areas, however, Rogel said the changes will require the company to do more. * Weyerhaeuser will continue to conserve old-growth forests through its commitment to not harvest old growth forests in the United States, coupled with its multi-stakeholder "Forest Strategy" in coastal British Columbia. The company is also working with provinces to conserve older forests in the boreal region of Canada. * Weyerhaeuser will dedicate staff, continue its surveys for pests and disease, and step-up its program to stop the spread of invasive, exotic species. * Weyerhaeuser will increase regional conservation planning efforts. The company has begun discussions with The Nature Conservancy to understand the Conservancy's eco-regional plans and how they fit with company goals. The announcement affects all of Weyerhaeuser's U.S. managed forests, approximately 6.8 million acres (2.75 million hectares). Weyerhaeuser also manages about 500,000 acres of forests in Canada (200,000 hectares), mostly private, to the SFI standard. The rest are managed to the Canadian Standards Association standard. In addition, all of the company's forest holdings throughout the world are managed to an international environmental management standard known as ISO 14001.