A coalition of timber companies, government agencies, universities and conservation groups launched a website, Walk in the Woods, earlier this month to share stories about sustainable forestry.
The North American Forest Partnership said its research showed that Americans are tired of hearing from policy makers and industry spokesmen, so the new site will provide personal stories from people who work in forestry and conservation.
But the website’s debut was marred when several inauthentic stories were published, and subsequently removed while the coalition’s leadership establishes publication guidelines and procedures for the site.
Some of the personal stories initially published on Walk in the Woods were not written by the credited authors. In two instances, the stories were changed from third person to first person, and some of the credited authors didn’t know that their stories were on the website until they were contacted by a Treesource reporter. The website presented these stories as authentic dispatches from people working in the forest sector.
In all, the North American Forest Partnership removed three stories from Walk in the Woods because of questions about their authenticity. Will Novy-Hildesley, the group’s executive director, said he and others will take a close look at how those stories got onto the website without sufficient scrutiny or approval.
From Treesource: https://treesource.org/news/management-and-policy/north-american-forest-partnership-website/#more-681