Dealer

About the Lacey Act

What is The Lacey Act?
On May 22, 2008, the U.S. Congress passed a law banning commerce in illegally sourced plants and their products— including wood products. The new law is an amendment to a 100-year-old statute, named the “Lacey Act” after the Congressman who first championed it.

What does it do?
To address illegal logging and other illegal plant trade, the Lacey Act now does three main things:

  • prohibits all trade in plant and plant products (e.g., furniture, paper, or lumber) that are illegally sourced from any U.S. state or any foreign country
  • requires importers to declare the country of origin of harvest and species name of all plants contained in their products.
  • Anyone in the supply chain—from the harvestor, manufacturer, distributor, retailer, contractor to the end consumer—could be prosecuted. The penalties for noncompliance with this new legislation are severe. Penalties can include the forfeiture of the illegally harvested material, fines of up to $500,000, and jail time of up to five years.

Why is this important?
First, and most importantly, it protects our world’s forests from irrecoverable loss of trees and wildlife habitat. Second, it protects lumber buyers who verify the origin of lumber when importing wood into the United States from other countries. Third, it eliminates low-cost, low-quality wood flooring produced from illegally harvested forests from entering the U.S.

Why is this important to me, the consumer?
From a buyers perspective, the ban helps you have confidence that the wood you are offering is not depleting our world’s forests, and that you are not unwittingly or unwillingly purchasing wood-based products that you could potentially be fined or prosecuted for owning.

Third-party certified Lacey Act compliant
Premier Flooring Solutions uses third party certification as a means of verifying that our products are legal.

Where can I find out more?
Here are some additional links that explain more about the Lacey Act:

  • Get the Look: Architectural Digest Features Gwathmey and Brazilian Hardwood

  • September 19, 2011

  • A few months ago Architectural Digest featured revered architect Charles Gwathmey’s final project before his untimely death in 2010.  Gwathmey had worked on a beautiful congregation of white pavilions on the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Bart’s. The project, a collection of pristine villas on an island with a spectacular view, was a testament to [...]

  • Parquet Flooring Styles are Back in Fashion

  • June 22, 2011

  • The definition of “parquet”, for many people, is probably not too clear, and probably something they heard their parents talking about. But lately the term has been resurfacing, for very good reasons.
    So what IS parquet? Many people in the U.S. who have heard of parquet flooring are either interested in interior design or basketball fans. [...]

  • New Line Coming Soon: Chêne de l’Est French Flooring

  • May 27, 2011

  • Premier Flooring Solutions is proud to introduce our newest and exclusive product line, Chene de l’Est. Chene de l’Est, a French flooring company, was established in 1960 in eastern France by Joseph Bach, an artisan carpenter of his time.  The company grew from a tiny workshop and evolved into a family business.  Today, Bach’s four [...]