JAY – Verso Paper has lost its long-term contract to make paper for L.L. Bean catalogs. L.L. Bean wants paper made under certified sustainable forestry practices that contains more recycled fiber content.

“We made the change because we are looking to increase the amount of recycled content in our paper and we’re also seeking to increase the certified fiber within the paper,” L.L. Bean spokeswoman Carolyn Beem said Tuesday. It’s a contract renewal period, and at this time Verso Paper could not meet the Freeport company’s new standards, Beem said.

Some of the paper used in its catalogs can be audited and certified now, she said, but Bean wants to increase that amount.

Certification means having a management plan that follows sustainable forestry practices in planting, cutting and logging, Verso spokesman Bill Cohen said.

“In 23 years, we have met all the conditions of each L.L. Bean contract,” Cohen said. “Verso Paper has a sustainability policy and practice in place, and we’re proud of it and we will continue to work with those customers that buy paper from us to be sure we meet their specifications and requirements.”

“About half of our wood that goes into the process is third-party certified” as being in compliance with sustainability requirements, Cohen said of the Maine paper industry. “Some of our competition states are 70 percent certified.”

Maine has had a unique situation where for a long time it led the nation in sustainable forestry practices and tying them to certification practices, he said.

“We still lead in sustainable forestry practices, but we have fallen behind in the certification practices,” Cohen said.

State administrators have identified that as a priority, he said.

“It is something you cannot do overnight, but we (Verso Paper and the paper industry) have recognized that certification is something we need to work on, and we are getting help from the (state) administration,” Cohen said.

Verso Paper and other mills use wood certified through third-party independent audits. Multiple organizations provide those audits, each to different standards, he said.

When paper mills owned the large tracts of land they were planting and harvesting, they could verify the certification, he said. But there is an increasing layer of small landowners, and it’s the process of getting them certified that paper companies have to look at, Cohen said.

There are two ways to go at it; one is to certify the loggers and the other is to certify the landowners, he said.

“But Maine needs the cooperation of both the loggers and the landowners,” he said.

While Beem declined to name the company Bean has chosen for its catalog paper next year, she said that the change doesn’t preclude Verso from doing business with Bean in the future if it can meet the company’s requirements.

Cohen is confident that Verso will find new customers to replace the loss of its long-term contract with Bean. Only a small amount of the catalog paper is made at the Androscoggin Mill; the bulk of that paper is produced in Bucksport, he said.