Ecotrust's Forestry Program
Overview
Conservation-based forestry produces timber while protecting core ecological and social values.
Ecotrust is working to develop landscape-scale examples of conservation-based forest management that sustain biodiversity and provide more reliable opportunities for forest-dependent communities.
Key Objectives
Evaluate impacts and benefits of "business as usual" forestry relative to conservation-based forestry, improve forest management and protection in key watersheds, and encourage forest practices that protect biodiversity and create opportunities for local residents.
Originally covering some 25 million hectares, the narrow band of coastal temperate rain forest that runs from Alaska to Northern California has sustained human communities in this region for at least ten millennia. Few places in the world have seen comparably advanced societies arise on a foundation of natural abundance, rather than farming or herding.
After a century of forest management practices based upon industrial models, coastal temperate rain forests are contributing ever-diminishing amounts of economic, ecological and social value to our bioregion.
In contrast, conservation-based forestry maintains and restores the structural and functional diversity of forests, and leads to more and better jobs and opportunities. Ecotrust's objective is to accelerate this transition to a truly sustainable forestry throughout the bioregion.
The 2100 Project
Despite the long and heated debate on forest management in the region, there is little understanding of the long-term consequences of current forestry practices, nor of the financial, social and ecological implications of a conversion to sustainable forest management. With generous support from the Murdock Charitable Trust, Ecotrust laid the groundwork to pursue, through rigorous analysis, a simple yet captivating set of questions:
- What is the current condition of the coastal temperate rain forest?
- Where will it be in 100 years if trends continue, and what are the benefits and consequences of large-scale adoption of sustainable forestry?
- Which approach to forest management will yield the most benefits to residents of the region over the next 100 years?
- What are the implications for salmon recovery, for recreation, and for carbon storage under each scenario?
- If we adopt sustainable forest management, will we still produce enough wood to meet the region's growing demand for fiber?
Over the next two years, in partnership with Interforest, one of the leading forest management consulting companies, and in collaboration with academic institutions, economists, forest management companies, community groups and others, we will attempt to answer these and other questions.
Market Connections
Given the rapid pace of change in the regional forest economy — such as the decrease in rotation ages and the consolidation of mills — it is imperative to demonstrate the economic feasibility of sustainable management now. We have developed a market initiative which promises to expand the supply of and grow demand for sustainably produced wood products, with a focus on enhancing returns to rural and Native American communities.
This initiative seizes upon the timely opportunity to link sustainable forest management directly to the Pacific Northwest’s burgeoning green building market, which is thriving within a stone's throw of commercial forestland and mills. The initiative’s three year goals include certifying an additional 50,000 acres of forestland for good management through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and supplying 30 million board feet of certified wood to local green building projects.
Public Lands Initiative
This initiative supports efforts on federal and state lands to manage for biodiversity, restore forest health, and provide jobs and opportunities for local residents. In 2002, Ecotrust was selected as the coordinator of the Pacific Coast Watershed Partnership, a coalition of five coastal federal forests, fish and wildlife agencies, watershed councils, conservation groups and others to implement large-scale restoration projects and restore forest health. Ecotrust also continues to work closely with the Oregon Department of Forestry to help design and implement a salmon anchor habitat system on state lands that protects and restores salmon habitat, as well as encouraging forest management that supports forest health and communities over the long term.
Partners
Build Local Alliance
Cascadia Green Building Council
Mary's Peak Stewardship Collaborative
NW Sustainable Timber Growers
Siuslaw Basin Partnership
Siuslaw National Forest
Trout Mountain Forestry
U.S. Forest Service Region 6
Warm Springs Forest Products Industries
