Cascade Land Conservancy: provides national policy support that would allow nonprofit organizations to use tax-exempt municipal bonds to purchase tracts of forestland, and pay off the bonds by cutting trees.

The Center for Heirs Property Preservation: provides support on the issue of community ownership of forests as a tool for addressing heirs’ property in dispute.

The Center for Social Inclusion: provides support on the issue of community ownership of forests as a means to stem the loss of Black-owned lands.

Coastal Enterprises: provides support on the issue of financing community forests through New Market Tax Credits.

The Communities Committee: pioneering organization that provides community forestry research and policy.

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation: provides support on facilitating four SC counties to work collaboratively on economic and environmental development through a united strategic plan.

The Kellogg Foundation: provides support on financing the initial acquisition costs for the Lac Vieux Desert Band community forest and financing capacity-building work.

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation: provides support on facilitating SC community economic development groups and SC conservation groups.

Northern Initiatives: provides support on the issue of financing community forests.

The project team will engage the diverse range of partners and skill sets that are needed to help communities implement community forestry. The Conservation Fund brings a unique blend of skills and experience to provide the leadership needed for long-term success of the NCFSC. We work in partnership to advance integrated economic and environmental goals, and our understanding of, and access to, land conservation and timberland financing resources will help leverage real change in our partner communities.

Primary Staff

Mikki Sager, Conservation Fund Vice-President and Resourceful Communities Program Director

Mikki oversees the community outreach and partnership-building activities with support from the Resourceful Communities Program staff and partner organizations. She has 18 years of experience in working with rural communities to plan and implement natural resource-based solutions to social and economic challenges.

Evan Smith, Conservation Fund Vice-President for Forestland Acquisition and Finance

Evan oversees the forest assessment and management/stewardship planning processes. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and has provided technical support to forestland acquisition projects totaling more than 400,000 acres; he manages the Fund's North Coast Forest Initiative in California.

Supporting Conservation Fund Staff

Rick Larson, took Director, Sustainable Ventures and NC Program Director, Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF), will provide support to natural resource-based enterprise development activities in partner communities; and will also serve as the primary liaison to CDFI and Triple Bottom Line Collaborative partners. Rick has extensive experience in sustainable job creation and triple bottom line investing.

Jazmin Varela, Strategic Conservation Information Manager, will provide GIS mapping and analysis support in determining areas of opportunity. A graduate of Duke School of the Environment, Jazmin has extensive forestry research experience in Costa Rica.

Jenny Griffin, North Coast Program Manager (CA), will advise on conservation planning and community involvement, primarily in the Western US. Jenny has over 20 years of experience in conservation planning, project management and community outreach.

TCF Real Estate, Forestry, NCIF, Strategic Conservation, Carbon Sequestration and Resourceful Communities Program staff will work closely with TCF project team members and partners to identify forest acquisition projects, develop stewardship and management plans, identify and invest in natural resource-based business opportunities, and support communities in planning, capacity-building and implementation efforts.

Vision and Opportunity

The rapid divestment patterns we see in forestland ownership by timber investors and family forest owners indicate a ten-year window of opportunity to effect meaningful change. After that, fragmentation rates and land prices will be so high as to effectively:

1) bar communities from effectively acquiring large-scale community forests, and,

2) weaken the necessary economic infrastructure of processing facilities and logging contractors.

NCFSC aims to energize and dramatically accelerate the national movement toward local ownership and management of forestland in the U.S., building on this unique opportunity to restructure timber ownership in our country.  Our success means that communities can increase their economic, conservation, and community-building options through sustainable community-owned forestry.

How NCFSC Supports the People and Places of Community Forestry

The National Community Forestry Service Center promotes the local acquisition, ownership, management, and conservation of community-owned forests through the facilitation of sophisticated intermediary services and network support of US community forestry practitioners.

Specifically:

• NCFSC provides skilled technical assistance in negotiating and financing forestland acquisitions, planning for stewardship and management, building community capacity and facilitating the establishment of governance and management structures in areas of opportunity.

• We support regional and national policy initiatives to further support existing community-owned forests or to develop new ones.

• We identify and connect grassroots, intermediary, and regional organizations across the US that support sustainable community-owned forestry.

• We identifying place-based strategies for acquiring and managing working forests as economic engines.

• NCFSC partners with community-based groups, local governments and tribal organizations to establish community forests.

• NCFSC provides GIS mapping to identify opportunities for establishing working community forests.

• We inventory resources, relationships, skills and structures needed for communities to sustainably own, conserve and manage working forests and support forest-related jobs and businesses.

NCFSC thanks the Ford Foundation and The U.S. Endowment on Forestry and Communities for their generous support.