This document discusses Sustainable Northwest's work to promote community-driven solutions to achieve sustainable forest stewardship. It focuses on building local capacity and partnerships to support collaborative landscape-scale forest restoration and businesses utilizing local wood products. Examples are provided of projects in eastern Oregon that established a wood pellet plant and heating systems, creating new jobs while utilizing small-diameter wood and reducing wildfire risk. The role of capacity building, public-private partnerships, and developing appropriately scaled local solutions and assets is emphasized.

1. Community-driven Solutions to
Achieve Sustainable Forest
Stewardship and Resilience
Chad Davis
Director, Forest Stewardship Program

2. Context of our work in the PNW
Overharvest;
suppression
Top down
Collaboration Local &
policy
regional
economic
Lack of trust Place-based development
solutions
Economic
decline

3. Dry Forest Zone Land Ownership

4. Economic Conditions (2009)

5. Theory of Change
• Society needs rural communities to protect,
restore, & steward ecosystems in order to
achieve resilient natural & human systems
• Investment in community capacity will
ensure that rural communities are
meaningful partners in conservation
• We promote:
– Collaborative, community-based solutions
– Business models that are appropriately-scaled and
targeted at national and regional green markets
– Public policy that supports these ends

6. What is capacity?
Asset
Asset
Development
Development
Political
Financial
Capital
Physical
Base
Social & Cultural
Human

7. What does capacity result in?
• Inspired local leadership
• Collaboration between diverse
interests
• Strong community-based
organizations
• Thriving local businesses
• Retained, improved, and new
facilities, equipment, etc.

8. What does capacity ultimately do?
•Solves problems
•Motivates innovation
•Inspires replication
•Creates resiliency

9. SNW Programs of Work
• Community Partnerships
• Forest Stewardship
– Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities
– FSC Chain of Custody – Group Certificate
• Klamath & Rangelands
• Policy
– Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition
• Sustainable Northwest Wood, Inc.
– For-profit subsidiary wood distribution center

10. Community Partnerships
• Build strong community based organizations
and businesses
• Support collaboratively-driven landscape
scale restoration & stewardship on public
lands

11. Community Partnerships

12. Forest Stewardship
• Increase rural access to green building
markets (FSC, HFHC)
• Support integrated community-scaled
facilities, focusing on local/regional energy
market

13. Sustainable Northwest Wood, Inc.
• Only distribution center in the country 100%
committed to sustainable & local
– Established in Nov 2008 for wholesale
– To date, 80+% of value sold = FSC
– Market penetration for juniper products
– Retail opportunities developed due to service

14. Policy Program
• Promote ecologically responsible &
economically equitable policy solutions
– Increase investment in natural resource
stewardship and rural development
• Recently signed national-level MOU with the
Forest Service

15. RVCC
• Annual Policy Meeting (Dec)
– ~100 organizations/businesses/agency
personell/local gov’t representatives
• Western Week in Washington (April)
– 100+ meetings in 3 days

16. Case: Grant & Harney County, OR
Pellet-fired boiler at
John Day Airport
Construction of pellet
manufacturing line at
Malheur Lumber Company
Photo Credits: Andrew Haden

17. Collaboration
• Blue Mountain Forest Partners
– 2006 County Judge Mark Webb invited SNW to
help facilitate the group & develop process
• Collaboration in action!
– Projects grown from 7,200 acres (Dad’s Creek) to
40,000 acres (Elk 16) in 3 yrs
– The Bigger Look
– USFS Regional Office advanced CFLRP proposal
• Malheur National Forest litigation-free
for 5 years on veg mgmt

18. Integrated campus / diversified products
• New partnership b/t Malheur Lumber
& Bear Mountain Forest Products
• Leveraged existing mill; 75 jobs
• New products using small-diameter
– Pellets, “bricks”, animal bedding
– 40,000 tons of biomass utilized
• 15 new jobs
– 6% of non-farm workforce

19. Maximizing Energy: Heat
• Energy “product”: 440,000 MMBtus
– Heat output equivalent to 18 MW
• Same volume would produce only 6 MWs in a
stand alone bio-power facility
– Reduce energy costs to regional facilities
(schools & hospitals) by $4.4 million / yr
– Will displace 3.2 million gallons of oil

20. Keys to Success
• Diverse support from community-driven
collaborative process & appropriately-scaled
• Integrated wood products campus
• Maximizes revenue streams from low-value
material
• Market development is public-private
partnership
• Bracketed within a regional strategy

21. A Resilient Forest-based Economy?
Strong local NGOs
• Tech assistance by federal agencies is significantly
reduced
• “Common ground” established; ready to go to
landscape-scale
• Private sector risk averse, particularly re: Fed supply
• Local entrepreneurs are missing
• Leakage of energy spending
• Land tenure in question
Local Assets / Regional Strategies

22. What is the role of the FPS?
• Go back to the future!
– Decentralized production
– Community “voice” is distinct
– Thermal energy
• Develop appropriately-scaled solutions
– Restoration paradigm
– Social reality
– Local assets
• Seek partnerships
– Public-private ventures

23. Martin Goebel Maia Enzer
President Policy Program Director
mgoebel@sustainablenorthwest.org menzer@sustainablenorthwest.org
(503) 221-6911 x102 (503) 221-6911 x111
Chad Davis James Honey
Forest Stewardship Program Director Klamath & Rangelands Program Director
cdavis@sustainablenorthwest.org jhoney@sustainablenorthwest.org
(503) 221-6911 x110 (503) 221-6911 x106
Twitter: @snwchad
ASDF
www.SustainableNorthwest.org
Main line (503) 221-6911
info@SustainableNorthwest.org