A Community Forest, Different to Everyone.

Over the past year, I have gotten the opportunity to immerse myself in the concept of community forestry. A growing forest management approach here in the Pacific Northwest.

Through financial support provided by the US Forest Service’s Community Forest Program, the Northwest Community Forest Coalition developed a number of videos highlighting the spectacular benefits that community forests provide to our region. This project has allowed a small team of forest policy and conservation policy geeks to work with individual land owners and share their stories of conservation. The Pacific Northwest has countless amazing land stewards, spanning from the southwest corner of Oregon all the way up to the foothills of Mount Baker.

Photo taken during a Small Forest Land Owners Educational Event, hosted by Jefferson Land Trust and Northwest Natural Resources Group, July 2021

It has been my pleasure to learn from each of these sites and see the areas where local communities are identifying the need for alternative forest management and participating in the important work. We’ve seen how each community is tailoring their forest to meet the needs of its immediate neighbors, keeping ecological, educational, and economic benefits nearby.

Photo taken during a visit to Nisqually Community Forest, July 2021

This project has given us the opportunity to ask various land managers, community members, project partners, and local residents what a community forest means to them. Their responses varied as much as the sites themselves. One partner discussed how a community forest means access to selectively harvested timber to support the local arts community. Another partner shared that a community forest means drinking water for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren. A third partner shared that to them, a community forest is a community resource, for education, natural exposure, and access to everyone.

The one common theme across the community forest partners we interviewed was the joy that having a community forest brings, whether its a connection to a sense of place or the resources provided by the forest itself.

Photo taken at Kalispel Natural Resources Fishing Day, September 2021

To me a community forest evokes partnership, collaboration, and innovation. A community forest is born out of local needs, designed by the surrounding landowners, organizations, and partners. Among the many benefits these forests provide, they are an economic driver, an access point for nature, an acknowledgement of history, or a resource for education.

Seeing the wide array of support for community forests in the region is incredible. This project is showing me the impact that a small community forests can have, and I’m excited for the opportunity to help share the unique aspects of community forests to anyone throughout our region.

See the video below to hear what a community forest means to some of our partners!

Reach out to Daniel Wear, dwear@sustainablenorthwest.org for more information