| Alliance for Working Community Forests (CA)
Location and Context
California's isolated north coast; communities in the Albion in Mendocino County, the Mattole Valley in Humboldt County and the Forks of Salmon, in Siskiyou County; and Kings County, Washington, a resource dependent economy built by timber. These communities are working to take control of their future as the opposing forces of consolidation of land ownership with remote decision making and public demands for resource preservation offers few if any options for economic renewal while facing persistent poverty.
Collaborative Structure and Strategy
Focused on timber communities, this collaboration is interested in expanding the breadth, depth and sophistication of civic engagement in their communities to broaden community influence on policymaking affecting their future. With the goals of linking urban and rural interests on the Pacific Northwest and managing the land for its economic as well as its environmental values, loggers, environmentalists, landowners, community leaders, and government have come together to insure that the private forests, managed for short term commercial return in the past will be protected in their forested condition into the future, along with their wildlife habitat, water quality, recreational benefits, and local employment. Two public benefit corporations have been created to purchase land and develop management plans that take into consideration the multiple roles the forest plays in the sustainability and quality of life of the rural region. Their boards, by charter, will represent multiple interests including, but not limited to, community members, landowners, environmentalists, financial leaders, forest and agricultural professionals and others concerned about managing the land in question.
Leverage and Impact
Until now resource conservation has been funded by public and philanthropic dollars. Community Forestry and Agricultural Bonds are a new type of revenue bond being developed collaboratively, for the purchase of resource properties by communities for conservation and community development purposes. This partnership provides a great opportunity to significantly change the larger forested landscape of the northwest region, and the relationship of those resources to the human communities dependent on them for financial security. The successes of this partnership has already been proven with over $3 million dollars leveraged in creating strategies and building assets for the Workforce Development Partnership, Prosperity Network, and Cascadia Leadership Development, all part of local economic development implementation efforts. More than 700,000 acres of privately-owned forested land is now available nationally for community ownership and management under this model for sustainable forest.
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