December 16, 2011 -- ShadeFund Introduces “Crowd-Funding” to Jump-Start Green Entrepreneurs.
It has been used to send disaster aid across the globe with a simple text. It has been used to help farmers in Latin America expand their crop production. Artists around the world have used it to craft innovative projects in music, writing, and filmmaking. Now, donors can use it to help green entrepreneurs grow sustainable businesses in America. "It" is "crowd-funding" —a mechanism that allows individuals to pool money and other resources together via the internet— making even a small contribution yield a huge difference.
At the Endowment, we recognize the face of philanthropy is changing. While traditional methods of funding are often still the right way to fulfill our mission, we must also look to new tools and technologies to grow the green economy and support working forests. The Endowment-funded ShadeFund, created in partnership with The Conservation Fund, uses the concept of crowd-funding to provide green loans to small up-start businesses, turning sustainable ideas into sustainable realities. ShadeFund’s newest loan recipient, Fern Studios, crafts “stunning heirloom-quality tables, lamps and other furniture from sustainably sourced American hardwoods.” To this end, ShadeFund has provided a $7,500 start-up loan to buy equipment. But now Fern Studios is seeking an additional $2,500 through crowd-funding to transform space in a 19th century barn from chicken coop to workshop. In the spirit of the season, learn more and contribute to these and other entrepreneurs at www.shadefund.org.
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December 14, 2011 -- Endowment Plans Georgia Wood-to-Energy Project to Test Model for Asset Creation
As vitally important as family-supporting jobs are -- especially in this economy -- can a private business be “designed” to do more than provide jobs and generate profits for its owners? That’s the question that the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) hopes to answer with its investment in a wood-to-energy facility slated for east-central Georgia.
The North Star-Jefferson project is a partnership between the Endowment and North Star Renewable Power. The 23 Megawatt plant proposed for construction near Wadley, Georgia would use a well-proven technology while testing a starkly different ownership model.
“The Endowment would control up-to 40% of the facility through a wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary (Community Wealth through Forestry, Inc. -- CWF),” says Endowment President Carlton Owen. “The intent is to test an ownership model that has a for-profit business partnering with a community – with CWF initially providing the funding and vehicle for community interests. This creates an entirely different mechanism that sees a significant portion of the profits from the business going directly to address one or more priority community needs in addition to the expected benefits that flow from a private business – jobs, taxes, purchases of goods and services, etc.” Click here to read the full press release or here to read an emerging blog series about the project.
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December 2, 2011 -- Endowment Releases External Review of Biomass Investments
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today released the results of an external review commissioned to provide an assessment of its programmatic investments in the rapidly-changing woody biomass/wood-to-energy sector. " Among the greatest challenges facing healthy working forests is the lack of markets for small-diameter, dead, or dying wood," says Endowment President Carlton Owen. "Right-sized or community-scale wood-to-energy facilities offer great promise not only to help meet this challenge but at the same time to provide family-supporting jobs in rural communities while advancing one pathway to reducing dependence on unstable sources of needed energy."
The report, "Woody Biomass Programmatic Investments: An Independent Review and Recommendations," was developed by a five-person team of experts from across the nation. The intent was for results to serve as a mid-course review and offer insights that might aid the Endowment in better targeting future investments. "We are especially appreciative of the time that this 'blue ribbon team' of leaders provided," Owen continued. "They provided thoughtful criticism of things we could have done better in past investments while also offering sound recommendations that will help us better direct our work going forward." One of the Endowment's base commitments is to openly share the results of its works, "warts and all," so that anyone with interest in the subject area might benefit from the organization's experiences.
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December 1, 2011 -- Canada Names Farrell to Liaison Role
The Honorable Ed Fast, Minster of International Trade for the Government of Canada, has named James Farrell as "Canadian liaison" to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment). Farrell, most recently served as Assistant Deputy Minister of the Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, a position he held from 2006 to December 2010. "We're pleased to have someone of Jim's stature and experience working with the Endowment's Board of Directors," said Endowment Chairman Mack Hogans. "He has big shoes to fill following our two prior liaisons, John Weaver and Stephane Rousseau, who both served with distinction."
Under the terms of the Softwood Lumber Agreement 2006, each of the "meritorious initiatives" that received funding as part of the settlement between Canada and the U.S. were to have a liaison to their governing bodies to represent the interests and views of Canada's forestry sector. The Endowment amended its bylaws to allow election of the liaison to full Board membership. Mr. Farrell began federal public service in 1983 after prior positions with Abitibi Paper Company and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Forestry from the University of Toronto.
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November 22, 2011 -- “Connections” Made Easier with Catalogue of Forestry and Related Organizations
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) has a dual mission often simply stated as “advancing healthy working forests and family-supporting jobs in rural forest-reliant communities.” “We know that each community has many needs and challenges that are well beyond our expertise and limited resources,” says Endowment President Carlton Owen. “So to improve changes for success, we take somewhat of a ‘forest-centric’ view to our work.” The Endowment also views collaboration and partnering as foundational to its approach. Even as an organization “close to the work,” we find that it is often difficult to identify and find the range of players who are already laboring to make a difference.
To aid in addressing this challenge, we have added a “Connections” page to our website to minimize time spent, by us and others, in looking for the array of organizations and first contact information. This catalogue of forestry-related organizations provides us with a central location for partners or sources of vital information while also helping others make “connections” with the broader forestry community. We recognize that this initial list is far from inclusive. It is designed as a first step that will grow. If you know of or would like to see an organization that should be added, please contact us with the name and a link for consideration.
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November 16, 2011--Endowment Grantee Releases Report on Payment for Watershed Services
EcoAgriculture Partners, a DC-based group working to help agricultural communities manage their landscapes, has released two versions of the report, Payment for watershed services in the United States: Cost-effective strategies to align landowner incentives for abundant clean water. Endowment Vice President Peter Stangel explains the report, “was commissioned by the Endowment to provide background on ‘who is doing what’ in this field and was one of the first steps in our Healthy Watersheds through Healthy Forests Initiative. It was co-funded with the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Environmental Markets.”
The study identifies 32 Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) programs across the U.S that provide economic incentives or other benefits to landowners in exchange for providing “watershed services” that help protect water quantity or quality. Watershed services include increasing aquifer recharge, storing flood waters, improving irrigation efficiency to restoring forests, protecting wetlands, and implementing pollution reduction measures. These measures are a “win-win” for both landowners and water consumers as, “flexible incentives to landowners, which can increase landowner income, support watershed-friendly farm and forest management, and reduce costs to the public of maintaining abundant clean water.” The report reveals where PWS projects are taking place, analyzes who is participating and the associated motivations of the buyer and seller, and lays out opportunities and challenges moving forward. At the Endowment’s request, a special version of the report was created for busy decision- and policy-makers; this format highlights key findings in a quick read, and may be found here. The entire report can be viewed here.
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October 10, 2011 -- National Conservation Easement Database Fills Gap in Conservation Planning
Filling a gaping hole in conservation planning, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today announced the release of the National Conservation Easement Database
(www.conservationeasement.us), the first resource to offer detailed information on nearly 18 million acres now protected by more than 80,000 easements across the United States. Until its development, land and natural resource practitioners and decision-makers lacked a single system for sharing, accessing, and managing nationwide information about conservation easements. Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements through which landowners, public agencies, and land trusts protect essential natural resources like drinking water, wildlife habitat, and land along lakes, rivers, and streams. By bringing together easement data that was previously scattered and incomplete, the database serves conservationists, planners, and policy-makers across the country.
"For the first time," said Carlton Owen, President of the Endowment, "it will be possible to see the location, size, and purpose of conservation easements on a nationwide basis. By having all this information in a single place, the easement database will save organizations precious time and money, because each won't have to create their own system." The National Conservation Easement Database was envisioned by the Endowment and created by a team of five leading conservation groups, including the Conservation Biology Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, Ducks Unlimited, NatureServe, and The Trust for Public Land. Funded by the Endowment, this important project received generous support from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Knobloch Family Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the U.S. Forest Service. Click to see the full press release.
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September 29, 2011 -- USDA Study Supports Use of Wood as "Greenest" of Building Materials
In Washington, DC, today, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the findings of a new U.S. Forest Service study indicating that wood should be favored as a primary building material in green building. The authors of Science Supporting the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Using Wood and Wood Products in Green Building Construction reviewed the scientific literature and found that using wood in building products yields fewer greenhouse gases than using other common materials. "This study confirms what many environmental scientists have been saying for years," said Vilsack. "Wood should be a major component of American building and energy design. The use of wood provides substantial environmental benefits, provides incentives for private landowners to maintain forest land, and provides a critical source of jobs in rural America."
Carlton Owen, President & CEO of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) welcomed and echoed Vilsack's statement. "Our work at the Endowment is founded on the belief that the best way to ensure forests for the future is to provide healthy and sustainable markets for all products of those forests -- wood, water, wildlife, and recreation among them. This study is great news for all Americans .... you can indeed have your forests and use them too and know that using forest products in a range of building applications is good for the environment, good for communities, good for the economy, and good for forests."
To view the report, visit: www.fs.fed.us/news/2011/releases/09/green-building-report.pdf
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September 7, 2011 -- Woodworkers Share Time and Talent for Endowment Home
Members of the Greenville Woodworkers Guild (Greenville, SC), are in the process of crafting a number of items for the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities' (the Endowment) recently renovated headquarters. "We called on the volunteers at the Guild to help us re-purpose some items we salvaged from the old building that now serves as our home and to make a few things from surplus hardwood panels that would make the space more usable," said Endowment President Carlton Owen. "We couldn't be more pleased with the result!"
Among the items completed are a small "break table" mounted around a metal support column along with movable stools that once were permanently fixed to the floor of the former Little Princess Restaurant. (See related story dated June 22, 2011 and the Blog dated June 3, 2011. The Greenville Woodworkers Guild, a not-for-profit (www.greenvillewoodworkers.com), was founded in 1981 by five woodworking enthusiasts. Today the guild boast nearly 700 members who volunteer their time and talent for community projects throughout the Upstate of South Carolina.
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August 19, 2011 -- State Forest and Wildlife Plans Focus of Latest RFP
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today released a Request for Proposals (RFP) entitled: "Coordinating State Forest Action Plans (State Forest Resource Assessments) and State Wildlife Action Plans: A Pilot Approach for the South." "The goal of this project is to enhance coordination and cooperation within and between states with regard to related plans, and to increase the effectiveness of on-the-ground conservation outcomes," said Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President of the Endowment. Partners in this project include the Southern Group of State Foresters, the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the USDA Forest Service Southern Region, and the Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The project will be owned-by, and for the benefit of, the respective state agencies with an overarching goal of better marshalling and deploying limited resources to achieve shared priority objectives," Stangel continued. By demonstrating the benefits of collaboration the partners anticipate that the process will usher in a new era of cooperation between state forestry and state wildlife agencies, and could lead to additional resources and/or better direction of limited funds to meet priority needs. States included in the pilot are: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The RFP opens immediately and will close on September 15, 2011.
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August 11, 2011 -- Second Edition of "Issues in the Forest" Looks at Wood Pellets
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) and its partners at the National Association of State Foresters, today released the second edition in the new "Issues in the Forest" series -- "Wood Pellets: Becoming a Primary Product." "The information age is yielding overload for many professionals and others interested in staying abreast of the facts of issues important to forests, forestry, and the forest-products sector," said Endowment President Carlton Owen. "We've designed the Issues in the Forest series to help break through the clutter and allow a high-level overview of a single topic while trying to navigate the course of providing facts without advocating specific positions or outcomes." The second edition in the series looks deeper at an old topic -- conversion of woody biomass to densified pellets for fuel -- that is gaining lots of new attention due to global, especially European, market growth. Owen went on to add, "We always welcome feedback on our work, and especially would appreciate input on the series and topics that merit future coverage."
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August 8, 2011 -- New Book Points to Importance of Markets to Forest Conservation
A new book produced by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory -- Sustainable Development in the Forest Products Industry -- provides strong evidence of the link between a vibrant forest products industry and healthy working forests. "The Endowment's entire theory of work is based upon the concepts contained in this work," says U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities President Carlton Owen. "The threat to healthy working forests isn't too many markets; it is just the opposite." To understand more about the importance of markets and forest conservation read this month's Endowment Blog.
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July 29, 2011 – Endowment Releases Request for Proposals to Review Fund Performance
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today released a request for proposals (RFP) seeking a qualified vendor to conduct an independent review of the organization’s investment strategy and its fund manager. "As part of our on-going plans and normal due diligence, we believe that the Endowment has sufficient history appropriate for a review," said Endowment President Carlton Owen. The Endowment has operated with Commonfund Strategic Solutions as the sole manager for the organization’s corpus since receiving its funding in spring of 2007. Proposals will be accepted through close of business on August 31, 2011. All work is to be completed prior to the Endowment’s spring 2012 Board of Directors’ meeting. To view the full RFP click here.
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| June 22, 2011 -- Endowment Moves to New Home
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) has moved to permanent offices in Greenville, South Carolina. The facility, which the Endowment owns, provides double the space of its former offices. "We couldn't be more pleased with how this decision is turning out," says Endowment President Carlton Owen. "In addition to gaining needed and more functional space we've been able to do so in a way that is very cost-effective while working with our home town to repurpose and rehab one of the most visible properties in the community." To learn more about the project, visit the Endowment's Blog -- http://usendowmentblog.blogspot.com/ -- or the "Building" tab on the website.
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