$1.718 Million in Grants Announced for Innovative Finance for National Forests Program
Photo Credit: Dave Masuda
$1.718 Million in Grants Announced for Innovative Finance for National Forests Program
Seven awards support development of finance models that seek to leverage public and private sector capital to support resilience of the National Forest System and surrounding lands.
GREENVILLE, S.C. – July 24, 2024 – Seven new grants will support local stakeholders and project developers to connect public and private capital to unfunded environmental challenges in National Forests and surrounding landscapes across the United States.
These seven awards represent the fourth round of funding from the Innovative Finance for National Forests Grant Program. This partnership is funded and administered by the USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office’s Conservation Finance Program and the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment).
“The 2024 Innovative Finance for National Forests grantees are exploring use of loan guarantees, state revolving funds, and other mechanisms to reduce forest wildfire risk, enhance watershed protection, and create new recreation opportunities,” said Pete Madden, president and chief executive officer of the Endowment. “We are impressed by the ingenuity of the proposed approaches from our partners, and we commend the Forest Service for their commitment to exploring new financial vehicles that tap into private sector resources.”
“The Innovative Finance for National Forests program highlights our efforts to address the wildfire crisis, backlog of deferred maintenance and protection of watersheds across the country through new approaches,” said Chris French, Deputy Chief of the USDA Forest Service’s National Forest System. “This slate of projects offers an exciting possibility of new business at the Forest Service – one that prioritizes public-private partnerships and sustainable financial solutions to pressing land management and community needs. We are honored to work with the Endowment and grantees on these big ideas together.”
The seven projects selected for the fourth round of funding from the Innovative Finance for National Forests Grant Program are:
Caldor/Cosumnes Watershed Outcomes Bank (Pilot) – California
$300,000 to The Freshwater Trust to pilot a Watershed Outcomes Bank framework. This framework will leverage together multiple sources of funds and target those coordinated funds to strategically cultivated projects across the Cosumnes River Watershed, including the Eldorado National Forest, that most cost-effectively achieve watershed resilience targets. This pilot project, which builds on a Round 3 IFNF feasibility study award, will implement a central entity and partner governance structure for match funding, financing, and efficient fund delivery.
Protecting Source Water and Reducing Wildfire Risk in Rural Communities (Pilot) – Wyoming
$250,000 to the City of Cheyenne, in collaboration with the World Resources Institute and the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, to pilot the potential use of the Wyoming State Revolving Loan Fund program to finance forest restoration activities on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland. State Revolving Loan Funds offer favorable terms for municipalities to fund water quality treatments and wildfire prevention activities. This arrangement can allow local communities to implement essential interventions they otherwise might not be able to afford.
Financing for Acid Mine Drainage Treatment (Pilot) – Ohio
$287,000 to Rural Action, Inc. for startup costs for a full-scale treatment plant near the Wayne National Forest that will harvest iron oxide from acid mine drainage discharge. The harvested iron oxide will be used to create paint pigments for sale and will create a reliable funding source for watershed restoration efforts in the region.
Innovative Finance for Agave Restoration: Piloting a Nursery Loan Guarantee Program (Pilot) – New Mexico and Arizona
$300,000 to Bat Conservation International, in collaboration with New Leaf Climate Partners, to address the decline of agave habitats in the Southwest United States. This project combines nursery assistance, habitat restoration, and innovative financing, including piloting a loan guarantee program to enhance nursery capacity for native agave seedlings. The initiative aims to deliver long-term ecological benefits across the Southwest United States, starting in the Gila and Coronado National Forests.
South Central Oregon Seed Orchard Financing Innovation (Pilot) – Oregon
$300,000 to American Forests to bring innovative financing to reforestation efforts by attracting private investment into seed orchard establishment. The goal is to reduce long-term seed shortage bottlenecks by producing high quality, climate-adapted seeds and generate financial returns via seed sales. This project specifically engages the Fremont-Winema National Forest and will produce seed that is critical to meeting regional public, private, and tribal reforestation goals.
Funding and Finance Feasibility for Enhanced Recreation in North Central Washington (Feasibility) – Washington
$131,000 to TREAD to assess regional funding options and explore a new governance structure for recreation enhancements near the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. TREAD will explore new financial resources for recreation and the creation of a new entity to support cross-jurisdictional decision making, deployment of resources, and improved implementation for recreation outcomes.
Exploring the Value of Ignition Reduction on the Impacts of Post-Fire Flooding in Southern California (Feasibility) – California
$150,000 to Blue Forest, in partnership with Chapman University and Louisiana State University, to analyze the impacts of forest restoration on runoff, erosion, and management costs borne by the Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District near the Cleveland National Forest. This project aims to determine the value of upstream restoration activities to flood control districts.
The Innovative Finance for National Forests is a competitive grant program. Additional information is available at https://www.usendowment.org/ifnf/.
About the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities:
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit public charity collaborating with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities. To learn more about the Endowment, please visit our website at www.usendowment.org.
About the USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office:
The USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office (NPO) Conservation Finance Program connects external funding, capacity, expertise to Forest Service priority projects public-private partnership models.
For more information contact:
Aleta Rogers, aleta@usendowment.org
Dawn McCarthy, dawn.mccarthy@usda.gov
