Remote Dev Support, Author at U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities, Inc.

This study focuses on economic conditions, changes in consumer preferences and changes in forest products preferences and demand for two time periods—2004‐2009 (the pre‐recession bubble and the Great Recession) and 2007‐2017 (the Great Recession and recovery)—in order to fully understand changes occurring in the market.

View/Download Report (PDF)

As a founding member and proud sponsor of #ForestProud, the Endowment is a part of a diverse group of organizations from throughout the United States and Canada, committed to the health and future of forests. #ForestProud provides its members with a consistent pipeline of original content, including videos and animations, to build trust and pride in the forest sector.

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 14, 2019)

The U.S Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) requests proposals from qualified entities for oversight and coordination to ensure successful field data collection for development of the Longleaf Ecosystem Occurrence Database (LEO). LEO is being designed by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) to support America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative (ALRI). FNAI’s work is funded by USDA’S Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) with active support from ALRI partners.

Development of a comprehensive map of longleaf pine ecosystem occurrence and condition is a key objective of the Range-wide Conservation Plan for Longleaf Pine.

LEO is a central repository for longleaf pine ecosystem locations and their condition that can be used to track longleaf pine status over time and throughout its range. The successful applicant will use FNAI data collection protocols and work closely with and communicate frequently with FNAI on all aspects of this field data collection project.

The primary role of the field data collection contractor is to identify and coordinate survey crews, plan and manage logistics, and ensure efficient completion of rapid assessment surveys, largely via roadside, for longleaf pine occurrence and condition in designated areas. Priority is to be given to longleaf ecosystems with known or potential gopher tortoise habitat. Four priority landscapes in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina are to be surveyed first, followed by 12 additional sites across the longleaf range.

The contractor will use a rapid assessment survey protocol, a mobile data collection app, and prescribed survey sites developed by FNAI. The contractor will work with FNAI, including participation in a training workshop, to ensure data quality and to facilitate transfer of field data to the LEO database.

This opportunity closes March 18, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Funding for this project is provided by NRCS.

The Request for Proposals and application form are available at the RFP tab at www.usendowment.org.

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For more information contact:

Peter Stangel
+1-404-915-2763
peter@usendowment.org

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively 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. – www.USEndowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (January 8, 2019)
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today announced the first annual Forest Innovation Reviews (FIRz) to be held on
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 in Athens, Georgia. FIRz is a forum for innovative ideas for solving some of today’s most significant natural resources challenges. The inaugural FIRz event will create a space for
presenting well-formed ideas about forests, forest management, forest products and forest-rich communities, conveyed through short, powerful talks.

Innovative thinkers from around the world will gather for a day of breakthrough thinking and sharing about the biggest challenges — and potential solutions — that face forests and forest health. Selected
speakers will share their ideas with an audience open to the new, innovative, and in some cases utterly unheard-of thinking. Then those ideas will be shared around the world via video. The presentation voted
by FIRz attendees as “most likely to make a lasting difference” will be awarded $10,000.

“As the nation’s largest public charity dedicated to working forests, the Endowment has a consistent and proven track record of successful ventures that link to at least one of seven strategic initiative areas:
traditional markets, non-traditional markets, wood-to-energy, innovation, asset creation, forest health and forest retention,” said Endowment President and CEO Carlton Owen. “We expect that over time,
FIRz will emerge as the signature annual event for unearthing sector innovation and revolutionary thinking in all of these areas and more.”
The inaugural FIRz will take place at the University of Georgia, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Each year FIRz will rotate to a different region of the U.S. (that’s the z!). In fact, FIRz 2020 is already slated for Oregon in collaboration with Oregon State University’s College of Forestry. The deadline for nominating yourself or someone else for FIRz 2019 is February 28, 2019. Those asked to continue to the next step in the selection process will be notified not later than March 30, 2019. For
more information visit www.usendowment.org or email info@runslikeclock.work.

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For more information contact:

Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@usendowment.org

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively 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 – www.usendowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 20, 2018)

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) applauds the International Code Council’s (ICC) unofficial voting results released this week on building code changes, including the passage of all 14 tall mass timber code change proposals. Official results are expected during the first quarter of 2019 and the code development cycle will continue through 2019. The new provisions will be included in the 2021 International Building Code (IBC).

Partnering with the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) and the American Wood Council (AWC), the Endowment has worked for more than four years to stimulate and grow the market for “mass timber construction,” by actively working to update building codes to allow for new types of construction that leverage the value of wood. AWC provides details on the 14 code changes that can be found at: https://www.awc.org/pdf/tmt/TMT-ProposalsReviewGuide-180308.pdf

Endowment President & CEO Carlton Owen noted, “These changes foretell a new era of forest products that will spur retention and more sustainable management of forests while growing the number of family-wage jobs in forest-rich rural communities.” He added, “The collaborative effort and investment by partners with shared interests and objectives shows the power of the forest sector to advance what many considered impossible.”

“Mass timber has been capturing the imagination of architects and developers, and the ICC result means they can now turn sketches into reality. ICC’s rigorous study, testing and voting process now recognizes a strong, low-carbon alternative to traditional tall building materials used by the building and construction industry,” said AWC President & CEO Robert Glowinski.

In addition to addressing the restrictive building code, the Endowment collaborated with the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory in funding and conducting research to fill a host of knowledge gaps necessary to gain code changes.

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For more information contact:

Carlton N. Owen
President & CEO
+1-864-233-7646
carlton@usendowment.org

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively 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 – www.usendowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 10, 2018)

Greenville, S.C. and Bethesda, Md. – The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today released a new Request for Proposals for the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund. Up to $500,000 is available for 2019 grants to protect bottomland hardwood and other wetland forests in northeast North Carolina and southeast Virginia.

This is the fourth year of a $5 million, 10-year program launched by Enviva Holdings, LP (Enviva) and the Endowment in 2015. Not-for-profit organizations, government agencies and tribes are eligible to apply for grants. The deadline for proposals is February 28, 2019. The RFP and additional materials are available on the Endowment’s website.

“Over the past three funding cycles, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has contributed to the protection of vital lands that contribute to the health of entire ecosystems,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the Endowment. “Bottomland hardwoods serve a critical role in our southeastern watersheds. One of the most valuable contributions of the bottomland hardwood ecosystem is its capacity to serve as our best natural filtration system. As we continue to encounter severe storm and flooding challenges, these landscapes are key to water management and will lessen the severity of flooding to downstream communities by providing areas to store floodwater.”

Since its inception in 2015, the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has supported a total of 10 projects with over $1.5 million dollars. Once completed, these projects will protect 15,000 acres across North Carolina and Virginia. These protected forests help provide a clean drinking water source, act as a buffer to infrastructure during storms, and provide critical habitats for many species of wildlife, while at the same time providing jobs and economic opportunity for rural families and private landowners.

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For more information contact:

Alicia Cramer
+1-864-233-7646
alicia@usendowment.org

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively 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 – www.usendowment.org

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (December 7, 2018)

The nation’s largest public charity dedicated solely to keeping forests as forests and advancing family-wage jobs in forest-rich rural communities plans to showcase a new type of concrete infused with cellulosic nanomaterial at its headquarters.

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) and its national partners the USDA Forest Service, Oregon State University and Purdue University have been studying a product that can enhance the performance of concrete through the addition of cellulosic nanomaterials (CN) produced from wood. The team is conducting three field applications around the nation: a small sidewalk in Madison, WI; a county bridge deck in northern California, and, the largest commercial test in the world, the Endowment’s parking lot in downtown Greenville, South Carolina.

The Endowment will showcase this emerging innovation with a rebuild of the 100 by 40 foot parking lot. The project will involve head-to-head comparison pours of 32 tons of CN enhanced concrete side-by-side with an equal amount of traditional concrete. The long-term goal is to test how well the CN compares to traditional concrete when it comes to reducing carbon emissions, materials used and cost.

“The Endowment is proud to be taking part in this project,” said Carlton Owen, the organization’s president and CEO. “Our goal is to help make future development more sustainable.”

Cellulosic nanomaterials are produced by breaking down wood to its tiniest, strongest components through mechanical and chemical processes similar to making paper. For example, a human hair is approximately 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. The head of a pin is one million nanometers wide. Cellulosic nanomaterials are approximately six nanometers wide.

At the nano scale, materials take on novel properties, said Dr. Alan Rudie of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory. In the case of cellulose, nanomaterials are as strong as steel with only one- fifth the weight. Among other features, they can be used as reinforcing in transparent materials.

“Researchers are testing these cellulosic nanomaterials in a wide range of applications from substrate for flexible computer chips, to composites for car and airplane bodies, lighter and stronger than steel,” said Dr. Rudie. “Our team expects that concrete will be among the first commercial applications.”

The addition of CN to concrete produces a stronger product which has significant advantages over traditional mix, said Dr. Jason Weiss of Oregon State University. By adding CN, there is a 15 percent gain in product strength. Thus, products could use fewer raw materials and perform just as well.

Addition of these materials could have significant positive benefits for the environment as well. Concrete is largely a mix of small rocks (aggregate), sand, water and cement. Manufacturing cement is an energy intensive process that constitutes about 4 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. The cement and concrete industries are actively working to reduce the carbon footprint of their products with CN being among the most promising options.

By adding CN to concrete the mixture causes more of the cement to react than in a traditional mix thereby enabling less cement to be used resulting in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with equivalent or increased strength. There are other benefits as well, as these materials are not particularly expensive. So, it could be possible to have a win for the planet and for the pocketbook.

But there are even more wins in the forest, said Dr. Rudie. Forest managers are working to restore forests and reduce the risks of catastrophic wildfire and other threats. These management activities largely target low value wood with few markets.

“Removing low value wood is expensive, so finding markets is critical to forest health and sustainability,” he said. “Products made with CN could provide one of the most important answers to keeping our forests as forests and ensuring their health and sustainability.”

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U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Greenville, SC
For IMMEDIATE RELEASE (November 16, 2018)

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) today announced that it is accepting pre-proposals for the 2019 Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program Challenge. The Request for Pre-Proposals and the downloadable PDF pre-proposal form are available on the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Community’s webpage or by contacting Peter@runslikeclock.work. The deadline for pre-proposal submission is 8 p.m. EST, Friday, January 25, 2019. Up to $15 million is available for one or multiple awards. Final awards are planned to be announced in June of 2019.

The REPI Challenge, established in 2012, is a competitive process to seek projects that accelerate land conservation and military mission protection through innovative partnerships and shared financing.

Partners are strongly encouraged to coordinate closely with local installation or range staff to verify the presence of key National Defense Strategy capabilities prior to proposal development.

The REPI Challenge seeks to engage the private sector to access and tap unconventional and high-leverage sources of funding, attract additional philanthropic support, and take advantage of market-based approaches to advance program goals.

Last year, the 2018 REPI Challenge resulted in $4.8 million in awards that leveraged nearly $15.8 million in non-DoD partner funding to Ft. Benning, Georgia, and Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. The Army at Ft. Benning will
use $3.7 million in REPI Challenge funds to leverage more than $5 million from The Nature Conservancy and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to acquire a 7,051 acre parcel that increases the installation’s compatible buffer by 25% and that benefits at-risk species conservation. The Army and its Sentinel Landscape partners at Ft. Huachuca will use $1.1 million in REPI Challenge funds to leverage more than $3 million in partner funds for a 1,050 acre easement that will reduce competition for scarce water resources in the San Pedro River Watershed.

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The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively 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 – www.usendowment.org