The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program’s third-year of awards expands the pace of proactive watershed protection in the U.S. through conservation and improved stewardship of thousands of acres of lands that provide drinking water, flood risk reduction, and an array of economic and environmental benefits. The 22 awards total $4.168 million and will benefit organizations and partnerships in 20 states. The Heathy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program was conceived by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water (EPA) and launched in late 2015. EPA co-funds the program with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the U. S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment), which manages the partnership.
“Protecting working lands and natural habitats in our watersheds is a win for people, the economy, andour environment,” said Carlton Owen, the Endowment’s President and CEO. “There projects aredeveloped at the local level; help protect drinking water sources; often benefit rural jobs associated with agriculture, ranching, and forestry; and provide measurable benefits for fish and wildlife. We are very grateful to EPA and NRCS for their partnership in this program. We are especially pleased that projects in the Chesapeake Bay, Florida, and Arizona support military installations and Sentinel Landscapes Partnerships. The latter brings together the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, and Interior to protectworking lands important to our nation’s defense mission. ”
The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program’s goal is to “accelerate and expand the strategic protection of healthy, freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds.” EPA and the Endowment eachcommitted $3.75 million and NRCS $3.5 million, to the six-year partnership. In this third year of the program, 76 applications requesting $15 million were received.
Grants focus on three categories: 1) short-term funding to leverage larger financing for targeted watershed protection; 2) funds to help build the capacity of local organizations for sustainable, long-term watershed protection; and 3) new techniques or approaches that advance the state of practice for watershed protection and that can be replicated across the country. The awards listed below benefit natural lands and also working forests, farms, and ranches.
The 22 funded proposals are:
Maine: Sebago Clean Waters Initiative: Forests. Faucets. Forever – $350,000 over three years to the Highstead Foundation, which will work with the Open Space Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and Sebago Clean Waters partners to secure drinking water quality in Sebago Lake through land conservation. Goals include increasing collaboration among Sebago Clean Waters partners, private landowners, communities, and water users; developing and launching a water fund to enable downstream water users to jointly invest in upstream land conservation; and conserving 2500-3500 acres of land feeding andfiltering Maine’s largest drinking water supply.
Pennsylvania: Assessing and Protecting Wild Trout Streams – $100,000 over three years to Trout Unlimited to support assessments of 300 streams for naturally reproducing trout, with the expectation of documenting 100 new populations, and to engage grassroots volunteers in securing protective regulatory designations for 1,000 miles of streams and the resultant protection of an estimated 24,000 acres of wetlands and 18,000 acres of riparian buffers.
Virginia : Healthy Watersheds/Forest TMDL Phase III Project – $120,000 over three years to Virginia Department of Forestry and its partners to build on Phases I&II successes by addressing challenges associated with creating the policy and financial infrastructure needed to facilitate forest and agricultural land conservation and retention on a sustainable, Chesapeake Bay-wide basis. One major goal of Phase III is to create the policy and financial infrastructure needed to facilitate forest and agricultural land conservation and retention on a sustainable, landscape-scale, long-term, sustainable basis.
Maryland, Delaware, & Virginia: Delivering the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement on the Delmarva Peninsula – $204,000 over three years to the Lower Shore Land Trust with the goal of permanently protecting 11,000 acres with conservation easements by 2020. Watershed land protection will increase stream buffers, forest protections, and water quality and soil conservation throughout the region. This program will help deliver 10% of the acres needed in the Delmarva states to reach the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goal of 2,000,0000 acres conserved by 2025. This area includes one of seven designated Sentinel Landscapes in the U.S., a collaboration involving the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, and Interior.
Florida: Accelerating Land Protection in Florida’s Ocala to Osceola (O2O) Conservation Corridor – $183,000 over three years to the North Florida Land Trust to support land protection and outreach staff to protect 10,000 acres (in 3 years) in the 1.6 million acre O2O Corridor. This accelerates larger goals
of strengthening the public-private O2O Partnership and securing funds to protect 140,000 acres by 2040. Land protection in the O2O will benefit headwater regions of six North Florida watersheds, as well
as protect wildlife habitat, rural landscapes, and military training capacity of Camp Blanding Joint Training Center.
Alabama: Accelerating Headwater Land Protection in the Mobile Bay Basin – $300,000 over two years to the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program to advance strategic protection of healthy habitat parcels in Mobile Tombigbee and Alabama River basins, where 75% of catchments drain first and second order streams, key to the ecological health of the Mobile Bay estuary. A land protection atlas will identify priority parcels and possible funding sources for acquisition and protection and the Alabama Forest Resources Center will be engaged to work with landowners on watershed land protection.
Wisconsin & Minnesota: Building Capacity for Healthy Forest Protection in the St. Croix Watershed – $150,000 over two years to develop capacity for forest protection across the ecologically significant St. Croix River Watershed. Funds will support the protection and stewardship of 15,000 acres over the next two years, working towards a long term goal of 300,000 acres of forest protection and stewardship in the St. Croix.
Arkansas: Establishing Conservation Funding Mechanisms in the Beaver Lake Watershed – $234,000 over three years to The Beaver Watershed Alliance to coordinate development of funding mechanisms,including enhancements to the State’s clean water revolving loan program, an open space conservation fund and a source water protection partnership with three water utilities on Beaver Lake.
Texas: Middle Colorado River & Contributing Watersheds Protection Plan – $180,000 over three years to the Hill Country Conservancy to catalyze protection of up to 15,000 acres of priority watershed lands and formalize the Hill Country Conservation Network, which seeks to secure $10M in public funds, develop a regional strategic conservation plan, and promote a conservation ethic for landowners and the public. This collaboration addresses an urgent non-point source threat to three critical regional drinking water sources, the Middle Colorado, Blanco/San Marcos Rivers, and Edwards Aquifer.
Texas: Accelerating Land Acquisition to Protect Watersheds & Increase Resiliency – $300,000 over three years to Katy Prairie Conservancy to conserve diminishing prairie in five important watersheds. This will aid flood control and help create a resilient landscape from the prairie to the Gulf. Hurricane Harvey and continuing development have made natural watershed protection, with supportive financial mechanisms, a priority for the Houston area.
New Mexico: Monitoring for success and sustainability to protect the Rio Grande Watershed – $150,000 over two years to The Nature Conservancy to advance the state-of practice in watershed monitoring and management for the upper Rio Grande. The Rio Grande and its tributaries supply water to one-half of NewMexico’s population. The Rio Grande Water Fund was established to help protect these watersheds from severe fire and other threats. This project will help quantify the impact value of ecosystem services provided by watershed protection activities supported by the Rio Grande Water Fund.
Montana: Connecting Partners to Conserve Working Lands in the Missouri River Basin – $90,000 over one year to World Wildlife Fund to engage conservation districts, agencies and not-for-profit partners in a discussion on threats to their watersheds and addressing barriers to enrolling landowners in programs that help to reduce those threats. The focus will be on intact grassland habitat.
Arizona: Identifying Conservation Priorities in the Upper Santa Cruz Watershed – $219,000 over two years to the Arizona Land & Water Trust to address groundwater overdraft, land fragmentation and development in the Upper Santa Cruz River Watershed. An analytical framework will be developed to help identify threats and prioritize land conservation projects that will limit development in riparian areas, stabilize groundwater levels, and assure continued flow in the river. This area includes one of seven designated Sentinel Landscapes in the U.S., a collaboration involving the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, and Interior.
Hawaii: Building Capacity for Hawaii’s Watershed Partnerships – $160,000 over two years to the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to support the Hawaii Association of WatershedPartnerships Outreach and Education Specialist position to build capacity for Hawaii’s 10 WatershedPartnerships by developing a sustainable financing mechanism to help fund long-term watershed management and the goal of protecting 253,000 acres of priority areas across the State.
California: Ensuring the Resiliency of the San Pablo Bay and Russian River Watersheds – $180,000 over two years to the Sonoma Land Trust to accelerate protection efforts in these biologically rich hotspots.The Land Trust’s long-term cultivation of landowners at the watershed scale provides them the opportunity to secure key properties to help support these valuable ecosystems.
California & Oregon: Transforming Watershed Health for 2 Top-Tier Havens for Pacific Salmonids – $250,000 over one year to Western Rivers Conservancy to advance two large-scale projects: A conservation easement over nearly 20,000 acres (10% of the watershed) of Oregon’s Hood River Basin to protect drinking water for 8,000 people and conserve habitat for endangered fish; and in California’sKlamath Basin to establish a new land management regime to restore 47,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat that WRC permanently conserved in partnership with the Yurok Tribe to save Blue Creek, the cold- water lifeline of the Klamath River.
Oregon: Building a Sustainable Conservation Program in the John Day River Basin – $250,000 over two years to the Blue Mountain Land Trust to accelerate watershed protection with willing landowners and to demonstrate a sustainable funding model for expanding land trust capacity in a watershed without long- term reliance on grant funding.
Oregon: Protecting Oregon’s Pristine Waterways and Public Lands – $31,000 over one year to Trout Unlimited to help protect two priority watersheds through state designations including the State Scenic Waterway Program and Outstanding Resource Water Designation Program and through the federal Oregon Wildlands Act.
Washington: Accelerating Watershed Protection in Central Puget Sound, Part 2 – $150,000 over two years to the Emerald Alliance to build on work accomplished in an earlier Healthy Watersheds Consortium grant to develop a Regional Open Space Conservation Plan, currently in development by the Puget Sound Regional Council. Phase 2 work is to develop a comprehensive funding strategy that serves to implement the Regional Open Space Conservation Plan and to support the newly formed Emerald Alliance’sorganizational infrastructure so it can grow to provide a neutral forum for collaboration and action to better implement this new Regional Open Space Conservation Plan
Washington: Upper Puyallup River Watershed Assessment: Protection & Resiliency Planning – $225,000 over three years to Forterra to conduct on-site data collection and research in the Upper Puyallup River Basin in support of a long-term goal to protect 40,000 acres of forestland, floodplains, and critical fish and wildlife habitat. This work will further the partners’ efforts to secure funding to conserve this critical landscape in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.
Alaska: Fish Inventory in Select Drainages of the Kobuk and Koyukuk Rivers – $192,000 over one year to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to conduct an inventory of stream fish assemblages and aquatic and riparian habitats in select drainages of the Kobuk and Koyukuk Rivers. Anadromous fish observationsmade will be used to nominate water bodies to Alaska’s Anadromous Waters Catalog, which representsAlaska Statute 16.05.871, Alaska’s strongest and most comprehensive instream fish habitat protectionstandard. All of the fish and habitat data collected will be made available through the department’s onlineFish Resource Monitor interactive mapper.
For more information: Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program. ###
For more information contact:
Peter Stangel, Chief Operating Officer, 404-915-2763, peter@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
Greenville, S.C. – Momentum continues to build on the successful State of America’s Forests platform as the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today released six new components on the interactive website, usaforests.org. These new topics include:
- – trends in forestland area and ecological regions,
- – forest ownership, tree growth, mortality, harvesting, and planting,
- – communities at risk,
- – forest fragmentation and housing development, and
- – protected areas.
State of America’s Forests serves as an online portal where users can interactively explore and visually engage with the latest forest related data. “While there is a plethora of sources related to U.S. forests, this site allows for a quick and easy navigation of statistics, historic trends, threats, benefits, conditions, and related markets,” says Endowment President and CEO Carlton Owen. All information included in the website is based on peer-reviewed studies and verified data.
The interactive website was launched in December 2017 covering a variety of topics, including fire in our forests, the role forests play in providing clean water, forests insects and diseases, and invasive plants and animals.
The State of America’s Forests is helping decision makers and other users easily access and better understand the latest authoritative data. The tools available through the website bring together sources of relevant information from a variety of researchers and institutions, and inspire other scientist to contribute to open data sources and share information through interactive technology.
The project lead for State of America’s Forests, Dr. Mila Alvarez, will continue to work closely withthe Endowment’s project partners, the USDA Forest Service and Esri, to bring remaining content to the site throughout 2018.
To view the most recent additions, please visit usaforests.org
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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 advancesystemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’sworking forests and forest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) announced today that efforts to develop a USDA Research and Promotion Program (a.k.a. “check-off”) for the U.S. biomass power and wood energy pellet producers has ended.
“After more than three years of work and $500,000 in investment the decision to terminate work to aid America’s wood-to-energy sector for a sustained research and promotion program is a hugedisappointment,” said Endowment President and CEO Carlton Owen. “At the request of the industry, we’ve worked closely with representatives of three sub-sectors — biomass power; domestic wood energy pellets; and export wood energy pellets – as convener and co-funder. Regrettably, a change of heart about timing and path forward by some of the largest producers made continuation impossible.”
The Endowment seeks to keep working forests as forests and advance family-wage jobs in forest-rich, rural communities in ways that ultimately support the North American forest industry. Since its creation the Endowment has taken the long-view and advocated sustainable pathways to enhance and grow benefits from forests. Whether to recognize water as a forest product of tremendous value or to retain traditional jobs in the lumber and paper sectors or to advance emerging sectors such as mass timbers or wood-to-energy, the Endowment promotes market-based means to advance its objectives.
Among its first efforts was a study of USDA Research and Promotion Programs to determine if they could benefit the forest sector as they have agricultural products. Known as check-offs, these programs allow producers of commodity products to assess themselves to create a funding pool to advance markets for their products. While much broader than advertising efforts, the familiar public face of some of the larger and older programs – “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner!” and “Got Milk?”, promotions by the beef and milk industries, respectively – ensure that almost everyone is aware of check-offs.
“To date, a $1.5 million Endowment investment in check-offs has helped establish programs that are generating in excess of $40 million/year for the softwood lumber and paper & packaging industries to measurably grow their businesses.
The Softwood Lumber Board, created in 2011, generates more than $15 million/year resulting in a return of nearly $20 for each dollar invested, while the Paper & Paper-based Packaging Board, created in 2013, generates nearly $25 million/year. Its initial impact assessment reported it had been responsible for 500,000 tons of added sales.
“We firmly believe the wood-to-energy business would have enjoyed similar benefits to those seen by other check-offs,” noted Owen. “It has been an honor to gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the sector to the health and productivity of America’s forests and forest-rich communities. We areespecially appreciative of those who labored with us in trying to advance this important initiative.”
Similar Endowment work with the U.S. hardwood lumber and hardwood plywood sectors failed to gain enough support to advance to a vote.
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
Greenville, S.C. – Benjamin Franklin wisely noted, “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” In less than 90 days a city of nearly four million people could be without fresh water. That city, Cape Town, South Africa, is surrounded by the ocean yet suffers from an extended drought that has all but exhausted its potable water supply. Could that happen in the U.S.? Recall Atlanta? Just over a decade ago that great southern city faced a similar water crisis.
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) is celebrating World Water Day by convening nearly 50 watershed protection experts from across the country to acknowledge successes and address future challenges in an effort to plan for the inevitable – a time when many areas “outgrow” orface life without a dependable water supply. The event is the first gathering of grantees for the Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program, a partnership that is co-funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
“An estimated two-thirds of the fresh water in the U.S. originates in a forested watershed,” notes Carlton Owen, the Endowment’s President and CEO. “Healthy, well-managed forests produce cleaner, morereliable water flows, reducing drinking water treatment, transportation, and storage costs.”
Protecting forested watersheds from conversion to other uses that may be detrimental to drinking water supplies, and ensuring that those forests are well-managed, is a priority for the Endowment. These same forests also generate family-supporting jobs associated with the forest industry and provide a wealth of other ecosystem services, such as flood control, wildlife habitat, and climate regulation.
One focus for the Endowment is helping local communities create funding programs that allow them to finance watershed protection and management. In Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, the Endowment and NRCS helped the City create a watershed protection fee that now generates more than $2 million annually. Those funds go to private landowners for forest management, restoration, and protection that benefit the City’s water supply — a locally-driven approach being replicated across the country.
The Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program annually provides funding to local groups through a competitive process. To date, 25 projects have been funded, totaling $4.15 million in combined EPA, NRCS, and Endowment funds. Project selections for 2018 will be announced soon. Grantees from theprogram’s first two years are gathering in Seattle with agency partners this week to learn from each other and build support networks that will ensure progress continues long after grant funds are expended.
For more information contact:
Peter Stangel, 404-915-2763, peter@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
The report “Forest Health Initiative: A Retrospective Look” released today by the Forest Health Initiative (FHI) provides insight into and describes outcomes of a ground-breaking multi-year project that set out to better understand the potential, value and role of modern biotechnology in addressing some of today’smost pressing forest health issues. Launched in 2009, FHI is a collaborative effort sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS), the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment), and Duke Energy designed to plumb the potential of genetically modifying trees to make them more resistant to threats, while concurrently assessing relevant societal and regulatory issues.
“Forests are being lost at an alarming rate due to devastating insect and disease infestations and wedon’t have the luxury of time that affords using only 20th century tools to deal with 21st century challenges,” said Endowment President and CEO Carlton Owen. “FHI allowed us to bring together public and private scientists, conservationists, non-profits and the private sector to confront these threats and advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for America’s forests.”
All funding for FHI came from partners outside the for-profit biotechnology and forest sectors to ensurethe program’s objectives of transparency, independence and maximizing societal benefit. Three committees – Science, Policy & Regulatory, and Social & Environmental – worked together on the project using a “braided” approach where scientific study operated openly in collaboration with social, environmental, and regulatory communities.
The Steering Committee – comprised of representatives from the three sponsors, environmental organizations (The Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy), and an independent scientist – hand-selected top scientists and institutions to collaborate on FHI. Clemson University, Penn State University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, University of Georgia and Virginia Tech joined with the USDA Forest Service lab in Mississippi to conduct the scientific work.
Similarly, all three federal biotechnology regulatory agencies were engaged: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). In addition, dozens of business, conservation and environmental interests were involved to ensure rigorous social and environmental input.
The first three-year phase (Phase I) focused on developing a range of potentially blight-resistant chestnut trees and tools for early detection of infection. In the first half of the 20th Century, the American chestnut – the test organism for the work — was driven to near extinction in the wild by chestnut blight and root rot, both caused by exotic fungi. Phase II addressed field-testing of modifed trees, understanding public views on use of biotechnology, and work to understand regulatory hurdles. In addition, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) study has been initiated to consider the state of the science and understanding for the use of biotechnology in addressing forest health challenges. This study started in fall 2017 and will be completed in 18 months.
As noted in the forward to the report by the lead sponsors, “The FHI process is a powerful example ofwhat can be achieved in a relatively short period of time with highly motivated people who are the best in their field, operating transparently with all interests and needs being considered concurrently. By any number of measures this has been a successful effort that laid the groundwork for a new model that canbe used with other threatened forest tree species.”
Owen noted, “We are releasing this report today in keeping with our commitment from the outset to do this work openly and to share all results freely with the scientific community as well as anyone with interest. To our knowledge this is the first and only work to consider the use of biotechnology solely to address forest health issues for the greater good of public interest.”
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
Greenville, S.C. – Protection of a key forest for the benefit of future generations was made possible by a $195,000 grant from the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund (the Fund). That funding leveraged another $800,000 in external funding, which allowed The Nature Conservancy to purchase property in Washington County, North Carolina, near the town of Plymouth. The 1,294 tract of cypress-tupelo swamps and stands of Atlantic white cedar located near the mouth of the Albemarle Sound creates a unique landscape with high ecological and conservation value.
The Nature Conservancy began a long-term conservation program in the area in 1982, known as the Roanoke River Project. Through the Project, The Nature Conservancy and partners have helped protect over 94,000 acres the Lower Roanoke River basin. This 1,294-acre parcel is one of the last unprotected areas near the mouth of the river; it is connected to The Nature Conservancy’s Roanoke Preserve and is across from the Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge, making it a highly desirable addition to the overall Roanoke River Conservation Plan. This property is among a large expanse of protected, un-fragmented floodplain forest that spans the lower 20 miles of the Lower Roanoke River.
“A key facet of good environmental stewardship is restoring and sustaining connectivity between protected areas and our critical resources,” said Carlton Owen, President and CEO of the U. S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, which administers the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund. “The Roanoke River basin contains significant ecological value and we are excited to be a part of its long-term conservation.”
The Roanoke River carries more water than any other North Carolina river. Its wide floodplain includes diverse vegetation and supports the state’s densest populations of white-tailed deer, bear, and wild turkeys. More than 220 bird species have been identified in the Roanoke River floodplain including 88 resident species that form the highest density of nesting birds anywhere in the state. Over 235 square miles of bottomland and cypress-tupelo forests lie along the lower Roanoke resulting in the largest intact and least disturbed expanse of these ecosystems on the East Coast.
The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund was launched in December of 2015 by Enviva, the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets. Through the first two years of this planned 10-year partnership, seven projects have been funded, committing $1 million. When these projects are completed, an estimated 10,500 acres of sensitive wetland forest and other habitats will have been protected.
About the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund
The Enviva Forest Conservation Fund is a $5 million, 10-year program established by Enviva Holdings, LP in December 2015 to permanently protect environmentally sensitive bottomland and wetland forests. Administered by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, the Fund awards grants annually to nonprofit organizations and government agencies for conservation projects in North Carolina and Virginia.
About The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental non-profit by assets and revenue in the Americas.Founded in 1951 and headquartered in Arlington Virginia the organization’s mission is to “conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.” The Nature Conservancy impacts conservation in 69 countries, including all 50 states of the United States. The Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres (48,000,000 ha) of land and thousands of miles or rivers worldwide.
For more information contact:
Alicia Cramer, Senior Vice President 205-792-865, alicia@runslikeclock.work
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
Greenville, S.C. – Building on the successful launch of State of America’s Forests in December of 2017, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today released three new packets of content on the interactive website, www.usaforests.org. The new topics include: forest insects and diseases; invasive plants; and invasive animals.
These topics address some of the myriad challenges that face our nation’s forests and focus onpotential solutions to these widespread problems.
State of America’s Forests, an online multimedia guide, helps users explore the many benefits forests provide, understand challenges facing this renewable resource, and learn about forest management and conservation. Based on peer-reviewed studies and verified data, the first two modules touched on fire in our forests and the role forests play in providing clean water.
“Although these specific additions highlight the threat of invasive species in America’s forests, we at the Endowment recognize that pests do not honor state or national borders,” says EndowmentPresident and CEO Carlton Owen. “Threats to our forests affect all of North America. In response we have on-going work with a number of organizations in Canada as we continually look forshared solutions to address burgeoning challenges.”
The project lead for State of America’s Forests, Dr. Mila Alvarez, will continue to work closely withthe Endowment’s project partner, the USDA Forest Service, to bring additional content to the site in the coming months.
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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’sworking forests and forest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
When an entire city relies on drinking water from one reservoir, that resource should be actively protected. An impact report released today by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) highlights a creative approach to protection in Raleigh, North Carolina. The report features the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative (Initiative), a dynamic partnership between Raleigh Public Utilities, the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC), and other partners. The program was supported in part by an award from the Endowment and the federal USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Forested areas across the country act as natural filtration systems for community water supplies; forests provide clean drinking water for nearly two-thirds of the American population. With the rapid increase in urbanization in many areas, however, this natural process of purification is being threatened by encroaching development and dwindling forest filters.
Some communities have decided to be proactive about the problem. The City of Raleigh, for example, has placed a high priority on protection of the Upper Neuse Basin, home to the Falls Lake Reservoir. The Reservoir acts as the main water supply for the City, which has a service population of 560,000 people. In recent decades, the Reservoir has faced increasing levels of runoff from development, threatening thequality of Raleigh’s water supply. Recognizing that forested watersheds are a natural solution to thisthreat, the City joined together with various partners to actively protect the Upper Neuse Basin.
The Initiative enforces this protection by conserving land around the basin to act as a natural buffer, preventing harmful containments from entering Falls Lake and keeping encroaching residential and commercial development at bay. Land acquired from private landowners is done so on a voluntary manner – most landowners are excited to place their land in an easement as they see direct monetary and ecological benefits from this form of protection. Funding for land acquisition stems from a utility rate program, which is based on a volumetric charge on water usage per month. The added fee represents a generally-held belief among the local population that watershed protection benefits the community as a whole. The average residential user pays around $0.57 a month for the program, which generates around $2.25 million a year devoted to watershed protection.
Since the program’s inception, the Initiative has collected over $15.5 million and enabled the permanent protection of more than 7,600 acres of crucial land—including over 80 miles of streams. The Initiative’sstrong public support and success in watershed management has positioned Raleigh as a model example for similar projects around the state. Further, the program’s success demonstrates how green and grey infrastructure can be utilized to ensure clean drinking water continually flows into both Falls Lake and Raleigh households.
Watershed protection efforts can be very cost-effective for consumers. New York City’s watershedprotection efforts in the Catskills contributed to a 10-year extension of the city’s filtration avoidancedetermination, potentially saving up to $10 billion that would be required for a new treatment facility. An analysis conducted by the Beaver Watershed District of Northwest Arkansas calculated a benefit of $7.63 for every $1 spent on protecting existing forest land, an excellent natural filter of pollutants and sediment.
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
We at the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) hope you will join us as we celebrate World Wetlands Day 2018! This day is set aside as an annual celebration marking the adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands signed February 2, 1971 in Ramsar, Iran. World Wetlands Day is intended to raise awareness of the invaluable role wetlands play in our lives everyday. From habitats for a variety of fish and wildlife species, to natural filters of our drinking water and protection of shorelines against storms, wetlands serve vitally important roles for both people and the environment. The Endowment applauds the efforts of public and private organizations around the world working tirelessly to protect these natural treasures. This year we want to especially express appreciation to our friends at Enviva and the many conservation partners in North Carolina and Virginia who are helping to make the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund part of the global wetland protection effort. In just its first two years the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund has helped local partners advance seven projects that when completed will protect more than 10,000 acres of sensitive wetland forests.
To learn more about World Wetlands Day, visit http://www.worldwetlandsday.org/
To learn more about the Endowment’s work to protect wetlands, visit https://www.usendowment.org/rfps/envivafund.html
Leveraging lessons from the natural world can lead to more efficient and impactful work for a non-profit tasked with advancing stewardship of North America’s working forests. That’s the thesis behind the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities’ (Endowment) 2017 Annual Report, Working with Nature.Touching on natural concepts such as biomimicry and environmental adaptation, the report examines accomplishments over the year.
“With this year’s Annual Report, we hope to provide a visually compelling story about our work and the landscapes and communities we touch,” says Carlton Owen, Endowment President & CEO. “We hope ourpartners—both those who share in funding the work and those who are doing the work on the ground— gain the reader’s appreciation for all they are doing for forests and the rural communities nested withinthem.”
A stand-alone essay titled Fire! Thoughts on Markets and Conservation looks at the threat of mega- wildfires in forested landscapes. “Fire will not cease to be a part of our natural system,” the essay notes. “But if we learn to better prepare our ecosystems for such events and maintain healthy forests, we mayreach a point where catastrophic ones are less common.”
Working with Nature also highlights the stunning nature photography of Greenville, SC based Mac Stone.Stone’s photographs of forested landscapes capture the underlying motivation of the Endowment’s work:healthy, productive working forests for people and the environment.
The digital version of the report offers links to a wealth of additional online content including videos, databases, and a podcast featuring Endowment Board Chairman Colin Moseley.
For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
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 andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org
