Wildlands and Woodlands Partnership Meeting

September 29, 2010Fisher Museum, Harvard Forest

Petersham, MA

America's Great Outdoors Initiative and the Listening Session in New Hampshire

-Jad Daley, TPL

America's Great Outdoors Initiative and the Listening Session in Maine

The New England Governor's Conference Blue Ribbon Commission on Land Conservation

-Lynn Lyford, New England Forestry Foundation

Northern Forest Investment Zone

-Joe Short, Northern Forest Center

1. Expand Financing & Investment Options

2. Develop Supportive Public Policy & Investment

3. Strengthen Capacity byBuilding Networks

Building Regional Capacity

1. Establish Community Forests

2. Launch

Mahoosuc Pilot

Place-Based Strategy Integration

1. Realize Profits from Ecosystem Services

2. Advance Community-Scale Biomass Energy

4. Increase Earnings fromHigh-Quality Tourism

Creating New & Revitalized Forest

Income Streams

3. Catalyze Innovation in Wood Products Mfg

2-3 schools/businesses with biomass heating• Local, sustainable, secure fuel supply• Significant cost savings• Reinvestment in local economy

2 Community Forests• Payments for biomass, carbon, water, & saw logs• Recreational resource• Ecological benefits

New Income for Forest Owners, Jobs for Forest Workers• Saw logs to local mills and manufacturers •Chip sales to local biomass installations •Access for recreation•Carbon, watershed payments

Jobs in Wood Products Manufacturing• Business innovation• Markets for local wood• Stabilized (and growing?) job base

Tourism Development • Hospitality training• Product development• Branding

High quality forest-based jobsInnovative forest-based business opportunitiesStabilized and sustainably managed forest base

Western Massachusetts Pilot Aggregation Project and New England Expansion

-Keith Ross, LandVest

A New England Forest Conservation Policy Agenda

-Kathy Fallon Lambert, Harvard Forest

Working Woodlands: Getting the Value Proposition Right for Private

Forest Landowners

-Dylan H. Jenkins, CF, Director of Forest Conservation, The Nature Conservancy

Forest Conservation Program in Pennsylvania

Dylan Jenkins, CFDylan Jenkins, CFDirector of Forest ConservationDirector of Forest ConservationThe Nature Conservancy in PAThe Nature Conservancy in PA

Getting the Value Proposition Getting the Value Proposition Right for Forest LandownersRight for Forest Landowners

SW-FM/CoC-238

Responsible ForestManagement

© 1996 FSC

Josh Parrish, CMAJosh Parrish, CMADirector of Conservation FinanceDirector of Conservation FinanceThe Nature Conservancy in PAThe Nature Conservancy in PA

Priority Landscapes

Where We Work

Owners – Central Appalachians

Where are private forests heading?

here?

or here?

Condition (1989-2005)• Stocking: Public > Private• Grade Quality: Public > Private• Low Use: Public < Private• Site Quality: Private > Public

= Degraded Private Forest Lands via Poor Management

FIA

FIA

Private Landowner Trends and Challenges• Aging landowners with wave of intergenerational transfer• Lack of forest and estate planning• Disinterested heirs• Ecological + amenity values over income, but…• Harvest without plan or professional assistance• Poor incentives to protect and manage forests sustainably

= Forest parcelization and forest use/cover fragmentation

NW

OS

NW

OS

Forest Landowners

RISK

EA

SE

SOCIALCLUBS

FORESTPRODUCTS

FIRMS

TIMOS

LANDTRUST

S

MUNICIPALITIES &

AUTHORITIES

FAMILYFORESTS

Why do bad things happen to good (private) forests?

TIME

VA

LU

E

ECOLOGIC

ECONOMIC

NATURAL CAPITAL

Sustainable Flow of Values

TIME

VA

LU

E

ECOLOGIC

ECONOMIC

N.C.

Tale of Two Forests…

TYPICALTRAJECTORY

• No plan

• No certification

• Declining timber quality

• No ecosystem service sales

• Parcelization and fragmentation

• Degraded forest

• Low quality timber

• Low quality habitat

• Low carbon storage

PRESENT

X

High quality plan

• FSC certification and sales

• Ecologically-based forest management

• Ecosystem service sales

• Protected investment

• Healthy forest

• High quality timber

• High quality habitat

• High carbon storage

Fundamentals

Maintain working forest landscapes for the production of high quality ecologic and economic values.

LONG-TERMFOREST

PROTECTION

• Working forest easements• Working forest agreements

CERTIFIEDFOREST

MANAGEMENT

• Inventory• Assessment and plan• FSC certification

ECOSYSTEMVALUE

MONETIZATION

• IFM + AC carbon offsets• Nutrient trading• Habitat mitigation

Institutionaland contractual

framework

Credibleand feasible

value proposition

Business Model

CertifiedForest

Management

• FSC wood markets

• new and secured clientele for CFs

• protect public investments

• satisfy C market prerequisites

• inventory, additionality, permanence

FSC CERTIFIEDHQ CARBON REVENUE

FSC SOLID WOOD & BIOMASS REVENUE

100%

Carbon Development

and Sales

•reduced costs to access C markets

•VCS, CAR, ACR

•project development

•C aggregation

•monitoring

•carbon marketing and sales

50%+

consultingforesters

state andfederal

Inventory+

FSC Plan andCertification

+Land Protection

• No up-front, out-of-pocket costs

• Full inventory

• FSC plan and certification

• 100% FSC-certified wood product revenues

• 50%+ forest carbon revenues

• Income tax deduction for easement donation

• Plan implementation

• Ecological health => product diversity => economic stability

Landowner Benefits

• Focus and protect public/private investments

• Active and engaged landowners

• Repair degraded forests; maintain desired conditions

• Keep working landscapes working and in private ownership

Public Benefits

PROPOSITION:

EcologicEconomic

Social

Reduce or eliminate transaction costs

Sharedrisk-reward model

Long termrelationship

Portfolio Development

RISK

EA

SE

SOCIALCLUBS

FORESTPRODUCTS

FIRMS

TIMOS

LANDTRUSTS

MUNICIPALITIES & AUTHORITIES

FAMILYFORESTS

35,000

11,000

10,000

5,000

Early Lessons

• Family forests

• Social clubs (hunt/fish, BSA, religious)

• Sawmills, other corporate

• Water authorities

• TIMO

• Land trusts and other TNC chapters

Market segments Institutionaland contractual

framework

Credibleand feasible

(revised) value proposition

Messaging, goals, barriers, values and vision

Financials

• Income assumptions sound

• Cost assumptions steady

• USFS SPF grant ($500k)

• Competing propositions understood

• Carbon protocols maturing, soft $$

• Quality, credibility

Better messaging

Greater confidence in value proposition

Strategy replication

Thank You!Dylan Jenkins, CF

The Nature Conservancy

570/321-9090djenkins@tnc.org

nature.org/workingwoodlands

Southern New England Forest Management

-Bob Perchel, The Forest Guild

Woodland Councils USFS Redesign Grant Project

-Jay Rasku, North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership

Regional Conservation Partnership Gathering, November 15

-Bill Labich, Highstead

Regional Conservation Partnership Gathering Nov. 15

Wildlands and Woodlands Stewardship Science Initiative

-David Orwig, Harvard Forest

Harnessing Conserved Land for Science and Adaptive Management

David A. Orwig

W and W framework of actively managed woodlands and wildland reservesprovides major research opportunities

Documenting current forest structure & long-term dynamics of diverse forestsEvaluating the consequences of diverse management compared to reserves

Not a new concept, but few examples exist that explicitly compare managed and unmanaged forests

We initiated a wide-ranging forest monitoring program to be used by and Attract participation from a diverse array of landowners, organizations, and Researchers so that they can provide the rigorous long-term data needed

Emerging W & W Stewardship Science network8 pilot sites, diverse partners: collaborations between private citizens, towns, land trusts, conservation organizations, foundations, universities, and state governments.

The sites represent a wide range of sizes and forest types located in remote wildlands to rural and suburban woodland locations. Varied objectives

All used W & W science protocol

Over 450 plots established!

Recent Activity

Presented poster at Ecological Society of America Meeting in August

Stewardship science talk at upcoming Land Trust Alliance Rally

Recently held a W & W Stewardship Science workshop at Highstead

Discussed protocol, aided participants in plot establishment and sampling

Citizen Science can be a benefit to Conservation efforts

W & W Stewardship Science Web site:http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/wwscience/

Serve as valuable reference for Initiating plots- step by step methodsand manual; example data sheets

Data submitted from groups across New England and stored

Highlight the growing network of usersIn NE advancing scientific, educationaland management objectives

W & W Stewardship Science paper Forthcoming!

The Massachusetts Land Initiative for Tomorrow (MassLIFT) – AmeriCorps Program

-Leigh Youngblood, Mt. Grace Land Conservation Trust