Forum Beginnings and
Sustainable Forest Communities

College of Forestry Resources Dean Bruce Bare and Brian Boyle began the Northwest Environmental Forum at the University of Washington in 2003 to expand UW’s ability to apply science and technology research to natural resource and environmental policy issues.  The Forum is a catalyst to meld UW and CFR physical, biological, climate, and other sciences to help public decision makers better understand population dynamics, resource conflicts, and their effects on the sustainability of natural systems, and an “educational observatory” where faculty and students can work, add value, and learn from the events. 

Forums in 2004-2006
The first two-day Forum, “Saving Washington’s Working Forest Land Base,” was held in November 2004, and was a response to requests from non-governmental organizations.  The 2005 Washington State Legislature responded to the Forum by appropriating $1.0 million for the College of Forest Resources to research timber supply, industry competitiveness, and the impacts of forest land losses to development pressures. College researchers reported study findings to the October and November 2006 Forums, which made new recommendations.  The 2007 Legislature then appropriated more research funds and requested recommendations from the Forum regarding working forest land retention.  All Forum proceedings and recommendations, plus the June 2007 progress report to Forum participants that outlines how the 2007 Legislature responded to the Forum findings can be found at Previous Forums - Reports & Findings.

Washington State has large industrial and non-industrial land holdings and also has state forests that are managed to produce income for schools and universities.  The forest products industry is a significant economic driver for communities in all corners of the state.  Forests, even logged periodically, provide protection for riparian ecosystems far more than when the forest is gone, yet the forces of growth are fragmenting the forests into unsustainable economic and environmental units.  The economics of forest ownership are changing as urban centers have encroached on forests with houses and malls and the stresses imposed by growth.  These forces stimulate forest conversion, by raising values to convert the land, limiting sawmill expansion so transportation distance is unmanageable, and overcrowding roads so haulage costs are prohibitive.  It is actually easier under some local rules to site a house or other building near a stream in Washington State than it is to log a forest near the same stream and reforest the land. 

In the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Forums, there was widespread agreement among participants that we need a way to create markets for ecosystem services provided by sustainable forests, and that some method of paying for ecosystem services will ultimately be needed to keep working forests on the landscape. The complexity of creating markets for carbon, wildlife habitat, or clean water demands a reasoned assessment and a weighing of facts by diverse constituents.  The Forum creates the working space to move outside past disagreements and cultural perceptions and weigh these complex concepts in terms of real issues.

The Forum in 2007-2008: Retaining Threatened Working Forest Lands and Enhancing Biodiversity
The Forum met in a one-day November 2007 session to address a state-wide strategy for working forest retention, as proposed by the 2007 legislature. The DNR was considering how to spend a new $70 million appropriation for threatened forest lands, and agreed that the Forum and the College should help guide the acquisition criteria.  The Forum proposed that a baseline mapped understanding of the spatial, land use, and biological dimensions of forest land conversion was needed.  Using a limited land base (Snohomish county), NGOs sketched on maps their individual acquisition and protection strategies as a referencing base so that Forum participants could begin to consider working forest land retention strategies. 

The Forum also reviewed an analytical approach from the College of Forest Resources to evaluate risk of conversion, the economic and biodiversity values of critical forest areas, and programs and market-based strategies to offset working forest conversion.  This is in response to a 2007 Legislative budget proviso to the College.  A statewide land parcel data base, that has been funded through the Family Forest Foundation, will provide a base for the risk of conversion analysis, and allow 2008 Forum participants to assess strategic linkages for biodiversity and critical working forest land retention strategies. We will address family and other private forest landowner incentives that can offset at least some of the economic advantages of converting forests to non-forest urban uses. Expert advisor panels will meet prior to the 2008 Forum to help focus the work of the Forum. We expect that the 2008 Forum will generate recommendations in time for the 2009 Washington Legislature.

The Forum as Integrator of Ecology, Economy and Community

Ecology - Sprawling suburbs, public environmental expectations, regulations, market conditions, and global competition have put immense pressure on forest landowners throughout the developed world. The Northwest Environmental Forum has created a private-public partnership to stop losses of productive forest landscapes. The Forum addresses how forest stewardship, which protects water supplies, wildlife values, and other desirable conditions can persist if there is not a sufficient return from cutting timber when compared to other uses of the land. The economic values of ecosystem services (e.g., watershed protection, biodiversity, or carbon storage) are perceived to be huge, yet are generally not priced or exchanged in markets, so landowners are given few incentives to provide them, beyond regulation. The 2007-2008 Forums will develop a unified strategy between public and private conservation approaches to sustain forest management as critical to ecological protection of lands threatened by development.

Economy - Forest land is increasingly a financial, rather than an industrial, asset, as old-line companies have monetized their forest assets and been replaced by institutional investor-managers, or reorganized into real estate investment trusts. The landscape of forest owners is changing rapidly, and the income expectations of owners are often met by rising land development values. Even non-profit landowners have revenue needs.  All Forum participants want to sustain working forests and forest-related jobs.

Recent studies by the College of Forest Resources show that national forests in Washington produce only about 10 percent of the timber that was harvested during their heydays in the 1970’s, and highly-productive industrial, state, and small private, non-industrial forest lands have filled the gap. Non-industrial and family-owned woodlots, about 25 percent of the forest base of Washington, are typically closer to cities and under the greatest pressure to develop. These lands are also important for wildlife habitat and fish regeneration, especially in highly-productive lowland riparian areas.  The importance of industrial, non-industrial, and family ownerships of these woodlands in terms of state gross business income, family income, total jobs, and contribution to local and national economies were quantified in the College of Forest Resources’ research studies commissioned as result of the first Forum.  We cannot easily quantify biodiversity or other ecological factors of the land since markets don’t exist for ecological services, yet they have value and their loss is dramatic when the forests are converted to shopping malls. 

Community - NGOs such as The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, Ecotrust, The Conservation Fund and Pacific Forest Trust have studied non-market incentives and ecoservice pricing, yet there was no “forum” for all these non-profits to convene to discuss their various strategies, and in addition, to have the forest products industry join them in a dialogue about how to implement ecosystem service markets. Family forest owners, timber investment management organizations and others are also in agreement that such markets are needed but don’t know yet how to create them.  Economics, rather than regulations, induce people to manage their forests rather than convert them.  And manage the forests means that they invest in regeneration, with a long-term expectation of future harvest.  A strategy that advances that concept should also make it possible for new generations in family forest ownerships to keep their land in working forests.

The Forum alliance of family forest owners, non-profits, land trusts, tribal nations, timberland companies, and government agencies supports a common goal – maintaining forested landscapes in an urbanizing and climate-altered world. The Forum brings together NGO organizations like Ecotrust, The Nature Conservancy and Washington Audubon; timber interests such as the Weyerhaeuser Company, Port Blakely Tree Farms and Washington Farm Forestry; state and federal government agencies and tribal nations such as the Yakama, Colville, Quinault and Makah; in a trusted and facts-based problem-solving environment to discuss natural resources solutions.  About 80 people met in November 2004; 35 in an April 2005 mini-Forum; 90 in November 2005; 65 in October 2006; 88 representatives of 41 organizations in November 2006 and 85 in 2007.  This community of people is keenly involved and committed to the Forum.

How We Will Measure Success
Our Forum dialogue among forest owners, environmental and tribal leaders, government decision-makers, and university researchers has great power because a factual basis is used to catalyze collaborative action to address critical problems.  The value of the Forum is measured by specific solutions to specific problems, and by the structure and processes that serve as a blueprint for other results-based dialogues. We have demonstrated so far that Forum collaboration can catalyze legislative action as well.  Our success in the up-coming 2008 Forum will be similarly measured, especially if we stimulate action in 2009-2010 on ecosystem-based markets, such as for carbon. We have a vital issue on which to collaborate – the future of private and public forest ecosystems and forest-dependent communities.