Happy 30th Anniversary from the Guild’s Executive Director

Written by Zander Evans

The Guild has achieved a true milestone. Most inspirational ideas never come to life and even fewer grow to become a national movement with a three-decade history of success!The Guild’s success story is particularly surprising because it is a true grassroots movement. From a spark of connection at a small gathering in 1995, all of you have created momentum and collective progress. 

This is a big enough accomplishment that we’ll be celebrating all year long. And more importantly, we’re setting our sights on expanding our positive impact to more communities and forests over the  next  30 years! 

In fact, because good things take time, we’re going to extend the celebration right through spring 2026! Just like our 25thAnniversary Guild Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina in 2021, we are going to hold our big Guild Gathering in 2026 to ensure we do it right (we are planning on an event in the Northeast and will share a save the date as soon as a location is confirmed). 

Leading up to the big 30thcelebration, we have a  lot planned for 2025. We will have Guild Gatherings all over (and there’s still time to host your own with some support from Guild staff). We are encouraging members to host Guild Gatherings in their areas and several members have taken us up on that! Jack Singer of Pacific Forest Trust and the Guild’s MPC, along with Michael McDowell and Arcata Community Forest, are hosting a field tour fit for students and professionals alike in California in April! We have another member-hosted tour coming in June in New Mexico and a virtual retreat series in April too. Our student chapter in Alabama is going on a canoe trip to learn about the importance of forests for streams. Your event could also be a field tour, or an informal gathering of members and partners around a beverage or to discuss a book. 

The Guild will host gatherings in conjunction with big events likethe 9thAmerican Forest Congress this summer (more information coming in the next issue of this e-newsletter). We’ll continue to have opportunities to connect online – we had three just this week:

• a Guild discussion of the Telephone Gap Project on the Green Mountain National Forest,
• an informational session about the Lingering Hemlock Project, and
• a discussion of Biochar

Look for all of the recordings on our youtube channel soon.

Registration is now open for the opportunity to dive deep into the philosophy of old forests and your relationship with them in a 3-session virtual retreat in April!

With so much happening, now is a great time to invite your colleagues to join the Guild!