With so much positive momentum within the Guild, it is hard to capture it all in
Across the Landscape.
Last year we crafted a business plan with Guild members at the center. Our business plan is designed to increase our ability to practice and promote stewardship for the benefit of people and forests. We identified three strategic choices 1) to fully embrace the leadership role we have earned in advancing the culture of forest stewardship, 2) to engage more folks across the country who share our values and
should
be Guild members, and 3) to expand our implementation, demonstration, and research projects in order to create more opportunities to engage and support members.
Embracing our leadership role in forest stewardship
The Guild’s
servant-leader approach continues to garner recognition. Esmé Cadiente, Chief Operating Officer, led a trip to Washington, DC that attracted government affairs experts from Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy. Eyan Krasilovsky, Chief Programmatic Officer in the West, is leading
Shared Stewardship field trips that have received support from the USFS and state foresters. Chief Programmatic Officer in the East, Matt Piccarello, continues to attract major investment from funders such as the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The
Northwest Innovative Summit last week in Oregon has its largest attendance to date. A new report on
Certified Prescribed Burn Manager Programs
led by Mike Lynch, Great Lakes Director, generated multiple requests for presentations and an inquiry from Montana for our help.
The Guild has been included in seven media stories just this quarter:
- SLELO PRISM hosts New York Invasive Species Awareness Week,
ABC50 Now, June 1
- Wildfire risk reduction grant money awarded, RDR News, May 27
- US Forest Service considers closing invasive insect labs in CT as part of reorganization, CT Mirror May 21
- UA Junior Selected for Udall Scholarship, UA News Center, May 13
- Earth, Wind and Fire: Santa Fe gets new wildfire camera, Santa Fe New Mexican, May 13
- A year later, remembering Henry Carey, Santa Fe New Mexican, May 1
- The Art of Generosity: Forest Stewards Guild Marks 30 Years of Forest Management, Table Magazine, April 21
Engaging a broad set of interest holders
The Guild is extending beyond our traditional base of supporters to include more people in our stewardship vision. One example is our recent participation in the national
Markets Matter event. The Guild has been able to support Indigenous stewardship in new ways such as workforce development with Jemez Pueblo and Penobscot Nation, a community wildfire protection plan for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the
Stewards of the Southwest Summit, and the new
Cultivando Conservación program. Our expanding staff has allowed us to connect to groups like Adventure Scientists and University of Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Economy Program.
Expanding our implementation, demonstration, and research projects
Central to the Guild’s mission to practice and promote stewardship is the expansion of our on-the-ground projects. These projects provide lessons that inform policy, deliver value to members, generate revenue, and demonstrate ways to strengthen our reciprocal relationship with forests. Our programs fall under four main headings.
Stewardship:
The Guild is continually adding or extending stewardship projects. For example, the recent work at
Effigy Mounds National Monument was so successful that the National Park Service is interested in more support from the Guild. The Guild is coordinating with four other organizations to implement a 200-acre fuel break to protect the Blanco Basin water supply system in southern Colorado via funding from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Landowners and Communities: Our work to support the stewardship of others is crucial for expanding our impact. The
Sustaining Ash Partnership Network has gained traction across the Northeast by establishing demonstration sites and engaging the public through multiple, on-going events. The
Fire Adapted New Mexico and
Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition connect directly to homeowners and communities to support resilience work through education and microgrants.
Training and workforce development: This week the Forest Stewards Youth Corps launch in New Mexico and for the first time in Maine through a partnership with the Penobscot Nation. Last week, the Guild’s forestry technicians at New River Gorge National Park started for the summer season. Early this quarter the
Forest Stewards Apprentices working in Southwest Virginia wrapped their year-long training program in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
Watch the video that Colleen Robinson, our Communications and Membership Manager, created from that pilot program. It is important to highlight foundational work by our business team, Fallon Grafe and Judi Beal. They ensured our workforce development programs are properly boarded, paid, and insured.
Research and Policy:
In addition to on-going national policy work, the Guild launched peer-learning opportunities focused on Shared Stewardship at the state level. The Guild published two new publications this quarter on
Certified Prescribed Burn Manager Programs and
Carbon Dioxide Removal Credit Markets via Biochar.
Later this summer we will launch a new research project to improve the science that supports wildfire ignition investigations with funding from the Joint Fire Science Program.
