The Membership and Policy Council spent the first half of 2026 engaging with Guild staff and acquainting ourselves with our new roles. We've welcomed Ali Kosaba, PhD, Kristen Pelz, PhD, and Stephen Montgomery to the MPC. Meanwhile, some longer-tenured MPC members stepped into new leadership roles, including me (Jack Singer, Chair), and Sara Kelso (Secretary). Finally, we had to say goodbye to Malloree Weinheimer, who resigned from the MPC to focus on growing her women-owned ecological forestry consulting business in the Pacific Northwest (Chickadee Forestry). We will welcome Lara Miller to her open spot for the second half of the year beginning in July.
A focus of the early winter months was orienting ourselves to the issues and priorities facing the Guild. Staff joined early morning conversations with the MPC, including Zander Evans, Colleen Robinson, Esme Cadiente, and Mateo Pomilia. We were fortunate to interact directly with Guild members during February’s MPC Meet and Greet. And more recently, several MPC members have participated in the Guild's ongoing discussions regarding research and management of federal public lands, led by Zander and other Guild leadership.
As we gear up for membership season, many of us are excited to continue engaging with existing and new Guild Members across the nation. There has never been a better time to commit to the principles of forest stewardship! We hope you will all join us in
renewing your membership to the Forest Stewards Guild and
spreading the word to other interested people in your regions. We hope to see many of you at upcoming events, such as the
National Guild Gathering in Maine (Sept 15-17), and the
Northwest Innovative Forestry Summit (June 10-12).
Throughout the rest of 2026, we will be focusing our policy efforts on creating a Position Statement for the Forest Stewards Guild regarding the decline of market demand for low-value forest products. I understand from my work conserving and restoring private forests in Western Oregon and California that without steady market demand for the lowest value trees on a forested landscape, it is extremely challenging to plan and implement the solutions from the Guild's recent Position Statements on Climate-Smart Forestry and Stewarding Old Forests and Trees on working forest lands, especially considering some of the recent and alarming trends with mill closures and fuel costs. We want to be clear that this conversation is not about speeding up rotation ages; we are looking at this issue as a financial barrier that may prevent commercial thinning as a method to support forest ecosystem restoration across the continent. These trends and the challenges they present are not unique to my region of work. The MPC will be taking a multi-regional approach at these issues, presenting historic trends, describing the problems these conditions pose for ecological forest restoration, and focusing on highlighting solutions that are already being implemented in real-time. We’ll also include MPC recommendations for investing in future growth to best align the forest economy with the Guild's Core Principles.
Thank you to all Guild followers for your interest, to our members and donors for your support, and to the full MPC and suite of Guild partners. Together, your efforts forge a healthy future for people and forests!
