Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Restoration Project Pilots Innovative Funding Mechanism
Prospect, OR May 13, 2021, — In a recent announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, Blue Forest Conservation was recently awarded a Wood Innovation Grant of $249,000 in support of expanding the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB) to the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. This grant complements funding provided through the Innovative Finance for National Forests grant program in 2020.
The FRB is a public private partnership that allows private investment dollars to provide the upfront costs to implement forest restoration projects. Investors are paid back over time by stakeholders that benefit from a healthy, resilient forest ecosystem.
Ultimately, this model would reduce the overall cost of management activities on the forest and lower the risk of damaging fires by carefully implementing forest restoration and benefiting the economic and environmental health of rural communities.
“We recognize the Forest Resilience Bond as a creative approach to how our Forest can more effectively implement planned land management activities. The Forest encompasses approximately 1.8 million acres of public lands in need of support from partnerships like Blue Forest Conservation,” said Natural Resources Staff Officer Eric Burke.
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