Successful Forest Service Partnerships
Partnerships are at the very core of how the Forest Service does business. There are partnerships that address almost every aspect of land management, scientific research and policy related to forests.
Forest Service, Arizona Elk Society restores meadow system, protects Phoenix’s drinking water supply
In May 2017, approximately 150 volunteers sponsored by the Arizona Elk Society descended on the Mogollon Rim District of the Coconino National Forest to help restore the high elevation meadow at Long Valley Draw. The partnership between the Society and the Forest Service is designed to stabilize and reduce erosion in a headwater meadow system to the Verde River that provides drinking water to the Phoenix metro area.
The work included installing loose-rock structures to stabilize headcuts, laying back steep side banks and installing erosion mat and seed to re-establish vegetation, and thinning small ponderosa pine trees that are beginning to encroach in the meadow system. The Arizona Elk Society brought 35 Forest Service-certified volunteer sawyers for the thinning, provided logistical support to all of the volunteers, and obtained funding to hire Natural Channel Design to design and manage the restoration work.
Forest Service, Blue Forest partner to build Forest Resilience Bonds
Since 2017, the Forest Service and Blue Forest have built a successful partnership focused on exploring the Forest Resilience Bond that blends public and private financing. The purpose of the bond is to overcome the funding gap for forest restoration. This is accomplished not through increases in public or philanthropic sources but by allowing private capital to play a role in supporting public land management.
Blue Forest has engaged with over 25 national forests across the agency to build capacity and develop over $100 million in potential Forest Resilience Bond projects. These projects focus on restoration, protecting our communities and forests from catastrophic wildfire for future generations.
As of fall 2022, this partnership has deployed financing to carry out $30 million of priority unfunded projects over 40,000 acres on the Tahoe National Forest. In spring 2023, Blue Forest launched their first Forest Resilience Bond in Oregon for a $7.5 million project covering 79,000 acres on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and adjacent lands.
Forest Service, historically Black colleges unite in wildland firefighting
A partnership between the Forest Service and Historically Black Colleges and Universities creates opportunities for students of color to help fight forest fires. The on-site fire academy is part of the 1890 Land Grant Institution Wildland Fire Consortium, a partnership between the Forest Service and a cluster of historically Black colleges comprised of Florida A&M University, Southern University in Louisiana, Tuskegee University and Alabama A&M University.
The idea for a consortium came during the pandemic to address a “mission critical area of the Forest Service,” said Stephanie Love an Alabama A&M alum and Forest Service employee. The initiative became official in 2021 with the hope that every student comes away with a foundation to be successful on one of many possible paths in forestry, ecology, agriculture.
Creativity fosters success in Alaska partnerships
There’s no shortage of partnership collaboration on the beautiful Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. Partnerships with tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, federal and state management agencies, local contractors, and environmental organizations are working with the Forest Service to restore streams and forests and deliver benefits to the public.
“We’ve been working on restoration for a while now, but this is an exciting moment because it’s gaining attention for its impact beyond just restoring the landscape,” said Katherine Prussian, Tongass hydrologist and Watershed Program manager. “Now we’re seeing how it is feeding the economy, creating jobs, increasing operators, increasing contractors and working with tribal organizations.”
This collaborative work helped inspire the USDA Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy to focus on community-driven priorities and ground-up solutions to improve federal land management and community development work for the people of Southeast Alaska.
These investments include $25 million dollars for 70 individual projects on the Tongass and Chugach national forests. They support the work of the three partners to advance Southeast Alaska’s overall prosperity and self-reliance and strengthen existing and emerging economic sectors. Approximately a quarter of total envisioned projects were initiated in 2022.
One partnership, with the Klawock Indigenous Steward Partnership, is intended to strengthen the existing partnership between the Klawock Cooperative Association, Prince of Wales Tribal Conservation District, Klawock Heenya Corporation, Shaan Seet Corporation, and Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition to implement the Klawock Sockeye Salmon Action Plan. These types of partnerships between local communities, tribes, and our agency allows us to continue build and strengthen relationships, increase employment opportunities for youth, improve trails, boost economic development, and ultimately sustain the two national forests in Alaska.
