Programs: Conservation: forterra is making sure this place we all live stays a place we all love. We do that by securing and caring for keystone lands - places with a vital role in our region's long-run livability, sustainability and equity. These include wildlands, working farms and forests, as well as places in the city for affordable housing, parks and the arts. Over the past 25 years, forterra has completed 400+ transactions and conserved 250,000+ acres. In 2013, forterra led a coalition to conserve the 50,272-acre teanaway community forest in the largest conservation transaction in washington in 45 years. In other projects, we have since 2015 conserved critical salmon habitat around the state, saved two farms, acquired a golf course that will become a major urban park, and started a new partnership focused on urban land for affordable housing. With our corridors for sustainability initiative, forterra is investing in the enhancement and sustainability of the lands and communities along our great natural corridors including the great northern corridor along highway 2 and the yakima/swiftwater river corridor in eastern washington, which encompasses the teanaway river valley, among other attractions. Through our network of regional offices, forterra brings a unique ability to convene disparate stakeholders, leverage diverse funding sources and find solutions that benefit not only our natural environment but our communities and economy as well.
stewardship: securing keystone land is only the start. It must also be cared for. Forterra looks after nearly 15,000 acres of fee and conservation easement properties in 13 washington counties. Working with local, state, federal, and tribal partners we implemented 5 new stewardship management plans to improve the ecological and societal value of our lands. We also actively work to restore urban natural areas through our green cities program. Launched in 2004 with the green seattle partnership, the program has since grown to include cities throughout western washington. These partnerships bring people together on volunteer projects at parks all over puget sound to remove invasive species, repair trails, restore stream-banks and more. Over the last year, volunteers completed more than 1,000 projects and logged over 115,000 volunteer hours in the partnership cities of seattle, tacoma, everett, redmond, kirkland, puyallup, snoqualmie, tukwila and kent. Through our stewardship in action program, forterra works on a watershed scale with public and private partners on projects such as the cedar river watershed, where we partner with seattle public utilities, king county and private landowners along the river. We are now working to replicate this successful model on the green-duwamish river. Community-based stewardship and restoration work not only gets this job done but instills an ethic of stewardship that pays far into the future, resulting in healthy habitats and sustainable communities. Further instilling community stewardship values forterra worked with 6 different school systems to bring students out of the classroom and onto our lands for field-based learning experiences.
policy: forterra continues to be a leader in the design and implementation of market-based growth management and conservation tools. To date, forterra has been involved in the design, adoption, and implementation of transfer of development rights (tdr) programs at three different levels: 10 cities, 4 counties, and 1 regional program. Since 2009 these programs have transferred development off more than 20,000 acres of farms and working forests, moving it through incentives into our region's cities. Demonstrating use of the tool, forterra sold credits we own into a snohomish county project. To support growth in cities using tdr, forterra led the creation of the landscape conservation and local infrastructure program (lclip), which gives cities a financial incentive to protect resource lands and make infrastructure investments. The use of this program in seattle will generate over $27m in new funding for public improvements. This forterra-designed tool was recognized by a state award in 2015. In 2016 forterra pursued lclip use in an additional 6 cities around the region. Among other places, forterra works in south king county to engage culturally diverse constituents in planning and policy issues related to improving quality of life for residents in tukwila, federal way, seatac and kent. Focus areas include public safety, housing, food access, and urban gardening. Forterra recently partnered with the city of tukwila and others to design a community liaison program in 2012, which was launched in 2013 through equity and diversity trainings, community planning trainings, and a project focused on bringing new voices to the city's comprehensive plan update process. This program was recognized with the citizen involvement award by the 2014 american planning association at the washington chapter conference. In 2016, six community connectors representing 4 diverse communities participated in a series of 3 leadership development and city trainings, working to disseminate information regarding city council meetings and disaster preparedness. Additionally, forterra worked with the city of seatac to engage over 100 community members in expanding urban agriculture opportunities, which resulted in the creation of the city's first community garden. Forterra's evergreen carbon capture (ecc) program provides local companies and organizations the opportunity to invest in local tree planting projects to mitigate their carbon emissions. The program was first piloted in 2010 with the support of pearl jam, and formally launched in 2012. Since piloting the program in 2010, ecc has planted over 33,000 trees to mitigate 165,000 tons of carbon. Trees are planted on forterra stewardship lands as well as on protected private and public land actively managed by partner organizations and agencies. To date, we have planted trees at over 33 locations and worked with 36 companies. Forterra leads a broad coalition from across the state that is working to catalyze a market for the sustainable production and use of engineered mass timber products like cross laminated timber, which offers an opportunity to house washington's growing urban population and businesses in buildings constructed from sustainable, locally produced materials. Mass timber is a promising building system that offers a variety of benefits in terms of its ability to lower the costs of construction in our cities, support rural economic development, and reduce carbon emissions associated with climate change when sustainably sourced. In 2016, forterra secured a $250,000 grant from the u. S. Forest service to convene a statewide coalition. Led by forterra, the coalition successfully advocated and secured almost $6 million from the washington state legislature to build clt classrooms as demonstration projects, for the department of commerce to provide technical assistance to production facilities, and for washington state university to provide research to the legislature about performance test results and building code amendments.
outreach and public education: forterra provides educational information on conservation to the public, presents its mission and vission to community leaders and organizations, and participates in public forums about conservation.
