The Forest Stewards Guild

Programs: Ecological forestry: the forest stewards guild actively practices and promotes ecological forestry, an approach to responsible resource management that sustains the entire forest ecosystem. We work from maine to new mexico, wisconsin to washington state to improve how forestry is practiced through research, education, and demonstration. In 2017, the guild hosted professional gatherings across the country that allowed experts, managers, students, and landowners an opportunity to learn more about how to implement ecological forestry. For example, at parker ten mile ranch in fort bragg, california participants discussed the nuances of small group selection with openings less than acre, which best mimics the natural disturbances of the coastal area. The guild also developed landscape stewardship plans for the cannon and zumbro river watersheds in southeastern minnesota, which will lead to increased implementation of ecological forestry in these importantwatersheds.

community forestry: the forest stewards guild revitalizes rural communities by implementing strategies that support social, economic, and ecological forest-based community goals. In september 2017, the guild was awarded a competitive grant from the national fish and wildlife foundation to restore shortleaf pine ecosystems in the cumberland plateau region of tennessee and kentucky. Through this project the guild will engage private forest landowners in the region by developing shortleaf habitat plans, organizing workshops and technical trainings, and distributing educational materials. The guild's forest stewards youth corps program has improved new mexico's natural resources and provided affected communities with long-lasting ecological and socio-economic benefits for over 20 years. 2017 was no exception and last year the program again engaged youth from rural, underserved, forest-based communities through summer employment and hands-on experience in stewardship activities on public lands. In maine, the guild's women and our woods workshop brought together women of the maine outdoors and enthusiastic woodland owners for an action packed skills workshop.

public policy: the forest stewards guild improves the effectiveness of forestry policies and programs through education, applied research, and field work designed for policy-makers, managers, and the general public. A key policy challenge across much of the western united states is to increase the pace and scale of wildfire threat reduction treatments, especially prescribed fire. The guild's 2017 reports on "controlled burning on private land and "putting good fire on the ground" helped focus the policy conversation on barriers that limited treatments. The guild engaged in policy discussions about bottomland hardwood forests and the growing wood pellet industry in numerous ways as a member of the wetland forest initiative steering committee, by presenting at the force sustainable forest biomass network hosted by the austrian academy of sciences, as a member of the bottomland hardwoods task force, and by participating in a three-day symposium in north carolina.