Southwestern Crown Proposal selected for the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program
Northwest Connections is one of many diverse organizations and agencies working collaboratively on the Southwestern Crown Proposal for the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP). Our proposal was one of 2 nominated by the Forest Service Region 1 and has been selected at the National Level. This program of work has great potential in our region to promote ecological resiliency, improve watershed health and create needed jobs.

Western Montana, Idaho forest restoration projects get federal funds
by MATT VOLZ Associated Press, The Missoulian, August 14, 2010 (PDF)

Southwestern Crown of the Continent Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Proposal Summary (PDF)

Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Southwestern Crown of the Continent Talking Points – December 2009 (PDF)

Southwestern Crown of the Continent Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program Proposal Map (PDF)

Coalition proposes forest restoration in Blackfoot, Clearwater, Swan river valleys by MICHAEL JAMISON of The Missoulian,
May 18, 2010 (PDF)

For more information on this proposal and program please visit: http://www.swcrown.com/

Melanie Parker, along with other rural leaders from communities across the western United States delivered testimony to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands at an oversight hearing on “Locally Grown: Creating Rural Jobs with America’s Public Lands”. You can view their written testimonies along with their common testimony themes here http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/resources/Testimony/july-15-2010-subcommittee-hearing.

View a recorded video of the hearing.

Excerpts from Melanie's testimony:

“I hope that as you listen to the testimony of all my fellow panelists you realize that we represent something very important. We are new voices. We are not the voices of industry and we are not the voices of environmentalism. We are a third way and we are rapidly becoming the new way of doing business in the West.”

“We are organizing and we are aggregating, because we know something deep in our hearts. We know that land and people are inextricably linked and that until this country figures out how to protect resources and use them responsibly, we are sunk. We are in it for the long haul and we hope you will partner with us.”

Download the full text of Melanie's testimony. (PDF)

Sustainable Northwest Press Release - July 15, 2010 (PDF)
Rural leaders urge feds to work with them closely for western land stewardship,
jobs and much-needed economic development.

Northwest Connections is a leader in the Community-Based Forestry Movement. This movement works towards a common goal: restoring and maintaining forest health while respecting local knowledge and bolstering rural economies. A large part of this movement is influencing local, state, and national policies in a way that promotes the protection of rural landscapes and rural economies. We believe that rural people need to have a strong voice in influencing the policies that effect natural resource management decisions on both public and private lands that surround them.

We are an active member of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC). This coalition is comprised of rural organizations working towards balanced conservation-based approaches to the ecological and economic problems facing the West. This group is committed to finding and promoting policy solutions through collaborative, place-based work that recognizes the inextricable link between the long-term health of the land and the well-being of rural communities.

In 2010 this coalition is focusing its policy priorities on: Rural Green Jobs, Biomass Utilization, Climate Change, Public Lands Stewardship, Private Working Lands, and Range and Ranchlands. As part of our involvement with this coalition, we have been increasingly focused on promoting national policies that protect and conserve private working forests and ranchlands. We co-chair the Private Lands Working Group. This group believes that private working lands and their stewards provide the foundation for conservation of natural resources and resource-based economies in the rural West. The group’s goals include :

Goal 1: Developing alternative value streams for private landowners 

Goal 2: Protecting working lands through easement and acquisition 

Goal 3: Increasing capacity for landowner financial and technical assistance

Goal 4: Increasing capacity and support for cross-boundary management 

Goal 5: Encouraging  inter-generational land transfer through tax reform

Our work each year takes us to Washington D.C. with other rural practioners to promote our policy solutions during the RVCC Western Week in Washington. 
View this link for a recap of our 2009 trip.

Private Working Lands Issue Paper, April 2010

Rural Natural Resource Green Jobs, April 2010

Woody Biomass Issue Paper, April 2008

Introduction to Community Forests, April 2007

To read all of the issue papers that RVCC has worked on
and that we have endorsed please go to:

http://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/resources/rvcc-issue-papers

As part of our policy work to protect rural landscapes and livelihoods and  to assist in preventing the conversion of private working lands to non-forest uses we served on the drafting committee for the Threats to Western Private Forests Initiative; initiated by the Western Forest Leadership Coalition.

The goal of this initiative was to draft a report to facilitate the creation of a new business model and a new policy framework that, together, address the needs of private forest landowners; local, state and federal agencies; environmental organizations; and other stakeholders in the Western U.S. The final report can be viewed here. Click here to view the Executive Summary. (PDF)

NwC will remain actively involved in policy work as long as we continue to see our efforts result in practical policy solutions that link directly back to the protection of rural places like the Swan Valley.

A new book, Saving the Wide Open Spaces: The Conservation of Biodiversity and Working Landscapes, to be published in 2010, discusses the increasing threat of land fragmentation across the West and highlights new strategies for maintaining the ecological, economic and social values of working landscapes. Melanie Parker from Northwest Connections is the author of one chapter which centers on the conservation of Plum Creek lands in the Swan Valley.