Blue Forest Monthly: The Fall 2023 Edition
Dear Blue Forest community,
Happy Autumn! 🍂 We hope you’re enjoying beautiful fall colors and cozying up to some nice sweater weather. We’re pleased to share that we recently renewed our long-standing partnership with the U.S. Forest Service through a new Challenge Cost Share Agreement (CCSA). The agreement represents a shared commitment to restoring ecosystems and mitigating the risk of catastrophic wildfires across National Forest System lands. We’re grateful for the Forest Service’s trust and collaboration and look forward to continuing our work together.
In other exciting news, work on the pilot Yuba I FRB on the Tahoe National Forestis almost complete! 🎉 One of the final components of the project has been to put beneficial fire on the ground in some high-elevation areas that were hard to get to in previous field seasons. Given adequate conditions on the landscape this fall, project implementer, National Forest Foundation has been able to carry out these prescribed (a.k.a. Rx) burns safely and effectively, getting us closer to the finish line. 🏁 Check out these awesome shots of the prescribed burn courtesy of the Tahoe National Forest! (Learn more about Rx burns here.)
On a different landscape, work continues on the Rogue Valley I FRB through the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. For the past 20 years, Lomakatsi’s Tribal Ecological Forestry Training Program has provided training to hundreds of participants, with the goal of building workforce capacity to conduct forest and aquatic restoration and resiliency work across ancestral lands. “Tribal Hands on the Land” is a new, short documentary that explores “how collaboration with Tribes and Tribal communities through ecological restoration initiatives is helping to heal the land and the people” and deeply shows some of the many reasons why we at Blue Forestare immensely excited about our partnership with the organization. We invite you to watch this powerful and heartwarming short film here.
Blue Forest continues to deploy capital from the California Wildfire Innovation Fund and recently announced the second portfolio investment in Tahoe Forest Products (TFP), a new sawmilling business founded to support restoration goals in the broader Tahoe and Central Sierra region. In partnership with the Washoe Development Corporation, an affiliate of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California, TFP is committed to revitalizing the region’s sustainable forestry supply chain and providing employment opportunities for dozens of local community and Tribal members. Learn more here.
Our science team continues to make waves! 👏 Earlier this month, Senior Project Scientist, Tessa Maurer, Ph.D. was invited to be a part of the “Outcomes-based Financing for Nature-based Infrastructure” panel at the 2023 Building Bridges Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. Watch as Tessa discusses how the ForestResilience Bond utilizes innovative finance to fund nature-based solutions. In addition, Blue Forest team member Kim Quesnel Seipp, PhD and board member Newsha Ajami, PhD recently published a new paper on the cascading impacts that wildfires can have on our water supply systems. You can read more about it in this month’s Science Corner below.
Here’s to a bountiful harvest season!
The Blue Forest Team 💚
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Featured Blog
Written By: Kirsten Hodgson
As a remote-first organization with employees across the country, in-person interaction between Blue Forest staff-members is both rare and essential. Creating opportunities to connect with each other beyond the boundaries of our shared work helps us bond and better understand each other. With that in mind, this month the team gathered at Whispertree Pool Retreat in Boonville, CA for a week of reflection, connection, and visioning.
Nearing the end of a year of continued growth, this week was a perfect opportunity to reflect on the recent changes that have occurred at Blue Forest, including new staff, projects, and programs. We did so in sessions designed to encourage thoughtfulness, recognition, and dreaming in both small and large groups, bringing together diverse sides of our organization.
Continue reading here.
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