One of the greatest threats to Northwest forests is changes in land use. Development for real estate and conversion to agriculture, pasture or other uses all contribute to the Puget lowlands having one of the highest rates of forest loss in the country.

When properties that were previously managed as industrial forests are broken up into 5, 10 or 20 acre 'forested estates', any emphasis on forest management usually comes to an end.

Many in this new generation of woodland owners view their property primarily as 'land' rather than forest, and use it as they choose to, often leading to the ongoing degradation or permanent loss of the forest.

Other small woodland owners view their forests as a refuge, and consider any management, especially timber harvest, to be a purely bad thing. The reality is that younger forests can almost always be accelerated to higher levels of diversity and productivity through active and well-informed management. 

Finding a middle ground between these two extremes can be daunting, even for well intentioned woodland owners.

Bringing these small ownerships back into the forestry economy and getting a long term stewardship plan established has been an ongoing challenge for natural resource agencies and advocacy groups like NNRG.

NNRG Executive Director, Denise Pranger, decided to use her own backyard as a testing ground for developing a community scale stewardship plan that addresses these problems. Along with her family's 5 acres, she gathering together three adjacent neighbors to form Thunder-Meadow Community Forest. All four parcels are managed under one plan and while many elements of the plan are common to all participants, it also ensures each owners' independence through separate goals, resource descriptions and other ownership-specific information.

Three of the four owners have joined Northwest Certified Forestry and intend to conduct FSC certified harvests and sell carbon credits in the next few years.

WSU Extension Forester and State Stewardship Forester, Mike Nystrom, reviewed the management plan and met with the group to discuss management goals and options, as well as financial and technical assistance programs. “Community plans are a great tool for helping owners of the smallest and most vulnerable woodlands understand and commit to the long term health and productivity of their forests” says Nystrom.

Pranger already has many of her other neighbors eager to get involved. "We're a very close-knit community and everybody wants to join in the fun" she says.  "The exercise has helped me realize that forest health starts with understanding what's happening on your land. Some of our trees are more than 100 years old on very poor soils. When we cut one down it will not return in our lifetimes, but it will provide a better situation for a neighboring tree to reach 200 years."