Top 5 Reasons to support NNRG:

Our dedicated, knowledgeable staff. If you own a small- to medium-sized forest and want to manage your land for more than just the almighty dollar, it helps to have someone in your corner with the wisdom and experience to help achieve your ecological, economic, aesthetic, and even spiritual goals for the forest.

That’s the staff of NNRG. We have room here to mention just three of them: Rick, our most seasoned forester, has a 30-year track record of getting landowners the best price for their timber so they can cut the minimum necessary to meet their financial objectives. Lindsay, our director of programs, talks regularly with our 150 forest-owning affiliates to keep current with their challenges and successes. Kirk, our director of forestry, makes the forest’s ecological processes come to life through his spirited presentations in the woods. Your support keeps them in the field, helping forest owners steward their land toward mature forest habitat.

Because climate matters. Our changing climate is already starting to affect Northwest forests. We’re tackling the issue by creating a curriculum for foresters on adaptation approaches to a shifting climate, helping them steer landowners toward climate resilience through the management plans they write. You can learn more at a conference we’re convening this June in Olympia about how to prepare forests for climate change, and how the carbon storage in forests and wood products can help mitigate the drivers of climate change.

Our brand-new strategic plan. Hot off the presses, our plan includes several new projects, such as succession planning for older forest owners, establishing a demonstration site for ecological forestry, and studying the financial returns of timber harvests that meet FSC standards, plus other projects that will be familiar to long-time friends of NNRG, such as harvest consulting and Forest Stewardship Council® certification. We’re excited to put it into practice!

Forest to frame. If you’re reading this indoors, chances are you’re in a building that’s made at least partly of wood. NNRG is working to strengthen the connection between our region’s forests and the places where its timber is put to use, by making it easier to find regionally sourced FSC® wood. Look for a searchable database of FSC products, coming this summer.

The future of cedars, salamanders, and people. With NNRG’s help, families, municipalities, nonprofits, and native tribes in Washington and Oregon are managing their forests for a bright future of the forest and their communities. With your help, we can do even more to assist them.

We invite you to consider a gift to Northwest Natural Resource Group this month, as part of the Seattle Foundation’s region-wide Give Big campaign. Your support is key to our new initiatives, like a searchable database that will connect architects, contractors and home-improvers with the FSC products they’re looking for.

P.S. Are you a new supporter of NNRG? Your contribution will be doubled, thanks to a generous board member who will match the first $500 in gifts from new donors.

Photo: Matt Freeman-Gleason