Two Solutions to Help More Landowners Find Support for Stewardship
Oregon, like other parts of the West, continues to struggle with wildfire. With a record drought, overcrowded forests and insect epidemics, wildfires are raging bigger and more destructive.
Yet our forests remain vitally important– providing wildlife habitat, wood for products and building, carbon storage and clean water.
Now, more than ever, there is a need to reduce risk regionwide – including across both public and private land.
In Oregon, forest ownership is a patchwork, with public, private and family-owned land intermixed. Federal and state agencies are doing their part, working to restore forest health and reduce the fuel loads on public land. But supporting private and family landowners in wildfire reduction is equally important.
While landowners want to do their part, they often face challenges that keep them from acting. Many landowners do not have the technical expertise needed for management of their forest. Even those landowners who do have significant experience, have moments when they need professional advice. Finding this technical support is a challenge, particularly for those who do not know whom to contact, or what programs or resources might be available to them.
Secondly, when a landowner does reach out to get assistance, they are often met with another barrier – lack of forester capacity. Agency and consulting forester numbers are low, and of those existing foresters, time is tight with their responsibilities, including actual wildland firefighting in many places. Because wildfire seasons are getting longer, it’s taking more time away from many state agency foresters who assist with forest health and conservation. Adding to this, there is an increase in demand by landowners who are interested in forest management technical assistance.
The American Forest Foundation (AFF), in its work to support forest owners in overcoming the challenges to caring for their land is working to address these two significant barriers. Partnering with local and state organizations, AFF is providing tools, expertise and innovative program ideas to those groups on the ground that work hand in hand with landowners.
In Oregon, AFF has partnered with the Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon State University Extension, and many others in a program called the My Southern Oregon Woodlands (MSOW). Through MSOW, AFF is collaborating with partners in southwestern Oregon to reach more landowners, provide more access to experts, and help navigate the forest management process – all with the goal of getting more landowners to take action to mitigate catastrophic wildfire risk and protect our important forested ecosystems. Specifically, AFF has:
Introduced a new recruitment tool, to the region to connect landowners with resources. WoodsCamp is an online resource for private forest owners that connects them with programs, services, and professionals to help them care for their land. The program allows landowners to self-identify their property on a map, and based on publicly available mapping data, creates a personalized report highlighting opportunities matched to their goals and the conditions in the forest.
AFF has advised the project on creating a new peer mentor network to provide support and advice to landowners, as an additional option to a forester visit. A peer mentor network is a group of experienced landowners and forest managers who go out to meet with a landowner to offer a fellow landowner perspective and share experiences, and to help the landowner learn more about their land and build trust with the forestry community. This peer mentor visit often leads to a professional forester visit. Forester capacity is a challenge across the country, and AFF, through its conservation programs has tested innovative solutions to getting more landowners the support they need. The peer mentor network was first successfully tried in the northeast U.S., with the concept expanding to the west.
Hear from the MSOW program’s lead architect Kara Baylog, landowner coordinator with Oregon State University Extension, in the above video as she explains the program and what they are trying in Oregon to help more landowners get the help they need.
To learn more about this project, visit My Southern Oregon Woodlands.
If you work at a conservation organization, state agency or the like, and are interested in learning more about reaching and engaging landowners in forest stewardship sign up to receive AFF's IMPACT e-newsletter that includes project case studies, marketing tips, as well as insights and research on family forest owners.