Forestry

FORESTRY

Mission Statement: PNWER’s Forestry Working Group is supportive of efforts that promote healthy forests, resilient watersheds, and socio-economic sustainability in communities that depend on them.

Join us at the 2018 Economic Leadership Forum, November 13-15 in Whitehorse, Yukon to see what issues our leaders are focused on this year.

2016-2017 ACTION ITEMS

Action Item	Progress	Result / Next Step
Write letter to Senate and House supporting the Timber Innovation Act.	Completed in November, 2016.
Empower collaboratives in a manner in which they have outcome based solutions and insulate them in the process to incentivize participation.	Draft letter of support is written and moving through edits.
Write a bulleted, one page issue paper on proactive solutions.	In progress
Discuss with the executive committee the importance of focusing on solutions, rather than bringing up ideas and problems.	In progress

2015-2016 Action items

Action Item	Progress	Result / Next Step
Support the empowerment of collaborative forest policy groups. Send message to congressional and provincial representatives in support of legislation designed to empower successful collaborative outcomes in US and Provincial forestlands.	Best practices in collaborative forest management were discussed at the 2016 PNWER Summit in Calgary and the 2016 PNWER Economic Leadership Forum in Boise.	Action item is being pursued in 2016-2017.
Research implementation of 2014 Farm Bill provisions with an emphasis on national forest lands designated for priority restoration by governors in the PNWER region.	Good Neighbor Authority facilitators from Idaho discussed the state's successful initiatives at the 2016 PNWER Economic Leadership Forum in Boise.
Research initiatives from bi-national lumber marketing organizations to see how the PNWER region can advance the following initiatives:	In progress
1. Pursue building standards that recognize wood as green building material.	Responsibly-sourced wood now recognized in pilot LEED alternate compliance path
2. Encourage state building code authorities to recognize performance standards for wood in tall buildings.	PNWER is working with WoodWorks to replicate a successful program in Oregon that led to statewide adoption of the 2015 Internationation Building Code as it relates to cross-laminated timber.
3. Encourage design research with an emphasis on structural fire resiliency.	In progress
4. Promote state programs and policies that encourage the use of biomass as a clean source of energy.	In progress
Encourage the promotion of social, economic, and environmental resiliency in rural communities within the region.	In progress
1) Advance state initiatives to increase pace and scale of public land management.	Best practices of collaborative forest management groups discussed at the 2016 PNWER Annual Summit.
2) Identify shared funding mechanisms to provide for necessary treatments, such as matching state and federal contributions, revolving loan funds or ways for states to share or recover costs of forest treatment work.	In progress