COMMUNITY FOREST COLLABORATIVE

The Community Forest Collaborative is a partnership among the Trust for Public Land, the Northern Forest Center, Sustainable Forest Futures (SFF), and the Quebec Labrador Foundation.  Formed in 2005, the Collaborative works in a number of ways to promote the development and implementation of Community Forests in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The Collaborative has described a Community Forest Model that communities can use as a strategy to promote economic development, community development, and working forestland conservation. The Community Forest Model consists of the following components:

• Community Forests are owned and managed by a municipal entity or by a community based non-profit on behalf of a community.
• The acquisition process and management structure ensures community participation in and responsibility for management decisions.
• The community has secure access to the value and benefits of the forest, both monetary and non-monetary, that can support and reinforce community priorities and economic development objectives.
• The conservation values of the forestland are permanently protected through a conservation easement and sustainable forest management practices.

Projects

The Community Forest Collaborative has played a central role in conserving more than 8,000 acres of productive forestland by creating new or expanding existing community forests, and has set the stage for an additional 22,000 acres of community-owned forest. Successful Collaborative projects in which SFF has played a key role include the 13 Mile Woods Community Forest in Errol, New Hampshire and the West Grand Lake Community Forest project in Grand Lake Stream, Maine.

Research and Reports

The Community Forest Collaborative is a leading source of research and reports on Community Forests.  This includes, but is not limited to the Collaborative’s  landmark reports Community Forests: A Community Investment Strategy (Aug. 2007) and Community Forests: Needs & Resources for Creating & Managing Community Forests (March 2011).  Read More

Workshops

The Community Forest Collaborative conducts workshops in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for communities interested in establishing community forests.  More such workshops will be announced in the future.  The Collaborative also plans to conduct a new type of workshop in the future for existing community forests, focusing on economic opportunities such as biomass energy, ecosystem services, and logging methods.

Community Forest Fund

The Open Space Institute (OSI), in collaboration with the Community Forest Collaborative, has launched the Community Forest Fund to support the creation and expansion of Community Forests in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The Community Forest Fund has been capitalized initially at $1.4 million. For more information, visit the Community Forest Fund page at OSI.