What is the “forest stewardship economy”?

At the essence of Regenerative Forest Solutions’ work is our effort to help grow the forest stewardship economy. This stewardship based economic framework starts with treatments to reduce fuels in overgrown forests, supporting the means to utilize wood that is traditionally chipped or burned, what is oftentimes viewed as “wood waste,” and supporting transforming this material into various wood products that humans need and use. Through this work we can realize sustainable recovery and utilization of trees for regional consumption to create economic options that address the ongoing challenge of increasing forest stewardship to meet community and climate resilience goals.

We’re not alone in our efforts.

Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC), describes the forest stewardship economy as “an economy built on 5 pillars of land stewardship, value-added processing, education and training, access to capital, and policy frameworks to support investment in rural capacity and land stewardship.” Combined, these 5 pillars create a more virtuous and circular economic model that includes value-added processing of wood as one of the financing mechanisms.

Forest stewardship in California on private and public land alike has largely been funded to date via public subsidy, such as the California Climate Investments, federal grant programs, local tax measures and private philanthropy. Many have worked over the years to create an economic metric for valuing ecosystem services provided by our ingenious ecosystems and natural resources to elevate the value of their essential contributions. These efforts in conservation finance and carbon market solutions are gaining traction, but meanwhile, our forests need stewardship now. Forests along the North Coast of California in particular represent a unique opportunity to bolster economic activity that can support meeting annual treatment goals, sequester carbon in healthier forests and durable wood products, and support living wage jobs and businesses. 

The Sonoma County Wood Recovery & Utilization Project of RFS works with local organizations, businesses and government to help bolster our ability to make the forest stewardship economy more viable. Presently we are working to secure a larger site to aggregate and process material. If you have partnerships or resources of interest, please reach out to Director, Temra Costa, at temra at regenerativeforestsolutions.org or forward this on to people that might be interested in learning about our work.