NNRG’s history demonstrates our expertise in the three key areas of facilitating sustainable natural resource-based economies: 1) Creating systems that benefit non-industrial landowners. 2) Creating market opportunities for sustainably grown forest products. (3) Providing high quality information and educational opportunities.

Bringing Forest Stewardship Council certification to Washington

NNRG was instrumental in bringing FSC certification to Washington State through our work with Fort Lewis.  NNRG has done certification work throughout Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia and is currently a SmartWood partner.

NNRG led the “green” certification process for Fort Lewis’s Forest Stewardship Council certification assessment. NNRG worked extensively with FSC to establish one of the first sustainable forestry certifications of its kind on federal land in the United States. This brought 44,000 acres of sustainably managed forestland under certification in Washington. Forest products from Fort Lewis are already beginning to reach markets that demand certified sustainably produced wood products. This model may serve as an example for the management of other publicly owned forestlands.

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Beyond the Northwest Certified Forestry Program, NNRG has also enjoyed success with several in other areas:

Jobs for the Environment

This program addressed two critical issues in the Pacific Northwest: declining salmon populations and declining employment in the traditional fisheries and timber industries. From 1994 to 1996, NNRG employed displaced timber and fisheries workers to restore degraded salmon habitat in the watersheds of East Jefferson County. Working closely with Wild Olympic Salmon, a non-profit environmental agency, and Jefferson Conservation District, NNRG administered the program through a grant from the Washington Department of Natural Resources Jobs for the Environment Program. The program has attracted national attention and was featured in the January 95 issue of Audubon magazine. The administration of this program has since been handed over to Wild Olympic Salmon.

Additional Programs

Forestry Outreach

NNRG has collaborated with state agencies, and tribal and private organizations to teach landowners about sustainable forestry methods through workshops, focus group meetings, and presentations.

Forestry Research and Development

NNRG works with public and private agencies to develop economically feasible alternative forestry options. In 1996, NNRG collaborated with the State Department of Natural Resources to develop techniques for implementing uneven aged selective harvesting on state forest land.

Economic Development

Former Olympic Peninsula Foundation Staff and Board developed the concept of a manufacturing technology center in secondary wood products. A feasibility study was completed by WoodNet, a flexible manufacturing network of 300 companies on the Olympic Peninsula, under funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

Environmental Education

NNRG works with community groups on environmental education projects. Past accomplishments include an interactive educational series which united students with foresters, loggers, environmentalist, and land owners through a program with the Port Townsend based Learning Opportunities For Thinking People (LOFT); the Wetlands Peer Education Project, funded by the EPA, in which students participated in a tutoring program focused on wetlands; the development of public information to promote a new wildlife corridor which protects and restores environmentally sensitive land on the Quimper Peninsula; and Olympic Peace Trees which united 16-24 year olds from around the globe with local youth to perform stream and habitat restoration, tree planting, projects on the eastern Olympic Peninsula.