FOCUS AREAS
ACTIVE FOREST STEWARDSHIP
Healthy, biodiverse, and fire-resilient forests result from proactive stewardship, a practice long sustained by First Nations people. These ecosystems provide critical ecological, cultural, and life-supporting benefits. With thoughtful care, forests continue to store carbon, offer abundant resources, and deliver essential services—while remaining more resilient to catastrophic wildfire events.
Toward increasing resilience, many of the 33 million forested acres throughout California are dramatically overcrowded and need to be thinned. Additionally, prescribed burning must be reintroduced to our landscape to reduce surface fuels and shift our forests back to more fire-adapted ecosystems. To do so, initial treatments are often required.
During treatments, small diameter trees are most often chipped or burned onsite during fuel load reduction projects but could be utilized in durable wood products. This work of using wood for its highest and best purpose can help offset the costs of ongoing forest treatments.
EDUCATION
We seek to compile resources and educate forest owners, managers and the public about the benefits provided by active forest stewardship. Some of these benefits include: positive impacts of healthy forests, advantages of prescribed burning, reforestation considerations and species selection, conservation considerations, importance of closing the forest carbon cycle by increasing wood utilization, and, by highlighting the nonprofit, public and tribal organizations that are making it happen.
WOOD PRODUCTS
California does not currently have the infrastructure required to process the billions of tons of forest overgrowth driving wildfire risk. A recent study, Effects of Forest Management & Wood Utilization on Carbon Sequestration Storage in California—co-authored by American Forests, CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service, and others—found that the state needs 30 additional mills to make a dent in processing material assumed through its ambitious forest restoration and wildfire resilience goals.
We believe these wood resources should be directed to their highest and best uses—delivering both ecological benefits and economic opportunities while helping address the state’s forest health crisis. Our projects pilot and work to scale solutions regarding wood recovery and utilization for these stated benefits.