User:StaffSNW94/sandbox

= Sustainable Northwest = Sustainable Northwest (SNW) is a conservation non-profit organization based in Portland, OR. It was founded in 1994 to pioneer collaborative natural resource solutions that benefit people, the environment, and local economies. It partners with tribes and rural communities throughout the Northwest on projects that promote smart water use, clean energy, and healthy forests, farms, and ranches.

History
Sustainable Northwest was founded in 1994.


 * Wallowa Resources
 * FSC group certification program
 * Klamath
 * PDX-Next

Programs
Sustainable Northwest has five programs: Clean Energy, Wood Markets, Water, Forests, and Regenerative Ranching.

Clean Energy
Sustainable Northwest partners with rural and Indigenous communities to facilitate the transition to clean energy, reduce climate pollution, lower costs, and develop locally owned clean energy projects. This includes supporting local energy planning; identifying funding and resources for clean energy projects; purchasing, testing, and demonstrating electric farming equipment; and supporting underrepresented communities in statewide energy decisions.

E-Farms:

Sustainable Northwest’s E-Farms program purchases, tests, and demonstrates electric tractors, pickup trucks, and other electric equipment on farms, forests, and ranches. The E-Farms team is made up of four Oregon nonprofits: Sustainable Northwest, Forth, Wy'East RC&D, and Bonneville Environmental Foundation. In 2021, These nonprofits brought the first electric tractors to farms in Oregon to evaluate the technology.

Making Energy Work:

The Making Energy Work (MEW) initiative includes a coalition of municipalities, nonprofits, renewable energy suppliers, tribes, farmers, ranchers, and state agencies in rural Oregon. They plan and build clean energy projects; lead workshops, field tours, and info-sessions; pool resources; educate policymakers and funders about clean energy projects; and lead policy initiatives to bring clean energy benefits to rural Oregon.

Community Energy Development:

Sustainable Northwest’s Community Energy Development initiative works to increase the pace of clean energy development in rural and Indigenous communities. This includes providing energy assessments, finance modeling, grant writing and fundraising, and support during construction.

Wood Markets
The Wood Markets program sources wood needed for new homes and buildings from forestry projects that improve forest and climate health while supporting rural communities and economies. The program emphasizes having a transparent, traceable supply chain, including forest managers, sawmills, manufacturers, and designers, among others.

There are three main programs within the Wood Markets program: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Group Certification, Climate-Smart Wood Economy, and Wood Advisory.

Certification:

Sustainable Northwest’s FSC Group Certification Program helps small businesses across the Pacific Northwest and Canada get FSC certified. For reasons including time and cost, managing certification — which ensures wood products come from responsibly managed forests and benefit communities — can be difficult. The Group Certification Program helps businesses manage their FSC systems, keep costs low, and provide year-round support.

Climate Smart-Wood:

Sustainable Northwest has initiated a forestry program aimed at promoting forest health and carbon sequestration. The initiative, described as "climate-smart" or "climate resilient," involves approximately 200 forest landowners, including tribal groups, local communities, families, and non-profit organizations. The program's objectives are to implement forest restoration practices based on current scientific research and to establish connections between these landowners and construction firms seeking wood products that align with climate-conscious practices.

Wood Advisory:

Sustainable Northwest operates a Wood Advisory program. This initiative aims to assist builders and property owners in sourcing locally harvested wood products. The program emphasizes responsible harvesting practices and seeks to promote community development, equity, and conservation values through its wood-sourcing recommendations.

Water
Sustainable Northwest’s water program helps communities address persistent and severe drought, improve water quality and quantity, and balance in-stream and out-of-stream water needs. Its services include helping landowners use water more efficiently, helping forest owners manage land to improve forest health and water storage, and assessing water supply and demand.

Farms and Ranches:

Sustainable Northwest works with farmers and ranchers to use less water, increase productivity, and restore fish and wildlife habitat. It also helps farmers and ranchers access conservation funding for these projects.

Forest Management and Community Forestry:

Sustainable Northwest researches and identifies ways to manage forests so that they retain water in the soil and release it more slowly over time. The organization also partners with communities throughout Oregon and Washington and connects them to resources that allow them to manage their source drinking watersheds.

Education and Policy:

SNW partners with communities throughout the Northwest to educate decision makers about the issues in their watersheds, which require leadership and support at the local, state and federal level.

Water Supply and Demand:

SNW uses available science, modeling tools, and data collection methods to assess how much water is currently entering a watershed and how much is expected in the future. It then uses that information to help communities draft a water plan.

Forests
Sustainable Northwest’s Forests program partners with rural and Indigenous communities to increase forest health and resilience.

Community Forests:

Sustainable Northwest partners with communities to acquire private forest land and create a community-owned or managed forest, commonly known as a community forest. Because Pacific Northwest forests provide several benefits, communities that acquire private forest lands can manage them for their specific needs. For example, Sustainable Northwest partners with communities to benefit drinking water supply, recreation, and timber harvest, among others.

Wildfires:

The wildfires initiative aims at making forests more resilient by reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires. After large wildfires do occur, Sustainable Northwest supports forest recovery efforts, such as the recovery following the 2021 Bootleg Fire in Oregon. The organization has also aimed to reintroduce beneficial fire in forest management, including cultural burning and prescribed burns.

Sustainable Northwest also aims to support community preparedness for wildfires. This includes creating firebreaks, better access for firefighters and first responders, and support for home-hardening by removing vegetation near homes and retrofitting houses with fire-resistant materials.

Regenerative Ranching
Sustainable Northwest’s Regenerative Ranching program offers consulting services to help ranchers find ways to produce beef sustainably. It includes financial and educational resources alongside rangeland monitoring and consulting, and it is the largest regenerative ranching program in the West.

Grazewell Together:

In 2022, Sustainable Northwest launched its Regenerative Ranching program, partnering with Country Natural Beef and Northway Ranch Services to create a network of ranchers to share experiences, troubleshoot threats, and utilize their knowledge and experience. Sustainable Northwest also provides education stipends to help lower the cost of training, speakers, and travel.

Monitoring:

Sustainable Northwest meets with over 120 partner ranches to collect field data and to monitor how the implementation of regenerative ranching practices impacts the land. The program starts with baseline monitoring and a 5-year follow up to track progress on the following metrics: Spatial data that measures biomass and forage classes over time, water infiltration rates, soil health, biodiversity, bare ground, life cycle analysis, and soil carbon. Ranchers are responsible for annual monitoring on selected pastures, using a mobile application.

Technical Assistance

Sustainable Northwest helps provide updated equipment and tools to help ranchers shift from traditional to regenerative ranching. It also creates Ranch Management Plans for each of its producers, which include land health objectives and management actions, and provides a landowner dashboard where landowners can visualize their ranch, access data from monitoring, and track grazing.