Partner With Us September 2012 FINAL

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A Look at Partnerships Within
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September 2012

Partner With Us
The U.S. Forest Service, the largest agency within the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, has a long and distinguished history
of public service and land stewardship. Gifford Pinchot, the first
Chief of the Forest Service, said that the agency should always
work to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of
people in the long run.
As the primary forestry agency in the United States, the Forest
Service:

San Juan Mountains, CO

• leads our Nation in natural resource management with 193
million acres of national forests and grasslands;
• works in concert with State and private land owners in the
stewardship of more than 500 million acres of non-Federal rural and urban
forests;
• serves as the largest natural resource research organization in the world;
• works with partners worldwide to protect global forest resources; and
• employs approximately 30,000 people, many in rural communities.
The needs of the people and of the land have changed in the 21st century and so, too,
has the way in which the Forest Service works to achieve its mission. As the complexity
surrounding the management of public lands increases, partnerships are becoming
an increasingly essential mechanism for achieving social, economic and ecological
goals associated with these lands. In fiscal year 2011, partners joined the Forest
Service through nearly 8,000 formal grants and agreements with a leveraged value of
approximately $1.3 billion. In addition, Youth Conservation Corps, conservation/
public lands corps members, and other volunteers contribute more than 4 million
hours annually, valued at nearly $100 million and equivalent to 2,000 person years on
forests and grasslands. Through these strong, enduring partnerships, the agency is able
to successfully accomplish more than it could on its own.
The Forest Service works with a fabric of strategic alliances, including our
congressionally chartered nonprofit partners—the National Forest Foundation,
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and National Environmental Education
Foundation. These and other non-government organizations are key to the
agency’s ability to foster partnerships.
Opportunities for partner engagement
include not only funding support, but
also encouraging significant employee
volunteerism across the country in areas
where partner and Forest Service interests
intersect. Providing wise management
of our Nation’s water resources; engaging
youth in conservation stewardship;
promoting healthy, active lifestyles;
and serving communities are goals that
contribute to a healthy and vibrant
Leeward Haleakala Watershed restoration, Maui, HI
America.

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Partner With Us
The following illustrates a sampling of the thousands of opportunities available to potential
partners to share in the stewardship of our Nation’s forests and grasslands—through vibrant
relationships in key focal areas, including:
• Water quality and quantity flowing from our national forests, which accounts for
about 20% of our country’s water supply;
• Improvements in forest health and resiliency, as more than 80 million acres of
our national forests are impacted by a changing climate and at increased risk to
catastrophic wildfire;
• Restoration of our ever-popular recreation sites and facilities; and,
• Reaching the next generation—our youth of today and the natural resource managers
of tomorrow.
Water
Watershed Condition Framework.
The Forest Service and its partners
recently finished clas­sifying over
15,000 national forest watersheds
through a nationally consistent,
comparable, and science-based
approach to help prioritize restoration
projects. By relying on the resulting
product, the Watershed Condition
Framework1, the agency was able to
designate 256 priority watersheds and
Bridger Wilderness in Wyoming
then develop 205 watershed restoration action plans. Used
to guide restoration efforts, those action plans rely heavily
on partnership engagement—nearly 1,000 partnerships will be formed in order to restore
streams, improve road conditions, actively manage
forest fuels, and more.  Trout Unlimited, The Nature
Conservancy, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the
National Forest Foundation, and the National Wild
Turkey Federation are all expected to play a major
role and participate in numerous projects, while
Federal agencies, local governments, watershed
councils, tribes, universities, private landowners, and
private businesses will also contribute resources. In
addition to providing their collaborative insights,
partners are expected to contribute $94 million over
five years toward this comprehensive watershed
restoration effort.
Blue indicates U.S. land areas most important to

Forests to Faucet Project. The Forests to Faucets
surface drinking water
project2 and its findings serve as an education
tool for non-profit organizations, State governments, citizens, and many other partners,
illustrating the critical link between forests and public water supplies. The project uses
a geographic information system to model and map the United States land areas most
important to surface drinking water, the role forests play in protecting these areas, and the

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Partner With Us
extent to which these forests are threatened by development, insects and disease, and
wildland fire. The assessment can be used to identify natural areas which should be
better protected—providing data to be used in broad-scale environmental planning
efforts.
Rocky Mountain Watershed Protection Partnership. Four major river systems and the
water supply of over 4 million people on the Front Range of Colorado and southern
Wyoming are under duress from climate change and a history of aggressive fire suppres­
sion. This partnership, with coordination and support from the National Forest Foun­
dation (NFF), invests public and private funds in the watershed restoration projects
necessary to protect these resources. Partner funding and support for this partnership
is broad and comes from many sources, such as Denver Water, Aurora Water, Colorado
Springs Utilities, Vail Resorts, MillerCoors, Coca-Cola, the Gates Family Foundation,
and the Coalition for the Upper South Platte. One example that highlights this support
is Denver Water: the utility is matching $16.5 million in Forest Service contributions
with its own contribution of $16.5 million, through an average residential ratepayer
contribution of $27 over 5 years. In total, partners plan to contribute $19 million to
this endeavor through 2015, and the Forest Service plans to contribute $21 million.

Salt Lake City, UT

Wasatch Watershed Legacy Partnership. Urban growth, increased
recreation use, climate change, and invasive species are threatening
the watersheds of the Wasatch Front and the Uinta- WasatchCache (UWC) National Forest. Since these natural systems are the
drinking water source for a half-million Salt Lake City residents and
a backyard playground for millions more, the UWC believe these
ecosystems’ restoration is paramount. The UWC and its partners—
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, the Utah Department of Forestry,
the Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, the Salt Lake Climber’s
Alliance, and Utah Conservation Corps—are implementing
restoration projects throughout a 50,000 acre area within these
watersheds. Specific projects include the restoration and maintenance of over 200 miles
of trail, invasive species management throughout the Front Range, and fuels reduction on
several thousand acres.
California Ecological Restoration with
Power and Water Utilities Initiative.
Half of all surface water in California
originates on national forest watersheds,
with downstream consumers realizing
an estimated value of nearly $10 billion
every year. But there are significant
threats to these valuable watersheds.
This partnership brings beneficiaries of
the watersheds together to overcome
resource challenges, forming relationships
Folchi Creek Watershed in CA
with major utilities and encouraging
restoration work in key ecosystems.
Specific goals are twofold: (1) fund ecological restoration and reduce wildfire threat in
critical headwaters and near key utility transmission lines, and (2) maintain and expand

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the biomass infrastructure needed to increase the pace and scale of restoration activities in
California’s forests. The overarching aim is to increase restoration work from the current
250,000 acres/year to 500,000 acres/year in next 15-20 years. The Forest Service’s partners
in this initiative include the State of California, Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority,
Transmission Agency of Northern California, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Pacific Gas &
Electric, and the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Partners have committed $4.5 million to
this collaborative effort, supplementing USFS contribution of $2.5 million.

Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative. The Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative
(WWRI) is a regional partnership focused on integrated, all-lands watershed and
salmon habitat restoration in as many as three million acres of priority areas of Oregon,
Washington and Idaho. Since 2008, partners have invested almost $7 million in the
WWRI, with the Forest Service contributing nearly half of that total. The partnership
has reopened 382 miles of rivers and streams to anadromous fish and restored more
than 4,600 acres of important habitat. In addition, whole-watershed restoration will be
completed on three watersheds by year’s end. The WWRI’s guiding philosophy is that,
by concentrating and coordinating restoration efforts where there is strong community
support, effective collaboration, and high ecological value, measurable and sustainable
recovery can be achieved faster than if efforts were spread randomly across the landscape.
This partnership includes the Forest Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Natural Resources Conservation
Service, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and Ecotrust, and it has been
functioning for more than 5 years.
Urban Waters Federal Partnership. Many of our Nation’s urban
rivers, streams, lakes, forests, and wetlands are polluted,
degraded or inaccessible. Research demonstrates that a clean,
safe, accessible, urban environment—including urban forests,
gardens, parks, lakes, aquifers, and rivers—is directly linked to
improved public health, stronger local economies, and lower
crime rates. Through the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, the
Forest Service and 11 other Federal agencies are revitalizing
urban waters, supporting local partnerships, restoring forest
resources, fostering community engagement in urban watersheds,
and transforming overlooked assets into drivers of urban revival
at seven pilot locations across the country. Nearly $1 million has
been committed to accomplishing these goals.

Portland, OR, waterfront

Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and
Willamette National Forest. Over the last
5 years, the Willamette National Forest
received 10 grants totaling approximately $1
million to support collaborative restoration
and education efforts on and off the forest,
including activities such as in-stream
restoration and monitoring for bull trout
and spring Chinook. The Oregon Watershed
Enhancement Board, which awarded
these grants, was championed by Oregon’s
Monitoring bull trout habitat

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Partner With Us
Governor Kitzhaber and created in the late 1990s to ensure the availability of financial
resources for habitat and watershed restoration. The Oregon Lottery provides the Board
with the majority of its grant dollars.

Active fuel treatment in the
municipal watershed

Santa Fe Watershed Investment Program. Since 1998, the Santa Fe National
Forest and city of Santa Fe have been working collaboratively to reduce
fuels in the municipal watershed. Initially, resource professionals worked
with the community to outline how active watershed management could
be both ecologically and financially beneficial. Project implementation
began in 2001, and more than $5 million of federal funding was used
to treat 5,600 acres of the watershed through 2008.  This avoided-cost
approach has continued since, and crews have been treating about 1,000
acres per year via a $900,000 agreement between the national forest and
the city. The city agreed to match the Forest Service dollar-for-dollar in
the management of these fuels, believing that this proactive approach is
economically beneficial because it reduces the likelihood of major fire events that would
directly impact the city’s water supply. Such events can impose significant costs—a
single 7,000 acre fire, for example, could cost the city $22 million. Collaborative
approaches are the foundation on which this program is being implemented, and by
working with the Santa Fe Watershed Association, the city, and others, the Santa Fe
National Forest and Española Ranger District have gained key community support for
continued work in the Santa Fe Watershed.
Watershed Investment Program. Carpe Diem West’s Healthy Headwaters Group, a
vibrant partnership consisting of leaders from water supply utilities, municipalities,
Federal agencies, and the NGO community, is working collaboratively to develop
comprehensive watershed investment programs to ensure downstream water supplies. 
In a recent report3 outlining these efforts, Carpe Diem West highlights the critical role
Forest Service partnerships play in protecting public water supplies across the West and
ensuring watershed investment programs and projects are successfully implemented.
Healthy Forests
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR)
Program. In 2009, the Secretary of Agriculture
articulated his vision for America’s Forests,
underscoring the importance of forest restoration
and pursuing collaborative solutions through
landscape-scale operations. Following these
announcements, the bipartisan CFLR program was
established, with an aim of fostering collaborative,
science-based restoration on priority forest
landscapes across the United States. Since then, a
total of 23 projects have been selected for Federal Escalante Headwaters
funding, with substantial partner investment—
nearly $110 million from FY 2012 through FY 2019.
The projects these partner investments help enable are stretched across every corner
of the country, and their goals are diverse and worthwhile: reducing mega-fire risk,
improving oak and pine regeneration, restoring water channels and jobs, and more.

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Reforestation Collection Agreements. The Forest Service actively works with numerous nongovernmental partners—such as NFF, The Arbor Day Foundation, and American Forest
Foundation—to ensure robust reforestation efforts. The agency has established collection
agreements with our partners and, in FY 2011, they contributed nearly $3 million toward
reforestation initiatives across 15,000 acres of the National Forest System.
Sequestering Carbon by Reforesting National Forests. This partnership4
enables organizations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions
through the voluntary marketplace and reforestation efforts. The
result will be restored wildlife habitat, improved water quality, and
climate change mitigation. Since 2008, NFF has facilitated eight
carbon sequestration projects that cover more than 5,000 acres of
national forest lands, involve planting 1.3 million seedlings, and are
anticipated to offset 700,000 metric tons of carbon. Nearly $5 million
in partner contributions have already been raised to fund this initiative
by corporate partners, including Disney, the Southcoast Air Quality
Management District in California, El Paso Corporation, and Chevrolet.
America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative.
The longleaf pine ecosys­tem once covered
approximately 90 million acres in the
Southern United States. But by the early
1990s, 97% of this ecosystem had been
lost, stressing the nearly 30 threatened and
endangered species that live there. Since then,
the Forest Service and the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) have worked
with numerous partners to successfully
restore longleaf pine forests throughout
Longleaf pine restoration
the Southeast. The America’s Longleaf
Restoration Initiative, which engages Federal
and State agencies, non-profit organizations, local collaboratives, universities, private
enterprises, and private land­owners, will provide support for continuing this critical,
coopera­tive conservation work. In total, it is estimated that $70 million in federal funding
is being contributed to longleaf restoration on both public and private lands.
Treasured Landscapes, Unforgettable Experiences Conservation
Campaign. NFF launched this campaign in 2008 to address two
critical challenges: millions of forested acres in need of restoration
and millions of people unaware of how national forests enrich their
lives. Four years later, well over 800,000 acres are now targeted for
restoration and com­munity engagement activities through work
on fourteen keystone sites, restoring our damaged forests and
Americans’ connection to these public lands. There are 34 grants
open with more than $4 million dollars of work being actively
accomplished through this initiative.

Station Fire restoration

Hayman Fire restoration
begins

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Partner With Us
Recreation
Recreation Restoration, Adaptation, and Ski Area Campaign. Since 2006, NFF has
collaborated with 16 ski areas through the Ski Con­servation Fund. Dedicated to
conservation and recreation improve­ment projects on public lands, contributions
totaling more than $3 million have been raised via donations from lodging guests, skiers,
snowboarders, ski school participants, and golfers. Work continues to expand the Ski
Conservation Fund and its contribution mechanisms to both additional ski areas and
other partners, such as outdoor retailers and reservation systems, to ensure that the
landscapes that visitors enjoy are restored and maintained.
Alaska Cruise Line Conservation Campaign. The Forest Service,
working with NFF and Alaska Geographic, is leveraging $200,000
to encourage cruise industry participation in a campaign to support
critical community and visitor services, collaborative stewardship
projects, and experiences for next generation youth explorers. Nearly
one million people visit Alaska via cruises every year, and the majority
of opportunities for land excursions are on national forests. This
campaign will allow Alaska cruise line customers to voluntarily support
stewardship, restoration, recreational improvements, and youthoriented programs within the landscapes they visit.

Juneau cruise ships

Youth
Youth Engagement and Employment Initiative.
Empowering youth for active citizenship and
preparing them for effective stewardship of
our Nation’s resources are among America’s
highest priorities for the 21st century. This
new initiative, developed in collaboration
with NFWF and the BLM, will support
both youth conservation employment
opportunities and conservation education
and outreach outcomes. The Forest Service
Hawaii Year of the Forest
is working with a broad array of Federal
agencies, non-governmental orga­nizations,
educational institutions, and others to support partnerships that build an understanding
of conservation and develop service opportunities, quality jobs, and career pathways for
America’s youth—especially those who are often underserved. Through this initiative,
diverse youth will be engaged in meaningful conservation work and programs that
not only make a dif­ference on the ground, but also develop work skills and experience
for future careers in natural resources. The Forest Service has committed more than
$700,000 to these initiatives, and dedicated partner funds total $1.4 million.
Outdoor Nation. In support of America’s great outdoors, the Forest Service has partnered
with the Outdoor Industry Association and its foundation, The Outdoor Foundation,
to launch Outdoor Nation. Youth-led and coalition-supported, Outdoor Nation has the
energy, ideas and inspiration to empower a new generation of leaders with the necessary
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Partner With Us
skills and resources to champion the outdoors. Over the past several years, Outdoor
Nation has convened both national and regional youth summits, where youth have
tackled local outdoor issues and brainstormed impactful solutions. This past summer
alone, in 2012, Outdoor Nation and the Forest Service hosted 10 youth summits in
Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and other major cities across the country. In total,
Outdoor Nation has engaged 30,000 youth since its formation in 2010.
Children’s Grants Programs. In 2011, the agency sustained its national strategic
investment of $1 million, leveraged one-to-one through partnerships in two programs:
More Kids in the Woods and Children’s Forests. More than 20 More Kids in the Woods
projects received funding in FY 2011, initiatives that emphasize hands-on learning and
recreational opportunities for children. Funding for the vibrant network of Children’s
Forests that stretches from coast to coast provides local community children a chance
to experience the great outdoors, learn about nature, and build a lasting commitment to
conservation and land stewardship.
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences Partnership. Demystifying research science is
necessary to engage teachers and students – and ultimately to inspire a new generation of
young scientists.  The Forest Service’s Southern Research Station (SRS) is an inaugural
partner with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences’ new 80,000 squarefoot wing, the Nature Research Center (NRC), in Raleigh, NC.  SRS is
leveraging an initial two-year investment of $130,000 toward the NRC’s
more than $2 million annual budget, into ground-floor access to 21st
century technological resources, and integrating scientific exploration
to expose and engage more than one million multicultural students to
the wonders of forest science. SRS scientists will have several platforms
available – including science cafés, distant learning projects, special
forestry themes, and the immersive, three-story multimedia Daily Planet
hub – to share the research behind contemporary issues and emphasize
how forests address societal concerns.  SRS and NRC scientific experts
will jointly unfold cutting-edge research and technology to bright young
minds eager to absorb science in action. And the fun extends beyond the
museum’s walls!  Through special live video feeds and hands-on activities, the wonders of
forest science will be potentially broadcast into schools, libraries, senior citizen centers,
hospitals, and other community organizations, stimulating an interest in forests and
exciting children and adults alike.

Child taste-tests a scorpion
at the museum’s BugFest
event. Credit: WRAL.com

Related Links
1

http://www.fs.fed.us/publications/watershed/

2

http://www.fs.fed.us/ecosystemservices/FS_Efforts/forests2faucets.shtml

3

http://www.carpediemwest.org/reports/policy-briefs

4

http://www.nationalforests.org/conserve/carbon/carboncapitalfund
Partner With Us
We invite you to join us in the stewardship of our Nation’s forests and grasslands.
For ideas and information about collaboration and partnerships, please visit us at
http://www.fs.usda.gov/prc.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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