National Forest Foundation

The National Forest Foundation (NFF) is solely dedicated to protecting the ecological health and promoting sustainable public enjoyment of the 193-million-acre National Forest System. Our current strategic plan focuses on:
1) We will invest more in on-the-ground projects to improve the health of our National Forests. We will accelerate and broaden our on-the-ground action to increase carbon sequestration and water replenishment and to restore more acres.

2) We will triple our impact on National Forest recreation infrastructure, expanding the capacity for more people to love the forests without negatively impacting forest health.

3) We will engage millions more Americans in personal and meaningful relationships with National Forests. Our reach will be digital, in-person and through partners. We will focus on communicating with and through a broader diversity of Americans and we will engage millions more than before to build a constituency that demands and works for healthy forests.

The NFF focuses on five strategies to maximize our conservation impact:

1) Working on the ground: We carry out tangible conservation projects producing measurable results. We assess conservation need and ecological value. This ensures our site-based work adds as much value as possible to both local regions and the National Forest System (NFS) as a whole. We work on a "landscape" scale, meaning on thousands of acres rather than just a few hundred. It also means we address multiple challenges, such as plant and wildlife diversity, watershed health, economic leverage, and recreational opportunities to have greater overall impact.

2) Building a community of forest stewards: Diverse groups of engaged citizens and outdoor enthusiasts form a strong cadre of stewards who perpetuate healthy National Forests for many generations to enjoy. The NFF connects people with nature through meaningful hands-on education and volunteer opportunities in their backyard National Forests. We explain why these wild places matter. By engaging youth, including those from urban, rural, and/or underserved communities, we help them develop a land ethic, give back to their backyard forests, and acquire useful skills while building the next generation of dedicated forest stewards.

3) Supporting local conservation partners: We directly support local organizations and contractors through on-the-ground restoration projects.

4) Developing sustainable and innovative funding models: Alternative funding enables us to achieve real, measurable restoration results on our public lands. Seeking out such mechanisms helps us increase the resources available to site-based restoration projects nationwide.

5) Promoting collaboration: Collaborative groups are an effective solution to the complex and often contentious restoration and stewardship needs on these forests. By nature local, organic collaboratives provide an opportunity for all interest groups to weigh-in, be heard, and learn to work together. This approach leads to better conservation results on the ground and more engaged people caring for their treasured wild places. We provide a customized suite of technical assistance and other services to collaborative groups across the country. By facilitating local stakeholder groups, we build a strong foundation of diverse partners who remain engaged in our National Forests' protection and stewardship for decades to come.

A key nonprofit partner to the U.S. Forest Service, the NFF works with hundreds of community and corporate partners nationwide. We have a proven track record of successful large-scale ecosystem restoration on National Forests and Grasslands through leveraging public funding with private support. Our grant programs help us further leverage restoration projects focused on the health and public enjoyment of National Forests. Our main office is based in the heart of the National Forest System, Missoula, Montana. We also have field offices in across the county to align with our scope of work on National Forests. This diversity of office sites allows us to generate meaningful local relationships while maintaining a national presence. The NFF is a committed and efficient conservation organization staffed by professionals who know the issues facing America's National Forests and care deeply about our beloved wild places.

On 2018 Earth Day, we successfully launched an ambition campaign to plant 50 million trees on National Forests. In our first year, we planted 2.6 million tre`es of 17 different native tree species on 25 National Forests, restoring 13,000 acres. We are on track to plant 5.2 million trees in 2019! We will continue to ramp up our work to engage more individuals and companies, especially online, in the next couple of years.

Our presence online also continues to grow, reaching nearly 232,257 followers on Facebook, 29,200 followers on Twitter, and 63,200 followers on Instagram. Our blog has 80,000 visits/quarter and serves as a gateway to our website that has 1 million views/year.

Despite these accomplishments and our growing supporters, the restoration needs on the 193-million-acre National Forest System are vast. Changing climate conditions, catastrophic wildfires, and aggressive invasive species threaten these treasured landscapes at an unprecedented rate. The Forest Service estimates that more than 60 million acres or approximately one-third of National Forests is in dire need of restoration. A Forest Service survey of watershed conditions estimates that approximately 48 percent of watersheds on National Forests are classified as “functioning at risk" or “impaired function." U.S. taxpayers are paying about $2.5 billion for wildfire suppression every year and the total estimated impact of U.S. wildfires is many times that number. Experts estimate that all invasive species (aquatic, plants, and insects) cost Americans approximately $138 billion annually in loss of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, and infrastructure maintenance. Additionally, the link between increasingly urban populations and wild nature continues to weaken further disconnecting them from their public lands. This trend spells trouble for the broad, long-term support required to keep America's public lands heritage relevant and thriving.

The need to restore these wild places and increase awareness among the general public, especially youth, and to nurture the next generation of forest stewards has never been greater. We are developing and implementing programs and initiatives to connect Americans to their cherished public lands and increase the financial resources available for landscape-scale restoration bringing our innovative, results-focused, and science-based approaches to meeting these immense challenges.