The Forest Stewards Guild works across the United States to promote sustainable practices supporting forest ecosystems and the communities that rely on them. Giving Compass asked Zander Evans, executive director of The Forest Stewards Guild, to share insights into the Guild’s work and how donors can support stewardship.

Q: How do the elements of your work -- education, training, policy analysis, research, and advocacy – work collectively to advance your mission?

The Forest Stewards Guild is rooted in science and practiced by a community of our members. Our research keeps us connected to the best available science, researchers, and new insights into forest ecosystems under the changing climate. This sound scientific foundation becomes the basis for our public education and policy work. In turn, our education, training, and implementation help inform our research and policy work because they help us understand the questions practitioners and the public are facing. The Guild actively practices stewardship with our partners from forest thinnings for wildlife in bottomland hardwood forests to prescribed fire in western ponderosa pine forests. By knowing the on-the-ground struggles of communities and land stewards, we are better able to target our research and outreach. The complex feedback between elements of our work is like an ecosystem where the linkages make for a stronger whole.

Q: How do you define and maintain a balanced approach to forest management?

Photo credit: The Forest Stewards Guild

Maintaining an approach to forest management that balances social, ecological, and economic considerations requires continual effort. As conditions change, we have to update our approach. A new invasive insect such as the Emerald Ash Borer may completely change what sustainable forestry looks like from an ecological perspective. New legislation, such as the change in New Mexico’s prescribed fire laws, can open new opportunities from a social perspective. A sawmill opening or closing can alter what forestry is economically viable. Our members, partners, and staff are constantly evaluating our approach to balancing social, ecological, and economic values to have a greater positive impact.

Q: How does your participation in the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC) align with your values and support your work?

The Guild is a small nonprofit. We don’t have staff dedicated to following policy in D.C. The RVCC acts as our policy team. We can bring questions from our members, partners, and staff about new legislation, changing budgets, or other forest-related policy issues and get the feedback we need to move forward. We work closely with the RVCC policy team to address issues central to our work and good stewardship across the West. We combine the experience of Guild staff implementing projects on the ground with RVCC’s expertise with national policy and budgets. The result is targeted, useful analyses such as the new report, “Lessons From Cooperative Burn Partnerships.” The RVCC membership also provides a network of like-minded organizations that are willing to share their success, failures, and most importantly, lessons learned. In turn, we share key insight into working with our federal partners, navigating the business aspects of the nonprofit world, and inspiring each other.

Q: What are some recent challenges and successes for the Forest Stewards Guild?

COVID was a tremendous challenge. Like most organizations, we faced uncertainty and worry about keeping our staff safe and our projects running. The biggest challenge was implementing our Forest Stewards Youth Corps (FYSC). Bringing 40 youth from New Mexico’s rural communities to learn and practice stewardship on our public lands was an obvious COVID risk. However, without the FYSC program, what risks would these youth face? What would they do without the income FSYC provides? We used a risk assessment tool from our prescribed fire work to mitigate and balance risks for the program. This became a sweet success during COVID as we were able to provide youth with experience, income, and a safe working environment through unprecedented times. Across the country, the Guild was able to build on our approach with FSYC to "reimagine" outreach and training in a socially distanced environment. We kept our less-nimble partners going and working towards our collective goals.

A current challenge the Guild, and other organizations, faces is how to ensure the millions of federal dollars directed to wildfire risk reduction and stewardship from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are spent effectively. Our federal partners need our help to connect new funding with priority projects and make sure the people are in place to actually do the work on the ground. The USDA Forest Service lacks adequate personnel for all the work that has been funded, so they are turning to adaptable, effective organizations like the Guild to help. We are hiring new staff and expanding our work to meet the need but at the same time, we have to be careful not to overextend ourselves. We are cautiously optimistic that together with our federal partners, we can seize this generational opportunity to improve forest and community resilience across the country. 

Q: What advice would you give to donors who are interested in supporting stewardship?

Two essential elements of good stewardship are taking a long-term view and recognizing that change is constant. When donors support organizations like the Forest Stewards Guild that are focused on stewardship, they will see positive impacts for forests and communities, but the best outcomes take years to bloom. For example, participants in our Forest Stewards Youth Corps go on to build careers at the USDA Forest Service or state forestry, but it can take years between their first FSYC summer and starting a career position in stewardship. Building a fire-adapted community is a long process of engaging individuals and taking the steps little by little to reduce wildfire risk.

The forest shows us that change is constant. Like a forest, we have to accept change, even when it seems to be a setback. The storm that blows down mature trees can open space for the next generation of seedlings. Our stewardship will face changes that can seem like setbacks, but they often open new opportunities at the same time. Initial low registrations for a women's chainsaw safety workshop allowed us to take a step back and level up our engagement with this audience, resulting in a successful, well-attended workshop this past weekend as part of our Women Owning Woodlands project. By supporting the Forest Stewards Guild, donors are investing in long-term, practical solutions to the stewardship challenges of the 21st century.