Forest Landowners Foundation Launches Five-Year $1.3 Million Initiative to Strengthen Forest Markets in the Southeast
Charlotte, NC – The Forest Landowners Foundation (FLF) today announced a five-year, landowner-led initiative to strengthen forest markets across the Southeast, supported by a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.
This initiative is an opportunity for private forest landowners to have a stronger role in shaping solutions to one of the sector’s most pressing challenges: decline of the markets that sustain working forests.
Market volatility, mill closures, rising costs, and natural disasters have made it harder for many landowners to keep forests actively managed and economically viable. Strong forest markets make management possible, helping landowners invest in sustainable practices that keep forests healthy and productive while supporting clean air and water, wildlife habitat, recreation, wildfire mitigation, and other benefits that extend far beyond their property line.
At the same time, work is underway across the country to explore how to best address forest market challenges. The next step is turning promising ideas into action.
“For working forests to remain working forests, landowners need markets that support the long-term investment it takes to grow and manage them,” said Scott Jones, CEO of Forest Landowners. “This is a major opportunity for the private forest landowners we represent to make a real difference in what comes next for forest markets.”
FLF is positioned to play that role through the Forest Landowners Association’s (FLA) 85-year history and longstanding relationships with landowners, industry, forestry associations, agencies, universities and conservation organizations across the Southeast. FLF and FLA celebrate this significant investment towards creating a market development approach grounded in the realities of the people stewarding our nation’s forest resources.
The first step is a Southeast-wide survey and roundtables to assess the current forest market landscape and identify challenges landowners face in accessing forest markets. FLF will then bring together industry, universities, agencies, investors, and other parties to help move the strongest and most impactful market ideas toward feasibility, funding and implementation.
The goal is straightforward: create stronger pathways from landowner needs to market action so more working forests can remain healthy, productive and economically viable for the long term.
Landowners and forestry professionals can help shape the first stage by completing the survey at Southeast Forest Landowner Market Needs Survey through November 30.
Project partners can register here for a briefing on how to participate.
Potential partners include:
- Forest product companies, forest market leaders and decision-makers, and all involved in forest market development, investment, and innovation
- Funders, foundations, and conservation organizations interested in supporting forest markets, landowner outcomes, and rural communities, or connecting promising ideas with funding, expertise, and other resources
- Universities and research institutions
Read more information about this initiative here: Market Initiative One-Pager
About the Forest Landowners Foundation
Founded in 1986, the Forest Landowners Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a long history of advancing research, education, tools, and programs in support of the rural families, communities, and forest-based businesses whose stewardship of America’s forests sustains the economic, social, and ecological well-being of the nation.
Media contact: Katie Moss | kmoss@forestlandowners.com