A Year-End Letter from Executive Director Ryan Owens
In this strange and disconcerting time, when the seasons still change yet the wider world makes little sense, I hold on to hope — but what I’m really hungry for are solutions. I imagine you are too. When I became NEFF’s new executive director, I had been drawn to the organization’s reputation for building bridges and finding creative, even unexpected, solutions. Case in point:
One year ago, NEFF announced something seemingly out of character: this champion of sustainable forestry was getting into the old-growth preservation business. We were awarded a $4.3 million US Forest Service grant to pioneer a new approach to preserving nearly 150,000 newly discovered acres of late-successional and old-growth (LSOG) forest patches in Maine. As it was located primarily on commercial timberland, estimates show nearly all of it could be cut in as little as 20 years if someone doesn’t act.
So, NEFF and our partners stepped up, bringing hope and a workable solution, because we understand that Maine’s oldest forests — rich storehouses of biodiversity and carbon — have a place alongside the other natural solutions to climate change.
NEFF has spent years building trusted relationships with the timber companies who own most of Maine’s oldest forests, and so we are uniquely positioned to negotiate with them and reach agreements to pause harvesting their LSOG.
This, in turn, will buy us and our partners time to arrange for permanent conservation of these irreplaceable forests. At the same time, we will provide the impacted landowners with incentives for implementing climate-smart forestry on their nearby land, which will help grow more climate-smart timber and ensure a steady flow of regional wood, even after the LSOG is preserved.
Officially called NEFF’s Conserving Maine’s Oldest Forests initiative, this LSOG program offers an elegant solution and a major victory, but the funds won’t go far enough. Just because NEFF has received a grant doesn’t always mean it covers salaries for the NEFF staff who work on it, nor the many others who support them behind the scenes. Of that $4.3 million grant, $4 million will go directly to landowners, and nearly $100,000 will support consultants and scientists. This is one of the reasons we need your help as the New Year approaches.
You’ve already helped make so much possible this year:
- Forest Carbon for Commercial Landowners (FCCL) is now well into its second phase, working to develop practical plans for implementing climate-smart forestry on 10+ million acres of commercial forests in Maine.
- By the end of the year, our three-person Land Stewardship team will have inspected each of NEFF’s 155 Community Forests, totaling 41,000 acres, and 163 Conservation Easements/Restrictions, totaling more than 1.1 million acres. We have also closed on three Conservation Easements in Vermont this year that, and a 30-acre Conservation Easement in New Hampshire.
- Four NEFF staff members headed to NYC for Climate Week 2025, and our team was in the thick of things at invite-only events. NEFF’s experts were able to share how our climate-smart forestry model in New England can be scaled nationwide.
If you believe in practical, hopeful action, now is the moment to stand with NEFF.
Returning to solutions, one of NEFF’s guiding stars is the 30 Percent Solution. Backed by research and data, we believe that New England’s forests could meet 30 percent of the region’s carbon reduction goals in the next 30 years if we spread climate-smart forestry, prevent forest loss, replace carbon-intensive steel and concrete, and store carbon in urban wood buildings.
The 30 Percent Solution is our most ambitious undertaking yet, and it could be a key part of New England’s fight against climate change. But before we can implement it at scale, we need your help to fund the people doing the incredible, game-changing work.
As the days grow shorter, I’m reminded that hope alone isn’t enough. It’s the good we set in motion now that carries us through the dark and into brighter seasons ahead.
Thank you for helping NEFF advance lasting solutions in the challenging times ahead, carried by our unwavering commitment to New England’s forests.
Best regards,
Ryan Owens
Executive Director