E-Mail: The Path Forward for Strengthening, Growing and Increasing the Impact of ATFS
Since my August email, I’ve often been asked: why are we doing this work to strengthen, grow, and increase the impact of ATFS? Why is it so important that we change?
These past few weeks as catastrophic wildfires have ravaged California, horrifically taking lives, homes and destroying communities while burning thousands upon thousands of forested acres, I’m reminded of the why - why it’s so important that we strengthen ATFS, enable growth in the program, and increase its impact.
We all are probably asking ourselves, as our hearts go out to the community of Paradise, and the many other communities affected by the ravages of wildfire, what can we do to help?
A stronger, growing, and more impactful ATFS is one important thing we can do. It can help the thousands of family forest owners in high hazard areas reduce their fuel loads and care for their woods. While this won’t bring back the lives lost, nor will it completely prevent wildfires, it will help reduce the risk of future losses.
However, if we don’t tackle the challenges facing ATFS today that prevent us from growing and engaging more landowners in the future, we will neither be able to help the people in California, nor the people in our communities tackle the many issues that, while just as important, aren’t making major news headlines.
We all know that well-managed forests are the solution to multiple concerns plaguing our forest communities - from watershed protection to endangered species recovery to rural economic prosperity. Family forest owners are an essential piece of the forested landscape, and this work will help remove barriers that prevent ATFS from engaging more landowners in this active stewardship.
So, while change is never easy, I believe it is essential that ATFS be a part of the solution to many of these challenges; taking on the hard work of change is worth it. AFF’s Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership agree, and they are investing the resources to strengthen and grow ATFS and its impact.
The Path Forward
Based on a process of feedback and listening that began early this year, we shared an initial outline – a framework – with you in August, for breaking down the barriers we face to strengthening, growing, and increasing the impact of ATFS by:
- relieving administrative burdens on state committees to focus more of their time on landowner engagement;
- streamlining program enrollment and creating a stronger value proposition to bring in more landowners more quickly;
- creating efficiencies to save forester time while offering foresters a stronger value proposition; and
- improving communications between AFF and ATFS State Committees to better meet the needs of family forest owners.
Your insights and questions about the framework have been invaluable. What we heard from you is that these are the right things for us to focus on. You also wanted to understand the details - how exactly will we implement this? Our conversations with you over the last several months have helped us identify specifics - the actions we can take now, even as we are still listening and shaping additional ideas with you.
- To relieve administrative burdens on state committees, AFF staff will begin administering certification in a select number of states that have expressed interest in working with us to shift responsibility from the state level to AFF.
- To streamline enrollment and save forester time, AFF will develop and implement Landscape Management Plans (LMPs) that address issues at a regional level in a manner that effectively serves the needs of individual landowners in several states where there is interest in and demand for growth. Based on pilots in Florida and Alabama, LMPs have proven to be an effective tool for reducing ATFS enrollment time while still meeting the ATFS standard and maintaining the important components of management planning that effectively serve private landowners.
- To further streamline the process and save forester time, we will provide a certification app that delivers advance information to inspecting foresters, prepopulates 004 forms and speeds submission, review and approval.
- To reduce administrative burdens on state committees, streamline enrollment, save forester time, and build a stronger value proposition for foresters, AFF will begin building a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). This system will better capture landowner data, provide better data and insights to foresters to help them engage with landowners, and will reduce data processing time on state committees.
- To strengthen communications between state committees and AFF, we will work with each state to assess how to enhance two-way communication across the network, while identifying ways to enhance how ATFS works with family forest owners in that state.
These aren’t the only actions we’ll take, but these are the priorities we’ve identified based on listening to all of you—so we want to keep hearing your ideas for how we can relieve administrative burdens on state committees, streamline program enrollment, create efficiencies for foresters, create stronger value propositions for foresters and landowners, and improve communications between AFF and ATFS State Committees.
We know that every state program is different, and we will continue to work with you to shape your state’s program based on its unique and specific needs, while maintaining the overarching goals of ATFS. Our goal is to strengthen, grow and increase the impact of ATFS.
Furthermore, to provide a level playing field, we have suspended the planned implementation of state-level fees related to state certification and in the coming year will work with the network to assess and resolve issues around financing ATFS.
There is work to be done – together.
When we’re successful at implementing these improvements and other actions we identify together, we’ll have a stronger, growing, and more impactful ATFS. State committees will be able to focus on activities that are most important to them - engaging with landowners and providing education, assistance, and recognition for good stewards. We’ll be able to increase the amount of certified land where there is demand, and ultimately increase the impact of ATFS on a whole range of issues.
Your continued leadership and partnership are essential to ATFS’ success. We are committed to implementing these ideas WITH you, in ways that build on your passion and love for the program.
We look forward to discussing this further with you on our quarterly webinar on December 13th and continuing the conversation during the 2019 National Leadership Conference in Louisville.
If you have any questions or would like more detail on any of the above, please feel free to reach out to Chris Erwin, Sara Anrrich or me. We welcome a conversation with you.
Thank you for all you do to make the American Tree Farm System a success.
Paul DeLong
SVP, ATFS and Conservation
American Forest Foundation
