Family Forest Stewardship

Minnesota’s family forests are a resource of enormous economic and ecological value. They make up about 32 percent, or 5.3 million acres of the state’s forestland, and accounting for about 35 percent of the wood harvested and marketed.

Informed by a 2003 “Call to Action” Conference, refined through research, and shaped by the VFVC Advisory Board, our family forest stewardship convenings, projects, and grants delivered on the initiative’s strategies to:

• Foster collaborative approaches to natural resource management issues and build on existing efforts.
  Leverage local assets, expertise, and experience.
• Move research and knowledge into practice through the development and promulgation of tools, resources, information, and incentives.
• Promote public understanding and appreciation of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of commodity and non-commodity values of the forest.