friends of the forest service
Bringing people together to find common ground Our Approach
We are a home for cross-sector collaboration and partnership for the future of forest stewardship and the U.S. Forest Service.
The U.S. Forest Service and its partners are the front lines of stewardship of America’s forests, waters and grasslands. These are lands that shape our environment, economies, and ways of life: but our forests and the communities that surround them are under increasing strain.
The future of forest stewardship depends on shared responsibility: the Forest Service can’t do it alone. FFS is working with a broad, bipartisan network of partners to build the relationships, tools and support needed for long-term forest stewardship and a stronger, more effective Forest Service. By bringing people together to learn from what’s working and solve for what isn’t, Friends of the Forest Service is translating common ground across our community into actionable solutions defined by collaboration, trust, and shared stewardship.
We are not going back to what came before: we are building a shared vision for the future of the Forest Service and our community of forest stewards and partners.
Friends of the Forest Service functions as a bipartisan, cross-sector network that brings people together to find common ground and translate shared vision into actionable solutions. This network generates key information about what is needed to support and empower forest stewardship and improve the effectiveness of the U.S. Forest Service and its partners.
We enable collaborative problem-solving, which informs actionable recommendations and ready-to-deploy tools and solutions that we provide to agency leadership, implementing partners, and policy makers.
Our change begins with honest conversations that surface real problems and build trust across differences; it gains traction when leaders identify practical, mutually beneficial solutions; and it becomes durable when those ideas are tested, refined, and carried forward by a network that stays engaged long after a single meeting or report.
how we work
what we do
-
Connect cross-sector leaders to build trust, bridge silos, create shared understanding, and align priorities.
Bring people together across sectors, experiences, and perspectives to solve problems no one entity can solve alone.
Create space for more people to shape the future of our forests and public lands.
-
Learn from the knowledge, priorities, and lived experience of communities, Tribes, land managers, and stakeholders connected to these landscapes.
Create a deeper understanding of the importance of the Forest Service’s land, mission, people and partners.
Understand lessons from the past and identify ways to adapt and innovate so we continuously improve how stewardship happens on the ground.
-
Identify, elevate and scale best practices from past and current stewardship models.
Create more effective tools and pathways for projects and partnerships, working with subject-matter experts and place-based implementing partners.
Focus on what works: actionable solutions, community-level tools, and steady forward movement rooted in science-based expertise and real-world conditions.
-
Develop and test recommendations to translate vision into actionable, durable solutions.
Ignite support for community-driven action, Tribal co-stewardship, and project implementation at ecologically relevant scales.
Create lasting outcomes through partnership, participation, and shared accountability.
-
Build long-term capacity, leadership and durable systems for the U.S. Forest Service and its partners to steward healthy forests and vibrant communities.
Work to align social, cultural, economic and ecological outcomes.
Strengthen the long-term health of forests, watersheds, communities, and the institutions that serve them.
-
Design systems that enable place-based solutions.
Address operational, financial, relational, structural and cultural gaps.
Help foster a broader culture shift towards shared responsibility and a more resilient future for forest stewardship and the U.S. Forest Service.