Land Preservation Group Voices Support for Legislation That Would Provide Forest Conservation Bonds

Thank you very much for your and John Cross's time on Tuesday, October 27th, and for the engaging discussion regarding Community Forestry Bonds. As you will note in the enclosed letter from The Cascade Agenda Leadership Team to the Washington State Delegation, a remarkably broad array of leaders across Washington state support The Community Forestry Conservation Act of 2009. On behalf of all of us working at the Cascade Land Conservancy, and The Cascade Agenda Leadership Team, thank you.

As members of the Cascade Agenda Leadership Team, we are writing to thank you for sponsoring The Community Forestry Conservation Act of 2009 in the 111^th Congress and to urge your continued support for the legislation. Community Forestry Bonds will add a powerful new tool in our efforts to conserve forests, support the forest products industry, maintain rural jobs, combat sprawl and achieve the vision of The Cascade Agenda.

Why Community Forestry Bonds?

The Cascade Agenda is a broad, long-term vision for conserving 1.3 million acres of working and natural lands, and creating great cities. It is a vision that was borne from a conversation with over 4,500 people across the central Puget Sound and Cascades region about the future we want for our children and grandchildren 100 years from now. From this conversation emerged a set of strategies for conserving our working lands and directing growth into existing cities and towns. Community Forestry Bonds are one such strategy and present new opportunities to craft solutions that benefit both the environment and our natural resource businesses and working communities.

Community Forestry Bonds provide a financing tool that taps into the private tax-exempt bond market, whereby hundreds of millions of dollars can be raised for the acquisition of forest lands by a non-profit sustainable forestry organization. This tool works for the environment because working forests and open space would be protected from development pressure and qualified buyer organizations would have greater financial flexibility to purchase marginal working forest lands at risk of conversion. Community Forestry Bonds also work for natural-resource businesses by sustaining a critical mass of working-forest acreage, thus continually providing a stable supply of timber for wood products manufacturing, as well as long and short term employment.

Making Community Forestry Bonds a Reality

We are working together to ensure that timber companies, environmental organizations, financial institutions and other entities make their voices heard in support of this legislation. Both the House and the Senate have passed differing versions of the Community Forestry Conservation Act in recent years; however, it has not been included in a conference report. These earlier efforts have educated members of Congress and generated bi-partisan support for the proposal. Now is the time to engage Congress and stakeholders to pass the Community Forestry Conservation Act.

Please make the Community Forestry Conservation Act of 2009 a top priority in the 111^th Congress. Doing so will ensure long-term environmental protection and economic stability for communities, large and small, here in Washington and across the country. We look forward to working together to pass this critical legislation.