SNW, Partners, and Feds Invest Millions in Healthy Forests, Clean Energy

Maybe you’ve heard about the Inflation Reduction Act? Congress passed it and the president signed it – along with another law, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – in 2022. Now in 2023, funds are beginning to flow to communities. Sustainable Northwest and its partners are leveraging some of these funds for projects that benefit nature, people, and local economies.

REDUCING WILDFIRE RISKS

For example, in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in north central Washington, this funding has helped launch the Central Washington Initiative – an all-lands approach to promoting healthy landscapes and reducing wildfire risks. The funding is helping Tribal Nations plus state, federal, county, city, and private landowners work together to improve forest health – thus reducing wildfire risk. Want to know what kinds of treatments will help the Oka-Wen and other dry, eastside forests? Read this account of our visit to the Oka-Wen in summer 2023, where we learned from the region’s most respected forest scientists and fire managers. 

ACCELERATING LOCAL CLEAN ENERGY

Our Clean Energy team is working with Tribal Nations, local governments, rural businesses, and community-based nonprofits around the state to help secure funds for community-owned solar power and other clean energy projects. Historically, energy projects have not always benefited rural communities and Tribal Nations. Residents often experience significant grid disruptions, high energy costs, and no ownership of energy facilities. The current rapid shift to clean energy risks causing the same harm to rural communities and Tribal Nations – but we see it as an opportunity to help rural communities and Tribal Nations to compete with investor-owned utilities for funding and resources that will make their communities stronger and better able to weather a warming climate.

CONSERVING COMMUNITY FORESTS

One federal agency – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – has received several billion dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act to help Tribal Nations and rural communities better prepare for the impacts of climate change. Some communities want to do this by acquiring the land that provides their drinking water – which is often called their drinking water source watersheds. Sustainable Northwest is working with five communities on the Oregon Coast to do this, helping them make sure their drinking water source watersheds are protected in perpetuity and can provide clean water for generations to come. 

These are just a few examples of how we’re leveraging federal investments to promote healthy landscapes for nature, people, and local economies in the Pacific Northwest. If you’d like to learn more, please email us here.

Learn more about Sustainable Nortwest’s Clean Energy Program!