Glossary of frequently used terms

Biomass: Biomass refers to living and recently living materials—including wood and agricultural residue, energy crops, manure and even municipal waste—that can be used as fuel for heating, cooling, lighting, transportation, and to power machinery. In the Northern Forest “woody biomass” is the leading source of biomass.

Community Benefits: Economic, social, and environmental benefits that accrue locally as a result of natural resource-based development projects. Examples include: job quality standards, local resident access to newly created jobs, local wealth creation, sustainable use of local resources, and maintenance of cultural identity and traditions.

Community Development Financial Institutions: Specialized financial institutions that make loans and investments to serve distressed areas and/or low-income populations.

Community forest: An area of forest land owned and managed by a municipal entity or by a community based non-profit on behalf of a community.

Community forest model: An approach to community forests characterized by the following attributes: 1) The acquisition process and management structure ensures community participation in and responsibility for management decisions; 2) The community has secure access to the value and benefits of the forest, both monetary and non-monetary, that can support and reinforce community priorities and economic development objectives; and 3) The conservation values of the forestland are permanently protected through a conservation easement and sustainable forest management practices.

Community Forest Fund: A collaborative initiative managed by the Open Space Institute to support the creation and expansion of community forests in northern New England. The Fund achieves its mission through (1) matching capital grants and loans for the purchase of land and conservation easements and (2) support grants for planning, transaction and stewardship activities for community forest projects.

Cut-to-length harvesting (CTL): A timber harvesting system in which trees are felled, delimbed and bucked to various assortments (e.g., sawlogs, pulpwood, veneer bolts) directly in the stump area. Cut logs are then carried in a wagon (rather than skidded) to a roadside landing. The use of CTL has proven environmental benefits, and the potential to provide economic benefits to landowners, loggers and the broader forest economy.

Earned income: Income brought into an organization through direct payment for program delivery or services – rather than traditional philanthropic donations or government grants.

Ecosystem services: Resources and processes provided by an ecosystem which benefit people, such as clean drinking water, carbon sequestration, wood products, and reduced soil erosion.

Endowment: A permanently restricted net asset, the principal of which is protected and the income from which may be spent and is controlled by either the donor’s restrictions or the organization’s governing board.

Forest-based income streams: Potential or realized chains of economic activity derived from a forest product or forest-related activity.

Network strategy: A collaborative approach to program delivery based upon: 1) focus on the common vision, not the individual organizations within the network; 2) confidence that individual organizations can be relied upon to do what they say they’ll do and have the networks’ best interest in mind; and 3) evident dedication and interest from all participants—people want to be "at the table"

Northern Forest Investment Zone: A designation by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities. The Northern Forest Investment Zone is one of three zones funded nationally by the Endowment, with the others located in Central Appalachia and the dry forest areas of northern California and eastern Oregon. The Endowment defines these zones as “multi-community/multi-county areas, potentially crossing state lines with ‘soft’ boundaries that reflect ecological, economic, cultural and social interactions and is at a scale that facilitates positive long term change.”

Northern Forest Investment Zone partners: Partners at the start of the Investment Zone initiative (2008) included the Biomass Energy Resource Center, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., Forest Guild, Northern Forest Center (NFC), Sustainable Forest Futures (SFF), the Community Forest Collaborative (comprised of the Trust for Public Land, Quebec-Labrador Foundation, NFC and SFF), Lyme Timber Company, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

Program Related Investment (PRI): An investment by a foundation to support a charitable project or activity. Usually structured as loans, PRIs can also be equity investments or loan guarantees.

Regional Woods Products Consortium: A collaboration between Sustainable Forest Futures (SFF) and the wood products manufacturing industry in the 4-state region encompassing Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern New York. The Consortium assists the wood products manufacturing industry in the region in pursuing innovation opportunities and helping to access markets, with the goal of enhancing economic competitiveness.

Resilient and innovative place-based economies: Local and regional economic systems grounded in the unique assets and characteristics of their place and characterized by entrepreneurship, creativity and the flexibility needed to respond to changing macro economic trends.

Rural destination tourism: A network-based approach to tourism that combines the best of authentic and intimate place-based tourism experiences with high quality customer service standards, and seamless integration of local providers organized around thematic visitor experiences that customers can access through a variety of coordinated planning and booking tools.

Sub-Regional: A geographic scale of project implementation that lies between local community and full regional scale. For the Center this could include the state-level, but more often indicates an area that incorporates several communities or counties and can straddle state lines.

Sustainable Forest Futures: A non-profit subsidiary of the Northern Forest Center that promotes a competitive and sustainable forest economy in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern New York.

Sustained Giving Program: A process by which the organization solicits and accepts major donations that are designed to meet the long-term revenue needs of the organization. Sustained giving may be derived through multi-year pledges, a planned gift--which has tax implications for the donor and is often transmitted through a legal instrument, such as a will or a trust--or a specific designated gift that provides an annual return for the organization.

Triple bottom line: An approach to business and community investment designed to deliver economic value, social benefits or equity, and compatibility with the environment.

U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities: The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation established at the request of the governments of the United States and Canada in accordance with the terms of the Softwood Lumber Agreement of 2006 between the two countries. The mission of the Endowment is to work collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation's working forests and forest-reliant communities.

Ways of the Woods: A National Endowment for the Humanities supported mobile forest heritage exhibition exploring the changing relationships between people and the land in the Northern Forest.