The Future Forests Reimagined Initiative’s Goals are to:

1) Identify and Protect Remaining Old Forests

2) Accelerate the Restoration of Wildland Forests

3) Increase the amount of Actively Managed Resilient Forests (through the spread of ecological forestry).

In 2022, the FFRI held a series of workshops the state of our regional forest, improved science and practices, and explored possible steps for the future. Details of these workshops can be found here.

 In 2024, FFR planning team expanded their collaborative efforts and conducted a 4 month long, tailored workshop series called “Future Forest Reimagined (FFR) Through United Nations Biosphere Regions”  for the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Network,  the UNESCO Biosphere Regions in eastern Canada located within or on the border of the Northern Appalachian Acadian Wabanaki (NAPAW) ecoregion, and partners in New York and Vermont. The NAPAW ecoregion is the most intact broad-leaved temperate forest in the world, home to rich biodiversity and facing enormous challenges from climate change, and forest management issues, making it of immense global ecological significance, and the intentions of this gathering were to open channels of inter-Reserve communication and planning for resilient forests through co-learning and sharing resources.

Workshops

The FFR Workshops were deep dives into the following topics. 

•  Workshop 1: Bioregionalism, Champlain Adirondack Biosphere Network (Sept 11)
• Workshop 2: The Big Picture (Sept 25)
• Workshop 3: Indigenous Perspectives, Lac Saint Pierre Biosphere Region (Oct 9)
• Workshop 4: Forest Protection and Active Management, Mont Saint Hilaire Biosphere Region (Oct 23)
• Workshop 5: Ecological Forest Management, Fundy Biosphere Region (Nov 6)
• Workshop 6: Forest Economics (Nov 20)
• Workshop 7: The Science of Old Forests, Frontenac Arch Biosphere Region (Dec 4)
• Workshop 8: Two Eyed Seeing and The Future Forests of the Biosphere Regions, Charlevoix Biosphere Region (Dec 18)

(Clicking on the above links will open the video recordings of the workshops in a new tab. Please be patient as they load.)

Thanks

The FFR Planning Team is grateful to the Champlain Valley Natural Heritage Partnership and the New England Interstate Pollution Control Commission for their generous support. Our FFR partner includes:

• Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Network (CABN), New York and Vermont
• United States Biosphere Network (USBN)
• Canada Biosphere Region Association (CBRA)
• Wildlands Network (WN)
• Two Countries, One Forest (2C1F)
• Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation (VTFPR)
• Collaborative Decision Resources (CDR Associates)
• Community Language Cooperative

This project was funded by an agreement awarded by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission (GLFC) to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program. (LCBP.  NEIWPCC manages LCBP’s personnel, contract, grant, and budget tasks and provides input on the program’s activities through a partnership with the LCBP Steering Committee.

Although the information in this document has been funded wholly or in part by the GLFC under an agreement between the GLFC and NEIWPCC. It has not undergone the GLFC publications review process and therefore, may not necessarily reflect the views of the NPS and no official endorsement should be inferred. The viewpoints expressed here do not necessarily represent those of NEIWPCC, the LCBP Steering Committee, or GLFC, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or causes constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.