Strategies for Increasing Community Benefit from North Olympic Peninsula Forests
REDI Technical Assistance Award
In June 2019, NODC was one of 48 organizations across the US to receive a technical assistance award from the USDA Rural Economic Development Innovation (REDI) initiative. USDA is funding Rural Development Initiatives (RDI), based in Eugene, Oregon, to assist NODC in using the WealthWorks
model to develop strategies for increasing community benefit from our region’s working forest lands. Strategies might include:
- Value-adding of under-utilized species like native hardwoods.
- Expanding production from non-industrial private landowners.
- Developing community forests.
- Thermal modification of wood products.
- Support for entrepreneurship in the wood value-adding sector.
Other Articles:
NODC partnered with PNNL and regional stakeholders, including local governments, tribal communities, public utilities, and economic development agencies, on an Energy Futures Conference for the North Olympic Peninsula.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) will explore the feasibility of Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) to increase grid resilience on the North Olympic Peninsula. As a partner on the project, NODC will build on previous regional planning processes for climate change adaptation, natural disaster resilience and energy to develop and lead a multi-criteria decision-making approach to engage communities and Tribes across the Peninsula in the project to identify needs and define important project metrics.
In late 2020, NODC was awarded funding through the Puget Sound Partnership from the EPA's National Estuary Program for Phase 2: Municipal Level Climate Action Planning for the North Olympic Peninsula.
