The Dry Forest Zone (DFZ) is a five-year project to address common natural resource-based economic development challenges through increased networking and capacity building at a regional scale. Sustainable Northwest leads this project in partnership with Wallowa Resources in northeastern Oregon, the Watershed Research and Training Center in northern California, and the Ecosystem Workforce Program at the University of Oregon. The central components of the DFZ strategy are: 1) To build strong local nonprofit organizations and collaborative processes to achieve forest and economic resilience, 2) Create multiple value streams from land management and incentives for forest restoration and stewardship, 3) Develop integrated biomass utilization and renewable energy; and 4) Create the policy conditions to support sustainable forest stewardship on public and private lands.
Program UOEW, Northwest S, Center W, Resources W. Dry Forest Zone Maps. Ecosystem Workforce Program Working Paper. 2014 .