Shanna Ratner of Yellow Wood Associates facilitated two daylong participatory workshops for communities that owned and managed forestland and for communities that were interested in acquiring forestland, using Yellow Wood’s See the Forest® interactive format. The workshops were sponsored by the Community Forest Collaborative with the Maine Association of Conservation Commissions and the Maine Forest Service. Workshop participants learned about the history of community forests in Maine; explored different models for ownership and acquisition of community forests; explored the challenges and opportunities for communities in owning and managing forest land; explored how to engage their community in managing and governing a community forest; identified resources and collaborations that have been useful in strengthening towns' relationships with their forests; and developed an understanding of the roles community forests cn play in achieving local and/or regional conservation goals, local community development, and town master planning.
Innovators in Rural Community Economic Development
