Our History
1994 - 2026
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1994
The Beginning
Sustainable Northwest founded to pioneer natural resource solutions that work for people and nature.
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1996
Wallowa Resources
Created Wallowa Resources to steward collaborative forest restoration in Northeast Oregon. Today, Wallowa Resources supports 58 jobs and 1.8 million acres of working lands.
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1998
Save the Sawmill
Convened the Lakeview Stewardship Group to sustainably manage 500,000 acres of the Fremont-Winema National Forest and save the last sawmill in Lake County.
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2000
Rural Voices
Launched the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, a network that gives a voice to rural leaders in national policy discussions.
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2001 - 2006
Sustainability in the PNW
Hosted the Oregon Sustainability Forum, one of the first conferences to advance sustainability initiatives in the Northwest.
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2002
Renewable Energy
Founded Lake County Resources Initiative, establishing 22 renewable energy projects in Lake County and saving the county over $1.9 million. Lake County plans to become a net-zero community and energy exporter by 2020.
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2003
FSC Group Certification
Created the first FSC® group certification program in the US to help small wood products businesses access the green building marketplace.
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2003 - Present
Responsibly-Sourced Wood
Sustainable Northwest’s Green Markets program enables the sale of $80 million in responsibly-sourced wood from 140 family-owned businesses in Western North America.
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2004
Yainix Ranch
Helped restore the Yainix Ranch on the Sycan River in Klamath County, Oregon, and created the first tribally-held working lands easement on non-tribal land in Oregon.
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2006
Blue Mountains
Founded the Blue Mountain Forest Partners, a succesful forest collaborative in Grant County, Oregon that has restored thousands of acres of national forest and increased work for 7,300 residents.
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2006 - Present
Klamath River Dams
Guided negotiations and supported Tribes, conservation groups and commercial fishing advocates for removal of four Klamath River dams, set to be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in US history.
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2008 - Present
SNW Wood
Founded Sustainable Northwest Wood to exclusively offer locally-sourced wood products from well-managed forests in the Pacific Northwest. In 2018 Sustainable Northwest Wood posted sales of $3.3 million and 2 million board feet of locally-sourced, responsible wood products. Since their inception in 2008 they have invested over $13 million in approximately 60 mills across the Pacific Northwest.
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2009 - 2014
Dry Forest Zone
Launched the Dry Forest Zone, a forest collaborative initiative spanning 15 counties in eastern Oregon and northern California that created 72 jobs and restored 8,843 forest acres.
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2010
A Million Acres
Helped pass the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, resulting in $52 million invested to restore over 1 million acres of forests in Oregon and Washington.
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2012
Save the Sawmill (Part 2)
Sustainable Northwest, the Blue Mountains Forest Partners Collaborative, U.S. Forest Service, and Malheur Lumber mill among others collectively secure a sustainable supply of logs to keep the last sawmill in Grant County open.
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2014
Western Juniper
Established the Western Juniper Alliance and wood products market, supporting 10 sawmills and 50 jobs across Oregon.
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2014
Forest Collaboratives
Created the Washington Forest Collaboratives Network to restore forest health on every national forest in Washington State.
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2014 - Present
Energy Efficiency on Farms
Supported dozens of energy efficiency projects for farmers and ranchers, saving enough power to avoid burning 430,000 pounds of coal each year.
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2015
Community Forests
Established the Northwest Community Forest Coalition, a network of 30 organizations assisting local groups to acquire and manage forest land from Montana to California.
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2016
Everyone At The Table
Hosted the first annual Pacific Northwest Forest Collaboratives workshop, bringing together 150 leading foresters, scientists, timber companies, conservationists, government partners, and others from across the Pacific Northwest.
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2016
Klamath Basin Restoration
Enactment of the historic Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA), in which SNW is a signatory and played a key role. The Amended KHSA was a critical step towards the largest dam removal in U.S. history.
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2017
Forest Restoration
Partnered with multiple Indian Tribes in Washington and Oregon to help restore 450,000 acres of tribal-owned land and tribal ancestral land managed by the US Forest Service.
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2017
Protect Drinking Water
Launched the Oregon Coast Community Forest Initiative to maintain working forests and protect drinking water in 50 coastal communities.
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2018-2025
2 Million Acres
Forest collaborative projects in the Pacific Northwest set out to restore 2 million acres of forest by 2025.
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2019
Solar In Your Community
Sustainable Northwest’s Making Energy Work for Rural Oregon team wins Best Non-profit Project from US Department of Energy’s Solar in Your Community Challenge by increasing access and benefits of solar to rural customers.
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2020
Southwest Intergrated Forest & Fire Treatment (SWIFFT)
Sustainable Northwest launched the Southwest Integrated Forest and Fire Treatment (SWIFFT) initiative to invest more than $2.5 million in targeted efforts to accelerate forest health and wildfire reduction treatments next to communities West of I-5 into the Applegate Valley. A collaboration between public agencies, local leaders, communities, and philanthropy, we are proud to complement and leverage long-standing efforts for immediate impact and increased investments across the region.
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2021
Electric Tractor Debut
Sustainable Northwest, Forth, Wy’East RC&D, and Bonneville Environmental Foundation partnered to launch Oregon’s first electric tractor demonstration to evaluate and demonstrate the potential of this new technology. The project will serve as an important test case to explore best use cases and areas to develop while increasing knowledge, access, and adoption of electric farm equipment to help farmers save money and reduce on-farm emissions.
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2022
Regenerative Ranching
Sustainable Northwest debuts new program for regenerative ranching, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of regenerative ranching practices across the West. The new Regenerative Ranching program is in partnership with Country Natural Beef (CNB), a cooperative of more than 100 family ranching operations covering 6.5 million acres of land across nine states western states.
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2023
Klamath Dam Removal Begins
In 2023, the largest dam removal in history began with the removal of the first of four dams on the Klamath River – Copco No. 2.
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2023
Wildfire Recovery
Sustainable Northwest launches innovative project to help private landowners impacted by the 2020 Labor Day Fires in western Oregon find funding and support to recover their forest lands using scientifically sound practices.
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2023
Forest to Frame
In 2023, the world’s largest mass timber roof was installed at PDX Airport and will be fully unveiled in 2024. The roof and other wood in the airport – including the oak floor – totaled more than 3 million board feet and was sourced entirely from family- and Tribal-owned forests practicing ecological forestry in Oregon and Washington.
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2023
Clean Drinking Water
Sustainable Northwest helped create Oregon’s Drinking Water Source Protection Program, which helps communities protect the forested watersheds upstream of their water intakes.
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2024
The Klamath Runs Free
The last of four Klamath River dams came down, completing the largest dam removal in U.S. history and reopening hundreds of miles of habitat to salmon for the first time in over a century.
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2025
Virtual Fencing
After the 2024 Lone Rock Fire destroyed more than 1,000 miles of ranch fencing, Sustainable Northwest and the Gilliam County Soil and Water Conservation District launched Oregon’s largest virtual fencing project, covering 177,000 acres.
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2025
Community Microgrids
Helped pass HB 2065 and HB 2066, the nation’s most ambitious microgrid legislation, enabling Oregon communities and Tribes to plan, build, and own microgrids powered by local clean energy.
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2025
Wildfire Funding Made Permanent
Helped secure a record wildfire resilience investment in Oregon, including first-ever permanent funding for wildfire mitigation, and helped pass Washington’s HB 1563 to expand the use of prescribed fire.
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2026
Tracing Wood to the Source
Guided wood sourcing for HP’s new R&D facility in Vancouver, Washington, designed by ZGF Architects. All of the wood was traced to its landowner type, and 44% came from Tribal forests, including glulam beams from Yakama Forest Products.
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2026
Tribal Wood and Biomass Hub
Launched a partnership with the Intertribal Timber Council to build markets for small trees and low-grade wood left over from forest restoration, a model designed to grow across ITC’s 60+ member Tribes.
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2026
Forest to Faucet
With support from Sustainable Northwest, the City of Rockaway Beach purchased the 800-acre Jetty Creek watershed to permanently protect its drinking water source.