NASF presented the 2014 Marvin Brown Current Achievement Awards for Partnerships to one individual and one national organization at the annual meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Awardee Jennifer Judd Hinrichs is responsible for convening the Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition. Hinrichs has expanded the Sustainable Urban Forest Coalition (“the Coalition”) membership to include more water and planning groups. The coalition is the only broad-based national urban and community forestry advocacy group and is very active on the national scene.
She is the key point of contact for the coalition and acts as the coalition’s administrator and coordinator. Hinrichs facilitates structured and informal communications among partners; captures and develops decisions and resulting plans; oversees all formal external communications, supports outreach efforts, and acts as central project coordinator and manager for the coalition. This outstanding awardee has maintained consistency for the organization as it has gone through developmental changes and matured as an organization. She sets a cooperative tone in meetings and in coalition publications so that members are working together, not at cross purposes.
The collaborative atmosphere increases effective advocacy externally and communication between members. Jennifer Judd Hinrichs in the convener role, members have been able to focus their efforts on policy and research.
The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) received the Marvin Brown Current Achievement Award for Partnerships for its excellent team work to ensure that state-based best management practices (BMPs) would continue as the primary mechanism to protect water quality during silviculture operations.
Questions about whether state-based BMPs or Clean Water Act permits were appropriate for protecting water quality during silviculture operations were first raised in litigation in the state of Oregon and through the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
With the future of state BMPs in question, this organization played a key role in helping organize the efforts of the entire forestry community. Their work was critical in keeping all interested parties informed and working toward the same end-goal as efforts before Congress, the Administration, and the courts proceeded simultaneously. The group’s efforts ultimately helped to deliver clarity around the role of BMPs through the Agriculture Act of 2014 (Farm Bill). This organization efforts helped build a strong bipartisan coalition of support in both chambers of Congress. This broad base of support proved essential in the successful drive to ultimately include language in the Farm Bill providing the desired clarity around the role of state BMPs.
David Tenny, founding President and CEO, accepted the award on behalf of NAFO.