Supporting and maintaining healthy forests
Good forest management can deliver major benefits. Caring for tree covered lands can protect native and endangered species, limit seasonal fires, and harvest carbon from the atmosphere.
Arden will collaborate with Wilder to manage our natural lands, and support other forested areas by providing expertise and connecting forest protectors with capital and labor resources.
In places where trees are scarce or just starting to grow, Arden will also lead development and planning of new forests.
Project brief
Arden is exploring forest stewardship that improves biodiversity, resilience, and community wellbeing. Healthy forests are not simply places with more trees: native species, age and structural diversity, soils, water, wildlife, and natural disturbance all matter. In fire-adapted landscapes, good care may include cultural or prescribed fire rather than blanket fire suppression.
Working principles
- Use local ecology and climate projections to choose between protection, assisted regeneration, planting, thinning, and fire.
- Favor native diversity and natural regeneration; avoid monocultures and tree-count claims that ignore survival.
- Work with Tribal nations, landowners, foresters, residents, and workers, with long-term monitoring built in.
Organizations and resources to learn from
These independent links are starting points for research. They are not endorsements, funding recommendations, or claims of partnership.
- American Forests — science, policy, and partnerships for resilient rural and urban forests
- Forest Stewardship Council — standards and certification for responsible forest management
- Global Forest Watch — open data for tracking forest change and pressures
Near-term milestones
- Publish a forest-health framework with biodiversity, fire, water, carbon, and community measures.
- Choose one landscape for a baseline assessment using field knowledge and open forest data.
- Co-design a small stewardship or restoration pilot with the people responsible for that landscape.
Current status
Research and relationship-building. Lifeco is not yet operating a field program under this project.
How to help
We welcome foresters, fire ecologists, Tribal and cultural-fire practitioners, restoration crews, forest-data analysts, and long-term land stewards. If that is you, contact Lifeco and mention this project.