Since 2008, Sustainable Northwest Wood has been connecting ecological forestry with green building in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We have directed over forty million dollars to well-managed forests and forest-based businesses across the Northwest. Over the years, we have noticed it is exceedingly difficult to ensure that forest owners going above and beyond business as usual are justly compensated for the cost and effort of the vital work that they perform.  Forestry that emphasizes health and resilience almost always carries a greater financial burden than forestry that prioritizes economic return. We want to help bridge that gap. 

 In 2025, we introduced a new program that enables us to work with values aligned customers to make direct payments to land stewards with a management approach that treats forests as complex, interconnected ecosystems rather than just timber sources, focusing on maintaining biodiversity, structural complexity, and long-term health. 

As a pilot, we invited twelve customers to participate in a rebate program, proposing that if their annual sales reached an agreed upon target, we would offer them a 6% rebate at the end of the year.  At least half of that rebate is required to  go into a pool of funds that would then be paid to land stewards for meaningful forest projects. The other half can be redeemed by the customer or added to the program funding, at their discretion.

"This gives our customers a chance to directly support the kind of forestry they believe in," says Lynn Morgan, Director of Community Engagement. 

Five of the twelve initial participants achieved their target. Portland firms  Green Hammer Design Build,   TaylorSmith Sustainable Construction  and Timberlab,   plus Green Thumb Projects in Hood River,  and Triple Bottom Line Construction  in Seattle contributed to the pool. Through their purchases, these customers seeded a small grants program intended for local forests and forest managers which Sustainable Northwest Wood has relied upon or purchased from over the years.

"The program works because it allows our customers to fund it from a share of our rebate to them. Sustainable Northwest Wood is able to offer the rebate because it is linked to a higher volume of business. Ultimately the program is funded by shifting wood products purchasing to more sustainable sources. A win-win for everyone," says Founder & President Ryan Temple. 

As a result of the commitment of these customers, Giving Back to the Land  has awarded the first funds to five forest projects in Oregon and Washington that were selected by an independent committee based on proposals received by the land stewards.

• Camp Namanu, a 545-acre youth camp east of Portland, which will use the funds to offset costs of managing younger stands, protect seedlings, and enhance species diversity.

• The Coquille Indian Tribe, which owns 5400 acres of FSC Certified forestland in SW Oregon, will use funding to support marketing their specialty hardwood program.

• Hyla Woods will purchase equipment to develop new products to utilize lower value wood from their FSC Certified land and large timber & beam production.

• Southfork Gardens is restoring riparian areas on their 400 acres of Juniper forestland in Eastern Oregon and will develop innovative ways to deal with residual mill waste, such as making biochar.

• Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) which counsels forest owners in Washington to practice ecological forestry, will develop demonstration sites and analyze the effects of different thinning treatments on timber growth and carbon sequestration.

The people of the Pacific Northwest have a deep commitment to sustainable purchasing and we are incredibly fortunate to have many land stewards going above and beyond to demonstrate that ecological forestry is possible.  Uniting these heroes has always been the mission of Sustainable Northwest Wood. This new program is a small step in making the critical financial linkages a little bit more tangible.

The beginnings of this program are modest, but the potential is enormous. Now open to all customers who opt in and set spending targets of 10k or more per year, this program has the opportunity to scale up in future years as more commercial customers choose to participate. It demonstrates a possibility where market incentives are not just between the builder and their direct suppler, but those incentives can go directly back to the forests, where, in our opinion, they belong.

Reach out for more information to be part of Giving Back to the Land.  
Email:   info@snwWood.com 
Call  us:  503.239.9663 
Visit our showroom & wood yard:    2701 SE 14th Ave  Portland OR 97202