WiserEarth Group Support

Problem: Dry forests dominated by ponderosa pine are distributed widely throughout the west at lower elevations, often representing the first forest zone above lower elevation grasslands and sagebrush. Historically, these forests burned at regular intervals of 5-25 years, promoting an open, uneven-aged forest, dominated by large pines with open grassy and shrub understories. Because fires were generally of low intensity, more than 70% of the acres of this forest type were stands of large, mature pines...

Action: The Role of Private Lands Private lands can play a key role in the conservation of ponderosa pine habitats and the birds that depend on them. Approximately 44% of the 15 million acres of ponderosa pine forest in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho is on private lands. Many ponderosa pine forests on private lands are adjacent to public forest lands, providing an opportunity to enhance their value through cooperative efforts with public land managers. Many of these forests are interspersed with grass...

Problem: This solution tackles the question of legal juristiction in a multi-layered, community based social structure. How can you establish human rights on a global level while allowing individual communities to determine their own laws for food standards or noise levels?

Action: Within the structure of multi-layer democracy (http://www.standardsoflife.com/representation) there needs to be a way of handling the differences between different consitituencies within a layer and between layers. Variable Law is a legal construct that is best included in a constitution (http://www.standardsoflife.com/constitutional+Template) and provides ...

Problem: Planning the conservation project is the final step in the project selection process, in which the land trust thoughtfully and deliberately synthesizes all the selection and evaluation materials and develops a road map, a plan to follow in completing the project. The project planning process should ensure that the land trust understands key background information and designs an overall strategy to proceed that fully integrates all of the pertinent information.

Action: A project selection process may look a little different at each land trust, but the basic elements are still the same. All project selection processes must involve at least the following steps:   Interview with the landowner; Site inspection and identification of conservation values; Analysis of whether the project meets the land trust’s mission, goals and strategic plan; Analysis of the project’s compliance with Internal Revenue Code provisions, if applicable, and the public benefit tha...