Fred M. van Eck believed in the synergy of optimizing economic and ecologic returns. An investment manager by trade, he also loved birds and other wildlife. Looking for ways to increase sustained returns from forestry and to promote native bird habitat, he elected to work with us to conserve and manage his forested land in California and Oregon. Following his instructions, in 2002, we were granted conservation easements and management responsibilities for these forests with the goal of demonstrating how landowners could, in fact, manage for both sets of returns, setting standards of excellence and innovation in forest management.

Today, the Van Eck properties are 9,400 acres of conserved, well-managed, highly productive forest. Managed under working forest conservation easements designed to restore and sustain old growth forest functions while producing sustainably harvested wood, we test out new forest management techniques and policy tools to enhance wildlife habitat, protect water supplies, and increase the forests’ capacity to sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air. This work provides economic incentives and operational certainties for the landowners.

While the forests differ substantially in type and condition, both are being managed to restore more natural qualities, marketing both a variety of traditional and new forest products, from large dimension saw timber, pulp, and other materials, to the first regulatory compliance carbon offsets, to new tools for meeting Endangered Species Act goals. This management is yielding net increases in timber production as compared to standard even age forest management in addition to restored habitat condition. We have also seen an economic return from the conservation of these forests and the sale of carbon offsets, contributing to the operational certainty for the properties and supplementing the traditional returns on the sale of timber products.