June 16, 2022 at 11:12 a.m.
Getting to know Lumberjack RC&D: What is a Resource Conservation and Development Council?
Getting to know Lumberjack RC&D: What is a Resource Conservation and Development Council?
Lumberjack RC&D is made up of nine sponsor counties: Florence, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln, Menominee, Oconto, Oneida, Shawano and Vilas. Sponsor counties pay dues to their RC&D, four of which are left in the state, and provide one representative and one alternate to the Council's Board of Directors. Additionally, the Council may approve up to seven at-large members to serve on the board. The Council meets quarterly in January, April, July and October.
"I'm not sure exactly why it was originally called the Lumberjack Council," said executive director Tracy Beckman. "But it has to do with being here in the Northwoods, and our largest industry is forestry, so I'm sure it has something to do with that."
RC&Ds were organized in the 1960s at the federal level under the Farm Bill, she said. The mission was to help bring together governments and private conservation-minded organizations to do work on the landscape. The idea was to create a better life for people while conserving natural resources at the same time.
However, in the early 2010s, around 2012, Beckman said, the RC&Ds were defunded at the same time as many other federal programs. At that time, there were seven RC&Ds in the state. Today, only four remain. Lumberjack is one of those.
"We're fortunate enough to be in the demographic where there is forest, and we have the contact for the forest inventory for the state of Wisconsin," Beckman said. That contract has allowed Lumberjack to continue on, using funds from that arrangement to benefit a number of partners within their nine county area. They have had the contract since the early 2000s. The forest inventories allow scientists at the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service to see trends over time with the data recorded from specific plots of land. Because the forest inventory technicians from Lumberjack have been doing this for years, Beckman said, the trends can be counted on to be accurate as the same people are logging the same types of data year after year.
Lumberjack is also a fiscal sponsor for several other conservation groups. They sponsor several invasive species groups such as the Wisconsin Headwaters Invasives Partnership (WHIP) and the Wisconsin Young Forest Partnership. Funds from Lumberjack allow groups such as those to take on projects that may not fit into rigid grant parameters. For instance, Beckman said, Lumberjack funding may allow WHIP coordinator Rosie Page to go out and survey a site where a terrestrial invasive was reported, even if that work would not fit into a specific grant WHIP had in place. Lumberjack holds grants for those organizations, which they administer. The grants are a combination of state and federal with some occasional private foundations contributing as well.
"We say we're three-pronged," she said. "The first one is that we do these projects and grants. The second is that we are a fiscal sponsor. The third is that we have our own project fund where we can help local organizations within our nine county service area to fund a conservation project."
Lumberjack has a project fund that allows them to help local conservation organizations fund their projects. People can apply for funding up to $10,000, Beckman said. Those projects are then approved at the January Council meeting. Locally, those funds have been used for the walking paths at CAVOC, Pollinator gardens in Three Lakes and Oneida County and also the FRESH program, a community garden project in Shawano County.
"The bulk of who we work with are county land and water conservation departments," Beckman said. "We work together on many county projects. The next level up is working with the county supervisors. Then we work with some of the groups we are fiscal agents for who have their own steering committees. So that is another whole group of partners we work with."
Once Lumberjack partners with an organization, she said, Lumberjack will handle all of their admin. They will also have a seat on that organization's steering committee. The Lumberjack member on the steering committee then works through all of the proposed projects with which those organizations could be involved. Beckman said she also looks for partners that can work together on projects. For instance, WHIP, TIP and WYFP are all working together, through a grant from the U.S. Forest Service looking at conservation practices on private lands where land owners are interested in learning about management of their lands. Part of this program looks at connectivity across the landscape. Because the largest amount of forest in Wisconsin is privately owned, Lumberjack is constantly looking for ways to engage those stakeholders.
Beckman's work
Beckman worked for many years for United Way. She came to Lumberjack looking for something different, although she knew she wanted to stay in the nonprofit sector. When she interviewed, she said, she was struck by the wonderful, passionate people in the organization and felt it was something with which she wanted to get involved.
"My expertise is governance and policy making and fund raising and those sorts of things," she said. "I didn't know a lot about conservation, but I could lead the organization. And I have learned so much." She said it has been a very fulfilling job since 2014.
At the outset, she said, she did not fully understand all of the ins and outs of the conservation side. However, the former executive director stayed on the Council as the treasurer after Beckman was hired, so she had help in that way as well. Still, though, she said, it took a good three years to get fully acclimated and to become adept at navigating the grant process. Each grantor has a unique approach to their granting process, she said.
"I didn't look at that as the biggest challenge," she said of learning the granting process for Lumberjack. "At the time, I did not know that was a challenge. I didn't even know enough about that part of it." Now, however, it comes much easier and she is comfortable with all of the processes needed to secure that funding and to bring Lumberjack and its partners success.
The future
Lumberjack employs 11 people full time, Beckman said. There are more in the summer, during the busier season. She hopes to see the organization grow in the future as more partners come onboard.
One area where Beckman said they would like to expand is community gardens. They are waiting for the federal government to put out a request for proposals, but they already have a plan in mind. Lumberjack, she said, is also looking closely at the carbon credit program and if or how that can work into their overall goals.
Another area where Beckman said Lumberjack would like to focus in the future is getting all of the partners working together cohesively. Some partners are focused on terrestrial invasive species, others are focused on aquatic invasive species and still others are focused on forestry. But none of these things exist in a vacuum, she pointed out. Getting all of the partners working together on projects treats the environment as a whole, providing synergy in outcomes.
"Slowly but surely the funding source, the people providing the funds, are coming around to see that and helping people come together," she said.
A big, long-term project Beckman said she would like to see Lumberjack have a leadership role in would be trail connectivity. She said she would like to see trail systems in all nine Lumberjack counties connected. Connecting the most northern counties' trails all the way to the eastern part of the state is a large undertaking, to put it mildly, but it is something that has been circled back around to several times, she said.
Outreach and education, too, are areas in which Beckman said Lumberjack would like to expand. With administering almost 40 funding sources, she said, her time is limited in terms of taking part in those kinds of undertakings. However, it is something she believes Lumberjack can and will do better in the future.
For more information on Lumberjack, their partners and the work they do on the landscape, see their website at lumberjackrcd.org, or contact Beckman at [email protected] or 715-369-9886.
Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.