Bear Ridge Community Forest

Many larger cities and towns across the Pacific Northwest own their local watershed, meaning they can set the gold standard for forest management and drinking water filtration. But this isn’t the case for many rural communities. Their local forests and watersheds are owned by commercial timber companies, which can impact water quality and increase treatment costs for smaller municipalities. It’s our goal to ensure that community ownership and management of watersheds is the norm, not the exception, starting with projects like the Bear Ridge Community Forest.

Trust for Public Land partnered with the City of Ilwaco—a small, rural town near the Washington-Oregon border—to purchase 380 forested acres within its local watershed to establish the Bear Ridge Community Forest. By managing their community forest, Ilwaco will be able to create trails for outdoor recreation and add sustainable timber jobs. But above all, the city has permanently protected its drinking water, ensuring Ilwaco remains a healthy, livable community for generations to come. Community forests are a growing solution to rural community needs, like water quality and access to green space, because they give control directly to the people who most rely on it. TPL is continuing to look for innovative ways to adapt this model for other communities—like using Clean Water State Revolving Funds, which were used for this project and typically go towards gray, not green, infrastructure—and open doors for deeper community engagement, better community health, and more community forests.