FOC’s mission is to provide integrated programs that create jobs, improve community, forest and watershed conditions, and increase educational opportunities.
Our vision is a “Healthy Forest, Healthy Community.” Our programs recognize and address the need for both conservation and restoration of the forests, while maximizing the value of all materials removed from the forest for economic development and sustainability.
In the last century, our surrounding forests consisted primarily of lodge pole pine, as well as other softwoods that had reached the end of their life cycle and were dying of old age, disease and mountain pine beetle infestation. Regretfully, timber management on the national forest lands was reduced while wildfire danger from dead timber had increased and the forest became less healthy each year. The results were economic decline, catastrophic wildfires, and deteriorating forest health conditions, which created a climate of frustration in both the public and private sectors.
FOC believes the solution to reversing these problems is Collaboration and Partnership, tools not only essential, but a method that create a far more effective path to success than the resulting adversarial climate. We focus on the development and usage of better management practices, utilizing existing and new technologies, and strengthening and building the capacity of the community. Being good stewards of the forest strengthens ties to the land, improves the natural resources our community depends on, utilizes life skills and experiences, and promotes best use – best value of those resources that ultimately provide the food, clothing, shelter and social fiber of our rural communities.
Framing Our Community’s Board believes we must be proactive and set a new course to break the cycle of degrading forests and rural poverty. They also recognize that in hard times lay many opportunities and early efforts have produced projects that range from construction of an outdoor learning center, Senate and House of Representatives testimony, water quality improvement, forest restoration, Rural Community Development Forums, feasibility studies, a business plan and Small Business Incubator. Early years have seen the formation of the “Jobs in the Woods,” the “Artists in the Woods” programs and construction of the Elk City Small Business Incubator.