The Outlook | July 2025

A trusted source of environmental information

Dovetail Partners’ Priorities for the 9th American Forest Congress

Dovetail Partners applauds American Forests and all of their partners on the planning and development of the 9th American Forest Congress.

Dovetail Partners has reviewed the draft principles and resolutions and identified the following priorities for the future of forests, forest management, and forest-based products, services, and materials in the United States. Dovetail Partners believes our identified priorities align well with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Principles and the 4th Resolution that have been drafted for the Congress, and we encourage their further consideration for inclusion in the final versions.

Community: Healthy forests are inseparable from the health of our communities. We are forest-reliant and have diverse needs that require adaptive, innovative, and reciprocal land relationships. Peoples’ connections with forests include community and cultural needs, workforce recruitment and retention, and partnership communications and engagement. We must fully consider and address social needs, impacts, and benefits across all lands.

Circularity: Healthy forests are the heart of a circular bioeconomy. Circularity is built on a foundation of sustainable forest management and provides a vibrant future for forest products and green jobs. We must fully embrace investments in a sustainable circular bioeconomy to meet needs for housing, energy, consumer goods, and employment.

Collaboration: Healthy forests invite collaboration. Cross-sector collaboration is essential for providing holistic forest ecosystem benefits for wildlife, water, air, recreation, and quality of life. We must fully engage in collaboration that enables expanded choice and diversified outcomes to reflect multiple benefits for thriving ecosystem health, material valuation, and multi-generational land relationships.

Download Dovetail Partners' Priorities here.

Welcome Rachel!

Summer of 2025 Intern

We would love to welcome our summer 2025 intern Rachel Mehlhaff! Rachel has joined our Dovetail team to Research the Best Practices in Forestry to Support Pollinator Habitats.

Rachel is currently pursuing a master's degree in the MS-Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) program through the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She feels deeply passionate about conservation-encompassing land, wildlife, and water issues--and has a strong interest in policy and planning, community engagement, and collaborating with Indigenous communities. She chose to intern at Dovetail for the opportunity to engage with expert consultants at a science-based, nonprofit organization while conducting research to deepen her knowledge of the environmental field.

Events

Q2 Webinar Recording: Tree-Free, Hemp, and Non Wood Alternatives - Impacts & Trade-Offs Webinar

This webinar was on June 6th, 2025. Dovetail Partners examined non-wood alternatives to traditional forest products, including trends in “tree-free” and use of fibers such as hemp. This webinar explored the role of tree-free, hemp, and non-wood alternatives in diversifying material supplies and the impacts for forestry and farming that result. Kathryn Fernholz, Jim Bowyer, and Mark Jacobs discussed environmental impacts, trade-offs, and key insights.

Recording of Our Forests, Our Future’: The History of the Society of American Foresters” with Char Miller

Kathryn Fernholz and Eliza Meyer of Dovetail Partners contributed to the writing of Our Forests, Our Future. The book has been released by the Society of American Foresters in celebration of the organization's 125th Anniversary. Kathryn and Eliza are authors for the chapter addressing forest policy history in the US.

Recording of The Tree Diversity Reporting Index: A New Tool to Assess Urban Forest Biodiversity Reporting

Dr. Asia Dowtin, an Assistant Professor of Urban and Community Forestry at Michigan State University, presented at Dovetail's team meeting to discuss the Tree Diversity Reporting Index which is a new tool to assess urban forest biodiversity reporting. She provided insights into the research process for how the tool was developed and the real world applicability.

2025 North American Biochar Conference

Join Dovetail for the 2025 North American Biochar Conference (NABC25), the premier event shaping the future of biochar. The conference will run from September 15-18, 2025 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Hosted by the U.S. Biochar Initiative (USBI), this conference brings together industry leaders, researchers, policymakers, and investors to accelerate market adoption, scale production, and expand biochar applications across industries. Dovetail Associate Harry Groot has been working on the organizing committee for the conference.

Reminder To Sign up for our Q3 Webinar

Dovetail Partners is offering quarterly webinars throughout 2025 to highlight key topics and provide greater insight into issues addressed in our reporting. Our Q3 webinar will be presented by Kathryn Fernholz and Jim Boyer and will be discussing Bioenergy Developments: Trends & Conditions.

Scan the QR to register for our quarterly webinars!

Updates & Recaps

ROWSC Announces Finalized Revised Technical Requirements

The Right-of-Way Stewardship Council (ROWSC) is pleased to announce the finalization of revised ROW Steward Technical Requirements for Accreditation. Goals for this revision included reducing redundancy across principles, criteria, and indicators; aligning the requirements with recent IVM science, trends, regulations and standards; and including emerging issues like updates to environmental and social contracts. These standards, which were last updated in 2016, establish the technical requirements for applicants seeking ROW Steward accreditation of IVM practices on electric transmission and pipeline rights-of-way. Dovetail Partners serves as the nonprofit administrator of the ROWSC.

Minnesota Forest Resources Council Northern Landscape Plan

The Northern Landscape Plan has been prepared by the Minnesota Forest Resources Council (MFRC) and the Northern Regional Landscape Committee (Committee). The MFRC promotes long term sustainable management of Minnesota’s forests as directed by the Minnesota State Legislature in the Sustainable Forest Resources Act of 1995 (SFRA). Through its Regional Landscape

Program and regional forest resource committees, the MFRC develops and supports the implementation of regional forest resource plans for Minnesota’s six major forested regions. The SFRA directs the MFRC to establish regional forest resource committees to foster landscape-based forest resource planning and coordination activities. This legislation defined landscape-level planning as “long-term or broad-based efforts that may require extensive analysis or planning over large areas that may involve or require extensive coordination across all ownerships.”

Dovetail's Kathryn Fernholz & Maria Golden assisted with Facilitating and Data Analysis for this plan.

Chainsaw Safety Workshop Recap

Chainsaw Safety Workshop Recap - by Gloria Erickson

Goals & Mission of Chainsaw Safety Workshop: Helping landowners with their land stewardship goals, particularly being more wildfire resilient is the goal for our Fire Adapted Communities project manager. Providing hands on empowerment workshops is one of the ways we do that.

Details of Workshop: A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Firewise grant award provided us funding to host a two day beginners chainsaw safety workshop at University of Minnesota’s Hubachek Wilderness Research Center outside of Ely.

Participants learned to:

Use the chainsaw safely and use proper felling techniques
Operate the chainsaw per OSHA rules and regulations
Demonstrate those rules with hands-on training and instructor guidance
This entry level training is for beginners as well as individuals looking to improve/hone in on their skills.

Interest in the class boomed and we filled the class quickly and implemented a waiting list.

Our instructors Nathan Stanford and Holly Rose McKnight from FSI, were great!

We hope to be able to do this again!

A Wilderness Act Screening Recap

In June, Dovetail Partners collaborated to host a thought provoking screening and panel discussion of A Wilderness Act for community members and visitors to Ely, MN. Over a hundred community members and area visitors gathered to contemplate what wilderness means to us and how we can care for our country's most precious landscapes in a way that supports both ecosystems and human culture.

Key contributors to the film and panel discussion guests were Anishinaabe graduate student Nisogaabokwe Melonee Montano, University professor Evan Larson and fire practitioner Timo Rovo. Miigwech for sharing your time and knowledge. To watch the trailer for the film and learn how to host a screening visit https://www.ishkode.org/a-wilderness-act.

2026 Guest Speaker Nominations

Dovetail Partners invites guest speakers to participate in monthly team meetings. It's an opportunity for speakers to share their insights, expertise, ideas, and experiences with us. We are currently seeking recommendations for our 2026 guest speakers.

If you know of anyone that should be nominated to be a guest speaker or you would like to nominate yourself please fill out the form linked below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxkx2BKZbhnc4dvM5S2Sf43lysF4ChlQB76oO0VUFktGvtbg/viewform?usp=header

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