by Dave Ketter

March 27th, 2026

On March 23rd, Cory Sevin and I—two of four Initiating Stewards of Regenerate Whatcom (RW)—attended a “Deep Dive” event sponsored by RE Sources, our region’s premier environmental protection organization. The highlight of the evening was a presentation by Kaia Hayes, RE Sources’  Land and Water Policy Manager, regarding the launch of their new Future Forests Campaign.

The email announcement for this event mentioned that RE Sources would soon be “seeking to restore the health and function of the working forests that also shape our watersheds.” As a steward of Regenerate Whatcom, this immediately piqued my interest. I was simultaneously thrilled to see that RE Sources will soon expand their work to include forest regeneration, intrigued to learn more, and curious to consider how this new direction of RE Sources might dovetail with the work of Regenerate Whatcom.   

If you’re not already familiar with RE Sources, its dedicated staff have been stalwart protectors of the forests and watersheds of NW Washington since 1982. In recent years, RE Sources has played a key role in protecting over 750 acres of state forest lands in Whatcom County—much of it within the Lake Whatcom Watershed—that were slated to be clearcut. They also facilitated the addition of over 2,000 acres of forest lands into the state’s climate adaptation program, with 650 acres located within the Lake Whatcom Watershed. Their successful efforts to protect local forests, farmlands, watersheds and more leave us with much to be thankful for. 

The Future Forests Campaign will expand RE Sources’ forest protection efforts  to include landscape-wide forest restoration using a whole systems approach. With approximately 75% of the Nooksack River and the Lake Whatcom watersheds in forests—that are owned and managed by individuals, timber companies and governmental entities—this will be no small task, requiring collaborations across the landscape, collaborations that Regenerate Whatcom might be able to catalyze and foster.

While RE Sources’ forest protection efforts have been successful, they now recognize that protecting select lands—though necessary—is not enough to restore vital ecological services. Over 150 years of unsustainable practices have severely impaired our local forests’ ability to regenerate themselves, reducing their capacity to provide clean water, biodiversity, flood protection and more. Because the Nooksack River and Lake Whatcom watersheds are heavily forested, RE Sources is committing to reversing this trend. These forests have provided resources, spiritual inspiration, natural beauty and many other ecological services to both Indigenous peoples and settlers since time immemorial, yet their health has diminished significantly since the 1850s when settlers first arrived. Consequently, RE Sources is expanding its efforts to, as they put it, “Protect the best and restore the rest.” 

I was particularly impressed with the values and guiding principles of the campaign that Kaia introduced us to including: 

• Forming diverse alliances and coalitions around shared values and ideas.
• Landscape level (whole region) management of our forests.
• Ecological Forest Management (managing for ecological functions and informed by Indigenous practices).
• Learning from peers and neighbors, building bridges and fostering trust with rural residents.
• A commitment to fostering a reciprocal, community-driven relationship to our forest lands.
• Creating systems-level change to support a thriving future.

Regenerate Whatcom is currently in the midst of articulating its own set of values and guiding principles. From my perspective, what we have discussed thus far aligns quite well with the values and guiding principles of the Future Forests Campaign. We look forward to exploring this resonance with Kaia in the near future. 

To show that forests can be successfully managed using these values and guiding principles, Kaia pointed to several community forest projects in the PNW that are guided by them. These promising models of forest management secure reliable access to the ecological, social, economic, and cultural benefits produced and provided by the forest. The local community owns the forest and they play a significant role in making decisions about how the forest is managed and used. We’re lucky to have such a community forest right here in Whatcom County—the Stewart Mountain Community Forest Initiative—located near Van Zandt. The result of a collaboration between various stakeholders, community members, government agencies, and non-government organizations, this initiative will restore hydrologic functions in the South Fork of the Nooksack River, restore forest sector employment opportunities, restore salmon habitat, expand access to the ancestral lands of the Nooksack Indian Tribe, and more. Over time, RW may have a role to play in supporting the replication of community Forests like Stewart Mountain throughout the Whatcom landscape.

I came away from the evening full of energy, excitement and hope. It provided a much-needed antidote to the avalanche of negative news I often find myself digging out from these days. In my humble opinion, the Future Forests Campaign represents a seismic shift in RE Sources work, a shift that may well mark the dawn of a shift in environmental protection efforts to include the regeneration of ecosystems, economies and cultures. We look forward to the success of this campaign and to exploring ways that Regenerate Whatcom might support it. To this end, we will be meeting with Kaia in the near future to become more familiar with it and to explore ways that Regenerate Whatcom might support it.

To learn more about RE Sources’ Future Forests Campaign visit their Future Forests Campaign webpage where you can also sign up for their newsletter and action alerts. In addition, if working to protect and restore forests is of interest to you, we encourage you to send us an email expressing your interest. We also encourage you to sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already done so and to check out our calendar of events. 

We look forward to connecting with you and to the possibility of your joining us in this exciting and vital work to regenerate our local forests!