A small investment from the foundation has helped to create an innovative conservation finance tool called a “forest resilience bond.” Funds from the bond would go to San Francisco-based startup, Blue Forest Conservation, who plan to clear shrubs and burn off ground cover in overgrown forests. The thinning would decrease forest fire risk and increase water flow to reservoirs, hydroelectric dams, farms and faucets. This would also benefit the U.S. Forest Service, public water agencies, private power utilities and possibly other entities that rely on a healthy forest ecosystem.
Blue Forest Conservation was recently profiled in the Los Angeles Times:
"Deep in the Stanislaus National Forest, an hour’s drive from the foothill town of Sonora, two forests stand side by side.One is open and airy, with light that streams through gaps between vast sugar and ponderosa pines down to an almost bare forest floor. The other is so dense with brush and smaller trees that little sun peaks through, even at noon on a clear day.
Standing between them during a visit two months ago was a group of would-be financiers — an investment analyst, an engineer and a bond trader — who see potential profit in that stark contrast. In the coming year, they hope to sell investors on a new type of bond that, instead of financing a corporate acquisition or a pool of mortgage loans, would address two of the biggest challenges facing California: fire and water."
Read the full article, "Start-up is pitching a new type of bond to fix California’s wildfire and water woes," here.
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