Welcome
The Sustaining Family Forests Initiative is a collaboration between the Yale School of the Environment, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Center for Nonprofit Strategies, aimed at gaining and disseminating comprehensive knowledge about family forest owners throughout the United States. The basis of our work is to apply a social marketing approach—the use of commercial marketing techniques to affect positive social change—as a promising means by which to influence family forest owners to take steps to conserve and sustainably manage their land. We primarily do this through our program Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE). Since launching TELE in 2010, we have trained over 1,400 natural resource professionals in landowner outreach. These professionals work in 39 states and represent more than 500 organizations, primarily state forestry and natural resources agencies and their conservation and stewardship partners.