A GREEN COLLAR WORKFORCE.

In Albany, Georgia, Monica Armster develops and coordinates agricultural programs that help minority farmers preserve and promote their land.

Lisa Diehl in West Virginia helps women and woodsworkers by supporting policies that improve and better regulate her state's logging industry.

And Sherlette Colegrove of the Northern California Hoopa Valley Reservation teaches federal workers how her community harvests mushrooms, berries, and herbs for cultural uses, just as her ancestors did six generations ago.

What do these people have in common? They all visited Washington in late March to advocate for federal funding for forest restoration and an ecosystem workforce.

Nearly 20 community practitioners explored the vital links between healthy ecosystems and healthy communities at a week-long training and education workshop sponsored by AMERICAN FORESTS, the National Network of Forest Practitioners, the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress, and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Participants presented before House and Senate subcommittees and held a forum on "green collar jobs" with national environmental groups.

At a briefing on Capitol Hill, participants explained how Forest Service programs help restore the landscape and create local jobs. Diehl said federal funding through Rural Community Assistance programs has built the foundation for future economic development in her community.

"We believe that environmental and economic concerns--as well as concerns for social and economic justice--are mutually dependent, not mutually exclusive," Diehl said.

Speakers also requested more consistent and better funding for programs to help build an ecosystem workforce. Marcus Kauffman, a program coordinator for Sustainable Northwest, said his small community in Lakeview, Oregon, lost about 300 jobs in the last decade when four of its five mills closed. Part of rebuilding Lakeview's economy requires creating new high-skill, high-wage jobs focused on ecosystem restoration and maintenance.

"[The community] wanted an economy that would not fluctuate with the boom and bust cycles of natural resource industries," Kauffman said. "They did not want to put out-of-work loggers in jobs slinging pizzas for wealthy tourists. They sought opportunities that fit [their] strong land ethic."

Consistent, well-funded work programs ensure long-term economic stability in communities, Kauffman said.

At a "green-jobs" forum with national conservation groups, attendees echoed that message and searched for areas of agreement. Mala Enzer, AMERICAN FORESTS' director of forest policy, said she hoped the informal gathering would serve as a starting point for further discussions.

"We need to create an economic infrastructure that will reward stewardship of our public lands," Enzer said. "Community forestry week is one way "Community forestry week is one way AMERICAN FORESTS is trying to make that possible."