Forterra NW

Community driven development: Forterra looks across the rural and urban landscape to see the connection between people and land. We develop programs that address environmental and social equity. We have longstanding and deep relationships with communities across the region. We work in collaboration with, and are led by, these community partners. We utilize our decades of experience in real estate, land conservation and coalition building to develop innovative solutions to address the shortage of attainable housing, benefit local businesses and communities, create jobs, other economic opportunities and support community wellbeing.

Restoration and stewardship: Forterra partners with organizations and communities throughout the region to restore and strengthen public lands, parks and urban forests. Through our evergreen carbon capture (ecc) program, Forterra has planted thousands of trees each year in partnership with local companies and individuals. Over their lifetimes, these trees will help offset hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide. Ecc helps partner organizations and individuals take direct action to address the climate crisis while helping to restore local forests and urban tree canopy. Partners have included sounders fc, nordstrom, and becu, along with dozens of individuals.

Conservation: Forterra's landscape-scale approach ensures the conservation of critical lands for communities throughout the region. Forterra has conserved more than 275,000 acres of land since our founding in 1989. At any given time, we are working on dozens of projects to conserve lands for community, habitat and recreation. We know how to work quickly and decisively to ensure vital lands are not lost but we also know that some projects take time to get right. These include the 4,000-acre port gamble forest which took more than 10 years and deep community partnerships to complete and the acquisition of 145 acres of culturally significant land in central Washington for a planned tribal community. Some projects are small, but just as important, like camp kilworth which is one of the last undeveloped shoreline habitats in federal way, Washington. Small or large, these projects add up and contribute to a healthy environment and resilient communities. No matter the size of the project, Forterra brings a purposeful, innovated and interconnected approach that delivers success for our region.

Policy: Forterra is a leader in the design and implementation of market-based growth management and conservation tools. Forterra has led the design, adoption, and continued implementation of transfer of development rights (tdr) programs at three different levels: 10 cities, 4 counties, and 1 regional program. Since 2009 these programs have conserved more than 100,000 acres of farms and working forests by transferring the development rights of these properties to support intentional growth in our region's cities. To support growth in cities using tdr, Forterra led the creation of the landscape conservation and local infrastructure program (lclip), which gives cities a financial incentive to protect resource lands and make infrastructure investments. Forterra also works with communities throughout the region to engage culturally diverse constituents in planning and policy issues related to improving quality of life for residents.