National Woodlands: A fresh look at the National Woodland Owners Association (NWOA)
By Mark Megalos, executive director, Kelley McCarter, magazine editor, and Amanda Murphy, communications director, National Woodlands Association
As a private woodland supporter, partners outside of your state might be out of sight and mind. National Woodland Owners Association (NWOA), your national partner, has been operating at the national level for the past four decades reporting on issues that have the potential to affect you locally.
Founded in 1983, NWOA is an independent voice for effective legislation, open markets, fair taxation, and unwavering support for family forests and their legacy. As an advocate for family woodlands, we seek to be at the table on issues of national focus with local impacts. To that end, we publish the National Woodlands magazine and support multiple free educational digital media to partners and the public alike. The mission of the National Woodland Owners Association is to develop and deliver relevant, research-based, objective, actionable information to inform, educate and advocate for woodland owners, their partners, stakeholders and the public.
To better engage our busy stakeholders, we decided this year to provide a digital version of National Woodlands magazine that ANREP can distribute to you! Our weekly email newsletter, Woodland Word, continues to provide entertaining, inspiring and relevant commentary to subscribers. To receive the Woodland Word or policy emails, sign up on the form on our website. We also have added a new platform and now have Facebook and Instagram social media pages.
Recently we have leveraged new policy, legislation, and program funds for outreach for greater impact to underserved audiences. One of NWOA flagship grants has been to stand up minority mentoring to increase diversity across the forestry supply and value chain. Our staff, board, and mentees extend the reach and impact of our membership dollars to do more to sustain America’s private woodland owners.
In 2024, NWOA’s outreach to woodland owners now includes our new communications consultant, Amanda Murphy. Amanda will enhance the lines of communications between ANREP and the NWOA staff and board of directors. As an organization, we are so excited to embark on a new level of engagement and support for underserved communities that have not traditionally had access to our education tools. Amanda will be serving for two years on a pilot education partnership-guided outreach effort to increase awareness of forest/woodland opportunities to underserved landowners / farmers. She has begun outreach to the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College local area in Tifton, Georgia, and aligned partners throughout the U.S.
NWOA will continue to seek out and amplify the good work being done by private woodland owners and the many resources available to support their efforts on the ground. These efforts include state and national incentive programs, tax strategies, practical woodland management strategies, and policy action opportunities.
