Beneficiary Partnerships

Eldorado National Forest

Beneficiary partnerships

Decades of fire suppression, changing climate conditions, and increasing development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) have contributed to rising risk of catastrophic fires. The threat posed by these fires surpasses traditional, siloed mitigation models that separate responsibility for landscape-scale projects (land managers) from infrastructure right-of-way projects (utilities). Instead, the frequency, intensity, and size of these wildfires requires a new, collaborative, and holistic approach.

Utilities, corporations, and local governments are critical partners in developing innovative ways to meet the modern wildfire crisis, serving as catalytic partners that can enable shared investment; direct funds to projects that reduce critical risk; and help protect landscapes, communities, and critical assets.

We work with utilities, corporations, and local governments to model and quantify the many benefits of resilient forests and watersheds, from water quantity enhancement and quality protection to wildfire risk reduction, protection of infrastructure and communities, and avoided economic loss. We help utilities, corporations, and local governments communicate those benefits to the organization, customers, and the wider public so investing in green infrastructure feels as natural and necessary as investing in gray.

How we work with beneficiaries

We work with utilities, corporations, and local governments to:

Identify organizational drivers, operational risks, and the criteria that drive decision making
Understand assets and values at risk
Quantify the environmental benefits (working in partnership with World Resources Institute)
Identify relevant outcomes, translate them into business-relevant metrics, and turn forest funding into a business decision
Report on project impacts

What our Beneficiary Partners Have to Say

If it weren’t for the FRB and the development of the NYFP, we wouldn’t have catalyzed the level of funding and the scale of restoration needed to protect our watershed that we have today.

JoAnna Lessard, Yuba Water Agency
It’s a fantastic solution where diverse partners with expertise in very specific areas come together and deliver immense value through a project like the Yuba II FRB. It’s a remarkable model for how to take a whole series of pilot efforts and roll them up into something bigger and more durable with higher impact.

Todd Reeve, Bonneville Environmental Foundation
We have transmission and distribution lines all over the forest, and we understand that there is a real risk there. We all want the same positive end for our fellow residents here in Chelan County, and us working together makes eminent sense.

Randy Smith, Chelan Public Utility District
Our investment and partnership in the first Forest Resilience Bond proved to be greatly successful in helping advance forest resilience work at a much faster pace and scale. It was a logical next step for Yuba Water to commit funding for the Yuba II Project, to build on that momentum and continue to advance work to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and protect our communities and water supply.

Willie Whittlesey, Yuba Water Agency
We know that healthy forests have many benefits. But we want to better understand the connection between the health of this watershed and our state project supply to see if the benefits can be quantified. With state supplies increasingly stressed by drought, climate change, and wildfires, these studies will give us the data we need to more confidently identify cost-effective measures that can be deployed quickly and efficiently to protect watershed health.

Deven Upadhyay, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
What’s exciting and fulfilling is to do this kind of restoration at a scale that is going to make a difference, and keeping at the scale we have embarked on for the next three to five years will make an impact to forests, communities, and retaining carbon.

Richard Sykes, Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority

Why beneficiaries are critical

Utility, corporation, and local government commitments are critical for:

Enabling earlier, larger-scale implementation of priority treatments, accelerating the restoration of critical landscapes.
Catalyzing collective action by signaling leadership and confidence in the project, attracting commitments from other beneficiaries and increasing total investment and landscape-level impact — while strengthening the case for state and federal cost-share.
Unlocking additional public and private capital by serving as match funding, reducing perceived risk for other funders and investors, and improving competitiveness for grants and appropriations.
Building workforce capacity by bringing future commitments forward, smoothing funding gaps, and enabling continuous work plans — positioning beneficiaries to realize the full economic, ecological, and risk-reduction value of the project sooner.
Building durable implementation capacity by supporting longer planning horizons, stable contractor utilization, and sustained local workforce development, which ultimately lowers costs and improves outcomes over time.

Why the FRB?

By contributing through the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), utilities, corporations, and local governments are investing in a coordinated financing structure designed to deliver outcomes faster, more efficiently, and with greater accountability.

By channeling funds through the FRB:

Capital is strategically sequenced and blended, allowing projects to move at the pace of ecological need rather than the pace of annual budgets or reimbursement cycles.
Performance and risk are structured upfront. Scopes, timelines, and outcome metrics are clear and align incentives across partners.
Funds are leveraged, not siloed. Each dollar works alongside private, philanthropic, and public capital in an integrated capital stack rather than operating as a standalone contribution.
Administrative burden is reduced. The FRB centralizes contracting, capital deployment, reporting, and repayment mechanics, freeing implementation partners to focus on delivery.
Long-term planning and cost efficiency improves because projects can be financed at scale and implemented in coordinated treatment blocks rather than piecemeal, year-by-year efforts.

Blue Forest is actively working with utilities and companies across the Western U.S. to develop additional FRB projects. Get in touch with us if you want to learn more about project opportunities in your area!

Beneficiary Partnerships