About Us

Wisconsin Family Forests, WFF, is a nonprofit woodland organization that began in 1999. A group of woodland enthusiasts including a dairy farmer, a sawmill operator, a couple forestry professors, an accountant and several others believed that forestry needed to be community based to be effective. They also understood that the broader community benefits from well managed woodlands.

Wisconsin Family Forests initially formed several alliances which were community based groups. That approach worked well if the group had strong leadership. However many landowners are not interested in forming or joining a group especially if they did not even have time to care for their woods.

Through the Healthy Forest Project, WFF learned that most landowners first need to become aware of the needs of their woodlands and discover whom they can trust to help them. That was the beginning of the Woodland Advocate Program which provides personal peer to peer outreach to potential woodland stewards in local areas.

WFF provides the connection between those who have the best information and those who can benefit from it and it is all based on trust.