National Forest Foundation offers $100,000 in prize money for innovative business concepts that advance National Forest health
By Greg M. Peters, Director of Communications, National Forest Foundation
Our 193-million-acre National Forest System is an incredible asset for our country. These public lands provide clean water to more than 100 million Americans, host abundant wildlife and diverse plants, offer recreational opportunities for more than 160 million annual visitors and provide natural resources that sustain communities.
As critical as these forests, grasslands, prairies and deserts are to our nation, they are threatened by myriad challenges. Climate change, increasingly severe wildfires, invasive weeds and other threats combined with reduced federal budgets and skyrocketing wildfire costs are threatening the very health of these landscapes and the services they provide.
The National Forest Foundation (NFF) works to mitigate these problems through innovative approaches and public private partnerships. Beginning in 2012, the NFF has offered the Barrett Foundation Business Concept Challenge to stimulate new thinking and an entrepreneurial approach to solving the natural resource management challenges facing our forests.
Founded by Craig Barrett, former Chairman and CEO of Intel Corporation and long-time Board Member of the NFF, the Challenge encourages and rewards innovative market-based solutions to natural resource issues affecting National Forests and Grasslands and hopes to cultivate a new generation of entrepreneurial natural resource and business leaders.
The objectives of the Barrett Foundation Business Concept Challenge are:
- To develop and launch market-based solutions that satisfy multiple goals of forest health, sustainable use, and economic development, including job creation.
- To stimulate creative thinking to address problems and identify opportunities that benefit the National Forests and Grasslands.
- To encourage the design and development of interdisciplinary approaches to address complex natural resource challenges.
The Barrett Foundation Business Concept Challenge offers a $75,000 cash award to the winning submission and a $25,000 cash award to the first runner-up.
Submission Deadline: Monday, August 15, 2016 at 11:59 pm MDT
If you have any questions or would like any additional information, please contact Adam Liljeblad, Director, Conservation Awards, at aliljeblad@nationalforests.org.