ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia
Willapa Land and Dendrology Corporation, South Bend, WA
In the 1960s, the Knappton Cove woodland, a 120-acre forest on the Columbia River estuary, was clear-cut by bulldozers. As the forest regenerated, the trees that grew back were not the hemlock and spruce that once flourished, but alder—a species that is common in the region but that had become unnaturally dominant at Knappton Cove because of the destructive logging practices employed there.
Allen Lebovitz looked at the Knappton Cove forest and saw the potential for great things.
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Mr. Lebovitz had founded the Willapa Land and Dendrology Corporation (WILD), a timber company, to employ a new approach to forest management based on the idea that selective logging and replanting could extract more log value and protect sensitive ecosystems. He believed that his company could restore balance to the Knappton Cove forest using practices that would produce economic as well as ecological benefits.
Mr. Lebovitz turned to ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia for financing to help him test his premise. An affiliate of ShoreBank Corporation, the nation’s oldest CDFI, ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia was established in 1995 to strengthen the economic, environmental, and social conditions of the natural resource-dependent communities of the Pacific Northwest. In the last decade, ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia has invested $20 million in 200 business, social, and civic ventures that represent new strategies for economic security and ecological health.
With a $222,828 loan from ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia and $123,000 in additional financing from other lenders, WILD purchased the forest at Knappton Cove. The company’s crew harvested some of the alder and directed it to high-value markets as Forest Stewardship Council Smartwood™ for furniture, paneling, and plywood. They also replanted the tract with native species that complement the remaining mature trees and stabilize steep slopes. Conservation easements and riparian deed restrictions generate additional return on investment.
It may take a century for the Knappton Cove forest to return to its original state, but WILD’s project has ensured the perpetual protection of the site’s environmental values and could produce strong, sustainable economic returns from forest products for years to come. Mr. Lebovitz is grateful for a financing partner that appreciates both aspects of his work. “My company’s business model is built on two kinds of capital: financial and natural,” he says. “ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia recognizes value in both.”
