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- By Chez Oxendine
- Economic Development
A California tribe has launched the first tribally led Forest Resilience Bond, securing $5 million in forest restoration funding through an innovative financial model that eliminates cash flow delays from traditional reimbursement grants.
The Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe, working with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, will use the funding to reduce wildfire risk across 408 acres of mixed landholdings in Placer County through foliage thinning and prescribed burns. An intertribal crew will conduct the work.
A 2024 CAL FIRE grant funds the project, but the state requires tribes to pay costs upfront and wait weeks or months for reimbursement. Colfax-Todds Vice Chairwoman Pamela Cubbler said the tribe couldn't afford those cash flow gaps.
“That wasn’t something we could really do,” Cubbler said. “We didn’t have the resources to really make the best use of this right away.”
Blue Forest, a conservation finance nonprofit, stepped in with its Forest Resilience Bond mechanism, developed with the U.S. Forest Service. The bond blends public capital, such as the CAL FIRE grant, with private capital from investors including the Rockefeller Foundation to provide upfront funding for restoration projects.
Blue Forest has managed seven Forest Resilience Bonds to date. Indigenous partners have worked on bond-funded projects, but this marks the first time a tribe has led a project financed through the mechanism. The goal is to accelerate project timelines and eliminate bureaucratic delays common in public funding, according to Saraya Hamidi, Indigenous partnerships manager for the organization.
“Under this particular grant program from CAL FIRE, the tribe was expected to front the money and be reimbursed, which is not feasible for a smaller tribe,” Hamidi said. “This way, they can pay people on time and avoid cash flow issues with the project.”
Founded in 2015, Blue Forest issued its first Forest Resilience Bond in 2018, providing $4 million for the Yuba Project, a restoration project in the Tahoe National Forest. Their work is largely supported by donations and foundational support, meant to catalyze and accelerate public funding for the projects they finance, according to their website. In most cases, the bonds are either zero interest, such as the Colfax-Todds bond, or low-interest.
The loans bridge public funding gaps and keep projects moving. When repayment arrives, the money funds additional projects, according to Heather Druffel, Blue Forest's senior communications manager. While some investors seek financial returns, many provide impact dollars focused on social or environmental change rather than profit.
“They’re trying to make a difference, and trying to make healthier ecosystems and landscapes,” Druffel said. “We get that capital back from the bond program and go to use it in other places for impact.”
Blue Forest currently manages roughly $75 million in assets and has deployed $17.8 million toward resilience projects, according to its most recent annual report. Six of the seven resilience bonds are still active.
While previous bonds have included Indigenous partners providing services for restoration projects, the Colfax-Todds bond is the first time a project has been tribally led. Hamidi said Blue Forest hopes this sets a precedent for supporting Indigenous voices more directly.
The U.S. Forest Service lacks sufficient internal resources to address the wildfire crisis alone and relies on partners to implement projects, Hamidi said. Blue Forest frequently serves as a partner, giving the nonprofit direct insight into how tribes are treated in the decision-making process: typically as consultants, rather than leaders. By supporting a tribally-led project, Blue Forest aims to change that dynamic.
“This is the model we want to see replicated,” Hamidi said. “We want to see tribes leading, tribes deciding, and tribes benefiting from the work.”
Blue Forest also provides technical assistance and research, made possible by programmatic support from investors. For the Colfax-Todds project, the goal is to document the benefits of the restoration work in order to attract additional impact investors and potentially extend work beyond the CAL FIRE grant’s two-year duration.
Documented benefits include an estimated 247 acre-feet of additional water for the American River watershed and 16 full-time tribal jobs during the grant period. Smaller tribes often struggle to gather such data and even when they do, connecting with investors can prove challenging. Blue Forest aims to solve both issues through accelerated funding and advocacy, according to Hamidi.
“Tribes have been shut out of so many funding opportunities because of the way the system is set up,” Hamidi said. “We wanted to create a tool that removes those barriers so tribes can lead the work on their own terms.”
The Colfax-Todds bond is still seeking additional funding for future phases, but Hamidi said the partners are already in talks with potential supporters.
"We haven't yet secured the anchor or new funding, but we're still working on it, because the tribe has so much more planned for the future," Hamidi said. "Really, we're just getting started."
For now, the bond saved the Colfax-Todds’ restoration project, Cubbler told Tribal Business News.
“It’s a really brilliant arrangement and partnership,” Cubbler said. “It lets us get this important work done and reduce wildfire risk while engaging in our culture. For a small tribe like ours, this kind of support is crucial.”
