by: Carlton Owen, President & CEO of the Endowment since its inception in 2006. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Greenville-based SynTerra Corporation and the Greater Greenville Parks Foundation. He is a founding Board member and former Chairman of Upstate Forever and is widely credited with efforts that led to creation of the GHS Swamp Rabbit Trail. In 2010 Owen was awarded the Order of the Palmetto.

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Before the bevy of eating places in downtown, there was the Little Princess Restaurant. The local meet and eat thrived from 1975-1990 and then sat vacant for 20 years. In 2010 a locally-based non-profit – the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) – bought the building and did a total makeover with lots of help from local partners.

The former Little Princess Restaurant at 906 E. North Street, across from the Law Enforcement Center, today serves as the national headquarters for the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

Who is the Endowment? The Endowment is perhaps the only public charity in the world created as part of a trade settlement between sovereign governments – the U.S. & Canada. Since the early 1980s, our nations have wrestled with a thorny dispute over softwood lumber. Every few years that thorn becomes a trade war. Under terms of the Softwood Lumber Agreement 2006, nearly $5.5 billion in assessed fees were returned to Canada with $450 million dedicated to “meritorious initiatives” in the U.S.

Three organizations gained funds with only one – the Endowment – being a new creation. The only perpetual endowment in the group, at $200 million, the Endowment instantly became the largest not-for-profit in America working to keep forests as forests and advance family wage jobs in forest-rich rural communities.

Why Greenville? The Endowment’s CEO Carlton Owen moved to the Upstate in 1990 after five years in the DC area. He agreed to lead the organization only if it was housed locally. Ten plus years later the Endowment has deep roots in the area.

Native Mississippian and 28-year resident of the Upstate, forester, and wildlife biologist Carlton Owen, has served as President & CEO of the Endowment since its inception in 2006.

What does it do? The Endowment operates as a catalytic funder attempting things that might be considered jousting windmills! Here’s a sampling:

After the Civil War freed slaves were granted (e.g. 40 acres & a mule) or bought (the bulk) some 16-19 million acres across the South. Excluded from the legal system most of that land was lost. Today, tens of thousands of remaining acres are “heirs’ property” – land without clear title. These owners are excluded from the benefits and services available to others. The Endowment and its partners (USDA Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service) have been working to right those wrongs. As a result of initial work, more than 800 black families across seven southern states are developing stewardship plans and turning a burden into a productive asset.
11,000,000 American families own the bulk of America’s forests. Black family owners have largely been excluded from services available to other landowners. The Endowment and its partners are working to change that.

While we in Greenville get to enjoy the “best tasting drinking water in North America,” we need not take it for granted. Atlanta and Raleigh have in recent years come precipitously close to running dry due to extended droughts. The Endowment partnered with the City of Raleigh in a program that sees that city assessing its water users about $0.60/month and generating $2.5 million/year to conserve forests in its watershed. Why forests? Because forests are the sources of drinking water for 2 of 3 Americans – 3 of 3 in the Upstate!

An Endowment initiative to Raleigh instituting a watershed protection fee that has protected 6,000 acres and 80 miles of streams in the city’s Falls Lake watershed.

The Endowment just announced its most “audacious” bet to date – construction of a $15.5 million facility in eastern Oregon designed to use small diameter, dying and dead trees from National Forests. The objective: create local jobs through the production of a renewable energy product while restoring forests facing the threat of catastrophic wildfire.

The Endowment’s lean team – 8.5 folks (4.5 in Greenville) – is working tirelessly to ensure that America’s forests remain healthy and productive. To learn more: www.usendowment.org or read more about its history “A Meritorious Initiative.”