Tuesday, Sept. 29th
Field Visits
Three Field Visit options trace the full arc of the current regional forest bioeconomy. Field Visits will run concurrently. Selection of the Field Visit is completed during registration. Lunch is provided.
A: Does It Pencil? — Innovation & Markets in Industrial Timberland Management
Southern Humboldt
This field visit takes participants across three active sites that together tell a story about what it looks like to manage industrial timberlands for ecological health, economic viability, and market innovation — and what it takes to make that work at scale.
B: From Forest to Future — Building the Innovation Pipeline for a Forest Bioeconomy
Arcata & Samoa Peninsula
From Novel Innovation & Prototyping to Commercialization and Scaling, these assets, facilities and programs are at the heart of catalyzing the forest bioeconomy in our region.
C: A Basis for Growth: Investing in Workforce, Manufacturing, and Tribal Forest Product Innovation
HWY 299 Corridor
This field visit highlights the existing value chain within local manufacturing and production facilities, showcasing tribal forest product production, workforce investment initiatives, and the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).
PLENARY SESSION
Opening Remarks
Healthy Forests, Resilient Communities by Patrick Wright, Director CA Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force
Keynote
From Low-Value Wood to High-Tech Materials by Prof. Dr. Raoul Klingner, Fraunhofer WKI
Vision
Circular Forest Stewardship by Christy Prescott, Forest WRX Alliance
Asset Overview
Forest Resources: Species Mix, Productivity & Industry by Yana Valachovic, UC ANR
The North Coast as a Living Lab: New Degree Programs for a Forest Bioeconomy, Dr. Eric Riggs, Cal Poly Humboldt
Connecting the built environment with the forest stewardship economy: The California Wood Supply Group, Clarke Stevenson, Watershed Research and Training Center
Tribal Nations: Knowledge Systems, Corporate Structures & Partnerships by Michelle McCovey-Good, Denoto Corporation
Financing the Move: Federal and State Tools for Manufacturers Locating on the North Coast, Nina Natina, Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (Go-Biz)
Keynote
The Innovation Gap — From Discovery to Commercial Scale by Dr. John C. Warner, A Founder of Green Chemistry
Innovation Lightning Round
Innovation Lightning Round
LUNCH
From Opportunity to Action
The afternoon shifts from understanding the opportunity to working on what it will take to make the forest bioeconomy function.
Participants will move into focused working sessions exploring the systems, partnerships, and conditions needed to connect forest resources with viable markets and regional economic opportunity.
These sessions are designed for participation, not passive listening.
The objective is to identify the barriers that stand between today's forest resources and tomorrow's markets—and to identify the partnerships, investments, infrastructure, policies, and next steps that can help overcome them.
The people in the room will help shape the work.
Potential areas of focus include:
Supply & Market Development
What is needed to create reliable pathways from forests to markets? Participants will explore sourcing, aggregation, transportation, processing, feedstock reliability, market development, and the challenges faced by private forest landowners and other material suppliers.
University Programs & Partnerships
How can universities, industry, Tribal Nations, and communities work together to connect research, education, workforce development, and commercialization? What partnerships and institutional structures are needed to move promising ideas toward application?
Innovation Infrastructure & Bioproducts
What infrastructure is needed to move forest-based innovations from prototyping to commercial scale? Discussion may include testing and certification, research infrastructure, technology transfer, intellectual property, and development of new bioproducts and materials.
Policy & Investment
Which policy and financing tools could have the greatest impact on building a viable forest bioeconomy? Participants will consider the levers that could help unlock investment, infrastructure, markets, and long-term forest stewardship.
Speed Networking
Session Report-Outs (Plenary)
The afternoon will conclude by bringing ideas and connections from the working sessions back together and identifying opportunities for continued collaboration beyond the Symposium.
Closing Remarks & Call to Action
Reception: Connect the Dots 5:00–7:00 PM
The work continues after the afternoon sessions.
Join us for an informal evening reception featuring hosted drinks, appetizers, exhibitor displays, and opportunities to meet the people behind the emerging forest bioeconomy.
Walk the exhibits. Meet the makers. Talk with researchers, manufacturers, landowners, Tribal partners, investors, designers, policymakers, and others working across the value chain.
Most importantly, connect the dots.
The forest bioeconomy will not grow through isolated efforts. It will grow through relationships, between the people who manage forests and those who use forest materials, between researchers and manufacturers, between innovators and investors, and between businesses and the communities they serve.
The reception is an opportunity to continue conversations from the day's working sessions, make unexpected connections, and build the relationships that can turn shared opportunity into a growing, resilient sector.
Hosted bar • Appetizers • Exhibitor displays • Meet the makers • Make connections
Wednesday, Sept. 30th
Symposium
Thank you to our Sponsors
