CLC is a network of groups and individuals engaged in community-based forestry, watershed restoration, sustainable forest work, natural resource management, and value-added product development.

CLC participants work primarily in the rural counties of Southern Oregon and Northern California, and have been meeting as a network since 1994 for peer learning and increased community capacity.

There were two primary motivators behind the founding of the Collaborative Learning Circle (CLC) in 1994. The first was the need for rapid knowledge transfer of specific expertise and strategies. The second impetus was to increase the effectiveness of member organizations by reducing duplication and competition, and increasing coordination. As the community-based forestry movement grows and takes hold, organizations evolve through phases, new ones emerge, and the collective regional capacity increases. CLC participants engage in community, county, state, regional, national and international networks. We keep one another updated through working sessions, and email communication

CLC in 2003 to 2005 spearheaded the development of the California Salmon Partnership with funding from the NOAA Fisheries' Community-based Habitat Restoration Program. The partners were CLC, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF) - a California-wide membership organization, and For the Sake of the Salmon (FSOS). This project provided organizational, watershed & fisheries technical assistance to Coastal Counties of California, and was sponsored by the Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA). During this same period, the overall capacity-building and networking work of CLC was supported by two years of Ford Foundation grants to CLC, sponsored by the Center for Environmental Economic Development (CEED).

In 2006, the Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA) received a grant from the Ford Foundation to support CLC's work. This grant is being used to fund $85,000 in mini-grants to small organizations and projects, to continue networking on a limited basis, and to conduct a study regarding the further feasibility of funding mini-grant programs through a bioregional fund.

A Bioregional Restoration Funds for Capacity Building: A study of effective granting to underserved communities to build a stronger restoration industry.

Download the final report (3.3MB PDF)