The non-profit Evergreen Foundation has been a leading proponent of science-based forestry and forest policy since 1986. At one time, Evergreen Magazine, our flagship publication, had more than 100,000 readers. We were beyond doubt one of the most widely read forestry publications in North America, if not the world.

Of course, most of our readers got their magazines free - compliments of about two dozen sawmill owners and logging contractors in southern Oregon who were astute enough to realize that their bucolic world was about to be turned upside down. The federal timber sale program, which had come into prominence after the Second World War, had become the target of numerous environmental groups concerned about the scope and intent of timber harvesting and its impact on other not so easily measured forest resources, including wildlife and biological diversity.

To this day, I marvel at their remarkable foresight. Let me assure you that in 1986 very few lumbermen or loggers working in the western United States believed they had any obligation to tell their stories to anxious publics. But the members of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association felt otherwise. Through a set of circumstances more serendipity than anything else they asked me to help them develop a public relations program that would address citizen concerns in southern Oregon.

I started work on what became Evergreen Magazine in the fall of 1985. We first published a series of three pamphlets that answered the public's most pressing questions: were forests being overcut, were trees being replanted, was harvesting regulated and were special places being protected. Public reaction to the pamphlets was so positive that we decided we'd start a newsletter that targeted civic groups, elected officials and employees of the sawmilling and logging companies that were our sponsors. Again, our efforts were warmly received, so we converted the newsletter to a magazine format and we called it Evergreen.

It did not take long for our first critics to surface - and believe it or not our strongest criticism came from mill owners who thought our program was a waste of money. Hoping to "prove" that no one was really reading Evergreen they hired a polling firm that interviewed our entire readership. What they learned astonished even us: our reader retention numbers were better than those of either Time or Newsweek. In fact, the pollster reported that Evergreen had the strongest readership numbers he'd ever encountered.

Our internal review of the polling data told us we were definitely on the right track. Our readers wanted detail -the more of it the better - and they wanted facts from third party sources they could trust. They gave us high marks for our strong narratives and for taking the time it took to dig deeply into some very controversial issues. We also earned their praise for our photography and for our use of charts and graphs to break down often complex data. And they applauded the fact that we were not afraid to take strong stands on issues that were critically important in rural communities.

Suffice it to say, Evergreen Magazine enjoyed a wide and faithful following for more than a decade. Yet despite our popularity, the lumber industry that we so often held up to public scrutiny was unable to turn back the rising political tide that was inundating hundreds of rural timber communities scattered across the western United States. Simply put, we were outgunned by environmentalist organizations that had spent years - and millions of dollars - building coalitions in the nation's largest urban centers. We had significantly underestimated their political clout, and we had greatly overestimated our ability to quiet the public's fear that their forests were being devastated by greedy and uncaring companies. The fact that this was not true was lost in the ensuing melee.

 By the late 1990s, not one of our original sponsors was still in business. The 1990 threatened species listing of the northern spotted owl and the resulting collapse of the federal timber sale program swept them away. Although estimates vary, as many as 80,000 logging and sawmill workers in Oregon and Washington lost their jobs.

To our amazement, Evergreen survived the collapse - in no small measure because of the quality of the work we were doing. Between 1995 and 2005, we worked in every forested region in the United States, and in Canada. But all good things come to an end - or at least to a point of painful reassessment. We arrived at this point about a year ago when it became clear to us that printing, postage and distribution costs had completely outstripped our fundraising ability. Something had to change.

Folding up shop after 22 years never entered our minds. What did was the possibility that we could make the transition from print to web-based publishing. A thorough investigation of available website technologies convinced us that we could indeed become an electronic publisher, offering the marketplace the same high quality content on which we had staked our reputation for more than two decades. And when I say marketplace, I'm referring to the hundreds of thousands of people who want to know what is happening - and not happening - in forests in North America and around the world. Frankly, I have no idea how large this audience is, but the fact that we are now reaching it at the speed of light within cost metrics that approach zero excites me more than anything has for many years.

My enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that no one has yet figured out how to make money in the electronic publishing world. And make no mistake: non-profits like the Evergreen Foundation still have to make money. Historically, our funding has come from logging and lumber companies that see value in our work. We still have a handful of very faithful contributors - and it is they who have underwritten the cost of building the website you see before you. But it is clear to me that over the next year or two we need to identify other funding mechanisms. We are in good company in this regard. Several of the nation's major daily newspapers, including the New York Times, are in deep financial trouble and looking for new revenue streams. Two notable newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Denver's Rocky Mountain News recently folded. Both had been publishing for more than 100 years and both intend to re-emerge as web-based newspapers. We wish them luck. The Internet has turned the newsgathering and publishing marketplaces upside down. We are all trying to figure out how to reinvent ourselves in a world where success is now measured in mouse clicks.

My sense is that Evergreen will grow and prosper again, not because we are all that much smarter than anyone else, but because we intend to stick to the basics that made us a great success the first time around: fact-based reporting, incisive analysis and well-reasoned comment. I have no doubt that the long months ahead will be difficult for us in the same way that they will be difficult for our entire country. We are in the midst of an economic downturn more severe than any we've seen since the early 1970s. At least half the country has never lived through a recession. For many, the near collapse of our financial system has been a life-changing event. Count us among them. Contributions to the Evergreen Foundation are at an all time low.

Evergreenmagazine.com will always be a work in progress. It will take us some time to master the technologies now at our disposal, but it is exciting to think that all we need to reach you now is a satellite link. This means we can report to you at 186,282,397 miles per second, from anywhere on earth to anywhere on earth. What would Johannes Gutenberg think? We have come a very long way since he invented the movable printing press in 1439.

Despite the worldwide web's obvious cost advantages, I took me some time to warm up to our transition from print to electronic publishing. I've had printer's ink in my veins since I was a kid. I love print; I love the look of it, the feel of it and the permanence that it imparts to readers. In print, there is no "delete" key. You could hold the product of your labors in your hands - and if people liked what you did, they kept it, often for long periods of time. I know people who have copies of every issue of Evergreen we've ever published. I can't even say that.

I also fretted about entering a world in which the standards for what passes as journalism are, shall I say, "More relaxed" than they were when I went to work in the newspaper business in Idaho more than 40 years ago. You should see some of the news stories that land in my e-mail box every day. They come from businesses and groups that want me know about the wonderful things they are doing to be more "green." For awhile I wondered why I was being deluged with their reports, but I finally figured out that my e-mail address - editor@evergreenmagazine.com  - was the reason why. Search engines find the word "green," and I get everything from everyone who wants to be green. Kermit the Frog was wrong. It is easy being green - too easy in my opinion. Be that as it may, the so-called "green market" is expanding at warp speed, and it is up to us to carve out our rightful place in it. For more on this topic be sure to read my recent biomass speech from the Western Wood Products Association's annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. Click on "Speeches" and you'll be there in an instant. Technology does have its advantages.

You'll also find several biomass-related reports on this site. If you've read my Scottsdale speech, you know why. If you haven't, let me simply say that we believe a proper public lands biomass management strategy can address multiple needs, including the Obama Administration's desire to build a portfolio of renewable fuels that would help reduce carbon emissions while tamping down our dependence on foreign oil. We intend to present an ongoing series of reports focusing on woody biomass production and entrepreneurship.

Numerous colleagues of long-standing have agreed to author guest columns that will appear regularly at evergreenmagazine.com. You will find their first submissions in the section labeled "Guest Columns." They cover a quite wide range of timely topics. I thank them profusely for making our new website far more stimulating than it would be without their insights. Where appropriate, you will find links to other websites that contain more of their work.

Many forestry websites are neglected for months on end. They seem to exist only because their owners do not want to be conspicuous in their absence from the worldwide web. This will not be the case at evergreenmagazine.com. We intend to add new content to our site whenever we have it, weekly for sure. It is a tall order for a non-profit as small and as poorly funded as we have been, but we believe we are up to the challenge. Despite its imperfections and the controversies that have engulfed it over the last 25 years, we love the forestry story and we intend to do everything within our means to convey its power and goodness to you on the worldwide web.