Sustainability is a hot topic in non-profit and resource management… and more or less the Holy Grail.   I talk about it, think about it, read about it, and even write plans that work to attain it.  During grant cycles I have been known to dream about it!  As the Director of the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition, getting our non-profit to sustainability is integral to the successful advancement of our mission.   Sustainability means not just surviving but thriving until our work is done.  Sustainability means supporting ourselves with available resources.  Sustainability means living within our means.  Sustainability means shifting our cultural mindset:  fuel reduction is never “done” – it’s a fact of life in the fire-adapted West. 

In the natural world, discussions of sustainability go hand in hand with discussions of carrying capacity.  Carrying capacity is the population the environment can sustain with its available resources.  Helmut K. Anheiher, in Non-Profit Organizations: Theory, Management and Policy makes the link between carrying capacity and non-profit management.  He defines environmental carrying capacity as “the number of organizations that can be supported by the social, economic, and political conditions, given available resources.”   Friends in the non-profit world and I joke that the recent economic recession is really just non-profit population control.  Not necessarily funny when you have to live the reality, but it is a good illustration of how available resources can impact growth. 

As the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition continues its ongoing conversations about strategic planning and our future growth, carrying capacity has come up, but not in the way you might think.  When it comes to collaborative efforts, any discussion of sustainability must include a discussion of the carrying capacity of our partners. Building trust, working together in pursuit of mutual goals, seeking common ground… all of these things take time and effort.   The Chumstick has been successful in part because our partners continue to invest time in our mission and our relationship.  How many similar efforts can they reasonably be expected to participate in?  What scale is most effective for collaborative groups?  Our small scale and tremendous landowner participation have been major assets, but are efforts like ours replicable on the same District or Forest?  In short, is there a collaborative carrying capacity and will our future plans exceed it?

Those are questions we can’t answer right now.  But, with a little luck… and the successful return of our very first survey… we will be close to answers soon!  The Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition has developed a short questionnaire designed to shed light on the carrying capacity of our partners, as well as their perceptions regarding collaborative effectiveness.  In order to plan our future, we have to take our environment, including the capacity of that environment, into account.  Gathering data from our partners is a good step.  Understanding what our environment can support will help us as we move toward a sustainable future.  Sustainability may be the Holy Grail, but it doesn’t have to be a blind quest. 

Annie Schmidt is the Director of extremely charismatic Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition.