Support multiple urban forestry projects including ordinance development, resilience planning, organizational development. Principal editor and co-creator of the Vibrant Cities Lab, a comprehensive resource on the benefits of urban forests and tools to help build effective programs.

Ask anybody who deals with environmental issues to describe the terrain in which they work. You’ll likely hear words like discordant, confrontational, conflict and confusing. But you’ll also find some who’ve found a different path – a middle path – that drives through confusion to consensus, then from consensus to solution. CenterLine Strategy helps organizations find, then navigate that middle path.We provide strategic counsel and programs for organizations that strive to achieve sustainability goals, recognizing that environmental progress and a sound economy are inextricably linked. We don’t just do reports or advertising. We help make sustainability an integral part of operations at all levels – not just something “extra,” but a different way of doing business. CenterLine understands sustainability from the client perspective … because, frankly, that’s all we’ve done. For 30 years, CenterLine’s founder Larry Wiseman has created and implemented innovative strategies for sustainability communications, for multi-party coalitions, community relations, stakeholder outreach and public affairs campaigns. In short, CenterLine is built on experience earned long before sustainability became the topic du jour for business-school case studies.

Advise this broad-based coalition on policy and project development. Assist in initiatives to attract new financial supporters to urban greening at the local, state and national levels. The coalition comprises organizations from the forestry, public works, landscape architecture, arboriculture and tree-care industry, and agencies at all levels of government.

Helping develop and implement cutting-edge projects that advance sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities.

The Council was authorized by Congress in 1990 to serve as an advisory body to the Secretary of Agriculture. Members are appointed by the Secretary for 3-year terms. Along with its annual recommendations to the Secretary, the Council conducts every decade an assessment of the state of urban and community forestry in the US, sets goals and measures progress by the Federal and non-Federal programs which support urban forestry. Originally nominated as chair during the Bush administration, I continued through the first term of the Obama administration.The Council also administers a challenge-grant program. During my tenure we awarded more than $4 million in grants for research and to develop strategies to maximize the environmental, economic and social benefits of trees in the places where people live and work.

In 1993, Larry Wiseman became founding president and CEO of the American Forest Foundation. He joined its predecessor, the American Forest Council, in 1981 and from 1983 till 1993 served as last president of this industry group. Wiseman developed AFF to test two new organizational concepts – first, a non-profit where groups with radically different agendas could work together on common objectives; and second, a low-risk setting where innovative programs could be tested, then extended. The “experiment” worked.After his near 30-year tenure, AFF remains a key player in forest conservation, wildlife and watershed protection, ecosystem markets and environmental education. Its programs attract dozens of funders and partners – from government agencies to foundations, businesses and environmental groups. Its budgets and staff have grown more than five-fold. The fact that in 2006 AFF received an endowment grant of $150 million affirms the reach and impact of its work, and the reputation of its senior professionals. At AFF, Wiseman:•Created and co-founded the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources. Now independent, IJNR is the premier mid-career education program for environmental journalists.•Co-founded and convened Forests in the Farm Bill Coalition – a diverse group of forestry, conservation and environmental organizations – to address issues in the 2008 Farm Bill. The law produced the most dramatic gains in Federal support for forest conservation in decades.•Initiated broad-based consensus dialogue on role of forests in carbon sequestration.•Forged alliances with conservation groups that helped family forest owners improve watersheds and habitat through place-based projects. Earlier, he was VP of a national public opinion consultancy, and a public television producer for local programs and documentaries aired nationally on PBS and overseas.