2024 Dovetail Partners Annual Report

Letter from the President

What a difference a year makes.  Twelve short months ago this annual letter reflected on the Dovetail team celebration of 20 years since our founding.  We looked back at the more than 300 reports, articles, and communication pieces we’ve distributed, the more than 100 internships we’ve hosted, and our many partnerships, colleagues, and supporters that have done this work with us. 

Today, I reflect on 2024, live in 2025, and look forward to 2026. The annual cycle is important for me. My father will often say that over a lifetime a farmer gets maybe 40 or 50 growing seasons to figure out how to do things.  Foresters know that over a career you may only get a handful of opportunities to guide the outcomes for the stands of trees you care for. Carrying forward what we learn from season to season, year to year, and from practitioner to practitioner is essential to ensuring our work isn’t alone and our progress isn’t lost.

At this moment, in the Dovetail team, we reflect on where to begin.  No matter how great the challenge, there is always a place to start.  We consider three guiding principles in this reflection.  One, we go local.  We may not be able to address everything, everywhere, all at once - but we can always do work in our backyards, with our neighbors, and where our roots run deep.  Two, we collaborate.  We may not have all the answers, but we know that others will have more to add to ours and together we’ll go further. Three, we carry forward the work of those before us and create space for those who will do their work after us. The goal has never been to finish but to sustain and nurture.

Everything important in life is multi-generational.  When we honor these cycles we allow power, love, and change to grow. Thank you to everyone who has been, is, and will be part of Dovetail’s work. We are grateful and look forward to all the future holds for our partnerships and the work we will do together to create the change we want to see in the world!

-Kathryn (Katie) Fernholz, President/CEO