Friends of the Hylebos today announced a re-structuring plan necessary to keep the organization sustainable amid a rapidly shrinking funding base for nonprofit conservation. The move by the Federal Way –based conservation organization includes personnel reductions and a re-focusing of key programs.

“This is an extremely difficult step, but one that’s necessary to keep conservation efforts alive in our community,” said Board President Margery Godfrey. “There has been a seismic shift in the conservation economy of the Puget Sound area, and the scope of funding that has supported the Friends during the last decade has shrunk rapidly and devastatingly. Our number one goal is to ensure that we can continue to provide conservation services at a level that’s sustainable in this economy.”

Re-structuring will enable the Friends to continue as a force for clean water, clean air and conservation in Federal Way and the Hylebos Watershed. The Friends will be focusing efforts on forest health at four local parks. There are nine volunteer events scheduled between now and the end of the year.

Nonprofit groups, particularly in the conservation field, have struggled tremendously in the current economy. Particularly hard hit are smaller, local organizations such as the Friends. Many are reducing services or even folding.

The Hylebos layoffs include executive director Chris Carrel, who helped guide the organization from an all-volunteer group in the late 1990s to an accomplished professional conservation group that preserved more than 535 acres of local open space, restored stream and wetlands habitat, and planted more than 93,000 native trees and plants in the Hylebos Watershed.

“I’ve lived and breathed the Hylebos for fifteen years and above all, I’m dedicated to seeing the Friends survive and thrive for another fifteen years, and beyond,” says Carrel, who helped the board develop the plan. “Sadly, in order to do that, the organization has to operate on a smaller playing field.”

Volunteer participation will remain a central part of the organization’s restoration work, as will the effort to remove English ivy from local forests while restoring forest, stream and wetland ecosystems. Over the past decade more than 1,900 volunteers have participated in Hylebos conservation projects, planting thousands of trees and helping protect forests and wetlands from invasive plants.