The Good Neighbor Authority allows for critical management activities to take place, benefiting endangered species including the Karner blue butterfly and Massasauga rattlesnake. Other species that depend on healthy forests include the rare Kirtland's Warbler and many species of turtles and game birds.

Habitat improvements are made possible by reinvesting funds from timber management sales into on-the-ground restoration and improvement projects on Forest Service lands. It also assists with bringing raw forest materials into the economy to be turned into renewable wood products.

The first partner GNA project in northwest Michigan's Huron-Manistee National Forest thinned red pines growing close together using a select-cut, letting more light into the forest to encourage fresh growth. Snags, brush and standing dead timber were left to create habitat for the pine marten, a shy member of the weasel family that forest management has helped recover after nearly disappearing from Michigan in the 1930s.