The Pacific Forest Trust Announces Receipt of
$5 Million For Private Forest Conservation

Boonville, CA - The Pacific Forest Trust has received a grant of $5 million to launch a quick-response fund for forest protection, the organization announced today. The Boonville-based non-profit group intends to use the money granted from the Surdna Foundation for a "Strategic Opportunities Conservation Fund," which will be used to acquire conservation easements on environmentally significant forestland imminently threatened with conversion and development.

Surdna's grant is the first contribution to what will be a $10 million fund built through further charitable contributions. PFT expects to be able to affect up to $100 million worth of forestland through partnerships with a number of private, public, and non-profit entities.

"This one-time grant is uncommonly large for us," said Hooper Brooks, Program Director for the Environment at the Surdna Foundation, "It represents our confidence that the Pacific Forest Trust, through the Fund, will continue to play a key role in conserving the region's forests in cooperation with the area's landowners."

The launching of the Fund comes at a key juncture as privately owned forestland in California and throughout the US is changing hands more rapidly than ever before. As both corporate and family-owned forestland changes hands there is increasing risk of losing larger, well-stocked productive forests.

"In the midst of this unprecedented forest turnover, the Fund marks a ramping up of PFT's capacity to conserve private productive forests," said Laurie Wayburn, President of The Pacific Forest Trust. "The Fund provides the essential 'working capital' to enable us to interact more quickly and intervene in the marketplace."

The Pacific Forest Trust’s mission is "enhancing, restoring, and preserving the private, productive forests of the Pacific Northwest." Founded in 1993, the PFT has a staff of 11 and maintains offices in Boonville, CA and Seattle, WA.