A year of Challenge, Progress, and Accomplishment!

2020 has been a year like no other, challenging in so many ways.

COVID! FIRES! Another record-breaking year of climate change impacts from heat and storms and drought. The climate impacts on our health, homes and climate seem mirrored in the deep divisions between urban and rural communities. This is why PFT’s work is so compelling, bridging that divide in practical ways on the ground, and in developing new policies that bring resources to the extraordinary challenges that face us today. PFT’s work occupies the “radical middle”, bringing people together to demonstrate at scale, new ways to protect and sustain the forests that sustain us. We are so grateful for your support!

Help us start 2021 with momentum and verve!

Please donate as generously as you can: every gift will be matched from now to December 31, 2020.

Demonstrating Forest Management for Climate Benefits—and Spreading the Word!

PFT’s ground breaking approach to forestry was just highlighted in this December’s podcast Trends with Benefits. When we say forest management, we mean FOREST management. Managing for the full suite of forest values, from the most critical but undervalued: water supplies and climate stabilization, to the most commercial: timber products. PFT manages almost 12,000 acres of diverse forest types in California and Oregon for all these values. In 2020, our work in forestry, and its direct, on-the-ground benefit was recognised in a wide variety of other fora as well. From our restoration projects in PFT’s forests adjacent to Yosemite National Park to a focus on climate resilience and restoring productivity to former plantations in Oregon, we are providing practical, economically compelling models of managing forests for all their values, and sharing that with people across the country, and beyond.

New Ways to Combat Climate Change and Manage Fire

The fires of 2020 underscored the need for new approaches in fire management, and ones that restore the land’s natural fire adaptation. We need, simply to restore the natural resilience from, and resistance to, fire, while increasing community safety and reducing risk. Doing this will take money, people and time. Working with a broad coalition, PFT is leading the effort to drive such as new approach, and increasing the funding tor these efforts. Recently, over 18 agricultural, forest and environmental groups signed on to a request to Governor Newsom for $1.5 billion dollars in 2021 to launch a major increase in fire management in California. As PFT’s Paul Mason said, “there is a broad recognition that we are in a deep, deep hole in terms of where California is with fire.” This is a step in the right direction, and will help restore forests climate resilience.

Nationally, PFT’s recommendations on how to leverage our forests to combat climate change, and new approaches to doing this across the forest sector, were picked up in the Congressional Select Committee on the Climate Change Crisis. These approaches include new tax policy, management foci for public lands and incentives for protecting private forests to rebuild a carbon-rich, climate-resilient landscape. These approaches were also highlighted in PFT’s panel presentation as part of Harvard University’s discussions on how to address the climate crisis (watch here).

Conserving and Restoring Forests for People, Bats and so much more!

The Siskiyou Crest is one of the most biodiverse habitat in the US and globally. We are thrilled to announce that, working with Jud Parsons, we have successfully conserved another amazing 553 acres, “Mountcrest East”, directly adjacent to our Mountcrest Forest project, which we partnered with the Parson’s family to conserve in 2017.  Mountcrest East helps build a safe corridor all the way across from the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument to the late seral reserves of the Rogue River Siskiyou National Forest. As with Mountcrest, this forest will be managed to reduce fire risk, restore habitat for many listed species, from the silver-haired and Townsend’s Big Eared bats to the pacific fisher to the spotted owl, and enhance climate resilience. PFT also secured options to conserve another 11,000+ acres of productive forest in 2020! To learn about these exciting projects, read about the Shasta Timberlands and Lightning Canyon Ranch projects.

Since 2010, Pacific Forest Trust has been accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance. We are proud to have been one of the first land trusts to earn that distinction. In 2021, we will be applying to the Commission for the second renewal of our accreditation. As part of that process, the Commission invites public input on how PFT complies with its national quality standards. Please visit our website for more information on the accreditation program and how to submit comments.