FOREST FLASH

September 2023

In Pacific Forest Trust’s e-newsletter, Forest Flash, we send you the most recent PFT news and updates on forests, clean water, climate, and wildlife. Subscribe here.

Transforming wildfire behavior

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant to support landscape-scale wildfire resilience

We are delighted to share the news that we have received a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to develop and implement an ambitious, forward-looking pilot project to promote a transition from the sometimes-catastrophic fires we have been experiencing to beneficial fire regimes. More simply put, our goal is to enable more “good fires” on the ground and reduce the amount and impact of “bad fire.” This pilot project will be based in California’s Siskiyou County and its adjacent watersheds — sources of the majority of the state’s utilized water—and will involve much collaboration with County and regional partners.

This pilot area is largely forested, with important agricultural, range and other ranching lands. Home of the world’s most diverse conifer forests, this region is the state’s timber basket and also provides wildlife with crucial habitats—habitats that will increasingly become home for species forced to move due to climate change. These watersheds are critical for Californians many hundreds of miles away, providing drinking water to over 32 million people, nearly 85% of the freshwater for the San Francisco Bay, and a large majority of the irrigated water used for agriculture.

The sheer scale of this project, not to mention the number of diverse stakeholders who will be involved, is groundbreaking. The project is intended to provide a model demonstrating how we can restore wildfire resiliency to protect people, communities, and ecosystems at the landscape level.

California says “not to fast” to those playing fast and loose with voluntary carbon offsets

A new bill would establish stricter transparency guidelines for corporations that engage in this burgeoning market

SB390, authored by California Senator Monique Limón, aims to limit potential abuses of voluntary carbon offsets, and it is headed to Governor Newsom’s desk for signature. The bill, supported by the Pacific Forest Trust, would require that entities selling voluntary carbon offsets provide more information about their offset projects, including data on the duration of the offsets and accountability measures if a project doesn’t reach completion. SB390 would also make it illegal for an entity to issue, certify, maintain, or sell a voluntary carbon offset if it knows that the greenhouse gas reductions from projects are neither legitimate nor quantifiable.

The bill seeks to close loopholes seen under past offset projects by establishing rules and regulations that would standardize reporting and ensure the transparency of said reporting. Variable carbon offset quality, reliability, and standards have been the subject of much contention and notoriety. When used correctly and responsibly, as under state compliance regimes, carbon offsets can be a useful tool in mitigating CO2’s emissions. Meeting those standards, offsets can provide near-term reductions for industries that otherwise require lengthy and prohibitively expensive transitions to low- to negative-carbon emissions futures.

This bill will help support the credibility of voluntary carbon offsets and help accelerate means of reducing the climate crisis. We urge the governor to sign it.

Please consider a donation to the Pacific Forest Trust. Your help—in all capacities—makes our work possible. Thanks for supporting us as we support forests!

Earlier this month, the award-winning documentary film about PFT’s work, Beyond the Trees, was shown at the SMILE Station in Portland, Oregon (as well as in Los Angeles at the IMAX headquarters). It was wonderful to see so many people joining us there— both new and familiar.  We were especially delighted by the range of people who joined the conversation: Janet McLennan and Anne Squires, the legendary Oregon forest leaders; Mike and Melissa Haglund, the PFT Forest champions and landowners; and Robyn Thorsen and Hugh Morrison, forest (and other) wildlife champions. Babies and nonagenarians were in attendance alike, which seemed to speak to the universal relevance of forests for which this film advocates.

Beyond the Trees documents the unique conservation and management model that Pacific Forest Trust has pioneered on our van Eck forests in California and Oregon. In it, you’ll hear from a variety of stakeholders — foresters, scientists, investors — on how these Demonstration Forests illustrate a path forward to healing both the climate and these ecosystems, which ultimately sustain wildlife, water sources, and us. And, we’re humbled to note that the message of this 30-minute film seems to have struck quite a chord with audiences and critics: awards from the Big Sur Film Festival, the LA Documentary Film Festival, as well as official-selection cuts from both Venice Shorts and the Oregon Documentary Film Festival, have already rolled in!

Go to PFT’s showings page to learn when and where the film will be screened to see where you might attend a showing. Film events are in the works in several Northern California locations, as well as in New York City and another in Portland this December. We’re so excited to see the very positive reaction to the film’s lessons and messages, and we hope that you’ll be able to attend one of these.

• Our President, Laurie Wayburn, wrote a New York Times Letter to the Editor in which she illustrates what’s so useful about conserving working forests. 

• PFT Board Chair, Ann Bartuska, P.hD, served on the USDA’s Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, whose final report just came out. You can read it here.