Forest Flash: States are stepping up to the climate challenge (and we are not frogs)

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, no more than once or twice a month. Subscribe here.

What our climate needs now: Forests

In October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new assessment on progress towards achieving the 1.5 degree warming limit agreed to in the Paris Climate Agreement. The report showed that we can limit global warming to a 1.5°C increase by 2030, and avoid irreversible, catastrophic damage to our planet—but it will require extraordinary and unprecedented changes in how we produce our energy and manage and conserve our forests and other lands.

In the keynote speech (unofficially titled “We are not Frogs”) to the Carbon Friendly Forestry conference in Seattle, PFT President Laurie Wayburn spoke on how forests are key to solving this crisis, and that our actions in the next five to ten years are determinative of how well we will be able to meet this challenge.

We are in the midst of a burgeoning crisis, and we need a response on par to that for World War II, recognizing that we are facing an irreversible turning point for our and our children’s future survival, and forests are key to that. The key solutions are to reduce forest loss, restore and maintain carbon-rich, climate resilient forests (thereby reweaving a much more functional forest landscape), and replant former forests when possible. Watch video of Laurie’s keynote here.

PFT will also be speaking at the Business and Environment Conference & Expo on 12/12 in Portland, speaking on “The Forest / Water Nexus: Resource Management for a Sustainable Future.” Find out more about the conference here.

States are stepping up to the climate challenge

Pacific coast states are increasingly and vividly aware of how important forests are for a healthy climate; accordingly, they’re making substantial changes.

In 2018, California Assemblymember Jim Wood worked tirelessly to pass forest health and wildfire prevention legislation. The result? Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 2551 and SB 901 into law, which provided $1 billion of funding for wildfire prevention, improved policy around prescribed burning, and a framework for funding watershed restoration investments. “We needed to put people first, by which I mean the victims [of fires] and future victims… which means vegetation management and protections for our firefighters,” noted Assemblymember Wood. PFT sponsored AB 2551, and many of its direct actions were also absorbed into SB 901.

Oregon is currently in the process of developing carbon legislation; PFT has been working with multiple partners and advising legislators on the Joint Carbon Committee as well as participating in two workgroups for the legislation to help develop the framework this pioneering state effort to help heal the climate. As a forest-rich state, conservation and stewardship of forests and other lands will be critical sectors to invest in to reach carbon neutral and negative goals.

Washington has also stepped up its climate work: Washingtonians are voting on Initiative 1631; at least 25% of what it would fund (through a fee on the state’s polluters) would be dedicated to clean water and healthy forests (see below).

Yes on 1631: Vote yes for a healthier Washington

Pacific Forest Trust strongly supports I-1631. It is a practical first step to ensure clean air and clean water for everyone in Washington and gives us the chance to pass on a healthier state to the next generation.

• 1631 will clean up pollution to protect the health of our communities.
• It will ensure our forests are healthy, more resilient to disease, and can protect our air quality.
• It will increase sustainable supply of drinking water, reduce risks from flood and drought, and ensure cooler, cleaner water for fish.
• It will prepare for future challenges caused by pollution and a changing climate and ensure that those impacts do not disproportionately harm our most vulnerable communities.

If you are in Washington and haven’t yet voted, you have until Tuesday to drop off or mail your ballot (no stamp needed). There’s also still time to help get out the vote for 1631. Anyone can:

• Sign up to canvass – enter your zip code to find one near you
• Sign up to phonebank – from home or with friends!
• Sign up to text – easy and fun
• Use the campaign’s Friend-To-Friend outreach tool—VoterCircle—to send a message to all your email contacts in Washington State

Thanks for supporting a healthier Washington!

Close a tax loophole that hurts conservation

As a member of the Land Trust Leadership Council of the Land Trust Alliance, PFT signed on to a letter of support for the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act (H.R. 4459 & S. 2436).

A few bad actors have profited (and continue to profit) at taxpayer expense by exploiting a law Congress enacted to recognize charitable conservation easement donations. Congress has an opportunity to shut down this profiteering and preserve the integrity of this otherwise worthy charitable program by passing the bicameral, bipartisan Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act (H.R. 4459/S. 2436) before the end of the year.

Please send a message to your Senators and member of Congress and ask them to support this important legislation to protect public confidence in the integrity of conservation easements.

You can take action here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/support-the-charitable-conservation-easement-program-integrity-act-hr-4459-s-2436/

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