Fall 2012
20 Years of Inspiration
President’s Letter
GROWING RESILIENT, CRAFTED WITH QUALITY, BUILT TO LAST.
In 1993, when Connie Best and I started PFT, a common response to our vision was a wry smile and, “them’s big ideas you got there, ladies.”
We had the notion that private forest conservation was essential to a healthy overall forest landscape. We wanted to create a new forest economy, paying landowners for additional forest goods and services—complementary to sustainable timber. We imagined a way to help landowners bear the carrying costs of the land by paying those landowners who managed their forests for clean air, safe water and robust wildlife habitat. Indeed, the ideas were big—and quite radical.
Nearly 20 years later, with the help and engagement of many partners and leaders in the forest community, PFT has made these ideas a reality: carbon markets, working forest conservation easements, and landscape conservation. Today, we can see many changes for the better on the forest landscape. But even with a strong foundation for a resilient forest economy, we see serious challenges looming: continued uncertainty in the domestic and global economy, preserving our future water supply, and myriad impacts of climate change.
As in 1993, we face big challenges realizing big ideas to benefit a big community of stakeholders, from local to global. To confront these new challenges, we need to build Pacific Forest Trust’s community of supporters even more broadly.
Part of this will come from the leadership of our new board chair, longtime PFT friend and advocate Dr. Andrea Tuttle. As the former head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and a leader in global climate policy, Andrea brings enormous strengths to tackling the challenges that lie ahead. We thank her for stepping up her leadership, and we thank former chair Charlie Swindells for all his service to PFT.
The other part of confronting these 21st century challenges comes from you. If you believe in our mission, you can help connect us to more of your colleagues, friends, and family. Today, just as 20 years ago, we need your help making big ideas a reality. Together we can work to ensure our forests—and our communities—grow resilient.
Conserving Campstool’s Heritage
“THERE’S ONE THING THAT COUNTRY WILL DO—IT WILL GROW TREES!” TIM LANE’S GRANDFATHER FAILED AT MANY AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS ON CAMPSTOOL RANCH—SAVE FOR CATTLE ON THE CHARISMATIC PROPERTY’S MEADOWLAND, AND GROWING TREES: THE SIERRA FOOTHILLS WERE PERFECT FOR FORESTRY.
Homesteaded in 1919, and expanded by Tim’s mother after World War II, Campstool spans 3.4 square miles—an area slightly larger than Calaveras County’s historic town of Angels Camp. The place was more populated and a little rougher in its early days of logging and mining, with bars like Marge’s for backwoods locals.
Today, this pastoral riverfront gem is one of Calaveras’s largest remaining private landscapes, a key source of drinking water, and home for myriad wildlife. 1,700 acres of beautifully maintained forests include mature ponderosa pine and sugar pine, as well as abundant oak woodlands; the Lanes’ cattle graze among 500 acres of mountain meadow.
“I never get tired of going out on the property. I discover something new every time,” says Tim Lane, an attorney who lives in Danville and owns the ranch. A summertime regular, he started going to the ranch at the age of five. “There are incredible views, mining sites, evidence of Native American activity, and so many interesting historic places. My kids and grandkids love to fish.” Lucky for granddaughters Abby, Holly, Madison, and McKenna, Campstool’s situated along three miles of the North Fork of the Calaveras River.
In a county that saw fast development of ranchettes before the crash, Campstool’s timber and range management are key to sustaining the region’s resource economy. Taken together with 645 acres of BLM land adjacent to Campstool, this project creates a 2800-acre bulwark of conserved working lands in the county to protect the jobs and livelihoods that depend on ranching and timber.
Dismayed to see nearby ranches converted to residential subdivisions, the Lanes decided to keep their land intact and continue the family’s legacy through a working forest and ranch conservation easement. Moreover, the Lane family is generously donating a portion of the easement value so PFT can soon complete the acquisition with grants pending from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Board.
Developing the easement gave Tim a new appreciation for Campstool Ranch and its natural values. “I spent a lot of time soul-searching the propriety of doing a conservation easement–thinking about what my parents would say. Mom would have been in favor. Dad would have been resistant, because he didn’t want limits on what to do with the property. But, I think, like me, the more involved he was in the process, the more he would be OK with doing it.”
Tim’s kids are supporters of conserving the ranch, and worked with Tim and PFT on terms, such as limiting cattle grazing to sustainable levels, managing the forest for resiliency to fire threats and climate change, prohibiting mining of soapstone reserves, and tightly restricting development on the ranch. Though he wonders what his great-great-great-grandchildren will think of his decision, he’s pretty sure he picked the right legacy to leave to them.
McCloud River Working Forest: fitting the pieces together for a conserved landscape
WITH THE GREAT OPPORTUNITY OF CONSERVING THE MCCLOUD RIVER WORKING FOREST AT HAND, THE DREAM OF CONNECTING THE FRACTURED FOREST LANDSCAPE AROUND MT. SHASTA JUST GOT A LITTLE MORE REAL.
It’s PFT’s largest working forest conservation easement (WFCE) project in the Klamath-Cascade to date, and when we secure the protection of the two McCloud tracts, PFT will have conserved 22,795 acres, or 35.6 square miles of timberland, in this key watershed in perpetuity. At 28.3 square miles (20% larger than the island of Manhattan), the Hancock McCloud River Working Forest Easements connect vast forest landscapes—charting a path for wildlife to adapt to our changing climate. Working with owner Hancock Timber Resource Group to keep this area permanently forested will reduce development pressure around the historic town of McCloud. It will also maintain the essential, green infrastructure at the base of the whole forest products industry, sustaining jobs and bolstering the North State economy.
In the heart of the pristine McCloud River watershed, this property is a complex network of multi-age mixed conifer forests and oak woodlands. Through our partnership, we’ll make essential links across the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, connect old-growth reserves for habitat benefits, and expand access to a popular recreation hub. Situated at the “top of the tap” for 25-million Californians, this project will also protect the quality and flows of some of the coldest, clearest water in the state.
50% of the Klamath-Cascade’s 10 million acres are privately owned and intertwined with public lands. Working forest conservation easements keep lands in private ownership and productive use. This allows Hancock and PFT to work together with state and federal agencies to safeguard their rich resources for far less than what it would cost to purchase lands outright as a state or federal preserve. Not only do property owners continue to support the economy, but the property also remains on the county tax rolls, ensuring funds for local government.
For the McCloud River working forest, PFT and Hancock developed a plan to guide sustainable management of the 12,805-acre Town and 5,589–acre River parcels, conserve watercourse buffers and special habitats, restore older, more-complex forest habitats needed by threatened wildlife, and offer non-motorized public recreation.
We now have about two years to raise the funds to accomplish our goals and we need your help. PFT is seeking grants from the Wildlife Conservation Board’s Forest Program, the Forest Legacy Program, and other public and philanthropic sources. The President’s 2013 budget includes a request for a $2.3 million Forest Legacy grant toward the acquisition of the Town Block – Phase I easement. PFT’s work here is also funded by a generous grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society, supporting on-the-ground solutions for large-scale ecosystem adaptation to climate change. (back to top)
Twenty Years of Inspiration
Forests inspire. Literally, figuratively, and poetically, they take in what the world exhales and breathe out fresh air, fresh water, and fresh perspective. So much depends upon them. In turn, PFT was inspired to be dependable for the trees, setting out to measure the real value of forests, and use their value to save them.
Fast forward to 2012: PFT is known for innovative private forest conservation and forest climate solutions. Bringing disparate interests to the table and turning conflict into partnerships—and rewarding ones at that—is what PFT does best. The working forest conservation easement (WFCE) is a tool in almost every conservationist’s toolbox. Climate legislation a decade-in-the-making is beginning to yield billions of dollars in favor of trees. Landowners consider habitat and wildlife along with wood as financial assets. With your help, the Pacific Forest Trust is building a new forest economy.
But, once upon a time, PFT was just an inkling, a brainchild not yet formed. How did we get here, at the precipice of accomplishing some of the most meaningful conservation today? Inspiration. Even in the throes of timber wars, boom-and-bust economies, and competing political interests, there were gurus and dissenters, devastated landscapes and enchanting, intact forests that pushed us to innovate. At the dawn of our 20th year, we want to share some of those inspirations. The people, circumstances, and ideas that paved the way for PFT’s first big efforts and today’s deeper investments in forest economies. Though we can’t hope to name them all, we’ll start here:
The greatest story never told.
To read a newspaper in 1990 was to read of protests to the clear-cutting of beloved old growth trees on federal lands. It was also the time of Redwood Summer: hippies blocking chainsaws, and defiant lumberjacks, the lawsuits on Spotted Owls, and the Endangered Species Act. Everyone was polarized, from the timber industry to the public to activists and legislators. The conservation song was about preserving old growth redwoods as public treasures. Meanwhile, millions of acres of private timber lands (then over 70% of the U.S. forest canopy) were surrendering trees to bulldozers and making way for development—development that fragmented the forests, threatening water supplies, increasing fire danger, and shrinking wildlife habitats. Private forest conversion was the silent scream that few heard; but PFT heard it, and saw opportunity. Why not focus practical conservation where it was needed most, before it was too late? Why not get everyone on the same side?
It’s not just about old growth; ask Dr. Science.
Before developing a new model of forest conservation focused on private lands, incentives, and partnerships, not-yet-PFT needed to know what was possible. Enter the Wayburn and Best research road trip of 1992. Laurie and Connie asked questions—lots of questions— about forest ecology and logging, timber supplies and wood industries, and the money that made it all go ‘round. One of their first stops was the University of Washington to see renowned scientist Jerry Franklin, Ph.D, known as “the guru of old growth forests.” Surprisingly, Franklin didn’t talk about setting aside old growth; he talked about melding ecosystem science with forest management to grow old-growth characteristics. His findings showed how landowners could manage to create old growth characteristics in their forests in only 25, 50, 70, or, if possible, 100 years into the future. Based on his knowledge of natural old-growth forests, he suggested how to build more structurally complex forests that would better support the overall ecosystem even while harvesting timber throughout a 25 -100–year cycle.
PFT took this idea and thought about how to provide the landowners with the funding necessary to afford such management, for it did require harvesting less in the shorter term, as well as harvesting differently. PFT also wanted to ensure that the public and ecosystem gains made through this approach would last—and not be lost when a new owner took over the land. The PFT method, which underpinned changes to management with carefully designed conservation easements for working, private timberlands, could work—permanently. Rewarding responsible landowners could work. Soon, PFT could show the for-profit forest sector that managing forests for ecosystem values was worth cold, hard cash.
Trees can just be . . .
The early days of PFT coincided with some of the most important events in the global fight against climate change. In 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signaled a worldwide recognition of the threats of global warming. New research from scientists like Oregon State’s Dr. Mark Harmon, Professor of Forest Science, zeroed in on forests as key to removing planet-heating CO2. Harmon, with his then nascent “Carbon Knowledge System”, built the foundation for today’s forest carbon accounting. PFT worked with Dr. Harmon to see how this could be applied to private forests, expanding the rotation times from 35 or 40 years to 80, 90, and beyond. This application would actually increase the total timber as well as carbon stores in those forests. Enlightened, PFT added climate to their goal of establishing forest currency—trees had value simply by being—absorbing carbon in and breathing oxygen out. And the more time they had to do that, the better job they did.
. . . in the right conversation.
The next crucial step was making sure forests were part of the global climate discussion; PFT drafted a letter and eminent scientists added their names, urging President Clinton to include forests in the1997 Kyoto Protocol talks. In California, the Kyoto agreement’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 arrived first in voluntary legislation, with forests integrated in the policies, and ultimately in the form of AB 32. Making sure forests had a role in climate policies was an ongoing challenge; luckily, PFT had key allies in decision-making places. Andrea Tuttle, then head of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection; Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board; and Linda Adams, Cal EPA Secretary worked along side PFT year after year to represent forests in California’s climate legislation. They understood that what was good for climate was also good for forests. And so, payments for climate services were added to payments for conserving well-managed forests.
The Klamath-Cascade: more than a watershed moment.
What started out as a grant application reject turned into a lifetime labor of love. Encouraged to find a vast landscape with huge potential for large-scale conservation, PFT first put on logging boots, then jumped in with both feet and pointed them to California’s “wood basket” (one of the most productive timber regions in the nation) and mighty Mt. Shasta. For 100 years, the area was a thriving logging region. The insatiable need for wood and quick financial gain left much of this area depleted, its mills and workers abandoned. Wearied by a flagging timber economy, the lands of Shasta, Lassen and Trinity counties weren’t yet the focus for the massive development that hit the coastal forests, Sierra Nevada foothills, or the lovely forests of southern California—yet. No longer forested with pristine, virgin trees, most environmental non-profits didn’t give the area a second glance. But PFT was awestruck by the huge swaths of private forests, incredible biodiversity, abundant clean water, and undeniable natural beauty. Sleeves were rolled up and serious research began.
75% of our runoff occurs in northern California, the source of most of the state’s agricultural and drinking water. This stunning landscape is home to the Klamath-Cascade, where 10-million acres (15,626 square miles, or about half the size of Ireland) of public and private forests converge, and boasts one of the few glaciers still growing. From a climate perspective, few places in the state are more crucial to reducing greenhouse gases. But perhaps more than any other place, the Klamath-Cascade could be the epicenter of a new forest economy— profiting from sustainable timber products, climate and water ecosystem services, and small scale bioenergy fueled by forest restoration. Best of all, the KC’s private land is owned in large contiguous tracts, giving each conservation effort maximum impact. This singular landscape inspired PFT’s report: “Klamath-Cascade: Watershed in the Balance” and kicked off the project of a lifetime.
Forests need entrepreneurs like Allyn Ford.
Talk about inspiring! PFT’s work would be nowhere without willing forest landowners—Folks like Allyn Ford, whose family-owned Roseburg Resources Co. owns 175,000 acres (an area the size of Singapore) in northern California and employs 3,700 people. With wins like the recently dedicated Bear Creek Working Forest Project (8,230 acres), Ford embraces WFCEs as part of his business model. Ford knows that with revenue from WFCEs, forest landowners can invest in long-term, well-managed forests. He’s seen first-hand that it’s still possible to cut year after year and grow healthy, multi-age forests, encourage a more connected forest canopy, and see endangered species like the Northern Spotted Owl as added value, not a mere hindrance to timber harvests. Mr. Ford and other private landowners are helping to reweave this region into a vast, well-managed and conserved storehouse of good wood, abundant water, and vibrant wildlife supporting a strong and stable rural economy and community.
The Klamath-Cascade region is not only spectacular, it’s special. The region includes the Shasta glacier, one of the the few that is still growing. The KC supplies water to Californians from Sacramento to San Diego. It is one of the most biodiiverse regions in the U.S.—and it’s covered with private forests.
Investing in Forests for Climate: Let the Auctions Begin
NEARLY SIX YEARS AFTER THE GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS ACT (AB 32) BECAME LAW, CALIFORNIA’S PIONEERING CAP AND TRADE PROGRAM IS SET TO “GO LIVE” WITH THE FIRST AUCTION OF POLLUTION ALLOWANCES TO MAJOR POLLUTERS IN MID-NOVEMBER.
The cap and trade portion of AB 32, California’s landmark climate legislation, is perhaps the best-known part of this first economy-wide climate law in the country. While cap and trade will bring 20% of overall reductions required under the law (various regulatory mechanisms achieve 80% of the reductions ultimately), these essential reductions offer a new market approach to solving pollution crises. This auction establishes a price per ton for carbon pollution, and generates new revenue that must be applied to AB 32 goals.
The auction revenue presents an enormous opportunity for forest conservation. Preventing the loss of California’s forests, improving management, and restoring areas that have been degraded are among the most effective ways to help California reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, which is the primary requirement of the auction revenue.
Giving back to forests gives back to us.
Of course, in addition to reducing emissions, investing in forests helps ensure that they continue to provide benefits for us in the future. We are absolutely dependent on our forests for numerous services, from providing the majority of California’s water supply to maintaining habitat for critters. While it is easy to take all the values and services of forests for granted, absent direct action and investment, our forests will continue to decline. Rural sprawl and land-use conversion to vineyards and ranchettes fragment the forest and diminish its integrity. Past logging practices combined with decades of fire suppression have left unnatural conditions that are vulnerable to pests, disease and fire. We need to invest in our natural infrastructure in order to ensure that we have healthy forests and productive watersheds in the future.
Ignore them and they’ll go away . . .
Investing the cap and trade auction revenues in forest conservation and restoration is a win-win because trees actively remove carbon from the atmosphere, while restoration helps make our forests more resilient and adaptive to the changing climate. And, with many millions of acres of forest to address, we need to get serious about investing significant resources ASAP. The auction revenue presents a beautiful opportunity to fund conservation and restoration with the fees that California’s biggest polluters are paying for their permission to pour greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
What’s next for forest investment?
PFT is working with many allies— scientists, public agencies, conservation organizations, and landowners—to make sure that the importance of investing in forests is recognized in the Investment Plan developed by the Air Resources Board. Plan development is in its earliest stages, and there are opportunities for public comment in January and March 2013, as well as when the legislature reviews the proposed expenditures in May and June. (back to top)
Inspired Giving
WE ASKED BOB AND SUZI GIVEN WHAT INSPIRES THEM ABOUT CONSERVATION PHILANTHROPY
Why do the wide open spaces and the goal of saving these
landscapes inspire you?
Wildlife, the natural environment, landscapes, and the beauty of nature have always been of interest to Suzi and me. In 1993, we acquired 50 acres in Oregon’s southern Cascades, largely surrounded by land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Today, our property is inside the boundary of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (CSNM). Working closely with the Oregon Bureau of Land Management in efforts to develop a management plan for the Monument (established to protect its biodiversity), has heightened our interest, knowledge, and passion for conservation.
What qualities in an organization do you look for before you
support them?
Suzi and I manage foundations with specific funding goals of promoting education and preservation of the environment. We look for organizations to support with personal and foundation funds and to which we will support with our personal time and energies, organizations which have as their mission:
A) environmental education of youth with an emphasis on teaching preservation and,
B) organizations which champion preservation of wildlife and natural resources.
Leadership, past accomplishments, visions, objectives, and the organization’s mission statement are important criteria with which we make our evaluations.
How did you come to know about PFT and why have you chosen to support them?
We first became aware of PFT with the establishment of the CSNM in the year 2000. PFT’s active involvement in acquisition of private lands within the CSNM for resale to the federal government is a working model of public/private partnership which results in increased federal acreage in the Monument. We also support PFT’s efforts to facilitate forest conservation easements on private lands which result in better land use, preservation of forests, conservation and protection of water and wildlife. PFT’s active participation in federal and state conservation legislation is representative of PFT’s long term commitment to fulfill its mission.
The 53,000-acre CSNM is the first national monument designated to protect biodiversity. It’s home to more than 3,500 plant and animal species, many of which are found nowhere else on earth. PFT worked with willing landowners to add over 5,000 acres to the Monument.
Big Plans for WCS Climate Adaptation Fund Grant
A PFT COLLABORATION WITH CALIFORNIA’S DEPT. OF FISH AND WILDLIFE,“CREATING A CONNECTED CONSERVATION NETWORK FOR CLIMATE ADAPTATION,” GAINS PRESTIGIOUS INVESTMENT.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)grant supports PFT’s cross-cutting work, which integrates science, conservation, and restoration to implement solutions for large-scale ecosystem adaptation to climate change. Winning this competitive national grant of $200,750 drew on the expertise of our whole team and diverse partners to deliver an in-depth technical proposal.
The project is a partnership between PFT and the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, and draws on scientists from UC Berkeley, UC Davis and the Conservation Biology Institute. We are working with landowners, Resource Conservation Districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and others to implement key strategies of California’s Climate Adaptation Plan.
Together we will create a landscape-scale network of interconnected conservation areas on public and private lands, centered on Mt. Shasta, in the heart of California’s 10-million acre Klamath-Cascade region. Our use of working forest conservation easements will improve habitat condition and connectivity, increasing the capacity for species migration and adaptation. We are also collaborating on several habitat enhancement demonstration projects to improve the availability and functionality of important, rare habitat types on private lands. For this, PFT extends its gratitude to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the WCS Climate Adaption Fund.
More information on the Forest Fete here: http://bit.ly/ForestFete