Summer 2017 ForestLife
ForestLife is Pacific Forest Trust’s newsletter, with news and insight about our work to sustain America’s forests for all their benefits of wood, water, wildlife, and people’s well being, in cooperation with private landowners and communities. View or download this issue as a PDF, or read the individual stories online below.
In This Issue:
President’s Letter: Healthy Forests, Healthy People
Laurie Wayburn points out the similarities in the ways we can care for the health of both people and forests.
Conserving a Working Forest on Black Butte’s Iconic Landscape
Pacific Forest Trust is working with Michigan-California Timber Company to secure a conservation easement for its working forest on the edge of Black Butte near Mt. Shasta.
Three Million Trees Planted at Goose Lake Working Forest
A two-year cooperative reforestation project planted 3 million ponderosa pine trees at the Goose Lake Working Forest in Modoc County, California.
Searle Whitney’s Gift to the Future
C. Searle Whitney left a generous bequest to further Pacific Forest Trust’s effort to conserve working forests. PFT will start a fellowship program in his honor.
More Pacific Crest Trail Conserved
The MountCrest Working Forest has transferred more than 300 acres of land to the BLM, including a mile of the Pacific Crest Trail, to become permanent part of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
Walter and Jeanne Sedgwick
Jeanne and Walter Sedgwick have both poured their substantial energy and skill into conserving the environment. Pacific Forest Trust interviewed Walter about his lifetime dedication to forests and nature.
Working with Fire
This year, Pacific Forest Trust led an effort to gain additional funding for CAL FIRE’s program to help rural forested communities prepare for wildfire, resulting in an additional $10 million of State Responsibility Area funds in the state budget.
Restoring Watersheds Key to California’s Future Water Supply
Pacific Forest Trust looks upstream to the source to help solve California’s water problems with the first-ever Watershed Infrastructure Risk Assessment Report.
Washington Includes Forests in Carbon Plans
This spring, the Washington state legislature considered four carbon tax bills and now one has been submitted as a 2018 ballot initiative.
Forest Offsets Sequester 44 million Tons of Carbon Dioxide
Since California’s carbon offset program began in 2013, 168 forest projects in 29 states have sequestered more than 44 million tons of carbon dioxide.
CA Assembly Passes CARBON Act
In May, Assembly Bill 1433, the Climate Adaptation and Resilience Based on Nature (CARBON) Act, passed the California Assembly with solid bipartisan support—a major acknowledgment of the climate benefits of investing in forests and other working and natural lands.