Washington Includes Forests in Carbon Plans - Pacific Forest Trust
ForestLife

Summer 2017 ForestLife

Washington Includes Forests in Carbon Plans

Seattle, WashingtonGreat ideas are contagious. The 2016 Paris Climate Accord elevated the role of forests as a key climate change solution. Now, as California looks to forest and other lands as climate tools, climate discussions in Washington state are also elevating the role of forests in sequestering dangerous carbon dioxide emissions.

This spring, the state legislature considered four carbon tax bills, three of which dedicated some portion of the resulting funding toward forests. While none of the bills are expected to pass this session, some of the language from one of the most promising bills, House Bill 1646, has recently been submitted as a 2018 ballot initiative—and its prospects for success are good, given state voter enthusiasm for climate change measures. Forest loss and depletion is the second largest source of the state’s CO2 emissions.

This September, the Washington Environmental Council is hosting an all day seminar, co-sponsored by Pacific Forest Trust and others, on how forests can most resiliently, effectively, and durably store more carbon to reduce greenhouse gases and promote adaptation.

More than 60% of Washington voters support an initiative that places a price on carbon.
And that support rises to 67% if proceeds are directed to forest health and water projects.

— 2015 voter survey commissioned by The Nature Conservancy

Photo courtesy of Roving Aye

Media Contacts

Communications Manager
communications@pacificforest.org
(415) 561-0700 x. 17

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