Pacific Forest Trust

Pacific Forest Trust is an accredited^[1][2] non-profit conservation land trust and policy think-tank that advances forest conservation and stewardship solutions. Its mission is to sustain America’s forests for their public benefits of wood, water, wildlife, and people’s wellbeing, in cooperation with landowners and communities.^[3]

History

Pacific Forest Trust was founded in 1993 by Laurie Wayburn and Constance Best to provide incentives and support to encourage and enable forest landowners to conserve their properties.^[4][5] Laurie Wayburn, an environmentalist and Harvard Alumna,^[6] is the daughter of noted environmentalist Edgar Wayburn. Constance Best is a conservationist and entrepreneur.^[4]

Approach

Pacific Forest Trust’s strategy is to make conservation an economically competitive use of forests and other associated lands. They partner with private landowners to permanently conserve their forests, prioritizing long-term forest health and productivity that benefit the public, with 82,484 acres currently under conservation easement.^[7] They promote forest conservation^[8][9][10] because it helps mitigate climate change,^{[11][12][13][14]} protects water resources,^{[15][16][17][18]} serves as habitat for wildlife,^[19][20] and offers recreational opportunities for those who enjoy the outdoors.

Pacific Forest Trust promotes practical implementation of stewardship forestry—forestry, which encourages natural, native forest composition, age distributions, processes, and structures—on private forestlands.^[21] They do this through providing research results, technical and management planning assistance, demonstration, advice and education for landowners, resource managers, and governmental agency personnel.^[22][23] Pacific Forest Trust’s Van Eck Forest Project^[24][25] is an example of this type of forestry.^[26] This project was also the first emissions reduction project registered and independently verified in California.^[27][28][29]

Policy and advocacy

Pacific Forest Trust develops policy initiatives and analyses to generate new incentives for—or remove barriers to—long-term forest stewardship, promoting initiatives and regulations that support landowners' investments in the restoration and conservation of their land. They pioneered the conception and implementation of the Working Forest Conservation Easement,^[30] which is a conservation easement "specifically designed to protect working forests in which the harvesting of timber and other forest products is sustained in perpetuity along with related conservation values”^[31] such as wildlife habitat, water sources, and climate-mitigating stores of carbon.

Pacific Forest Trust also led the process of including legitimate and verifiable standards for forest carbon into the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006^[32] and participated in the development of the Forest Project Protocol.^[33] By doing so they created the basis for the ongoing market in forestry-based Carbon Credits that has been facilitating the reduction of net emissions of CO2 since it was enacted.^[34][35]

In addition, Pacific Forest Trust developed a streamlined approach to obtaining Safe Harbor Agreements, that ensure landowners are rewarded—rather than penalized—for maximizing conservation of habitat for animals that are in danger of extinction.^[36]

In 2004, Pacific Forest Trust also spearheaded an attempt to add nearly 1,600 acres to the Yosemite National Park by purchasing 793 acres of the land^[37] and then offering it to the National Park for inclusion.^[38][39][40] The local Congressman Tom McClintock halted the attempt.^[41]

Awards and accolades

• Pacific Forest Trust was awarded the California Climate Action Reserve's "Climate Action Champion" Award in 2012.^[42]
• In 2010 and 2016, Pacific Forest Trust achieved “accredited” status and renewed their accreditation respectively through the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.^[43][44]
• In 2009, Pacific Forest Trust was awarded the U.S. EPA International Climate Protection Award,^[45][46][47] the EPA's highest honor in climate protection.
• In 2008, Laurie Wayburn, Co-Founder and President of Pacific Forest Trust, was awarded the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award and Fellowship by the Land Trust Alliance and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.^[48] Wayburn also earned the Leadership Award from the James Irvine Foundation in 2008.^[49]

Questions and criticism

Some environmental groups opposed the rules that authorized the production of Carbon Credits from forestland, including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and two dozen others.^[50] It is still controversial.^[51][52]

References

External links

• Pacific Forest Trust https://pacificforest.org/
• Clark, Champ; "Protectors of the Planet" 2008-04-21, People Magazine
• Ellison, Katherine (2000-10-15). "Trust Seeks to Harvest 'Carbon Credits' From Forests". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
• Roosevelt, Margot; "California forests hold one answer to climate change", Los Angeles Times, 2009-06-01, retrieved 2016-06-15
• Barnard, Jeff (2010-01-10). "Where environmental concerns meet timber interests". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-06-15
• Bailey, Eric (2009-09-25). "New California rules allow timber firms to sell carbon credits". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
• Nichols, Dana M. (2013-06-15). "Pact protects Sierra ranchland, upper Calaveras River". Stockton Recordnet. Local Media Group, Inc. Retrieved 2016-06-15
• 2009 Climate Protection Award Winners, Climate Protection Partnerships; U. S. EPA; Retrieved 29 January 2015
• Hunt, Ed (2000-07-18). "To save a forest, chop here". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2016-06-18
• Best, Connie; Martin, Tom (2015-12-15). "Help needed to protect forests, water supply in California". Retrieved 2016-06-16
• Mortenson, Eric (2010-12-03). "In a timber wars turnabout, Washington tree farm improves habitat for spotted owl". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2016-06-19.
• "ENERGY STAR and Other Climate Protection Partnership 2008 Annual Report", US Environmental Protection Agency, December 2009; retrieved 2016-06-15
• Petersen, Laura "Calif. Forest Hailed as Model for New Management Paradigm" The New York Times, Greenwire, ISSN 0362-4331, 2011-09-29; retrieved 2016-06-09
• Rowe, Jonathan, Edited by Barnes, Peter "Our Common Wealth: The Hidden Economy That Makes Everything Else Work", Berrett Koehler Publishers Inc., Apr 1, 2013
• Reese, April; "ENDANGERED SPECIES: Calif. land trust balances habitat restoration, logging under safe harbor agreement for spotted owl" E&E Publishing; 2009-03-26; retrieved 2016-06-09
• DeLasaux, M., et al. "Forest and rangeland owners value land for natural amenities and as financial investment." California Agriculture 65.4 (2011): pp. 184–191
• "Texas Company to Preserve Trees in trade for Pollution", The Victoria Advocate, 2000-11-12, p. 7a, retrieved 2016-06-15
• "Land adjacent to California's Yosemite park bought by conservation group". Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 2004. Retrieved 2016-06-09
• Best, C., "America's Private Forests: Challenges for Conservation", Journal of Forestry, 2002-04-01,Volume -100; Issue - 3, (pp. 14–17)
• Best, Constance "Save the Forests; To Stem Forest Losses Nation Needs Creative Strategies" Wilmington Star-News, October 17, 2004; p. 9E
• Gurnon, Emily "A Battle Won?", North Coast Journal Weekly, 2004-08-05
• The Victoria Advocate, New York Times News Service (2000-11-12). "Texas Company to Preserve Trees in Trade for Pollution". Retrieved 2016-06-15.
• "The Parallel Economy of the Commons" Author: Jonathan Rowe Published 2008 State of the World 2008 By The Worldwatch Institute State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy
• PASSERO, M., KATZ, R., & WAYBURN, L. (2008). The Van Eck Forest Management Project in California. In Streck C., O’Sullivan R., Janson-Smith T., & Tarasofsky R. (Eds.), Climate Change and Forests: Emerging Policy and Market Opportunities (pp. 289–291). Brookings Institution Press. Retrieved 6/13/16
• "STATEMENT OF LAURIE A. WAYBURN, PRESIDENT, AND COFOUNDER, PACIFIC FOREST TRUST Creating jobs with climate solutions [electronic resource]: how agriculture and forestry can help lower costs in a low-carbon economy: hearing before the Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry, and Credit of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session" May 21, 2008 United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry, and Credit. ONLINE RESOURCE | U.S. G.P.O. | 2009
• "Experts: Deforestation Hurts Climate". Lewiston Sun Journal. AP (2007-02-26). Retrieved 2016-06-15.
• Little, Jane Braxton. "Endangered Forest Species: Can Private Landowners Do Enough?." American Forests. 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2016 from HighBeam Research: https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-281469539.html
• Government Research Corporation; Center for Political Research (2007). "National Journal". Government Research Corporation. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
• Rogers, Paul. "Yosemite National Park Expansion Stalls in Congress." Oakland Tribune. Alameda Newspaper Group. 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2016 from HighBeam Research: https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-36171632.html
• Whitesell, William"AB32 and California’s Forestry Sector"; Center for Clean Air Policy; retrieved 2016-06-09
• "Land Trusts and Conservation Easements: Who Is Conserving What for Whom?". Conservation Biology. 18: 65–76. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2004.00401.x.