forestlife - summer 2010 newsletter

8/9/2019 ForestLife - Summer 2010 Newsletter

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Sustaining the Rootsof a Green EconomyNational Coalition Calls for

Investment in Working Lands


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Thanks to a unique partnership with Save the Redwoods

League forged at the height of the states financial crisis, thePacific Forest Trust (PFT) will soon permanently conserve one

of the most important, unprotected coastal redwood tracts

along the Sonoma County coastline.

Stewarts Point Ranch is a stunning, 871-acre property situated alonga ull mile o scenic blufs adjoining the Pacic Ocean. It contains asignicant stretch o the South Fork o the Gualala River, consideredcritical or its salmon habitat. Its other outstanding eatures include750 acres o well-managed, mature coastal redwood and Douglas-rorest with notable remaining old growth sustained by its longtime

owners, Arch and Jack Richardson, through a amily trust.

In October 2008, a mutual riend o the Richardsons and LaurieWayburn contacted PFT because she knew the amily needed to sellthe ranch, owned since 1870, to settle an estate. She suggested wemeet to talk about buying the land.

The amily was specically looking or people who understood thattheir longtime stewardship and management o the property wassomething special, said PFT Co-CEO Connie Best. And it mostcertainly is. The Richardsons have done a tremendous job managingthis natural landscape and its ecological values. Its rare to ind a

working orest with such a wealth o biodiversity. From the ocean tothe river, this is a treasure cared or by generations o Richardsons.We are honored to have the opportunity to continue their legacyo stewardship.

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Teaming Up to Conserve a

Sonoma Coast Treasure

ForestLifeFort for Work. Fort for Lf.

The Newsletter of

The Pacific Forest Trust

Board of DirectorsCharles Swindells, Cr

Timothy N. Taylor, Vc Cr

Gregory Tebbe, Trurr

Andrea E. Tuttle, scrtry

Laurie A. Wayburn, Prdnt & Co-CeO

Constance Best, Co-CeO

O.H. Perry Lloyd

Kirk Marckwald

Timothy B. Pirrung

Hal Salwasser

William W. Stelle, Jr.

Staff

Laurie A. Wayburn, Prdnt & Co-CeOConstance Best, Co-CeO

James Burnham, excutv atnt

Christine Harrison, Communcton Drctor

Matt Fehrenbacher, Drctor of stwrdp

Garret Johnson,Drctor of Fdrl affrPeter Kodzis, Drctor of Fnnc & admn.

Paul Mason,Drctor, Clforn Polcya Swedeen, Ph.D.,Dirctor of ecoytm srvic Program

Steve Van Landingham, Dvlopmnt Drctor

Megan Wargo, Klmt-Ccd Progrm Drctor

Linda Coffee,Dvlopmnt MngrJessica Neff, stwrdp Mngr

Sean OSullivan, Offi c/iT MngrEmily Russell-Roy, Ne Polcy Projct Mngr

Anton Chiono, Polcy anlyt

Jesse Leddick, snor Conrvton aoct

Cari McLaughlin,Communcton aoctAlex Page, snor Dvlopmnt aoct

Jolanta Zakrzewski,accountnt

Editor: Crtn hrron

Production: Cr McLugln

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PFT' nwblog:

www.ForestsWorkWonders.org


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PFT plans to manage the ranch as a fagship edu-cational center and a working model orest demon-strating the ki nd o stewardship orestry that sustainswood, water, wildlie and a well-balanced climate. Wehave been working closely with experts at LandPathsand Alta Planning + Design to examine optionsor granting limited public access to this heritage-lled coastal working landscape. This is part o acomprehensive management plan PFT is preparingor the property thanks to a generous grant rom theGordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Ater having secured an option to purchase theproperty with a signicant down payment in 2008,PFT turned to Save the Redwoods League orcritical b ridge nancing. This ensured the acquisitionclosed on schedule during a time when state undingor conservation was a casualty o Caliornias scalcrisis. Aided by a $1 million grant rom the Gordonand Betty Moore Foundation and a low-interest loanrom the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Savethe Redwoods League will take title to the historicranch in July, subject to PFTs right to repurchase theland when state unding becomes available.

We are so grateul to Save the Redwoods League orhelping us complete this purchase during this timeo economic upheaval. This is a conservation oppor-tunity everyone agrees is a top priority, Best said.

These tough economic times have orced

all o us to be more creative and innovative

with the way we do our work. Stewarts

Point was not only a great opportunity

to protect redwood orests, critical fsh

and endangered species habitat, and the

beautiul coastal terraces and shoreline,

but it was also a wonderul opportunity to

partner with other prominent conservation

organizations out there today.Rukin hartley

It is truly an honor to be part o a group that workedtirelessly to protect a historical site or current anduture generations to experience and enjoy, saidRuskin Hartley, Executive Director o Save theRedwoods League.

PFT is working closely with the State Coastal

Conservancy, the Wildlie Conservation Board, theSonoma County Agricultural Preservation and OpenSpace District, and ot her oundations and individualscommitted to the conservation o these vital SonomaCoast resources, to secure the $11 million needed tocomplete the acquisition. t

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Poto: stewart Point Ranc, Cali. (By Pacifc Foret Trut)


4/8

W

hen President Obama talks about hisvision or a green economy, it can seemlike a novel concept, dependent on high-

tech clean energy rom the sun or wind, or oodtransormed into uel.

But green jobs mean something more traditional ormore than 3 million people who depend on Americasworking orest, arm andranch lands or theirlivelihoods. Many cantrace the roots of our greeneconomy back throughmultiple generations otheir amily trees.

Productive, privately ownedorests have long beenan economic mainstayo many communities.Composing 60 percento all U.S. orests, theyprovide wood products,renewable energy andemployment that alloworest-related industriesto unnel more than $100

billion dollars into theU.S. economy annually.

The natural, workinglandscapes that surroundus make significantcontributions to local,state, regional andnational economies,while providing cleanair, water, wildlife habitatand renewable biomass energy. Yet, privately owned

U.S. orests increasingly are threatened by economicorces that drive owners to sell the land or conversionto other uses. The majority o amily-owned orestswill be sold and developed over the next 50 years,according to recent USDA projections.

In that scenario, our iconic, orested landscapes willlook more like urban suburbs, their heritage andeconomic contributions lost.

This originally was a lumber-based community,recalls Gary Hendrix, spokesman or a seventh-generation orest- and mill-owning amily in Shasta

County, Cali. Originally, there were 56 sawmills here now there are three. We had 10 ull-time employees.Now were down to two plus ourselves, just getting bywith the bare minimum. Rural communities like oursare really hurting.

Times are hard in orestcommunities all overthe U.S.

The economic downturnand related drop

in demand or woodproducts orced theCollins Companies ath-generation, amily-owned enterprise andone o the largestorest landowners inPennsylvania to layof 300 people since therecession started in 2007.

Were trying to stay in

these communities butits really tough out there.Quite rankly, werelosing money, saidCollins Senior VicePresident Wade Mosby.I we were just intenton dollars and cents, wewould have shut some othese acilities down. Butwere trying to keep the

core employment going to maintain some o these

rural communities. In a town like Lakeview, Oregon,we had 110 people on the payroll. Now were downto 68 and thats still the largest private employer in atown o 2,700 people.

(See Coalition, Page 5)

Sustaining the Roots of a Green EconomyNational Coalition Calls for Investment in Working Lands

Investment in orest conservation and

stewardship can be a powerul stimulus or

economic recovery and jobs while providing

great climate benefts. Lur Wyburn

Poto: This Page: a rn vlly n Wt Vrn. Page 5: Top: Fort

nd frm lnd n Mn. Left: a Colln Compn almnor fortr

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Hendrix and Mosby are part of a PFT-led coalitionof working lands supporters, including large andsmall forest landowners, mill owners, marketmakers, and conservation and environmentalorganizations. Coalition members have been askinglawmakers to secure the roots of our nations newGreen Economy by ensuring climate and energylegislation contains funding allocations for landconservation.

Here in the South, landowners need these new

revenue streams to help sustain our productive openlandscapes and the rural economies they support,says coalition member Walter Sedgwick, a family-forest owner in Georgia. He noted that 3.6 millionacres of forest, farm and ranch land in the Southeastwill be converted and developed by 2030 accordingto recent USDA projections.

Investment in forestconservation andstewardship can be apowerful stimulus foreconomic recovery and jobs while providinggreat climate benets,Wayburn added, citinga 2007 study bythe University ofMassachusetts PERIInstitute. The studyfound investment inforest conservation andrestoration yields the

most jobs per dollar invested of any industry studiedincluding renewables and conventional energy sourceslike oil and nuclear.

Economic Bedrock in the Granite State

Coalition member Jameson French is president ofNew Hampshire- and Virginia-based Northland ForestProducts, Inc., which owns 10,000 acres of workingforestland. His family has been in the hardwoodtrade since the 1880s. He and fellow coalitionmember Peter Stein, a noted conservationist and

managing director for the Lyme Timber Company,recently wrote an opinion piece urging New Englandlawmakers to remember the proud role of workingforests in their local heritage and economy for the past150 years. In New Hampshire alone, forestry basedactivitiesincluding saw milling and paper man-ufacturinggenerate almost $1.2 bill ion in gross rev-enues each year while providing more than 16,600 jobs.

In all, more than 25 percent of private sector employ-ment in the Granite State is dependent on forestry,

recreation, agriculture, and the natural andworking landscapes that sustain all three industries.

These same New Hampshire landscapes could playa key role in the shift to a low carbon, climate-friendlyeconomy if new incentives are provided to encouragesustainable land management practices that captureand store the greenhouse gas pollution responsiblefor climate change, French and Stein wrote in theireditorial. But they cant do that if they disappearcompletely, plowed under for the next strip mall or bigbox store.

New Hampshire once boasted more than 87 percentforest cover. Its lost nearly 10 percent of that in onegeneration and continues to lose more than 17,500acres every yeara trend that shows little signof slowing.

If Capitol Hill wants to talk seriously about investmentin our economy, they need to start by investing aportion of those funds [generated by federal energyand climate legislation] in our working landscapes,the natural infrastructure that supports more than a

quarter of our employment and is a part of our GraniteState heritage, French and Stein wrote.

Restoring Americas natural infrastructure canalso help us restore our economic infrastructure,Wayburn agreed. This arena, properly invested in, willprovide a tremendous economic return for the country,providing jobs, climate and energy benets, as well assafeguarding water quality and wildlife habitat. t

See our other coalition members and what theyre askingfor: www.pacicforest.org/policy/coalitionletter.html

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Coalition (Continued from Page 4)


6/8


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This summer, the Pacic Forest Trust (PFT) islaunching a new chapter in our initiative toprotect one o Americas great treasures, theKlamath-Cascade Region.The Klamath-Cascade spans 9.8 million acres in an arc

that sweeps rom the headwaters o the Feather River

across the slopes o majestic Mt. Shasta and up intothe Klamath R iver basin in Oregon.

The Region contains some o the most diverse andproductive conierous orests in the world. It is hometo more than 100 imperiled species o plants andanimals, and is the source o drinking water or morethan 22 million Caliornians. Its orestland base is acheckerboard o public and private lands that orm thestates primar y wood basket and center o the orestproducts industry, producing nearly hal the totaltimber volume harvested in Caliornia each year.

Oten overlooked, conservation o the Regions

privately owned orests is critically important or ahost o reasons, including protection o habitats andwatersheds across ownerships, species diversity,water quality, aesthetics, timber production, biomassenergy and orest-carbon storage.

Today, the Regions orests are relatively intact butthe privately owned orests o the Klamath-Cascadeare threatened by an array o orces, including theeconomic crisis, globalization and its impacts on theorest products industry, climate change, shiting

demographics, legacies opast management and theincreasing conversion o

orests to other uses.Recognizing these threats,the Pacic Forest Trust hasbeen at work on a Klamath-Cascade Greenprint for the

Future. Based on years o research and conversationswith landowners, community leaders, land use expertsand others, the report is intended to raise awareness othis remarkable landscape and create a collaborativeroad map that will support voluntary eforts to preservea sustainable, resource-based uture or the Region.

To complete the Greenprint and take its ndings andrecommendations to the next stage o dialogue andaction in the region and beyond, PFT is in the processo orming an advisory council o local stakeholders.

A amiliar ace, Megan Wargo,has returned to our con-servation staf as our Klamath-Cascade Program Director.She is heading up eforts toconnect with stakeholders

across the Region, rom Chester,Susanville, and Quincy toBurney, Mt. Shasta, Yreka andRedding. She and other PFT

stafers are meeting with local landowners, state andederal agency staf, conservationists, biologists,oresters and others to discuss t he uture o Klamath-Cascade lands and livelihoods.

The Klamath-Cascade is an amazing region withgreat resources and a lot o opportunity or cooperativeconservation work now, Wargo says. Its one o theareas in Caliornia where the opportunity still existsto conserve orestland in a way that has a positiveimpact at the broader landscape level. Workingtogether with our partners in the Region, we want tohelp sustain orest-based communities and jobs orthe 21st century.

For more inormation about the Klamath-CascadeInitiative or its Advisory Council, contact MeganWargo at 415-561-0700 ext. 18 or email [email protected]. t

Convening Visionaries for the Klamath-CascadePFT Assembling Local Stakeholder Advisory Council in Vital Wood Basket Region

Megan Wargo

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Mt. Lassen, Calif. (By Connie Best)

TheSodaMountain

WildernessCouncil


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ON The COVeR: The Potomac River flows through working

lands in West Virginia. Photo by Harrison Shull (Getty Images).

T Pridio

1001-a ORilly avnu

sn Frncico, Ca 94129

www.PcifcFort.or

415.561.0700

T

he Pacifc Forest Trust (PFT)will be making signifcantnew acquisitions from willing

sellers in the Cascade SiskiyouNational Momument (CSNM),thanks to hal a million dollarsin new unding rom the MeyerMemorial Trust.

The $450,000 in program-relatedinvestment unds and $50,000 ingrant monies are the latest goodnews or our Campaign to Completethe Vision o the nations frstnational monument designated orits regional biodiversity.

With critical support rom theMeyer Memorial Trust, localconservation partners and others,PFT has been working to moreully conserve the lands locatedwithin the Monuments PlanningArea. Weve already been able toconvey nearly 1,700 acres to public

ownership since January 2009, andhope to transer an additional 3,035acres with support rom ederal

Land and Water ConservationFund appropriations rom theFY 2011 and 2010 budgets.

These newly conserved parcels willhelp conserve important wildliecorridors or the regions numerousthreatened and endangered

species, and expanding protectiono the recently designated SodaMountain Wilderness Area. Readmore about our CSNM work at:http://bit.ly/1B3yXY. t

Caption

Tur., sptmbr 16, 2010

goldn gt Club

sn Frncico Pridio

Rcption: 6 p.m.

Dinnr: 7 p.m.

Please plan to join the Pacifc ForestTrust or a celebration o orestsand their champions at our annualdinner and awards ceremony.

This years estivities will eaturea prominent guest speaker, silentauction and a wonderul dinner, aswe honor those who ensure our vast

and vital working orests continueto provide a sustainable source owood, water, wildlie and a well-balanced climate.

For more inormation, contact AlexPage at 415-561-0700 ext. 37. t

Fort Ft 2010

sv-t-Dt

Meyer Memorial Trust FundsNew Acquisitions in CSNM

Poto: T sod Mountin Wildrn Council.

forestlife - summer 2010 newsletter

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