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Over Fifty Organizations Release Green New Deal Plan for Pacific Northwest Forests

Environmental and Social Justice Organizations Release Sweeping Platform Charting Pathway Forward for Forest Policy In the Era of Climate Change

Oregon, Washington, & California – Today, dozens of forest and climate justice organizations across northern California, Oregon, and Washington released a sweeping Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests platform calling for the transformation of current forest practices on private, state, and federal land in the face of the climate crisis and ecological collapse. The platform emphasizes the critical role that the forests of the Pacific Northwest must play in efforts to mitigate climate change and to safeguard communities from climate impacts such as wildfire and drought. The six pillars of the Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests address the intersecting issues of industrial logging, climate change, species collapse, economic injustice and the disempowerment of frontline communities. 

Matt Stevenson, a high-schooler, and the leader of the Forest Team of Sunrise Movement PDX, a youth organization focused on climate justice, said:

“As a high schooler, I have grown up without much hope for my future, and with the knowledge that my generation may inherit a broken and desolate earth. Industrial forestry practices and the timber industry is one of the largest causes of this hopelessness, one of the leading destructive forces of the Pacific Northwest, and the single largest carbon emitter in Oregon. If I, or my generation, wants any hope of a liveable future we must fundamentally transform the way we treat our forests.”

Ellen Sciales, Press Secretary for the Sunrise Movement, said:

“Cities and states play a vital role in beginning the decade of the Green New Deal at the local level and providing new models for effective climate action. The Green New Deal Plan for Pacific Northwest Forests is an exciting, visionary governing project that will do just that. Young people all over this country are calling for change to protect the people and places we love. Sunrise Movement wholeheartedly supports this platform because we have everything to lose if we don’t act now.”

Michael Beasely, fire behavior analyst and retired fire-chief of the Inyo National Forest, said:

“The six pillars of the PNW Green New Deal lay out a path that provides job opportunities for disadvantaged workers to be true heroes in the eyes of rural communities as they conduct fuel reduction close to homes and infrastructure where it matters most, in the home ignition zone. In turn forests can be allowed to fulfill the full range of ecosystem services, sequestration of carbon and clean water most importantly, all the while allowing for rewilding of the most remote areas, complete with intact ecosystem processes like naturally-occurring fires.”

The Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests calls not only for a transformation of industrial logging to protect forests, waterways and communities, but also for a jobs guarantee and increased government investments in climate resilience for frontline communities. In line with the intersectional movement for climate justice, the platform outlines a clear path forward for governments at all levels to utilize the invaluable forests of the Pacific Northwest as a tool to address the many crises facing the region and the country.

Samantha Krop, Co-Founder and Steering Committee Member of Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance, said: 

“The Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests is a rallying cry from the forest defense and climate justice movements. From city-dwelling environmentalists to rural loggers, we all want just jobs, climate-safe communities, and healthy forested watersheds. Industrial logging undercuts these shared values by degrading the landbase, poisoning our watersheds, outsourcing local jobs and fueling climate chaos. The Green New Deal platform gives voice to the kinds of changes needed to actualize a possible future where forest defense and a just transition are part of our climate solution.”

Dr. Erik Loomis, prominent labor historian and Associate Professor with the University of Rhode Island, said:

“The Pacific Northwest’s vast forests helped build America and the Northwest’s working class. Climate change is transforming the world and the working class will suffer the most from its effects. A Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests takes us on a path forward for a sustainable environment and economy that will store carbon, provide the rural Northwest jobs and infrastructure, and invest in the region’s most marginalized communities. Not only can we afford this plan, but the price of not embarking on it is too horrific to contemplate.”

Dr. Dominick DellaSala, Chief Scientist with Wild Heritage, a Project of Earth Island Institute, said:

“Older forests in the Pacific Northwest forests store more carbon per acre than tropical rainforests — both need to be protected as proven nature-based climate solutions. The PNW Green New Deal makes it clear that to avoid climate catastrophe, we must not only leave dinosaur-carbon in the ground, but advocate for policy change to more effectively store atmospheric carbon in our region’s forests.”

The landscape-oriented Pacifc Northwest platform dovetails with the national Green New Deal as championed by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), along with congressional members from the Oregon, Washington and California delegations such as Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative Pramila Jayapal.The Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests offers a vision for a just transition away from destructive forest practices and struggling economies toward a vibrant workforce dedicated to restoration, recreation, education and climate-smart practices for forests and forest dependent communities. 

Dr. Chad Hanson, Director & Principal Ecologist of the John Muir Project, a Project of Earth Island Institute, & Sierra Club Board Member, said:    

“Hundreds of climate scientists and ecologists are telling policymakers that logging is a major source of carbon emissions, and we must do more to protect our forests so they can draw down atmospheric carbon. This goes hand in hand with a just transition, because we know that real prosperity in rural communities is tied mainly to forest protection, not degradation and exploitation.”

Chandra LeGue, Western Oregon Field Coordinator for Oregon Wild, said: 

“To address the unprecedented threat that climate change poses to our society, we must recognize that forest defense is community defense, and that by protecting our forested ecosystems, we also safeguard the diverse communities that rely on them. The Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest forests provides a roadmap for the Biden administration to advance justice and address climate change by protecting and restoring our treasured forests.”

Background and Additional Resources:

Read the executive summary and the full platform for a Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests here.

Read reporting about the role that Pacific Northwest forests can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Read reporting about strategies to lessen the threat of wildfire to communities across the west. Read the U.S. House and Senate resolutions on the Green New Deal.

Logging is the number one source of emissions in the state of Oregon, and emits far more carbon than transportation or residential and commercial sectors (Law et al. 2018). While similar research has not been completed in Washington and California, we can assume that logging in these states have similar climate impacts. Studies have also shown that, if left unlogged, forests of the Pacific Northwest could sequester massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and significantly contribute to global efforts to mitigate the climate crisis (Buotte et al. 2019). Groups across the region are rallying around a Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests in order to protect these invaluable carbon stores.

The climate crisis, which is being driven in part by industrial logging, increases risk and severity of wildfire (Abatzoglou and Williams 2016). Industrial logging also directly increases wildfire impacts due to the resulting monoculture tree plantations, which allow fire to burn more severely and spread more quickly (Zald et al. 2018). On the other hand, forests with a greater degree of protection have lower wildfire risk (Bradley et al. 2016). Implementing measures such as home-hardening, the creation of defensible space and zoning limits allows communities to adapt to the effects of increasing wildfire on the landscape (Syphard 2019). Investments in home-hardening and community resilience are pieces of the Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests

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The post Press Release: The Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.

by Alexander Harris, Forest Policy Consultant for Cascadia Wildlands

Last week, the Oregon Legislature ended its short session early, lacking the requisite number of legislators to pass any of the bills being considered. Two weeks prior, Republican members of the State House and Senate fled the state Capitol in protest of a cap & trade proposal being advanced by the Democratic supermajority, stalling all pending legislation and launching the Capitol into political turmoil.

The walkout marks the third time in the past year that Republican legislators have neglected the core responsibility of their public service – showing up to legislative session – in an attempt to thwart the quorum Democrats need to pass legislation. The temper tantrum, which began February 24, effectively ended the 35-day session two weeks early and denied Democrats the opportunity to pass not only the climate bill, but also bills addressing wildfire risk (see below), flood assistance, and more.

To add to the political drama, Republican obstructionism also endangered a historic agreement between Oregon’s largest timber corporations and conservation groups, resulting in a rare rift between the GOP and logging interests. Republican opposition to the climate bill was bolstered by Timber Unity, the front group funded and organized by logging interests; however, the walkout that ensued ended up undermining the timber industry’s chief priority this session by threatening the viability of the timber-conservation deal (read more below). This development is quite ironic due to the fact that timber corporations literally bankroll the campaigns of Republicans in Oregon’s legislature.

The sudden end to the legislative session leaves a great deal of uncertainty for the months ahead and sets the tone for what is expected to be a major year in American politics.

ONCE AGAIN, OREGON FAILS TO PASS CARBON REGULATION

The most high-profile bill this session, SB 1530, aimed to create a market-based cap & invest program known as the Oregon Greenhouse Gas Initiative (OGGI). Environmental and social justice activists have advocated for a statewide carbon program for years, prompting Democrats to prioritize passing a cap & trade program this short session over all other bills; however, as the legislative session approached the bill was increasingly watered down in an effort to keep Republicans at the table (and in the building), leading dozens of organizations to refrain from endorsing the legislation. If you can believe it, the timber industry won over the key Democrats in Salem and succeeded in exempting logging in Oregon from the cap & trade legislation, even though logging is a leading source of carbon emissions in the state.

The most concerning provision in the climate bill proposed allocating a quarter of the all OGGI revenue to fund the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) to conduct a landscape-scale thinning program, largely targeting National Forests and other public lands. Using cap & trade revenue to fund broadscale thinning seems to ignore the scientific literature about how aggressive thinning programs release far more carbon into the atmosphere than wildfires do as well as increase the severity of future forest fires. Cascadia Wildlands and partner groups have repeatedly advocated for wildfire funds to be allocated towards strategies that bolster community resilience and preparation rather than thinning over vast landscapes. (Watch Sam Krop, Grassroots Organizer for Cascadia Wildlands give testimony on this topic: video available below, or HERE – timestamp: 1:40:47.) The irony with this provision of the OGGI was thick — use monies from cap & trade legislation to fund extensive carbon-emitting logging across Oregon’s forested landscape.

OREGON ASSERTS NEW ROLE IN MANAGING FEDERAL LAND

The other major priority for legislators this short session was to pass comprehensive wildfire legislation. Each of the wildfire bills proposed this session were based on the recommendations developed by the Governor’s Wildfire Response Council, which released a report in November 2019. Many of the Council’s recommendations were encouraging, especially those focused on making communities more resilient to future wildfires – others, however, urged state lawmakers to double down on the 20th century strategies that are proven to be costly and ineffective (e.g. increased logging and fire suppression).

The Council’s most controversial (and expensive) recommendation was for an unprecedented, landscape-scale thinning program meant to disrupt wildfire behavior. The program – estimated to cost $4 billion – would greatly expand the role that the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) plays in managing our National Forests, and would authorize thinning vast swaths of Oregon’s forested landscape. Sure enough, the proposal to adopt a landscape-scale thinning program showed up in legislation this short session, recommending that ODF “treat” one-tenth of Oregon’s entire landbase!

In preparation for the session, Cascadia Wildlands helped lead an informal coalition of climate, social justice, and conservation groups to advocate for wildfire funds to be allocated towards community adaptation and resilience measures instead of thinning efforts in the backcountry on public lands. On the first day of session, Cascadia Wildlands joined 18 other organizations around the state in a letter to legislators advocating for wildfire policy to adhere to the latest science. In our letter, we wrote:

Scientists predict that the coming decades will bring more climate change-driven wildfires in Oregon’s forests. Therefore, we must prioritize policies focused on community adaptation rather than futile attempts to modify fuel conditions and control fire behavior across the entire landscape.

Experts have found that the three most effective strategies to protect homes and communities from wildfire are to: 1) retrofit homes with fire-resistant materials; 2) maintain defensible space within 100 feet of structures; and 3) limit new development in fire-prone areas. This approach differs starkly from landscape-scale thinning efforts, which are proven to be expensive, ecologically destructive, and ineffective at controlling wildfire behavior. Currently, government agencies spend millions of dollars logging to reduce fuels, yet data from the Forest Service shows less than 1% of thinning projects encounter wildfire each year, simply because our forests are vast and we cannot predict where fires will burn next. Thinning efforts should instead be focused on the forests directly adjacent to homes and communities where they can actually help enhance public safety.

Read our new factsheet to learn more about which strategies researchers say work best in protecting people and property from wildfire risks.

Over the last few weeks, several wildfire bills were wrapped into one large bill, SB 1536. Unfortunately, almost all of the adaptation measures we advocated for were dropped; however, due to our coalition’s efforts and the strong leadership of Senator Jeff Golden (D-Ashland), we were successful in striking the landscape-scale thinning program from the final bill. Instead, the bill includes a much more narrow and focused approach to reduce fuels by authorizing demonstration projects in strategic locations. These demonstration projects are meant to help inform state legislators and ODF about where thinning makes sense (and where it doesn’t), as well as how the state can expand its use of prescribed fire. The bill also includes many sideboards to keep commercial thinning out of the ecologically sensitive areas, although many notable exceptions remain.

Rumors of a special session are circulating around the Capitol, which means this bill actually has a chance of passing this year. If this happens, Cascadia Wildlands and partner groups will launch an extensive monitoring campaign to ensure these fuel reduction projects stay out of older, native forests and instead target the areas that pose the greatest risks to homes and communities – such as even-aged plantations and fire-suppressed stands near where people actually live.

FOREST WATERS BALLOT INITIATIVE – THE ROAD AHEAD

The Republican walkout derailed a variety of other important legislation, such as the aerial spray reforms agreed to by conservation groups and timber companies last month. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – signed by two dozen conservation organizations and logging companies on February 10 – initiates a longer term process to enact comprehensive, science-based reforms to Oregon’s logging laws; however, the entire deal hinged on the legislature passing a bill this session to modernize aerial pesticide spraying laws.

With the legislative session now over, much remains uncertain about the future of this bill or the fate of the larger deal. The impetus behind the deal was the introduction of ballot initiatives by a statewide coalition of concerned communities and non-profit groups to greatly expand protections for Oregon’s forested watersheds. The growing “Forest Waters” movement around the state led the timber industry to propose their own counter ballot initiatives – which eventually prompted negotiations to scrap the initiatives and develop the MOU.

If the legislature is able to pass the aerial spray legislation during a special session – which is a viable possibility – the MOU will likely move forward as planned; however, if Republican obstructionism prevents bills from passing during a special session, conservation groups and frontline communities may well return to the original strategy of running a grassroots campaign to collect signatures and build awareness for a ballot initiative.

None of this progress would be possible without the grassroots support from activists and public lands defenders around the state. Thank you for staying active in all these efforts. Your voice matters even during these otherworldly political times, like when our lawmakers can walk off the job whenever they want to. Let’s keep our sleeves rolled up for what is likely to be one of the most consequential years in decades. Oregonians are demanding clean water, safety from wildfires, and expanded protections for our public lands – we won’t quit until systemic change is realized!

The post Salem Debacle Kicks Off a Very Consequential Year first appeared on Cascadia Wildlands.