• Forest Defense

One of the best tools we have here in Oregon to fight the climate crisis is the vast carbon sequestration potential of our forests. Unfortunately, logging currently accounts for almost a quarter of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions, and mismanagement of our carbon-dense forests has released massive stores of carbon into the atmosphere.

The Forest Defense Team works to fight climate change by advocating for forest management practices that increase carbon sequestration and storage, decrease forestry sector carbon emissions, and improve community and ecosystem resilience in the face of the changing climate.

Read about our Board of Forestry campaign here!

The Forest-Carbon Connection

Forests are vital in the fight against climate change. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in live and dead trees, on the forest floor, and in the soil.

Forests in western Oregon have the potential to store more carbon by acre than almost any other forest type in the world, but today this storage is severely reduced by intensive, industrial logging practices.

See here for our position on biomass energy, and why it is generally not a good climate solution.

Learn more

Our Campaigns

  • Fighting for climate-smart forestry in our publicly owned state forests
  • Getting more climate advocates on the Board of Forestry, a body that oversees regulation of our state and private forests, and is currently dominated by timber interests – read more about that campaign here
  • Strengthening the Portland City Tree Code
  • Pushing for strong Habitat Conservation Plans on Oregon’s state forests and privately held timber lands

Join our team

We are a loose group of ten to thirty people with diverse backgrounds, with various levels of engagement. We appreciate every new volunteer regardless of their background or knowledge. Nevertheless, we would love to find more volunteers with strong insights in political strategy on a regional level or communications or organizational skills.

We meet biweekly; due to the pandemic our meetings take place via Zoom. When it’s safe we’ll gladly return to in person meetings.

Join us