Forest Defense is Climate Defense Alliance

A Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests:

The forests of the Pacific Northwest have the potential to take up and store as much if not more carbon per acre than any other forest in the world! A Green New Deal for our forests challenges the long-standing myth that pits jobs against forest ecosystems, a false dichotomy that has mired meaningful reform of industrial timber harvest practices for decades. There is no reason why rural communities should have to choose between prioritizing forest ecosystems or having a robust economy — we can have both.

For forests to be valued as part of a climate solution and to anchor this solution within the broad intersectional movement calling for justice, a Green New Deal will be rooted in the following foundations:

• Recognizing the role of the Pacific Northwest’s forests in meeting the scale and urgency of the climate crisis
• Empowering disenfranchised and historically marginalized communities
• Transitioning away from industrial logging
• Guaranteeing decent jobs & raising the standard of living
• Investing in Pacific Northwest communities
• Acting on the best available independent science

We are joined in calling for a Green New Deal for PNW Forests by 40+ other local and national organizations. If your organization would like to sign on, you can do so here!

Click here to read the executive summary or here to read the full document.