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We're losing our forests

Mature & old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest capture and store more carbon than the Amazon rainforest.

They also support an amazing diversity of unique plant and animal species and provide important ecological services like water purification, climate regulation and flood and erosion control.

These same forests are under increasing threat from climate change, urban sprawl and public & private logging practices.

Resource use needs to be balanced with conservation, and everyone needs to be involved in holding our decision-makers accountable.

What does the research say?

We fund a number of researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon who are looking at mature and old-growth forests as natural climate solutions through the lens of biodiversity, air and water quality, fire ecology and carbon storage. They are clear; preserving large tracts of mature and old-growth forests is critical in the battle against climate change and biodiversity loss.

This has profound implications on long-term forest management and we need to make our federal and state representatives are acting in the interest of current and future generations.

What we're doing

Worthy Environmental is working to document the complicated value of mature trees with the goal of changing how they are managed in natural and urban ecosystems. Through supporting research in carbon storage, climate change, biodiversity values and habitat quality, we're helping quantify the benefits that mature trees have for people and the planet.

We also interpret the findings of these studies for the general public and our legislators. The disconnect between academia and these two groups often results in misguided laws and public confusion. Making this information accessible is critical to creating change.

Become educated on the issues happening in your own community, state, region, country or world.

Contact your local representatives and express your feelings about forest health, global climate change and the effect of logging on our public and private lands.

Support efforts to plant trees and other vegetation to regenerate some of the ecological functions lost through logging, ranching and other "management" activities.

Support our work through donations, volunteering and shared SOCIAL MEDIA posts.

GET INVOLVED

RESOURCES

Articles

Eastside Screens Documents

Allied publications

Phreatophytic Vegetation and Groundwater Fluctuations: A Review of Current Research and Application of Ecosystem Response Modeling with an Emphasis on Great Basin Vegetation  |  Naumburg et al, Environmental Management, 2005

Ecological effects of changes in fire regimes in Pinus ponderosa ecosystems in the Colorado Front Range  |  Sherriff et al, Journal of Vegetation Science, 2006

 

Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Handbook  |  Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, 2013

Benefits of restoring ecosystem services in urban areas  |  Elmqvist et al, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, June 2015

 

A More Effective Approach for Preventing Wildland-Urban Fire Disasters  |  Jack Cohen, PhD, Research Physical Scientist, US Forest Service

 

Ecosystem carbon in relation to woody plant encroachment and control: Juniper systems in Oregon, USA  |  Abdallah et al, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 2020

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Co-Sponsored Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change  |  2021

An ecological perspective on living with fire in ponderosa pine forests of Oregon and Washington: Resistance, gone but not forgotten  |  Merschel et al, Trees, Forests and People, 2021

 

Nature's Trust: Protecting an Ecological Endowment for Posterity  |  Mary Christina Wood, 2021

Variations in Groundwater Level and Microtopography Influence Desert Plant Communities in Shallow Aquifer Areas  |  Mata-González et al, Environmental Management, 4/13/21

Where the Wildfire Conversation is Headed  |  Jim Furnish, retired Deputy Forest Service Chief, September 2022

The National Congress of American Indians Resolution #SAC-22-012  |  11/4/22

Letter from Scientists to the Signatories of the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use  |  11/16/22

Federal Documents

Snowy Woodland Trees

West Bend Project Documents

Bill RippleHome.jpg

Bill Ripple Documents

FIRST SCIENTISTS' WARNING
​Union of Concerned Scientists, April 1992

SECOND SCIENTISTS' WARNING
​Ripple et al, November 2017

WORLD SCIENTISTS' WARNING OF A CLIMATE EMERGENCY
Ripple et al, ​November 2019

WORLD SCIENTISTS' WARNING OF A CLIMATE EMERGENCY 2021
Ripple et al, ​July 2021

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