Though much has changed over the past 150 years, our society’s fate is still deeply intertwined with our forests.
This landscape-level trauma was followed by the large-scale monopolization of private forestland by logging corporations, with small landowners replaced by unaccountable and far-removed corporate investors. A significant shift brought on by the arrival of settlers and the forced removal and genocide of Indigenous peoples saw the suppression of cultural burning, and the clearcutting of the majority of the region’s ancient forests over the course of a century. Indigenous peoples used, and continue to use, traditional ecological knowledge like the intentional application of fire to shape and sustain the rhythms of the landbase. People of the Pacific Northwest have always relied on the iconic forests of the region. "To address the climate crisis and protect frontline communities from its worst impacts, we must protect our remaining carbon-rich forests, and let new forests grow." Endorsed by a broad coalition of rural community groups, students, firefighters, conservation organizations and climate activists, the platform reimagines current forest practices on private, state, and federally managed public lands to respond to the cascading impacts of the climate crisis, extraction, and economic downturn on frontline communities. This is why over fifty organizations from around the region released a Green New Deal for Pacific Northwest Forests in early June. Just last year, the climate-driven Labor Day wildfires leveled entire communities as the world looked on in horror.Įven as we grapple with the increasingly dire impacts of the climate crisis, opportunities to create a better future abound.
From mega-fires, “ atmospheric rivers,” and once-in-a-millenia droughts, our region is a harbinger of the new normal in a quickly warming world. As our communities still reel from the recent deadly heat wave and stare down the barrel of another wildfire season, Pacific Northwesterners know all too well what it means to experience the climate crisis up close.
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