The Pacific Forest Trust is the only organization solely dedicated to conserving America’s working forests for all their public benefits – wood, water, wildlife and a well-balanced climate. We strive to keep these vast and vital forests working by pursuing a comprehensive strategy to Retain, Sustain and Gain.

We help Retain our forest infrastructure by raising awareness of the threats to America’s private working forests and by directly conserving critical forestlands in partnership with landowners and communities in California, Oregon and Washington. We lead the country in the use of working forest conservation easements that ensure productive forests stay working. And we help protect the integrity of important public forests by conserving neighboring private lands threatened by development. To date, we have conserved more than 50,000 acres of forestlands.

We help Sustain forests by employing state-of-the-art forest stewardship practices on the thousands of acres we manage in the Pacific West. We also promote exemplary forest management to forest owners, policymakers and the public so people across the U.S. will better understand that forestry is key to ecosystem conservation.

We help both landowners and the public Gain from working forests by developing and promoting new forest eco-services. These forest eco-services serve as the basis for a sustainable business model that yields financial returns from management practices that reduce forest-based carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, enhance watershed quality and protect fish and wildlife habitat.

In this category, the Pacific Forest Trust is especially focused on advancing the climate benefits of forests. By leading regional and national efforts to enact climate change policies that unite conservation and management with market-based incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we are promoting the positive role forests can play to help mitigate global warming. Our leadership in this area has led to the creation of a first-in-the-nation, California-based program that allows forest landowners to register and sell CO2 emissions reductions generated by conservation and sustainable management.

The Pacific Forest Trust – founded in 1993 and now celebrating 15 years of conservation and climate solutions – is led by President and Co-Founder Laurie Wayburn and Managing Director and Co-Founder Constance Best. Wayburn and Best are co-authors of the landmark book, “American Private Forests: Status and Stewardship” (Island Press 2001).

Our main office is located in San Francisco’s historic Presidio and is part of the Thoreau Center for Sustainability. We have additional field offices and staff in Seattle, WA; Corvallis, OR and Washington D.C.

The Pacific Forest Trust is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.

Contact Us

The Pacific Forest Trust is a public-benefit charitable organization.
Your support is crucial to our ability to keep America's working forests working for us all.

Please make a tax-deductible donation to the Pacific Forest Trust.

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Private, working forests like this mature stand of cedars provide immense public benefits, yet they are increasingly threatened.

The Pacific Forest Trust is a center for research, education and innovation in stewardship forestry, and is recognized nationally as an authority on the conservation of working forestlands. Photo by Marty Knapp.