FOREST FLASH
April 2025
In Pacific Forest Trust’s e-newsletter, Forest Flash, we send you the most recent PFT news and updates on forests, clean water, climate, and wildlife. Subscribe here.
Pacific Forest Trust is proud to support the introduction of the “Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act” (H.R.2771), a bipartisan bill introduced on April 10, 2025, by Representatives John Garamendi (CA-08) and Ken Calvert (CA-41), with co-sponsors from across California and Oregon, as well as across the country. This commonsense legislation strengthens the U.S. Forest Legacy Program by giving states the option to designate accredited, nonprofit land trusts to hold conservation easements purchased in part with federal funding.
Under current law, only governmental can hold these easements. H.R.2771 provides the flexibility many states need to meet their forest conservation goals more effectively, enabling partnerships with trusted nonprofit land trusts—like PFT—that are equipped to deliver long-term stewardship, reduce administrative burdens, and support landowners who prefer private, non-governmental conservation partners.
“This is a practical, no-cost improvement to a highly successful program,” said PFT President Laurie Wayburn. “It makes it easier for private landowners and states to conserve working forestlands for all their public benefits—carbon, water, biodiversity, and climate resilience—while maintaining private ownership.”
Representative Garamendi underscored the value of these partnerships: “As the former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, I know that our national conservation goals cannot be achieved through public land ownership alone. Federal and state governments can, and must, do a better job of working with private landowners who want to conserve their land, as my family did for our cattle ranch in 1998. My bill would unlock millions in federal funding to help states conserve working forestlands, create good-paying jobs, and support sustainable forest management practices that reduce wildfire risk.”
Moreover, Congressman Calvert noted that “the Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act will provide new tools to help achieve our conservation, forest management, and economic goals. This bipartisan bill is an important step in strengthening partnerships between private landowners and public stakeholders interested in conserving forestlands.”
With more than 1 million acres of forestland lost to development annually, H.R.2771 provides an essential update to scale private forest conservation and ensure our forests continue to provide clean water, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and sustainable rural livelihoods.
With the signing of a generous grant from the California Natural Resources Agency’s Tribal Nature-Based Solutions Program to the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation to acquire over 900 acres of ancestral Yosemite homelands, the return of this land has made a major advance.
The land, perched atop Henness Ridge with sweeping views of Yosemite Valley and the Wild and Scenic Merced River, was acquired by Pacific Forest Trust to protect it from development and restore its magnificent forests and meadows. With the finalization of this grant, we are thrilled that the land’s transfer to the Tribe is in sight.
This landmark return rights a major wrong and strengthens the permanent conservation and stewardship of this rich, biodiverse landscape. Lush forests, meadows, springs, and key wildlife corridors will benefit from the Southern Sierra Miwuk’s leadership and traditional stewardship practices.
“We need to have this significant piece of our ancestral Yosemite land back to bring our community together and benefit our children and grandchildren,” says Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation’s Tribal Council Chair and elder Sandra Chapman. “It will be a sanctuary for our people.”
The Southern Sierra Miwuk’s stewardship will enhance the land’s natural climate resilience through traditional practices, including cultural burning and the cultivation of culturally significant plants. Among the property’s outstanding features are two tributaries to the South Fork Merced River and an ancient migration trail used by deer and other wildlife traveling between the Central Valley and Sierra highlands.
Given the property’s proximity to world-renowned Yosemite National Park, we expect this partnership to increase public understanding of the vital role of Tribal-led, nature-based solutions in advancing California’s climate goals.
We are deeply honored to work alongside the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation to realize this historic return and grateful to the California Natural Resources Agency for making it possible.
Please consider a donation to the Pacific Forest Trust. Your help—in all capacities—makes our work possible. Thanks for supporting us as we support forests!
PFT is thrilled to announce that the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) has awarded funding for the next major phase of restoration at the Mount Ashland Demonstration Forest. We are deeply grateful to OWEB for their invaluable assistance throughout the grant process and for their forward-thinking commitment to climate resilience.
The Mount Ashland Demonstration Forest (MADF) is a 970-acre, PFT-owned forest at the headwaters of the Neil Creek watershed in southern Oregon, strategically located between the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and the U.S. Forest Service’s Late-Successional Reserves. This mid-elevation forest is a vital corridor connecting the Klamath, Coast, and Cascade ranges — a critical lifeline for plants and wildlife adapting to a warming climate.
After significant planning and preparation, we are now launching an ambitious restoration roadmap. Work will include thinning dense stands of small white fir trees, enhancing hardwood woodlands and wetland habitats, and reintroducing fire through carefully managed broadcast burns. These treatments are designed to restore natural forest composition and structure, improve habitats, increase climate resilience, and reduce the risk of pests and diseases, as well as catastrophic wildfire.
By favoring fire-adapted native species, restoring more open forest with large trees and meadow conditions, and restoring riparian conditions in headwater streams, the project will deliver lasting ecological benefits across the region.
Local students—and potential future land stewards!—out in the field with PFT staff.
In addition to ecological restoration, the MADF serves as a living laboratory for climate-resilient forestry and to build a pipeline of future forest stewards. Through public tours, hands-on learning opportunities, and partnerships with local schools—and numerous other entities—we share the importance of ecological restoration and good fire with a broad audience. In fact, with our friends at Grayback Forestry, we will conduct an initial burn on MADF this fall!
Thanks to OWEB’s investment, the Mount Ashland Demonstration Forest is poised to become a model for how restoring private forests can help secure a safer, more resilient future for all.
ICYMI
In case you missed it (ICYMI), here are some other exciting things PFT has been involved in lately!
- We send our deepest gratitude to everyone who attended this year’s Forest Fete! That evening, we raised vital funds for the future of our forests—and had a blast doing so! Enjoy these great photos of our festivities, and then watch this moving tribute to PFT Co-Founder Connie Best’s trailblazing career conserving forests for all of their wood, water, and wildlife benefits. We hope you join us next year!
- Redwoods are stealing the show on Broadway—but their real-life canopies are vanishing. In this Common Dreams op-ed, PFT President Laurie Wayburn reflects the cultural and ecological significance of these mighty trees vis-à-vis the Idina Menzel-led smash hit.
- In this Arbor Day op-ed for The Fulcrum, PFT President Laurie Wayburn lays out why forests why conserving and restoring existing forests is one of the smartest investments we can make for water security, climate resilience, and community survival.