HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. — Walking through towering redwoods here in the mountains hugging Northern California’s coast, the average person wouldn’t know they were in the midst of a “working” forest. The spongy ground is covered with tree litter, sword ferns and soft moss. The dense tree canopy blocks out most of the light filtering through the cool morning mist. Huckleberry bushes grow on old stumps and downed trees.
Looking around the stand, Laurie Wayburn, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust, which manages this 2,200-acre forest plot for the Fred M. van Eck Forest Foundation, sees a variety of things: thick, straight trees that will generate millions of dollars for the foundation; a healthy forest that filters drinking water and stores carbon dioxide; and a maturing, complex habitat for a variety of animals, including the endangered northern spotted owl.
The San Francisco-based nonprofit is rewriting the rules of forest economics by proving that stands like this can remain ecologically valuable while also generating significant income for their owners — goals that have pitted logging communities against environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest for decades.
“The old paradigm was you couldn’t get here without being a goody two-shoes and sacrificing all things,” said Wayburn, whose group has been promoting incentive-based strategies to conserve private forests since 1993. “The new paradigm is you can.”
Keep reading the full story at The New York Times.
Photo Credit: Laura Petersen