Crag Law Center

     The Pacific Northwest is known for its awe-inspiring landscapes.   Much of the land in the West is in public ownership and these lands contain America’s most pristine stands of old growth, valuable roadless areas and diverse populations of fish and wildlife.  The communities in the Pacific Northwest receive a wide range of goods and services from these public lands, like clean drinking water and unparalleled hunting and fishing opportunities. 

     After the end of World War II, public land managers moved from a custodial approach to offering up timber sales and other concessions to extractive private industry.  Today, scientific assessments of current conditions for forested systems consistently yield the same broad conclusions: a century or more of road building, logging, grazing, mining, fire suppression, and water withdrawals, in conjunction with the loss of key species and the introduction of invasive species, have degraded watersheds, modified streamflows and water quality, altered ecosystem processes, and decreased biological diversity.

     The Crag Law Center launched its Public Lands Program in 2001 with a focus on representing conservation groups and local citizens who are working for sustainable land management.  From 2001-2008, under the administration of George W. Bush, local citizens and conservation groups have witnessed an increase in the number of logging projects that target healthy old-growth forests, roadless areas and sensitive post-fire landscapes.  While these projects are cast as an effort to ensure forest health, the broad scientific consensus is that these areas in particular are key for ensuring forest resiliency in the face of climate change.

     The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that strong likelihood exists for both global and regional climate change, which creates a significant challenge to restore diverse forests that can simultaneously adapt to and withstand global warming. Addressing this challenge provides a significant opportunity because healthy older forests, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, act as long term sinks and thereby reduce the extent and severity of global climate change. 

   In other words, healthy forests which contain older trees will be more resilient and able to withstand the impacts of climate change and sequester carbon.  Ensuring self-sustaining forests in the face of climate change is a complicated undertaking because the public forestlands have been degraded and are in need of restoration.   So, read on to find out more about our work for local citizens and conservation groups who are seeking to do just that…