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Photo: Matthew Tannenbaum

DNR Releases Forest Action Plan; Prioritizes Local Forests And Concerns

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released its 2020 Forest Action Plan this week, outlining more than 100 priority actions to improve and conserve forests across Washington, including goals that support fish and wildlife, rural economies, wildfire response, outdoor recreation, family forestry, urban trees, and clean air and water.

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The Nature Gap

Clean drinking water, clean air, public parks and beaches, biodiversity, and open spaces are shared goods to which every person in the United States has an equal right both in principle and in law. Nature is supposed to be a “great equalizer” whose services are free, universal, and accessible to all humans without discrimination.1 In reality, however, American society distributes nature’s benefits—and the effects of its destruction and decline—unequally by race, income, and age.

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The Greatest Climate-Protecting Technology Ever Devised

“It’s about 70 meters tall and 2.6 meters in diameter,” Bible says, leaning back to take in the behemoth stretching above him. From way down here on the shady floor of the forest, he has no hope of seeing all the way to the tree’s top. But thanks to a 279-foot-high tower that rises above the trees, Bible, who helps manage this site on behalf of the US Forest Service, has had the chance to know this old Doug from above as well as below.

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How the great outdoors, and great cities, can coexist in our Pacific Northwest

“Because there’s more of us, with everyone expecting the paraphernalia of a modern society, we face all the challenges of a growing population in a 21st century economy. The demands we are putting on our land base risk overwhelming the region. And make no mistake, land is fundamental to our lives and livelihoods — whether you’re a Denny Regrade Amazonian, a pine marten in the Cascades or a great pacific octopus in the Puget Sound trough. To best respond, we must first agree on what’s at stake and where we are headed.”

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Letter: Wake Up! Our Forests and Water Need Our Care and Protection

“In the 1950’s, I grew up on the South Oregon Coast where my father worked for Weyerhaeuser as a lumber grader. My father was concerned that Weyerhaeuser was over-logging and that those practices were not sustainable. My mother thought the timber companies were not paying their fair share of taxes. They were both right.”

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On the Road to 50: Stitching the Northwest back together

“On a cloudy morning in early May, I hopped out of Paul Engelmeyer’s pickup and into the middle of a logging project on Oregon’s Siuslaw National Forest. I was on another leg of High Country News’ “On the Road to 50” tour of the West, which aims to learn about our readers’ concerns as this organization hits the half-century mark.”

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