We appear to have emerged from the long and heated debate about the fate of the oldest forests we have on public lands with a consensus that these should be protected because of their value for watershed function, biodiversity and long-term carbon stores.  The importance of those “public trust” values–in policy at any rate– now outweigh the financial return from harvest. But this same logic has not been applied to private forests which are the majority of forests in the US, and the financial system that we have long relied on to maintain private forests as such drives management that results in  very young forests.  Private forests are far younger on average than their public forest counterparts. Young, homogeneous industrial forests are characterized as both biological deserts and often net carbon sources.  By the same token, transforming the management of these forests to restore older, more natural forests could be the single most important, near-term strategy we have to mitigate global warming and reduce the risk of collapsing biodiversity.  California recently set targets for the management and conservation of older, more carbon rich and climate resilient private forests in recognition of this.  This talk will explore a new approach that uses public-private partnerships to restore, conserve and mange for mature and old forests on private lands as a core climate mitigation strategy while still meeting needs for a variety of forest products.

Speaker Biography

Laurie A Wayburn is an accomplished forest and conservation innovator who advises policymakers at the state, regional, national, and international levels. She pioneers new approaches to develop sustainable resource economies using her deep experience in the fields of conservation, ecosystem services, and sustainability. A preeminent authority on the climate and ecosystem benefits of forests, she leads efforts enacting climate change policies that unite conservation and sustainable management with market-based approaches. She has received several highly prestigious honors bestowed for her leadership and is a frequent speaker, writer, and media commentator on working forest conservation.

Prior to co-founding Pacific Forest Trust with Constance Best in 1993, Ms. Wayburn worked internationally for 10 years in the United Nations Environment Program and Ecological Sciences Division of UNESCO. She later served as Executive Director of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and was the Founder and first Coordinator of the Central California Coast Biosphere Reserve. Ms. Wayburn is a graduate of Harvard University and currently serves on the Northwest BioCarbon Initiative Steering Committee, the American Forest Policy Steering Committee, and the Land Trust Alliance Advisory Council.

Conserving Mature and Old-Growth Forests in a Changing Climate Speaker Series