Heartwood

12/27/2025

As the calendar year comes to a close, please make a donation to support Heartwood and the work we do to protect forests and build community! Thank you for your support.

12/24/2025

We are excited to announce our new t-shirt is now available directly from the Jim Morris Environmental T-Shirt Company, who will donate the proceeds from each sale to Heartwood! 100% organic cotton, and dig the cool extra logo on the SLEEVE!

Heartwood is a network of groups protecting forests and wildlife from clearcut logging, biomass (woodchips) incineration for energy, mountaintop removal coal mining, oil drilling, and fracking . They help people protect the natural beauty and ecological diversity of the wild places people love. They...

11/27/2025

09/20/2025

Read our latest blog post, an essay by Dr. Steven Krichbaum about the red-legged jewel of our eastern hardwood forests, the Wood Turtle https://heartwood.org/2025/9/red-legged-jewel/

09/06/2025

Heartwood is celebrating with our friends in Illinois, grateful for the Temporary Restraining Order that has stopped logging in the Shawnee National Forest. Donate to Heartwood's legal defense fund today and help ensure that this grassroots work can continue! https://heartwood.org/support/donate/index.html

09/05/2025

Our hardworking web-weavers now have set up online registration for our fall gathering! Please let us know if you plan to come to this year's event. We expect an extra-large attendance this year so an accurate head count will be important as we make plans to purchase the FOOD! Note that due to the change in the nature of this event, from a "typical" Heartwood gathering to a memorial or celebration of the life of Andy Mahler, the registration fee for the full weekend is entirely voluntary, and Sunday is completely free, to make sure that folks who wish to attend can afford the costs of travel. Otherwise this will be all the features of a Heartwood event that tradition requires, so please register today and let us know you are coming!
https://heartwood.org/events/reunion/2025/index.html

09/03/2025

We urge all of our members to please send at least a brief comment, urging for protection of our last remaining roadless areas. Use these links and letters as a template for your own original comments, or click to add your name in solidarity. Thank you!

𝟏𝟓𝟓 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

155 conservation organizations signed the letter co-written by Eco-Integrity Alliance , John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, Western Watersheds Project, and Eco Advocates NW urging Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to go beyond simply reinstating the weakened Roadless Rule official rescinded last week.

On top of reinstating the Roadless Rule, the groups are pushing for stronger, loophole-free legislation that permanently protects inventoried roadless areas from logging, road construction, livestock grazing, and other extractive activities.

Our letter calls for legislation that:

-Permanently prohibits logging, road construction, grazing, and other extractive activities in inventoried roadless areas;

-Closes loopholes in state and federal “Roadless Rules” that permit logging and road-building purportedly for wildfire mitigation;

-Prioritizes maintenance of existing classified roads and the decommissioning of unauthorized roads;

-Ensures these irreplaceable ecosystems remain intact as vital carbon sinks, biodiversity refuges, and sources of clean water.

Read full letter at Eco-IntegrityAlliance dot com

08/31/2025

With heavy heart we share the news that our beloved founder, Andy Mahler, died peacefully in his bed, surrounded by his lifelong love Linda Lee and several close friends and caretakers, early Saturday morning in the hours before dawn when the forest is most still and quiet.

It is good medicine to see the tremendous outpourings of posts with tributes and stories of how Andy inspired so many to live a life seeking the greatest harmony with the wild and natural world, it shows us that the network he built is strong and functioning as intended. As we pause to experience our grief, as we ponder the mysteries of life great or small, this vibrant and vital network is I hope a continued source of strength and solace for you all.

May the forests be with you.

08/30/2025

The fall issue of Heartbeat is in the mail, on its way to you! Today is a great day to make a donation to Heartwood and support the independent journalism we do, the forest protection work we do, and while you're at it please mark your calendars for October 3-5 and come enjoy the community-building work we do, at our annual fall gathering "ReUnion" for what is shaping up to be a whizbang of a member-appreciation weekend music and arts festival! Visit heartwood.org/events for more.

08/08/2025

On episode 92 of the Green Root Podcast—the official podcast of Eco-Integrity Alliance—we get scorched by FOREST FIRE MALFEASANCE (ForestFireMalfeasance.org)...

07/13/2025

Articles for the fall issue of Heartbeat, our twice-a-year newspaper, will be due August 2nd, that gives you three weeks to write your story about defending the places that you love. Send us your press releases, news stories, essays, and other content you'd like to see included in this issue. Contact our editing team at info-at-heartwood-dot-org with questions or ideas about a story. Visit our website at https://www.heartwood.org/heartbeat/ for back issues and more!