Pacific Forest Trust

10/20/2026

For many of us, one of the greatest loves within our lifetimes is for land.  And while we know that we have a limited time on this earth, our lands persist and will need care beyond our lives.   
 
Longtime Pacific Forest Trust partners Jud Parsons and Sam Dakin felt that love of their land and understood that kind of long-term thinking. They both chose to entrust Pacific Forest Trust with honoring that conservation commitment. While we are saddened by their recent passing, they both had the peace of knowing that their wishes for their forestlands would be honored and upheld by PFT through the placing of permanent conservation easements.
 
Jud Parsons was a pioneer in natural forest management and managed his family’s Mountcrest Working Forest in southern Oregon for more than 60 years. At the heart of one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, Mountcrest also provides an essential connection for wildlife moving between the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and the Rogue River National Forest.
 
Jud and his family worked with PFT to protect nearly 1,800 acres of Mountcrest with a working forest conservation easement and then worked with PFT again to conserve another 553 acres of adjacent forestland, Mountcrest East.  Conservation meant finding a way for thoughtful stewardship of the land for wood, water, and wildlife to continue through a working forest conservation easement with PFT.
 
Sam Dakin brought that same long view to his family’s Leonard Lake Reserve in Mendocino County, California, a childhood retreat that instilled in his family a love for the magnificent redwoods, meadows, and wildlife.
 
Over time, Sam also helped expand the protected landscape to approximately 4,000 acres and worked to ensure that it would remain well managed and conserved into the future. He also spent considerable time learning how Native people had cared for and managed the landscape long before his family arrived, bringing that understanding into his own approach to stewardship. PFT will ensure that Sam’s and the family’s goals for, and love of, this special place are honored.
 

10/16/2026

Pacific Forest Trust has long been preparing to bring beneficial fire back to its managed redwood forests. Thanks to a generous grant from and prior support from the CA State Coastal Conservancy, we just had our first—and highly successful— burn there this month.
 
The project is designed to increase the resilience of the permanently conserved, working redwood forests of Fieldbrook Valley, restore fire-adapted trees, enhance wildlife habitat, and improve community protection from extreme wildfire.
 
The burn is a great example of how working forests can be managed to safely bring back good fire—and the many benefits it provides for forests, wildlife, and surrounding communities. Thanks to the local fire department, the Fieldbrook community, and Tribes who helped make this happen safely and effectively!
 

10/02/2026

PFT just made it easier, cheaper, and safer to put good fire back on the landscape by developing and passing the Good Fire Act (AB 1699, Rogers), which was signed by the Governor this week and is now law! It builds on a decade of state policy work and responds directly to the beneficial fire bottlenecks practitioners have been flagging for years by expanding liability coverage, streamlining certification and permitting, and cutting red tape for funding and project support.

Learn more about the bill here:

https://www.pacificforest.org/forest-flash-sept-2026/

09/25/2026

It is possible to cut trees and conserve forests at the same time. It's all about logging with intention. Check out the clip below to learn about the differences between clear cutting and managing for the health of the whole forest.

09/19/2026

Pacific Forest Trust was featured in Mansion Global's article on working forest conservation easements, a tool PFT pioneered to conserve private forests for a range of public benefits, including climate resilience, clean water, wildlife habitat, and wildfire prevention, all while keeping land in sustainable production. For landowners, that means preserving land for future generations while unlocking tax and financial benefits.

The piece features the Hart family, who partnered with Pacific Forest Trust to place their California forest under an easement.

Susan Hart shared: "One thing the Pacific Forest Trust does so well is bridge-building. With generational properties like ours, they help find common interests and form a working plan."

Click below to read more:

https://www.mansionglobal.com/amp/articles/how-to-keep-your-kids-from-destroying-the-ancestral-estateand-get-a-tax-break-in-the-process-85251e72

Easements offer financial upside in several ways as well as a way to conserve the land

09/15/2026

At van Eck Oregon, work is underway to build tidal and ecological resilience! Trees removed to improve an overstocked Sitka spruce plantation are getting a second life—helping restore 1.7 miles of Wright Creek and Poole Slough.

Hundreds of those trees are being placed in and around the streams to create habitat for salmon, lamprey, sturgeon, and other wildlife while helping these tidal wetlands become more resilient to sea-level rise and a changing climate.

Read more in our latest Forest Flash: https://www.pacificforest.org/august-2026-forest-flash/ -restoration

09/10/2026

A critical piece of Pacific Forest Trust’s work over the past decade has been, and remains, to help California scale up efforts to restore a more natural, safer, and less catastrophic fire regime." Read "Fire Policy Changes are Heating up in Sacramento" in PFT's recent Forest Flash & subscribe to PFT's monthly e-newsletter here: https://www.pacificforest.org/august-2026-forest-flash/

forest trust

09/03/2026

Congratulations to our longtime partners at the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council on 40 years of protecting and stewarding ancestral lands and waters!
Their latest newsletter shares highlights from this summer’s 40th anniversary celebration, which also marked 30 years of partnership between ITSWC and Pacific Forest Trust, along with updates on their ongoing work.

Read the latest from ITSWC: https://mailchi.mp/cafa95202b89/new-from-sinkyone-17477677?e=7f509d51df

08/31/2026

30 years ago, PFT partnered with the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council on a groundbreaking agreement protecting 4,000 acres of redwood forest along California’s Lost Coast.

We recently returned to celebrate this landmark land back project and 30 years of conservation and partnership.

Click below to read our recent Forest Flash article about this project:

https://www.pacificforest.org/august-2026-forest-flash/

08/20/2026

In case you missed it:

Have you read our most recent annual report? PFT has made significant advances in conservation, climate action, biodiversity protection, and the use of good fire to protect both communities and forests from catastrophic fire, and we're continuing to work hard to make progress towards these goals.

Click the link below to read the report: https://www.pacificforest.org/annual-report-2025/