Harvestone Low Carbon Partners’ Post

How can ONE asphalt project keep 156,000 pounds of scrap tire material out of landfills? 🚙 The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), Alabama State Parks, and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) received the national award jointly for partnering to promote the innovative use of recycled tires in recent paving projects at three state parks. Read now: https://buff.ly/4f9i58d

Did you know that, according to the USDA, over half of all U.S. wetlands have been drained or filled for development or agriculture? Since 1984, Congress has signed two critical federal wetland conservation and restoration programs into law. These laws are designed to help farmers and ranchers maintain or increase important wetland areas. You can learn more about the work the USDA is doing to conserve wetlands, as well as get information on grants and funds designed to help relieve some of the financial burdens by visiting: https://lnkd.in/gPt5GZE9 Midwest Wetland Improvements has successfully helped clients receive grant money for projects. Reach out to learn how we may be able to help you: https://lnkd.in/gjTBj2s7

Where once wildness was seen as sublime, manifesting the beautifulness of life, allowing us to connect to our ancestral selves and find inspiration in the untrammeled, natural world, it is becoming, as it was prior to the environmental movement, a commodity that needs to serve us. To repackage this shift in thinking and accommodate the still influential biocentric perspective, purveyors of Nature exploitation have been successful in convincing much of the public into believing not only that Nature serves us, but that it can’t survive without our tending, our gardening. To further legitimize this human-centric paradigm, land management agencies, logging and biomass interests, and many environmental groups have appropriated Native American cultural burning practices. We addressed this growing threat to Nature in a letter we sent to the California Coastal Commission this week. The letter is unconventional in that it takes a more personal approach than these folks are probably used to. Perhaps that will nudge them into paying closer attention. Our letter, with a full description of how California State Parks will be causing significant environmental harm at Tomales Bay State Park with their clearance of an old-growth Bishop pine forest, is available on our online journal, Chaparral Wisdom, linked below. If you are so moved, please consider writing your own email comment to the Commission. It needs to be in by April 5. Details are available at the end of the piece. https://lnkd.in/gz6P9RTR

Anyone who has seen overhead shots of what "sustainable" logging practices have done to our western forests can see that human damage in trying to over-manage natural spaces is far reaching and often permanent. It is natural that mankind's connection to the natural world and everything in it should be human-centric - we're humans! However, what I think society at large has failed to see on a larger level, is how crucial the untouched natural world is to our wellbeing. Not only in the obvious sense - that we need a home that is not polluted and un-liveable - but also for our mental wellbeing and understanding of ourselves as a part of something much larger. You can call it spirituality or mindfulness or grounding or any number of things - but being still and fully present in nature, observing the activities of the plants and creatures, without technology or trying to label and categorize - is crucial to mankind's wellbeing in ways that run much deeper than I think we fully realize. Without these natural, untouched spaces, where do we go to experience that sense of wonder and connection? https://lnkd.in/gWEPBvEi

Where did the Northwest Forest Plan go wrong?🌲 The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan was designed to quell the decades-long ‘timber wars’ between loggers and environments. The plan placed 24 million acres of federal forests in Oregon, Washington, and northern California under a single management paradigm that was supposed to protect spotted owls and promote ecological, social, and economic stability for the next 100 years. However, 30 years later it has failed to recover owl populations🦉Learn more in our new issue of TimberWest Magazine👉️ https://lnkd.in/esbvs-ey

Just one component of a broader suite secured via an enforceable undertaking (EU). EUs are considered an alternative to prosecution where the outcomes generated may be more beneficial than what we may be able to achieve through the court process. Great result.

Tomorrow, March 22, 2024, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take up an important case filed by the Association of O&C Counties and the American Forest Resource Council. The case challenges US presidential use of the Antiquities Act, such as when President Clinton established the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument in SW Oregon in 2000, followed by President Obama expanding the area in January 2017. This monument in southern Oregon contains O&C Lands, which are governed by the O&C Act (passed by Congress in 1937), along with other laws and regulations. The second part of the case calls into question the legal legitimacy of the BLM 2016 Resource Management Plan for western Oregon -- stating that it does not align with the O&C Act of 1937. The case presents important questions about authority over public lands designation and management, and the Supreme Court's decision will have a major impact going forward. We share the following article as background and context on the AOCC-AFRC case and the history and importance of the O&C lands to western Oregon counties and communities. Last year, Forest Bridges submitted a Dry Forest Active Conservation Management proposal to the BLM Medford District for the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument to increase fire resilience and restore and sustain forest health and multi-species habitats with well-designed variable retention thinning and prescribed fire treatments over the next 30 years. Our proposal balances environmental, community and economic outcomes. We expect the Environmental Impact Statement for the monument to be issued any day now.

🌼Did you know our enforcement actions can provide community and environmental benefits? A section of Stonequarry Creek in Picton is expected to become a refuge for native plants and animals thanks to an enforceable undertaking between NRAR and Tahmoor Coal. 🌱$25,000 of funding has gone towards planting 1,600 native seedlings and removing a severe weed infestation along a popular walking track. Enforceable undertakings allow unique and innovative outcomes that aren’t possible through the court process. Find out more about the project’s benefits: https://lnkd.in/gPkdSjTw

I'm excited to share this article that I wrote for The Water Report US about my work creating a new water sharing framework. In today’s water-scarce American West, traditional “willing buyer, willing seller” water transactions lead to too many unintended winners and losers. What’s missing is a framework that puts on equal footing benefits and impacts to agriculture, cities, and the environment. These three pillars can create a path towards real win-win-win solutions. Palmer Land Conservancy's Bessemer Farmland Conservation Project charts an instructive course for communities throughout the West, providing lessons in resilience, conservation, and growth. https://lnkd.in/gvW8y5_n Thanks Shaina Shay for providing this opportunity!

A new alternative to better use some Colorado water rights developed by Rebecca Jewett of Palmer Land Conservancy.