Organizing to Protect Forests: carbon sequestration and old growth in America’s Western Forests
For the first Climate Cafe Multifaith of 2023, we wanted to celebrate an important win. We invited Victoria Wingell, Forest Campaigner for Oregon Wild, to return to the Cafe and celebrate a victory with us! Wingell is part of a national campaign to save mature and old growth forests. The victory we were celebrating was the decision by the Forest Service to withdraw a proposal to log trees near the McKensie River, a proposal known as the Flat Country Timber Sale. At stake were 2,000 acres of mature and old growth forest.
Even as we celebrate, the truth is that there is a lot more work to do to protect forests, repair damage already done to forest ecosystems and species, and ready the forest for decades of climate fires to come.
In this video, Victoria Wingell shares the organizing effort around protecting mature and old growth forests, especially the forest that had been under threat from the proposed Flat Country Timber Sale.
At the Climate Cafe, the celebration left us all with real optimism and hope. The conversation was also one of realness. “Everybody loves trees,” Wingell explains. Yet despite this, “there's such a small amount of old growth forests left across the country and across the world. It's really, really important that we do whatever we can to protect what is left and recover and restore what has been lost.”
The fight to protect the forest by the McKenzie River in Oregon took a national campaign. “We worked really hard to bring national attention to this area,” says Wingell. Attention seeking actions included the kayaktivism that has become a signature of the environmental movement in the west—to protect water, fish, forests—with a flotilla of boats. “We all brought our boats and paddles and signs and 120 of us paddled on the McKenzie River with a giant floating banner to get some more media attention. We wanted to keep the drumbeat up, to keep the pressure on, and make this impossible to ignore.”
Organizers like Wingell cultivated the attention of those with power to stop the sale. They spoke to Forest Service officials and called on President Biden to step in, citing his Executive Order to ‘Strengthen the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies.’ In addition to reaching out to those with national interest and influence, they also went deep into the forest itself, to learn and experience the true natural and living power of a living, thriving, forest.
“This was real deal old growth—just so different than anything that I've been able to see. There was a thick layer of moss over everything that was so comfortable you could take a nap wherever you wanted to on the forest floor…. I wanted to fight as hard as I could for this forest.”
Photo: Victoria Wingell hugs a mature tree in the forest near the McKenzie River in Oregon. Used with permission.
Organizing included the cultivation of social, political, and forest power. There was also the power of personal experience and local community. When you care about something, you want to protect it. This is true of so many things, including forests. With so many forests already cut, burned, and gone, fewer people have lived experience with a real ‘cathedral’ forest of old and mature trees, habitat and fresh water. Forest organizers seek to amplify local voices and connect people to those local forests. Says Wingell, that in building up support to save the trees, “it starts by bringing people out to the forest, showing them exactly what's at stake.”
Wingell herself is the beneficiary of time spent in the middle of old growth forest. She and others camped out in the Flat Country acres to get to know what they were fighting for. She says the experience “really changed everything.” She explains that it was “very emotional being in the forest. It was just so beautiful. In Oregon, most of our more popular trails [are] always so crowded. You're on the designated trail system, so you only get to see so much of it.” In contrast, being in this forest “you really got to be within the forest and be a part of it. This was real deal old growth.”
The immersive experience of the forest brings the life, beauty and vibrance of not just the trees, but the whole of the ecosystem into your being. They fill your senses with scents, and sounds. And still the benefits exceed even all this. Says Wingell, “if you've ever had the opportunity to take a walk or a hike through an old growth forests, you know that there's so many other benefits.” It is an act not simply for “recreation,” but also “for your spirituality.”
This video created by Oregon Wild shows the effort to preserve the forest of the McKensie River.
The conversation at the Climate Cafe inspired us! Members of the Cafe signed on to save the forest, and spread the word. Rick Bonnetti of Rogue Valley Voice wrote the article Worth More Standing published on Rogue Valley Voice. He shared this video, produced for the campaign, as well as other information covering the call to protect forests and take action for communities, habitats, and climate.
Wingell was sure to mention that although this particular forest got a reprieve, the fate of forests around the world is dire. Estimates are that we have lost between 75-90% of our forests in the US since colonization began. Wingell reports that on federal lands, only 5% of the old growth remains. The devastation is unimaginable, as trees are sustainers of life as a vital part of the living earth. Mature forests are especially valuable, explains Wingell, “The older the tree, the more resilient it is against wildfire, and the more efficient it is at cleaning drinking water for hundreds of 1000s of communities.”
Timber sales like these call us all to reflect on what promises need to be kept to preserve and steward this land. Stories about the pending sale appeared nationally in the Washington Post and locally on KOIN news in Oregon. Then, in January 2023 came the celebration that the sale had been put on hold. Read the press release explaining the decision to withdraw from the sale by the US Forest Service.
Victoria Wingell shares what gives her hope in organizing to protect old growth forests.
Victoria Wingell joined Oregon Wild in 2022 as a Forests and Climate Campaigner. She is thrilled to join in protecting our old-growth forests. She graduated with a Bachelors degree in environmental policy from Pacific University with a special focus on grassroots dissent and societal change. In this program, she conducted a research project spanning 2 years to better understand the language that is most impactful when addressing a variety of audiences with opposing interests related to environmental policy.
She then worked on the Grassroots Outreach team at Columbia Riverkeeper to block proposals for the world’s largest fracked-gas-to-methanol refineries from opening up along one of her most cherished wonders of Oregon, the Columbia River. Her favorite parts of this work were connecting with communities and getting them fired up to take action for a great cause. She takes great joy in acting as a major pain-in-the-butt for industries that prioritize profits over people and the planet. In addition to Oregon Wild, Victoria works with Urban Nature Partners PDX to provide youth of color greater access to the outdoors.
Whenever possible, Victoria spends her time enjoying the outdoors. Some of her favorite ways to explore are rock climbing, backpacking, mountaineering, and white water rafting. She spent 5 months living in a van with her partner and their 2 dogs, fueled by solar-powered lattes and visiting some bucket-list climbing destinations. Now at home in the PNW, she serves on the board of directors of Friends of Rocky Butte to maintain Portland’s most local climbing area.
Find more articles and video at the intersection of faith, climate change and climate justice on the Faiths4Future blog.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.