Chuck Willer, Executive Director of the Coast Range Association, and Andrew discuss the release of the Coast Range Association's recent report, Climate & Oregon's Industrial Forests - A Green New Deal Proposal.
They highlight the need for Western Oregon's private industrial forests to store large amounts of carbon. The need for this important natural climate solution is put into context by analyzing industrial forest ownership by Wall Street investment firms and the economic hardships faced by rural Oregonians. Issues like Wall Street ownership and the economic disparities in rural Oregon are central to the call for a Just Transition in the Green New Deal.
They then discuss voluntary land reform with a transition of industrial forests to democratically managed cooperative, municipal and tribal forest ownership models. They end with discussing how a land ownership and justice analysis of forest issues has the potential to bridge the rural/urban divide, offering solutions that build carbon in forests while improving rural wellbeing.
https://coastrange.org/gnd-proposal/