Standing Trees works to
protect and restore forests on
New England's public lands.
Photo credit: Zack Porter
Photo credit: Zack Porter
To overcome the climate and extinction crises, Standing Trees envisions a future where
New England’s federal and state public lands are managed to restore the natural, old growth forests that evolved over millennia alongside the region’s indigenous people.
New England's forests are our greatest natural asset
Protecting and restoring the old forests of New England is an inexpensive, rapidly scalable, and proven strategy to support the region's full range of biodiversity, sequester and store planet-warming carbon, clean our air and water, and protect our communities from droughts and floods.
It's time to #StandWithTheTrees. It's time to #RewildNewEngland.
Summer 2021: Voice Your Support of the Trees
The US Forest Service is planning another project that will involve more logging in our Green Mountain National Forest – the Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project. This project is within Windsor, Rutland and Addison Counties, primarily within the town of Chittenden and small portions of Goshen, Killington, Mendon, Pittsfield, Pittsford, Rutland Town, and Stockbridge. Logging plans for this project will be on top of the 40,000 acres that have already been approved.
RSVP using this form created by the GMNF to get on the email list and receive updates.
Watch the video from the July 14 USFS meeting regarding the Telephone Gap project here.
May 2021: Conversation with Danna Smith of Dogwood Alliance
March of the Trees
On May 7, 2021 (Vermont's Arbor Day) a joyful group of trees marched down the streets of Montpelier to a gathering at the state capital building. Their goal was remind our state government (and us!) that if we leave trees standing, they will help mitigate the climate disaster we face by absorbing and storing CO2, helping us avoid ever greater biodiversity loss. The event was hosted by the Upper Valley Affinity Group and supported by Standing Trees Vermont, Bread and Puppet Theater and Extinction Rebellion Vermont.
To commemorate Arbor Day on Friday, a gathering of Vermonters marched through downtown Montpelier in support of trees’ role in stabilizing the climate. The Upper Valley Affinity Group was joined by Standing Trees Vermont, Bread and Puppet Theater and Extinction Rebellion Vermont.
Only 3% of New England is permanently protected (guaranteed as legally possible) to once again become old forest.
Old forests are biologically mature forests, often having escaped stand-replacing disturbance for more than 100 years.
This map shows carbon storage density (darker green equals more carbon) with New England circled in red. New England is clearly among the most important regions in the US in terms of carbon storage.
Source: NASA - https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/ForestCarbon
