Founded 1987 Location Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A. | Founder Tim Hermach | |
Slogan To fully preserve and protect every acre of publicly owned land in the United States Website | ||
Native Forest Council is an American environmental organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of all publicly owned natural resources from destructive practices, sales, and all resource extraction. Commercial timber sales, grazing, mining, and oil and gas extraction all contribute to the destruction and degradation of air quality, wildlife habitat, and of our wilderness areas. We believe a sound economy and a sound environment need not be incompatible, and that current land management practices are devastating to both."
Contents
"The Native Forest Council has done more to alert the nation's public, to nationalize and move the primeval, native forest issue forward than any other organization I know of." - David Brower, former Executive Director, Sierra Club.
The Native Forest Council continues to build strong coalitions for a non-compromising economic, social, and environmental solutions. It serves as a powerful information clearing-house for the media and the forest movement. Its Forest Voice newsletter is read by activists all over the country. Hermach continues his work for the total protection of 650 million acres (2,600,000 km2) of federally owned public land, rivers, and streams. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.
History
The Native Forest Council was founded in 1988 by a group of professional people shocked at the extensive logging of our National Forests and convinced that little was being done to bring the destruction to public awareness.
Beginning with 15 members, the NFC set out to educate Americans to the fact that their National forests were being destroyed. Today, the Native Forest Council is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization with over 2000 dues-paying members. During the late 1980s and early 2000s the NFC had distributed over 1 million copies nationally of Forest Voice newspaper; obtained 2 million signatures in support of the Native Forest Protection Act (legislation designed to protect all of the remaining National Forests) and acquired the major endorsements of Greenpeace, the National Audubon Society, chapters of the Sierra Club, and the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
The Native Forest Council has worked cooperatively with many environmental organizations on this issue including: the National Audubon Society, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, Wilderness Society, Earth Island Institute, and LightHawk.
The Native Forest Council is supported by 6 staff members and a national network of over 100 volunteers.
Chapters
As of 2006, the organization, which works nationally, has two chapters: Eugene, OR and Seattle, WA.
Publications
The organization publishes a quarterly journal, titled Forest Voice, which provides news and information about resource extraction on publicly owned lands. Forest Voice is freely available on the organization's web site.