Sustaining life on Earth depends on forests
Forest preservation is critical to our future.
Forests create stable environments for all life on earth. Forests are essential to:
- Capture, filter and recycle rainwater to create and store fresh drinking water
- Slow and capture rainwater to reduce flooding and soil erosion
- Create regional cooling - relief from extreme heat waves in cities
- Reduce greenhouse gases and slow global warming by storing carbon
- Provide habitat for most plants and animals on land, including endangered species
Forests boost physical and mental health.
Walking or living among trees enhances our physical and mental health and replenishes our spirit. We accrue physiological benefits including decreased blood pressure and heart rate, as well as stress reduction and lower concentrations of cortisol.
Trees reduce dangerous summer high temperatures. Just a few trees, or even a single tree, improve our surroundings by providing shade and cooling through evapotranspiration. Trees are “essentially air-conditioning systems.”
Forests are an effective climate solution to reduce greenhouse gases.
There is no technology that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere like forests and trees. Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 depends on new management policy to allow forests to remain wild and grow old. As trees age their capacity to store carbon increases. A 150 year-old tree may store 2 – 4 times as much carbon as a young tree.
Forests provide regional cooling.
Forest canopies provide cooling shade and maintain a moist forest floor, essential for all plants and animals. Temperatures in clear-cut treeless areas are 10°F warmer than adjacent forest.
Forests provide critical habitat for 70% of species on land.
As development spreads across the land, preserving forests and corridors between them is critical for myriad of migratory species, and plants and animals above and below ground.
What You Can Do
Learn More. Explore Web Pages:
Take Action:
- Sign petition to Governor Maura Healey to protect the watersheds of the Quabbin, Ware, and Wachusett watersheds.
- Sign petition: Congress: Pass the Roadless Area Conservation Act.
Learn more: Roadless Rule story map, Standing Trees - Sign petition: Congress vote NO on Congressional Review Act resolution and defend the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
- Sign petition: Bureau of Land Management: No oil & gas drilling. Don’t destroy critical wildlife habitat in the Arctic Refuge.
Our Mission
The Forest Protection Team works to protect, preserve, and expand intact forests throughout Massachusetts in order to maximize carbon sequestration, promote biodiversity, and optimize human health. We raise public awareness and advocate for public policies that promote forest protection on local and state levels. Our work is guided by a commitment to environmental and social justice.
Learn more about our team's work.
The Forest Protection Team meets on the second Thursday of each month. Join us here. Click on an upcoming Forest Protection Team meeting date for more information.