Why Are Forests So Important?

Forests absorb and store carbon that helps to fight climate change. They sustain diverse ecosystems that provide critical wildlife habitat, intact watersheds, and fertile soils. They offer clean air and water, healthy recreation, and economic benefits to people.

Yet, despite their importance, we have already lost 30 percent of the forests that greeted the first European colonists. Our remaining forests continue to be fragmented and degraded by industrial logging, fracking and mining, expanding road networks, and urban sprawl.

RESTORE is working to hold back further loss of forests, to restore damaged forests to health, and to provide for their permanent protection from exploitation. Our primary focus is the North Woods region, but we are also participating in nationwide forest protection efforts.

Save the Maine Woods

The Maine Woods is the largest expanse of undeveloped forest east of the Rocky Mountains. Most of the lands of this unique region is owned by large timber companies, private trusts, and real-estate speculation firms. Some key areas have gained public land designation, but the rest of the region is threatened by intensive logging, industrial exploitation, and real-estate development. RESTORE is fighting against these destructive activities as well seek permanent protection as parks and other public lands.

Save Massachusetts Forests

Massachusetts is one of the most densely populated states. However, many forests once cleared for farmland are growing back. More than 60 percent of the state is covered by maturing forests. Yet, less than 2 percent of these forests have permanent protection, and they are increasingly threatened by logging, pipelines and power lines, utility-scale wind and solar power installations, and real-estate development. RESTORE is at the forefront of efforts to protect state lands from exploitation and prevent efforts to promote more logging and burning of trees for biomass heat.

Save Our National Forests

The White Mountain and Green Mountain national forests are the largest tracts of public land in New England and among the largest tracts of federal land in the eastern United States. However, the U.S. Forest Service is aggressively logging these irreplaceable forested landscapes. RESTORE is working with groups and activists to fight this destructive exploitation and to provide permanent protection for these forests as new national parks.

In September 2024 we joined with more than 200 other organizations to sign a letter calling on President Biden to protect all mature and old-growth forests (MOG) on national forest lands from logging.

Save New England Forests

In addition to Maine and Massachusetts, RESTORE is watchdogging forests across New England. With few exceptions, state forest, wildlife, and land management agencies have made logging and other “active management” their top priority. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has issued a draft first long-range plan for the Worcester Range Management Unit. Encompassing almost 19,000 acres, This is the largest state-owned tract of undeveloped mountains in Vermont. Instead of protecting this magnificent forested landscape, the state proposes to log 10% of the area over the next 20 years. RESTORE opposes this short-sighted plan and is calling for the entire area be protected as a Natural Area, free of logging and other intensive management.

Save Forests Across America

RESTORE is working with grassroots groups and individuals across the country to help to protect our nation's forests. Much of America was once covered by vast mature and old-growth forests. However, these forests have been dramatically reduced by centuries of logging. Today, most mature and old-growth forests are on federal lands. But the agencies that manage these lands have continued to log instead of preserve their forests.

The Biden Administration has proposed a plan that purports to amend the plans of all 128 U.S. national forests and Bureau of Land Management lands “to conserve and steward old-growth forest conditions.” Unfortunately this proposal would not halt all logging in old-growth forests and provide no protection for mature forests. RESTORE signed onto a letter with 200 other non-profit organizations calling for President Biden to place a moratorium on logging in all mature and old-growth forests on public lands and to take strong, immediate action to safeguard these forests to mitigate the climate crisis and protect imperiled biodiversity. A similar letter signed by 200 scientists was also sent to President Biden.