I ventured across an article from the Nature Conservancy regarding a sustainable project to protect 197,000 acres of the Great Redwood Forest in California (which happens to be 10 percent of all redwoods worldwide according to the Conservancy). Obviously the concern is the risk of deforestation and destructive building practices that could cause irreversible harm to the revered colossi.

A few interesting tidbits from the article:

• Humboldt County's tiny little milling town of Scotia is at the center of a bankruptcy case concerning the local timber industry. Scotia residents and the forest could share an intertwined fate once the ball gets rolling on the conservation project.
  
• Temporary protection is in place, but expires in 2050. The coalition of organizations are looking into a potential conservation easement, which essentially sells a portion of landowner rights to the Conservancy in order to prevent said landowner from offering developers chunks of forest to spin into a parking lot.

What is probably not immediately apparent is the underlying importance of such a project. Look, the environmentalist in all of us appreciates protecting the aesthetic beauty of historically important areas like the Great Redwood Forest. The renewable energy debate focuses much of it's time on energy independence, but keep in mind that deforestation is a significant contributor to increasing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.