Whether you are just beginning to learn about forest ecosystems and public lands advocacy or are an experienced field biologist or policy analyst, your energy and knowledge are vital to strengthening the public influence over how these ecosystems and treasured wild places are treated by our government.
In three years, Bark has saved 15,000+ acres of Mt. Hood’s forest from logging, established a game-changing legal precedent on forests and fire, engaged 30,000+ people around forest ecology and current forest management practices, and worked with state and federal agencies to work towards reintroducing beaver to Mt. Hood. The impacts of our forest advocacy are only possible with the countless hours, incredible creativity, and boundless spirit from our volunteers.
Since 1999, Bark has provided free, annual programs training hundreds of volunteers in forest policy and field surveying, empowering the public to protect the ecosystems that support us all. Together, we challenge destructive logging projects, engage in public review and comment on timber sales through many means:
- Creating public artwork and leading demonstrations
- Documenting ecological conditions in the forest
- Rehabilitating old logging roads
- Leading educational hikes, workshops, and activations
- Mapping watersheds and sensitive wildlife habitat
- Locating and protecting threatened species
- Raising public awareness about climate change, ecosystem health and the destruction caused by extractive commercial projects throughout Mt. Hood National Forest
Bark’s mission is to grow the forest advocacy movement by giving people like you the tools and training they need to be effective forest defenders. Activist trainings, public outreach, education, resource-building and fundraising generate momentum for Bark’s campaigns. Public activism, art, media, demonstrations, and political efforts elevate Bark’s efforts in the eyes of decision-makers. Public education and workshops, science-based fact-finding through field work and research, cultural study and transformation—all support Bark’s forest advocacy work. These are only some of the ways that Barkers have spread the word about threats to the forest, but the best ones are built from your individual talents and passions!
Bark’s activist training program is called Rad◦i◦cle, designed to empower individuals in the community with valuable skills in forest ecology, public lands advocacy, and community organizing. Training begins with a Volunteer Orientation to present a brief history of Bark and origin of Mt. Hood National Forest, discuss the many volunteer opportunities that Bark provides, and to help you find your niche in the organization.
Bark volunteers are engaged, dedicated, and make a vital contribution to our work to protect the forests of Mt. Hood. Following orientation, you will choose where to focus your work. You may continue on through the Rad◦i◦cle program, join a committee, lead a book club, offer tech/IT support, support communications, video editing & social media, plan events or workshops, host volunteer trainings, lead hikes in Mt. Hood National Forest or develop fundraising.
Support our work toward racial and environmental justice by submitting our Volunteer EDI Survey.
As an organization founded originally by white people in the settler-colonial lineage, Bark is a part of the legacy of land theft and the erasure of native authority over the lands now referred to as the “public lands of Mt. Hood National Forest”. As an organization, we have established influential relationships with the Forest Service, part of the same Federal government which facilitated the violent land theft, colonization, and displacement of indigenous people. Non-native peoples have access and privilege to these lands because of this violent legacy. Bark is working to transform our organization, to take responsibility for this legacy and these unearned privileges. We are committed to a living, tangible practice of acknowledgment, respect, and support for the Molalas, Kalapuyans, Chinookan Clackamas, Chinookan Wascos, Northern Paiute peoples, and Sahaptin speaking peoples who live here and who have always lived here — and the many other native nations who have always been part of and cared for this land that we now occupy. Everyone involved with our organization, and anyone interested in becoming so, are expected to acknowledge this historical context and contemporary effort with practical dedication and action throughout their involvement with Bark’s work.
