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The Sustainable Forests Alliance We
are a coalition of nonprofit conservation organizations, forestry practitioners
and others working to provide
private landowners information, forestry expertise and legal assistance so that
they can protect their forests for generations to come and realize sustainable
income. 
Member
organizations include: Wild
Alabama WildLaw Wild
South The
Dogwood Alliance
Appalachian Voices
Western North Carolina Alliance
Virginia
Forest Watch
This web site was developed by, and is maintained for the
Alliance by, WildLaw.  a non-profit environmental law firm defending the wild!
As a target area for new extractive and heavy pollution industries, the Deep South is in deep
trouble; politicians have made lax or even nonexistent enforcement of environmental
laws a way to attract new industry and low-wage jobs . All studies on the
subject, such as those by Dr. Stephen Meyer of M.I.T., have shown that
states that enforce their environmental laws and protect their quality
of life have stronger and more vital economies with a higher level of high-wage
jobs. Ignoring this lesson, the state governments of southern states actively
seek out dirty and destructive industries using weak environmental standards
as a drawing card.
Often hardest hit are the unique forests, rare species and waterways of the South. Public forests hold the South's last major areas of old growth and wilderness, but the Forest Service
manages them as subsidized tree farms. States like Alabama have incredible
biodiversity, including more snakes and freshwater mollusks than any other
place on Earth and more fish species than any other state, but those treasures
are sacrificed for quick profits. As an example, Alabama has been ranked
50th in the nation in environmental protection, and Tennessee 45th.
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