Want Beer? You Need Healthy Forests!
Payette Brewing and The Nature Conservancy in Idaho Partner Together for
Healthy Forests and Beer’s Main Ingredient—Water!
The Nature Conservancy in Idaho and Payette Brewing this October will celebrate the critical link between healthy forests and beer’s main ingredient: water.
OktoberForest is a campaign to raise awareness for the role healthy forests play in filtering water, beer’s main ingredient. This is the third year of The Nature Conservancy’s OktoberForest campaign, with breweries in more than half the United States participating.
In Idaho, The Nature Conservancy is partnering with Payette Brewing to host a Tree-Via Night on Oct. 11 to highlight the roles of healthy forests and clean water and the need to restore millions of acres of the West’s forests.
The relevance of America’s forests to breweries is clear: 95 percent of beer is water, and more than half of America’s water comes from our forests. America’s forests improve water supplies in many ways. Forests shade streams, lakes, and snow from evaporation; the forest floor helps filter sediment; and tree roots hold soil together so it can store water like a sponge.
Recently forests have become threatened by more severe fires, drought, and increased pest damage. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that about half of its forested lands are in need of restoration in order to maintain natural benefits for people, water, and wildlife.
“As a longtime homebrewer myself, I’m thrilled The Nature Conservancy is partnering with breweries on the OktoberForest campaign,” said Chris Topik, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Restoring America’s Forests program. “The Nature Conservancy has been working to conserve and restore America’s forests for more than 60 years.
It is really satisfying to witness how many breweries around the country pitching in to help conserve beer’s main ingredient, water, and the forests that provide it.”
You can participate in OktoberForest by visiting www.OktoberForest.org:
Text “TREES” to 50555 to donate $5 for the Conservancy’s forest and water conservation efforts in Idaho.
Watch—view a one-minute video highlighting the connections between healthy forests, water, and beer.
Post—your favorite forest and brewery photos to Twitter and Facebook at #OktoberForest
Five Forest Facts:
The United States is home to the world’s oldest, tallest, and most massive trees.
America’s forests generate more than $13 billion in income for businesses and communities.
Our forests provide 1 million square miles of outdoor recreation space for families, campers, hikers, backpackers, hunters, and anglers.
The nation’s nine worst fire years have all come since 2000 (cumulative records starting in 1960). 2015 year was our worst fire year with more than 10 million acres burned; 2017 was our most expensive firefighting year.
Non-native pests have killed more than 150 million trees since 1990.
