The 9th American Forest Congress has released a slate of principles and resolutions that recognizes the essential role of public lands and conservation in safeguarding the health of the nation’s forests. The Forest Congress — urged by the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservation groups — adopted measures on critical environmental issues including climate change, biodiversity, ecological integrity, beneficial fire, and old-growth forest protections. Several resolutions also stressed the importance of federal public forests conservation, transparency and public engagement in management decision making, and keeping these lands in public ownership with an adequate workforce and programmatic investments. “The American Forest Congress is acknowledging the importance of conserving our national forests at a time when Trump and some politicians want to sell off our public lands,” said Ashley C. Nunes, public lands policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity.