Heartwood Forest Council

The Heartwood Forest Council is a yearly gathering to celebrate the grassroots green movement, bringing together activists from across the region to a place that needs the attention and support of the Heartwood network.

The Western Pennsylvania region faces significant threats from the petrochemical plastics industry, exploiting the wealth of fossil-gas methane extracted from the earth by the fracking industry to make disposable plastic items for the consumer economy. Plans for the ARCH2 Hydrogen Hub would lock our society into a new cycle of dependency on fossil gas, and schemes to inject carbon into the same rock formations fracked for the methane they hold is a dangerous false solution to the problems that climate change is presenting.

And so we gather each year to strategize together, share skills and resources with one another, and while we’re at it have a really great time. This year we there are some very exciting workshops: deep dives into forest protection at both federal and state levels, trainings ranging from the rights of protestors to the rights of Nature, offered by the front-line grassroots groups based here in the region.

• Featured Keynote Speaker Joan Maloof, Ph.D, Founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network

• Free Camping with Registration (BYO camping gear)

• Workshops, Trainings, and Skillshares with Fair Shake Legal Services, CELDF, Mountain Watershed Association, and More!

• Youth and Family Programs with Arts Excursions Unlimited

• Green Marketplace and the Sunday Night Live Auction

• Campfire Camaraderie and Grassroots Solidarity

Heartwood is partnering with a community organization based in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood, Arts Excursions Unlimited, to include the arts and theater in the weekend program. Music and the arts are not only powerful tools for communicating values like love for forests and wildness and diversity in all its forms and expressions, they are an essential part of refreshing and restoring the human spirit. This partnership allows us to expand our Youth and Family programs, making our event more accessible to everyone who wants to attend. Visit the event website for more details about the program and other information about the event.

We hope you will join this weekend of grassroots solidarity and camaraderie. We invite you to donate an item to the Sunday Night Live Auction, perhaps something that reflects the work you do defending the place you love. We encourage you to bring a song or poem for the Talent Show, bring a musical instrument for hanging out around the campfire, bring a friend, and don’t forget things like flashlight and raingear, but please leave your pets in the care of someone else for the weekend, the camp has a strict “No Dogs” policy.

Please contact info@heartwood.org with any questions about this event!

The Forest Council is supported by the Direct Support Fund, a grant program managed by Mountain Watershed Association that benefits grassroots environmental groups working in the Allegheny and Appalachian Mountains.