BARK

History

In 1993 two friends, attorney Greg Dyson and musician John "Lenny" Rancher, began a call to action after witnessing vast clear-cuts and old-growth logging while exploring Mt. Hood National Forest. They began to hike each timber sale, noting the markings in the forest and calling attention to discrepancies between action on the ground and agency documents. Soon they discovered that others shared their passion for protecting Mt. Hood, and began training them to "groundtruth" as well. Eventually, Greg brought together a diverse array of dedicated professionals and passionate activists to form a working board of directors and Bark was born. Bark was officially founded in 1999 and has since trained hundreds of volunteers about the basics of forest policy, brought thousands to Mt. Hood National Forest, and saved tens of thousands of acres of forest from logging and roadbuilding.

Mission Statement

Bark’s mission is to transform Mt. Hood National Forest into a place where natural processes prevail, where wildlife thrives and where local communities have a social, cultural, and economic investment in its restoration and preservation.