Standing Trees works with diverse communities to protect and restore forests on New England’s public lands, with a focus on Vermont and New Hampshire. To overcome the climate and extinction crises and better leverage our forests to improve water quality, Standing Trees envisions a future where New England’s federal and state public lands are managed to passively restore the natural, old growth forests that evolved over millennia alongside the region’s indigenous people. Old forests covered upwards of 90% of New England prior to European colonization. Today, old forests exist on less than 1/10 of 1% of the New England landscape, and only 3% of forests are managed to become old forests in the future. Founded by volunteers in the fall of 2020, Standing Trees is the only organization in Vermont and New Hampshire dedicated to advancing policy and legal solutions that protect and restore the region's native forests, with a focus on public lands. Standing Trees serves as a watchdog for state and federal agencies, ensures that land-managers follow the latest climate and biodiversity science, and advocates for permanent protections from logging, motorized recreation, and other harmful impacts to forests.