Southern forests just got a new protector and its name is the Bolala

PRESS RELEASE: 

The forests of the Southern US are an oft overlooked national treasure. In addition to providing opportunities for hunting, fishing, recreation and spiritual renewal, the region’s forests provide clean drinking water to millions of Americans, are the nation’s largest storehouse for carbon, and provide refuge for hundreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet.

To honor and highlight these magnificent forests, Asheville-based conservation organization Dogwood Alliance teamed up with the award-winning Free Range Studios to produce a new animation, “A Forest Fable,” which celebrates the woods and the wilds of the South and hopes to inspire a new generation of forest protection here and around the world.

“For the past 20 years, Dogwood Alliance has worked tirelessly with communities, non-profit partners, and corporate sustainability leaders to highlight the critical importance of Southern forests and stop the worst industrial forestry impacts in our region,” said Danna Smith, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Dogwood Alliance. “We believe the time is right to inspire forward-thinking corporate executives, elected officials, and Southerners to preserve, protect and restore our forests so they can continue to sustain our region for generations to come.”

“A Forest Fable,” illustrates the sometimes hidden values our forests provide us like clean air, clean water, and a place to unwind. It then shifts to expose the constant threats to the forests of the region from industrial forestry, especially paper, lumber and electricity. Emerging from a deep slumber, an ancient forest protector, the Bolala, magically restores the woods and the wilds of the region. Though the Bolala only exists in fairy tales,the viewer is reminded that they too are the Bolala.

Over the last 50 years, the forests of the Southern US have been the epicenter of industrial logging worldwide. In addition to being one of the largest paper and lumber producing regions in the world, in the past few years there has been a dramatic increase in logging to feed the rapidly growing wood pellet industry in which trees are cut down, processed into pellets and shipped to Europe to be burned for electricity. The South is currently the largest wood pellet exporter in the world and is expected to remain so into the foreseeable future.

“The time is ripe to shift away from the old paradigm of forests as a resource to be exploited, to a 21st century view that puts a greater value on all our forests provide,” said Scot Quaranda, Communications Director at Dogwood Alliance and Executive Producer of The Forest Fable. “The Bolala lives inside of each and every one of us, and together we can make a huge difference for the communities, wildlife and our climate that depend on these special places.”

You can view “A Forest Fable,” here and join in on the conversation with thousands of people around the world.