President Biden’s Executive Order and the Protection of Mature and Old-Growth Forests
Last year on Earth Day, President Joe Biden signed an executive order with the aim of safeguarding and restoring mature and old-growth forests on federal lands across the United States. This move was seen by many environmentalists as a positive step towards halting the logging of ancient trees, which play a crucial role in mitigating the effects of climate change. The executive order recognized the invaluable contribution of forests in sequestering greenhouse gases and tasked the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service with identifying the remaining carbon-rich forests in the country and implementing regulations to conserve them in the face of climate change impacts.
Old-growth forests, also known as primary forests, are typically defined as forests that are at least 150 years old and largely untouched by human activity. Mature forests, on the other hand, are several decades old but have not yet reached the old-growth stage. Together, these ecosystems serve as a vital natural climate solution.
Initially, President Biden faced criticism from environmental groups due to the administration’s perceived lack of commitment to protecting these carbon hotspots. However, the executive order reinvigorated environmentalists and forest advocates. Unfortunately, over a year later, some experts have become disillusioned with the Forest Service, an agency within the Department of Agriculture, for not taking the matter seriously enough. This has left the door open for the timber industry to continue logging mature and old-growth forests.
Steve Pedery, the conservation director at Oregon Wild, stated that Biden’s executive order was significant and challenged the Forest Service to transform itself from an agency focused primarily on timber production to one that manages forested lands for carbon storage, wildlife conservation, and clean water, with timber as a secondary consideration. However, Pedery believes that the Forest Service has been slow to propose a rule and address the ongoing threat of logging to older forests. He likened the agency’s actions thus far to a child being told to clean their room but instead stuffing everything in a drawer and folding their arms.
The situation highlights what Pedery and others perceive as a pro-logging mindset within the Forest Service and the Biden administration’s reluctance to push the agency to embrace new approaches, despite publicly expressing support for protecting mature and old-growth forests. One of the issues cited is the agency’s belief that logging is essential for protecting these forests from wildfires, which are becoming increasingly destructive due to climate change-induced heatwaves and drought.
After years of intensive logging, few primary forests remain in the continental United States, and most of them are located on federal lands, primarily in the Western states. The recent federal inventory, conducted as part of Biden’s executive order, revealed that there are approximately 32.7 million acres of old-growth forests and 80.1 million acres of mature forests across the federal estate, totaling an area slightly larger than California. Of those, about 92 million acres are on Forest Service land.
Over 130 scientists, including Mike Dombeck, the former chief of the Forest Service during Bill Clinton’s administration, have called on President Biden to end old-growth logging on public lands. In a letter to Biden, they emphasized that older forests have the highest potential for above-ground carbon storage and play a crucial role in accumulating forest carbon in the next few decades. However, if these forests are vulnerable to logging, they cannot fulfill these vital functions.
The Forest Service’s Response and Concerns
In recent months, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service have taken steps towards fulfilling the White House directive, actions that were celebrated by environmental groups as long-overdue efforts to balance conservation with energy development, mining, logging, and other forms of development on public lands. The BLM proposed a draft rule in March that aims to prioritize conservation alongside energy development by issuing “conservation leases” to promote land protection and ecosystem restoration.
The Forest Service, however, took a more modest approach by publishing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) in April. The ANPR seeks public input on how the agency should adapt its policies to protect, conserve, and manage national forests and grasslands for climate resilience. While the notice acknowledges the importance of mature and old-growth trees and their resilience to climate change, it does not explicitly address logging as an ongoing threat to primary forests or propose measures to safeguard ancient trees from harvest.
Jim Furnish, a former deputy chief of the Forest Service, has closely monitored the agency’s actions since Biden’s executive order. He expressed disappointment with the agency’s resistance to change, particularly its reluctance to acknowledge logging as a threat to mature and old-growth forests. Furnish believes that the Forest Service has allowed local national forest units to continue cutting down these forests as if the executive order did not exist.
While there have been some exceptions, such as the withdrawal of the controversial “Flat Country” project in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest, many other logging projects and timber sales in mature and old-growth forests have moved forward under the Biden administration. Some forest ecologists and conservationists view this as a disconnect between the administration and the growing body of scientific evidence highlighting the importance of protecting these forests for carbon storage, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
In conclusion, President Biden’s executive order aimed at protecting mature and old-growth forests on federal lands was met with optimism by environmentalists. However, concerns have been raised regarding the Forest Service’s approach to implementing the order and its continued focus on timber production. Environmentalists argue that the agency needs to prioritize forest management for carbon storage, wildlife conservation, and clean water, with timber as a secondary consideration. Moving forward, it is crucial for the Biden administration to address these concerns and ensure that the Forest Service takes meaningful action to protect these vital ecosystems from logging.
