Groups fighting to protect public lands are praising first-of-their-kind moves to protect old-growth forests on U.S. Forest Service land.
The Biden administration is proposing to amend all 128 forest land management plans to conserve and steward old-growth trees, rather than managing them primarily for recreation and economic gain.
Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration with the Save the Redwoods League, said it represents a big change in Forest Service land management.
“There has been a long history of logging of old-growth forests on national forest lands,” Blom explained. “Less than 5% of old-growth forest remains, and what remains is incredibly important to protect and steward.”
The forests will still be actively managed with prescribed burns to clear out dead wood. A series of devastating fires a few years ago in California’s Sierra Nevada range incinerated close to 20% of the world’s giant sequoia trees.
Blom argued California’s groves of old-growth trees are vital in the fight against climate change.
“Old-growth redwood forests store more carbon above ground than any forest in the world,” Blom pointed out. “The second most dense forest, in terms of carbon storage, is giant sequoias.”
The changes would not affect private land or areas managed by states or by the Bureau of Land Management. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to issue a proposal and a draft Environmental Impact Statement in May, which will kick off a 90-day public comment period.
