The fight over the future of the last old and mature forests in America intensified Tuesday when the Biden administration called for preservation of old-growth trees.
The administration, after creating an inventory of the nation's old growth, wants to amend 128 forest land-management plans to conserve and steward 25 million acres of old-growth forests and 68 million acres of mature forest across the national forest system.
For the Pacific Northwest — home to much of the nation's remaining old forests — an effort is already underway to overhaul and update key old-growth protections in the Northwest Forest Plan of 1994, one of the world's most ambitious conservation plans. More than 1 million acres of old and mature forest in Washington, Oregon and Northern California that were explicitly set aside for logging within the boundaries of the plan are under scrutiny.
But the nationwide attention from the federal government is adding to the debate over old forests' cultural and ecological significance and their ability to suck up carbon from the atmosphere that is warming the planet.
"Old-growth forests are a vital part of our ecosystems and a special cultural resource," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a prepared statement announcing the administration's initiative. "This proposed nationwide forest plan amendment — the first in the agency's history — is an important step in conserving these national treasures. Climate change is presenting new threats, like historic droughts and catastrophic wildfire. This clear direction will help our old-growth forests thrive across our shared landscape."
The American Forest Resource Council, a trade group, panned the old-growth initiative as unnecessary and burdensome.
"Existing federal environmental laws and forest plans provide direction on managing and protecting old growth," council President Travis Joseph said in a prepared statement Tuesday. "Yet the agency is now being directed to embark on a new, massive bureaucratic process — during a wildfire and forest health crisis — that will likely make forest management more complex, costly, and contentious."
Climate warming, fires and insect attack are making what old and mature forests remain all the more important.
Forests are key helpers reducing human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. During the growing season, forests breath in air, absorbing carbon dioxide that is transformed through photosynthesis into the sugars trees need to grow. That cleanses carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas warming the planet, from the atmosphere, and locks it safely away in the leaves, wood and roots of trees.
In all, forests in the U.S. absorb from 10% to 15% of greenhouse gas emissions, helping to moderate climate change, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Big trees matter. They are the most important helpers in absorbing carbon, because while they are slower growing than young trees, their greater mass locks away more carbon. Recent research shows large trees dominate carbon storage in the Pacific Northwest. Old and mature natural forests also provide a haven for biodiversity, and human well-being.
As part of the overhaul of the Northwest Forest Plan, a 21-member committee began work last September on updates to reflect changed conditions and new science.
The plan arose out of lawsuits by conservationists over clearcutting of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest. Changes in national forest management policy, as well as passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, opened the door to citizen litigation to protect the Northern Spotted Owl, which thrives in the old-growth forests of the Cascades being lost in the cutting.
The Clinton administration's Northwest Forest Plan was approved by a federal judge in 1994, setting aside more than 20 million acres of old-growth forests in Washington, Oregon, and northern California from harvest, in a multi-species conservation effort that is still among the most ambitious in the world.
Much has changed since that time. The barred owl has invaded the spotted owl's territory, and competition is pushing the spotted owl to extinction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced a proposal to shoot more than 500,000 barred owls within the territory of the spotted owl. The proposal is out for public comment.
As for the lands set aside for harvest, that has not worked out as planned, either, with even scientists who drew carve-outs having second thoughts.
Jerry Franklin, an eminent University of Washington and U.S. Forest Service ecologist, was a key contributor to the science underlying the plan and the process of mapping protected areas and forests in the so-called "matrix" that could still be logged. But he fought logging in the matrix — the Flat Country sale in the Willamette National Forest in Oregon.
The trees set aside for cutting had matured into a classic stand of mature, natural forest that would become the old growth of tomorrow if left uncut, the sort of forest too rare and ecologically valuable today to be logged, Franklin and others argued. After a barrage of criticism, protests and tree sits, the Forest Service pulled the sale in December 2022 for reevaluation.
Franklin is a member of the advisory committee at work on the update.
Theirs is a colossal task, to set the overall management direction and guidance for 17 national forest across 24 million acres of federally managed lands in Washington, Oregon, and northwestern California. This is the mother lode of old forests in the Lower 48 — roughly a quarter of all that's left.
The U.S. Forest Service has announced its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement, expected in June 2024 on the Northwest Forest Plan amendment, with a 90-day public comment period to launch at that time. The final EIS is expected in October 2024.
The next Federal Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for Jan. 30- Feb. 1, 2024, at the University of Oregon, 1395 University St., Eugene, Oregon. Virtual access to the meeting also will be available.
Details regarding the upcoming meeting, including how the public can provide information to the committee is at https://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r6/nwfpfac.
Registrations for in-person oral comments or written public comments must be submitted by Jan. 24, 2024 (11:59 p.m. PST). Electronically submitted comments are strongly preferred. Comments received after the deadline will be provided to the Forest Service, but the Committee may not have adequate time to consider them prior to the meeting. All FAC meetings are open to the public and include opportunity for public comments.