Threatened Forests

Black Hills National Forest, Wyoming and South Dakota |

Black Hills Resilient Landscapes ProjectPhoto by Dave Mertz | Used by permission

Klamath National Forest, California | Bear Country Project

Unit 125 of the Bear Country Timber Sale, Eddy Gulch Late Successional ReservePhoto by Luke Ruediger, Klamath Forest Alliance | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Salmon River watershed is one of the most intact, remote ecosystems in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion and harbors one of the most spectacular Wild and Scenic rivers in the country. It also contains important anadromous fish habitat, the only remaining spring Chinook runs and the last completely wild salmon and steelhead runs in the Klamath River watershed. The area proposed for logging is extremely remote, highly biodiverse, and an important wildlife connectivity corridor between the Trinity Alps and Russian wilderness areas.

Bear Country Project

The Bear Country Project proposes to log old forests along the North and South Fork Salmon rivers in Northern California. The project includes 4,195 acres of commercial logging, including 3,704 acres in natural unlogged stands and 2,330 acres of mature trees, many between 24 and 40-plus inches in diameter. The logging project would reduce the tree canopy cover to as low as 30%. Only 610 acres of plantations, representing the area’s worst fire risks, will be thinned.

Carbon and biodiversity

The Bear Country Project targets old forests at nearly four times the rate of plantation stands, disproportionately harming carbon storage and future sequestration capacity. Animals such as the threatened northern spotted owls, pileated woodpeckers, American martens and Pacific fishers are dependent on these old forest habitats for nesting, roosting and denning. The project would remove 235 acres of nesting, roosting and foraging habitat for northern spotted owls and 701 acres of dispersal habitat for young fledgling owls. Deer, elk, black bears, Del Norte salamanders and ringtail cats live here. These old forests have been identified as important connectivity habitats.

Why these trees should remain standing

The Forest Service claims the Bear Country Project will promote forest health and resilience, reduce wildfire risk and promote forest and habitat diversity. But the level and location of the proposed logging conflicts with these claims and in many cases would have the opposite effect. The project will degrade and remove the very forest conditions the Forest Service claims it wants to protect. These older forests, including large snags, downed wood and living trees, will take centuries to recover. Removing large trees and reducing canopy opens the forest to more sunlight, hot, dry winds, and higher temperatures, which may increase wildfire risk.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in the Klamath National Forest

The Klamath National Forest contains some of the most intact and isolated forest habitats remaining on the West Coast and is often targeted for industrial logging by federal land managers. In the last few years agency timber planners have proposed three major timber sales in some of the last occupied northern spotted owl habitat in the Klamath Mountains. If the Bear Country and South Fork timber sales move forward, low elevation old-growth forest outside protected wilderness areas would be logged. Old trees in the Klamath National Forest will remain threatened until federal policies are enacted that permanently protect them.

Project status

The Forest Service has released an environmental assessment and implemented a comment period. It has not yet published a decision.

Local contact: Luke Ruediger, Klamath Forest Alliance, [email protected]

Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin | Fourmile Vegetation Project

Mature hardwood forest stands proposed for logging.Photo by Andy Olsen, Environmental Law & Policy Center | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest covers more than 1.5 million acres of Wisconsin’s Northwoods. It’s part of the Western Great Lakes forests, a transition area between the boreal forests to the north and the temperate deciduous forests and tallgrass prairie to the south and west. The forest is a mix of white and red pine, paper birch, hemlock, aspen and northern hardwoods, including sugar maple, red maple and American beech. The Western Great Lakes forests are home to moose, black bears, lynx, snowshoe hares, white-tailed deer and woodchucks, as well as bald eagles and endangered gray wolves. Forests, streams, inland lakes, and wilderness areas are all part of this rich, forested landscape.

The Fourmile Project

The project would log 12,000 acres east of Eagle River, Wisconsin, including clearcutting 1,000 acres. The Forest Service wants to reduce what they regard as an “overabundance of older age” trees, thereby “regenerating older stands into new young stands.” Based on Forest Service data, 53% of the stands to be logged are 80 years and older. The Fourmile logging project was devised to help meet the Trump administration’s goal of increasing logging in national forests by 72%.

Carbon and biodiversity

Northern Wisconsin forests have been carbon sinks for at least the last two decades. Public lands sequester more carbon, on average, than private lands because they tend to be older and less intensely logged. The Forest Service did not conduct the required analysis of carbon pollution that would result from this logging project and it failed to consider recent climate science. Sensitive species in the area include rusty patched bumblebees, Kirtland’s warblers, Canada lynx, Fassett’s locoweed, American martens, northern long-eared bats, monarch butterflies, red-shouldered hawks, northern goshawks and wood turtles.

Why these trees should remain standing

The Forest Service claims this logging project complies with an outdated 2004 forest plan. The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest was created to help reforest the landscape after the great “cut over” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The forest is recovering and, while still relatively young, a portion has reached maturity. Of the 12,000 acres of planned logging, 54% are stands 80 years and older, 33% are 100 years and older. The largest trees to be cut are upland hardwoods, red pine, maple and aspen. Wisconsin scientists warn that logging and roads will disturb maturing forest habitats, harm recreation and disrupt imperiled species.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

Little old-growth forest remains in Wisconsin and there are few large tracts of mature trees. The Forest Service targeted mature trees in the Fourmile project because they said stands are “terribly skewed towards the older age classes.” The forest plan calls for protecting interior hardwood forests, but the project would log these trees, squandering a critical opportunity to protect large blocks of contiguous forests and their carbon stores.

Project Status

The Forest Service approved this project in November 2020, with a finding of no significant environmental impact.

Local Contact: Andy Olsen, Environmental Law and Policy Center, [email protected]

Kootenai National Forest, Montana | Black Ram Project

Old multistory forest slated for phased clearcut. Logging unit 72, Kootenai National Forest.Photo by Yaak Valley Forest Council | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

In the farthest corner of Montana in the Kootenai National Forest, straddling the Canadian border, are most of what’s left of the Yaak Valley’s oldest, diverse forests. The Forest Service has bulldozed thousands of miles of road and logged a vast patchwork of clearcuts surrounding these islands of giant old trees. Ancient larch, among the oldest in the world — 600-800 years and still going strong — preside over a rich diversity of old-growth spruce as well as enormous centuries-old cedar, hemlock and subalpine fir. Nearly every tree species in northwest Montana is found in the Black Ram region of the Yaak Valley, under the shelter of these larch “mother trees.”

The Black Ram Project

The proposed 95,000-acre Black Ram project would commercially log nearly 4,000 acres, including clearcutting nearly 1,800 acres and logging over 400 acres of mature and old-growth forest. Click here to see more photos of what is at stake from the Black Ram project.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

This area is home to an isolated population of about 25 grizzly bears, North America’s most imperiled. The remaining old forests here are refuge for 190 other animal species, including 25% of Montana’s species of concern. These include lynx, wolverines, native trout and extremely vulnerable reptiles and amphibians, some of whom live only in the Kootenai National Forest. The carbon loss from these stands is irrecoverable in the short window left to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Why these trees should remain standing

The Forest Service claims this logging is needed to create “forest resilience” to withstand drought, insects and wildfires. Their misguided solution is to effectively clearcut the old forest and plant ecologically impoverished tree plantations where these carbon-storing champions and natural springs once stood. Tree plantations are at higher risk of wildfires than natural forests. The Forest Service has admitted, and the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed, that the Black Ram project is likely to harm Yaak Valley grizzlies, bears already threatened by unsustainable logging across the Canadian border. More roads and logging will bring more opportunities for human-bear conflicts, with often deadly consequences for grizzlies. Bear experts in the United States and Canada have raised alarm about the project.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Kootenai National Forest

Old and mature forests, once blanketing the Yaak Valley, are now just a fraction of the forest. Black Ram is one of five massive logging projects, covering more than 300,000 acres, stacked on top of one another on the Kootenai National Forest’s western side on the Three Rivers District. The old carbon-storing champions of Black Ram are slated for the chainsaw at a time when we cannot afford to lose them.

Project status

The Forest Service released its final decision in June 2022, finding the project will have no significant environmental impact. Conservation organizations have filed a lawsuit challenging this project.

Local contact: Rick Bass, Yaak Valley Forest Council, [email protected]

Willamette National Forest, Oregon |

Logging unit 1300, adjacent to red tree vole habitatPhoto by Andrew Kumler, Cascadia Wildlands volunteer | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

Locals call this part of Oregon’s western Cascades “flat country” to describe the part of the Willamette National Forest that extends from Scott Mountain to the upper reaches of the McKenzie River. Moss-covered Douglas firs and western hemlocks grow to more than 200 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide. Delicate vine maple and Pacific rhododendron combine in the understory to make these forests as magical as they are important. Almost 20 years ago, the Forest Service largely stopped logging older forests in western Oregon and western Washington following massive public outcry over decades of clearcutting these incomparable cathedral forests. However, 1 million acres of mature and old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest are not protected from federal logging. The Flat Country project is set to destroy a large swath of these irreplaceable forests.

Flat Country Timber Sale

This timber sale will aggressively log 2,000 acres of older forests in the McKenzie River headwaters, which provide fresh drinking water to hundreds of thousands of residents in the Willamette Valley. Several types of logging will be used, including clearcutting about 1,000 acres of mature and old-growth Douglas fir and western hemlock stands up to 170 years old.

Carbon and biodiversity

The western Cascades produces some of the world’s oldest, largest carbon-storing champions. Among tree species, Douglas fir is a marathon runner rather than a sprinter and at 80 years it’s just begun to hit its stride. The trees will keep growing for centuries, accumulating massive amounts of captured atmospheric carbon in biomass. Snags and downed logs add significantly to carbon storage because of their slow rate of decay, helping combat climate change and providing critical wildlife habitat. Olallie and Anderson creeks provide critical habitat for endangered bull trout and other aquatic species. The Forest Service admits this project will destroy and degrade habitat essential for threatened northern spotted owls, red tree voles, pileated woodpeckers, martens and goshawks.

Why these trees should remain standing

The Forest Service claims the Flat Country project is needed to “provide a sustainable supply of timber products” and to “improve stand conditions.” Yet private timber lands in Oregon are prolific producers of lumber, making Oregon the top softwood lumber producer in the country. The Forest Service’s claim that mature forests are “overstocked” are based on tree density measures developed for managing industrial wood production plantations, which is an inappropriate measure for natural forests. The planning documents said some “legacy” trees will be protected, but clearcutting everything except the largest trees is still a harmful clearcut.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Willamette National Forest

The groundbreaking 1994 Pacific Northwest Forest Plan protected mature and old-growth forests and trees 80 years and older from logging. However, the plan left 1 million acres of late successional forests open to logging. The Flat Country project is an attack on some of the last remaining mature and old-growth forests in the western Cascades. These trees are at grave risk unless there’s a federal policy to permanently protect them.

In December 2022, the Forest Service withdrew the agency’s decision on the Flat Country Project, temporarily taking these trees off the chopping block.

Local contact: Madeline Cowen, Cascadia Wildlands, [email protected]

Malheur National Forest, Oregon Ragged Ruby Project

Old-growth grand fir at risk of being logged in Ragged Ruby.Photo by Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project | Used by permission

Bitterroot National Forest, Montana Bitterroot Front Project

Management Unit 5, South Ward Unit.Photo by Jeff Lonn  | Used by permission

Why this forest is special 

The Bitterroot National Forest is one of the nation’s earliest, dating back to the 1800s. Most of the wildlife encountered by Lewis and Clark still live here, perhaps because half the forest is protected as wilderness. As part of the chain of national forests that runs along the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to British Columbia, the Bitterroot provides habitat and wildlife connectivity for an array of mountain wildlife, including grizzly bears, elk, bighorn sheep and mountain goats.  

Bitterroot Front Project

The project will include commercial logging of 54,883 acres, including 13,245 acres identified as roadless. Most of the remaining acres include mature and old-growth forest, identified as roadless in the 1987 forest plan, have not been commercially logged for more than 80 years. To facilitate this and other logging projects, the Forest Service has proposed weakening the standards defining old growth. It also wants to redefine important old-growth attributes, including how much old forest habitat should remain to provide wildlife cover.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

Grizzlies are returning after being extirpated 50 years ago, and the area includes suitable habitat for Canada lynx and wolverines. Mountain streams support westslope cutthroat trout and critical habitat for imperiled bull trout. The project area borders one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 states and includes two proposed Wild and Scenic rivers. In 1987 the forest plan required stream surveys for potential permanent protection, but the Forest Service has yet to do so. Commercially logging the largest, oldest trees depletes the area of carbon stores and their ongoing sequestration capabilities.

Why these trees should remain standing

The roadless areas of the project area include mostly mature trees and old-growth forest. Logging large, fire-resistant trees and suspending forest plan standards for wildlife habitat undermines Forest Service claims that the project is needed to improve habitat and reduce fire risk. This is a place to be protected, not sold for timber the country doesn’t need.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Bitterroot National Forest

Much of the Bitterroot National Forest is fragmented with logging roads. Wildlife habitat has been severely degraded by decades of commercial logging. The Forest Service has proposed weakening the standards in its 35-year-old forest plan to slash protections for old-growth from 40-acre patches to just 5-acre patches.

Project status

The Forest Service’s environmental analysis is expected in late 2022. Timing for the agency’s final decision is not yet known.

Local contact: Michele Dieterich, Friends of the Bitterroot, [email protected]

Custer Gallatin National Forest, Montana South Plateau Project

South Plateau Project Area, Custer Gallatin National ForestPhoto by Nancy Schultz | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Custer Gallatin National Forest abuts the western and northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park and part of the 34,000-square-mile Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the wildest places in the lower 48 states and one of the largest nearly intact temperate-zone ecosystems on Earth. The Custer Gallatin include seven mountain ranges, 4,000 miles of rivers and streams, and a landscape that forms an important connective corridor for wildlife moving between Yellowstone National Park and the Northern Rockies. Wolves, grizzly and black bears, lynx, moose, pronghorn, elk, bighorn sheep, bison and wolverines live here.

South Plateau Landscape Area Treatment Project

The project will clearcut more than 5,500 acres of mature lodgepole pine, most of the trees 90 years and older, across lands near the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park. The 15-year project proposes hundreds of clearcuts, each potentially as large as 30 football fields, and up to 57 miles of new logging roads. Up to 6,600 acres of mature lodgepole could also be thinned, which could include bulldozing roads through old-growth lodgepole pine stands.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

This area is important habitat for grizzly bears, lynx, moose and elk. The animals rely on these older forests for cover, including in hunting seasons. And they use these lands to move between habitats in this wild landscape. The project will remove the largest trees across thousands of acres that would otherwise remain standing and continue to store carbon. Road construction will disturb soils that perform a similar function.

Why these trees must keep standing

The project would destroy and fragment habitat for lynx and grizzly bears, both listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and increase the potential for poaching and other harmful human-bear interactions. That’s why the Forest Service’s own analysis found that 15 years of extensive road construction and logging are “likely to adversely affect” imperiled grizzlies and lynx. More than 14,000 acres of hiding cover for elk and half of important winter habitat for moose will be logged. The Forest Service justifies the project by claiming it will reduce fire severity and insect outbreaks, but lodgepole pines can live up to 300 years, all while storing and absorbing carbon. Most of the logging will occur far from communities or structures.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Custer Gallatin National Forest

The 2022 Custer Gallatin forest plan contains no protection for mature forests and allows unlimited logging of old-growth lodgepole pine. The national forest south of the Custer Gallatin, the Targhee, has an infamous history of clearcutting right up to the boundary of Yellowstone National Park, a contrast that was visible from space. The South Plateau project could continue in that regrettable tradition.

Project status

The Forest Service proposed the project in 2020, then withdrew it. It issued a revised environmental assessment in October 2022. The Biden administration could approve the project in the coming months.

Local contact: Mike Garrity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Helena, Mont., (406) 459-5936, [email protected]

Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont Early Successional Habitat Creation Project

South Fork timber sale unit proposed for logging.Photo by Zack Porter | Used by permission

Nantahala National Forest,

One of the old-growth trees to be logged in the Brushy Mountain area of Southside ProjectPhoto by Chattooga Conservancy | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina is one of the wettest regions in the United States and a global wildlife diversity hotspot. It provides intact forest habitat in a fast-growing region dominated by fragmented private lands, as well as connectivity for rare, endemic and imperiled wildlife. It contains a section of the Appalachian Trail and three designated wilderness areas and connects to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Southside Project

This project will log 317 acres including rare old-growth forest beloved by locals and the headwaters of the Chattooga River, a national Wild and Scenic River. Over 80% of the volume will be cut. It’s home to one of the most important remaining populations of the imperiled green salamander. Trees will be logged on erosive slopes near streams within three areas eligible for wilderness designation and within a state-designated natural heritage area. When the timber sale was first offered in 2021, the Forest Service received no bids. In response, the agency slashed the price in half. Local conservation group MountainTrue offered to beat any logger’s offer and pay the Forest Service to protect 37 acres of old-growth forest and occupied green salamander habitat, but the agency sold the trees at fire-sale prices.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

These old-growth stands hold more than a century of stored carbon in the trees, soil and surrounding plants, and stand ready to sequester more. Logging will destroy the area’s ecological value and release carbon from disturbed soil and understory plants. The project will wipe out a healthy population of green salamanders, a rapidly declining species found only in isolated areas on the Blue Ridge Escarpment. The project also risks spreading invasive plants throughout the area.

Why these trees should remain standing

Less than 1% of Southeast forests are old growth. The Forest Service admits the trees it proposes to log are old growth but claims the Southside Project is needed to restore “structural diversity” and improve wildlife habitat by creating “clearings” in forest stands. Yet these old-growth stands are the most ecologically and structurally diverse in the Nantahala. The Forest Service should be allowing its mature forests to grow and recover much of the massive loss of the region’s old-growth forests. This would provide ecological diversity, wildlife habitat, clean water and carbon storage to compensate for the intensive industrial timber lands that dominate this region.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Nantahala National Forest

The newly finalized 2022 Nantahala and Pisgah forest plan will quadruple logging levels and bulldoze 300 miles of new logging roads. Almost 300,000 acres of mature and old-growth trees are targeted for logging, including 44,000 acres of old-growth that were previously protected.

Project status

The Forest Service finalized the Southside Project in 2018 and issued the first timber sale in August 2022. That came despite objections from the Southern Environmental Law Center, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife and MountainTrue.

Local contact: Susannah Knox, Southern Environmental Law Center, [email protected]

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest,

Along Road 737-J in Dead Laundry project area.Photo by Kate Bilodeau | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

At more than 4 million acres, the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests — also called Wild Clearwater Country — in north-central Idaho is known for its wildness. The Clearwater National Forest is the southernmost part of one of world’s largest inland rainforests, stretching up the continent into Canada. With rain comes growth, and with growth, carbon storage. The Clearwater National Forest has some of the best carbon storage potential east of the Cascades.

Dead Laundry Project

The project proposes logging 3,838 acres of trees with commercial “regeneration harvest,” meaning clearcuts and variations of clearcuts, many greater than 40 acres — larger than 40 football fields.

Logging will include cutting trees more than 20 inches in diameter and cutting mature trees in designated old-growth stands. The Forest Service plans to build or “reconstruct” more than 200 miles of roads in this remote area, including bulldozing logging roads through old-growth stands.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

Dead Laundry targets mature and old-growth trees for logging, reducing these significant carbon stores. Proposed logging would eliminate or degrade habitat in a remote area that provides wildlife connectivity among three different unfragmented roadless areas. This area is home to dozens of species, including bull trout, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act, and the Northern Rockies fisher, which relies on mature, complex forest habitat. Grizzly bears, who need remote country with few roads, are venturing back into Wild Clearwater Country.

Why these trees should remain standing

This sale is about commodity timber production that will release decades of stored forest carbon and harm wildlife habitat. The Forest Service claims the project is needed to produce timber, “enhance” old growth, and improve forest health and resilience, but cutting the largest and oldest trees will destroy some of the forest’s rarest and most valuable ecological components. The area must be evaluated for old-growth potential, and the mature trees must be protected.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest

The Forest Service has been operating under a 35-year-old forest plan aimed at industrial timber production. This plan calls for only about 10% of the forest to be old growth, while targeting mature forests for logging and conversion into even-age plantations that tend to burn more severely. A new forest plan is being drafted that would more than triple the amount of logging to 150 million board feet per year. To achieve these unsustainable levels, the new forest plan would do away with measurable and enforceable standards for mature and old-growth trees, water quality and sediment levels, wildlife habitat, riparian areas and fish habitat.

Project status

The Forest Service is seeking a waiver to clearcut areas larger than 40 acres. The Forest Service is expected to obtain the waiver and approve the project in 2023.

Local contact: Katie Bilodeau, Friends of the Clearwater [email protected]

Klamath National Forest, California South Fork Project

Logging unit 53 of South Fork Project.Photo by Luke Ruediger | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Salmon River watershed is one of the most intact, remote landscapes in the Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion and harbors one of the most spectacular Wild and Scenic rivers in the country. It also contains important anadromous fish habitat, as well as the only remaining spring Chinook runs and the last completely wild salmon and steelhead runs in the Klamath River watershed.

South Fork Project

The project proposes logging 2,455 acres, including mature and old-growth trees. It’s directly upstream from the Klamath National Forest’s Bear Country Project, which also targets old forest with industrial logging. The cumulative harm to the ecosystem from these projects would be severe. The South Fork Project area is extremely remote, highly biodiverse, and functions as an important wildlife connectivity corridor for old forest-dependent animals living between the Trinity Alps and Russian wilderness areas.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

The South Fork Project area encompasses large portions of the Carter Meadows Late-Successional Reserve. This is a vital wildlife corridor for imperiled Pacific martens and Pacific fishers, threatened northern spotted owls and pileated woodpeckers, who all depend on mature and old-growth forests for nesting, roosting and denning. Logging and road construction would increase sedimentation and damage fisheries in the Wild and Scenic South Fork Salmon River, critical for the near-extinct spring Chinook salmon and five other runs of wild salmon. Loggers would build 67 timber landings — cleared areas where logged trees are piled — and an expansive network of skid roads to move the trees, harming streams, fisheries, and the Carter Meadows and Eddy Gulch Late Successional Reserves, areas set aside to protect mature and old-growth trees. The project targets old forests, not plantation stands, disproportionately harming carbon storage and future carbon sequestration.

Why these trees should remain standing

The intensity and location of the proposed logging conflicts with the Forest Service’s claim that the project will promote forest health and habitat diversity and reduce wildfire risk. In many cases the project would have the opposite effect, degrading or removing the very forest conditions the Forest Service claims it wants to protect. These older forests, including large snags, downed wood and living trees, will take centuries to recover. Removing large trees and reducing overstory canopy opens the forest to more sunlight, hot, dry winds and higher temperatures, which can encourage growth of flammable shrubs and increase wildfire risk.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Klamath National Forest

Agency timber planners have proposed three major sales in some of the last occupied northern spotted owl habitat in the Klamath Mountains. If the South Fork and Bear Country timber sales move forward, low-elevation mature and old-growth forest outside protected wilderness areas would be logged.

Project status

The Forest Service initiated scoping in 2020, but the project has recently been put on hold.

Local contact: Luke Ruediger, Klamath Forest Alliance. [email protected]

Tongass National Forest, Alaska Wrangell Island Project

Logging would cut old-growth Sitka spruce and hemlock like this.Photo by Maranda Hamme | Used by permission

Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky

Little Flat Creek area proposed for clearcutting.Photo by Jim Scheff, Kentucky Heartwood | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Redbird District of the Daniel Boone National Forest includes one of the wildest and most intact ecosystems in eastern Kentucky and some of the only publicly accessible lands in the area. This forest contains some of the oldest and largest living members of eastern tree species, and among the best remaining old-growth trees in the region. The Daniel Boone National Forest provides core habitat and wildlife connectivity for many southern Appalachian animals, including black bears, white-tailed deer, elk, red foxes and mink.

South Red Bird Wildlife Enhancement Project

This is the largest timber sale proposed in the national forest in nearly 20 years. It would clearcut more than 3,800 acres of public lands, removing 80% to 90% of the trees across 2,800 acres and nearly one-quarter of all forests more than 100 years old. These old trees are a relative rarity in the Daniel Boone. Nearly 100 miles of logging roads would be bulldozed through this watershed, including approximately 10 miles of the Redbird Crest Trail, where people now hike and find forest solitude. See this story map for more of what’s at stake.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

The South Red Bird Project will log mature and old-growth trees that hold decades of stored carbon, including oaks, black walnut, hickory, maple and birch. Some of the extraordinary trees at risk are more than 150 years old. The project area includes threatened or endangered Indiana bats, northern long-eared bats, and gray bats, essential for pollinating plants and dispersing seeds. Also at risk are endangered snuffbox mussels and Kentucky arrow darters that depend on high-quality, clear streams. Goldenseal, black cohosh and ginseng herbs flourished here, but are declining because of overharvesting and habitat loss, including by logging and heavy equipment.

Why these trees should remain standing

The proposed clearcuts will benefit common wildlife that have ample habitat across this region, while harming imperiled species that depend on mature forests. The Forest Service aims to provide commodity timber by logging some of the largest and most ecologically valuable trees, including 180 acres of rare old growth. An adjacent Forest Service logging project similar to this one resulted in four massive landslides that dumped sediment into creeks, harmed water quality, obliterated understory habitat, and facilitated the spread of invasive species.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Daniel Boone National Forest

The 2004 forest plan concedes that old-growth trees were underrepresented in the Daniel Boone,i but the plan’s goal allows for only 8% of the forest to survive into old growth and there are no protections for mature hardwood trees.ii The percentage of old-growth forest falls far short of that goal. These mature and old growth trees are increasingly targeted for logging under erroneous Forest Service claims that old-growth forests are undesirable.

Project status

The Forest Service approved the project in 2021. Kentucky Heartwood filed a lawsuit in September 2022 challenging the project’s failure to disclose the environmental harm from the proposed logging.

Local contact: Lauren Kallmeyer, Kentucky Heartwood [email protected]

Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota Spruce Vegetation Management Project

Logging would occur in spruce stands like this on the Black Hills National Forest.Photo by Norbeck Society | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Black Hills of South Dakota, referred to as an “island in the plains,” rise several thousand feet above the great plains with granite peaks reaching to 7,200 feet. Two-thirds of the hills comprise the Black Hills National Forest, which straddles the border between South Dakota and Wyoming. It is the southernmost occurrence of white spruce, which has evolved into a unique variant, Black Hills spruce, found nowhere else on the planet. It is South Dakota’s state tree. Mountain lions roam the landscape while eagles, bats and hawks take to the sky and wildflowers grace the landscape.

Spruce Vegetation Management Project The project will remove virtually all spruce trees — targeting the largest and oldest spruce — across 25,000 acres, or nearly 40 square miles. Such extensive logging, including clearcuts more than 40 football fields or larger in size, will likely require miles of new roads. With no size or age limit, the project will liquidate roughly half of the spruce habitat on the Black Hills National Forest, which many wildlife and plant species rely on. After the large, old spruce is logged, the Forest Service will then log the small spruce.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

Black Hills spruce are interspersed with wetlands and riparian areas, as well as aspen, birch and beaked hazelnut trees. Spruce ecosystems hold moisture and provide critical refugia in a warming climate. Commonly living up to 300 years, these trees accumulate and hold decades of stored carbon. Spruce forests on the Black Hills provide habitat for many plant and wildlife species, including northern goshawks, lady slipper orchids, red and flying squirrels, American martens, black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers, and Cooper’s Rocky Mountain snails. Many of these species need these dense, continuous, moist forests to survive.

Why these trees should remain standing

The project will destabilize and degrade intact forest, dry out these areas and make them susceptible to increased wildfires, insect outbreaks, weeds and increased carbon emissions. Most of the logging will be at ecologically important headwaters of several major waterways. The spruce forests in high-elevation headwaters and along canyon bottoms, streams and north-facing slopes keep hillsides, springs and watercourses cool. They provide shade and their complexes of plants and rotten logs hold water and create humidity. The Forest Service’s proposed “buffers” will not meaningfully mitigate the damage from this logging project.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in Black Hills National Forest

The Forest Service has targeted stands of old pine with unsustainable cutting for 15 years or more. Bowing to political pressure to increase logging, it has now turned its attention to spruce. The outdated 2005 forest plan amendment allows only 5% of the forest’s pine trees to survive to become old growth, but less than 1% of pine trees in the Black Hills are designated as old growth. This logging project is one of more than 20 in the Black Hills targeting mature and old-growth trees.

Project status

The Forest Service initiated scoping in the first half of 2022 and is reviewing public comments.

Local contact: Dave Mertz, former forester, Black Hills National Forest [email protected]

Medford District, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon| Integrated Vegetation Management Project

Photo by Luke Ruediger, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

This densely forested area of southern Oregon is part of a 24-million-acre landscape within the range of threatened northern spotted owls and other imperiled species that rely on late successional forests. The Cascade Mountain Range holds some of the most spectacular temperate mature and old-growth forests in the United States. Though heavily logged, hundreds of thousands of acres of towering trees remain alongside rushing rivers cut deep into mountains, supporting wild salmon and steelhead runs. The BLM Medford District includes the Oregon portions of Southern Cascades and Klamath Mountains ecosystems. The Klamath Mountains have been called the Galapagos of North America because of their exceptional biodiversity and are considered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the World Wildlife Fund to be of global botanical significance.

Integrated Vegetation Management for Resilient Lands Project

The 800,000-acre project area covers the entire BLM Medford District, except the protected Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The BLM wants to commercially log up to 20,000 acres of trees up to 36 inches in diameter and more than 150 years old. About 17,000 acres are within late-successional reserves established to protect habitat for the northern spotted owl and other species dependent on mature and old-growth forests for their survival and recovery. It also plans to build up to 90 miles of new logging roads.

Carbon and biodiversity

The BLM claims carbon emissions from logging these very large, old trees would be replenished over time and can’t be pinned to any specific location. In fact, scientists can readily identify sources of greenhouse gas emissions, including from logging, and have shown that the climate crisis is the cumulative result of numerous individual actions, including projects like this one. Commercial thinning operations have been shown to remove more carbon than wildfire and create multi-decade carbon deficits in forests where moderate to heavy thinning takes place. The project area includes habitat for several threatened species whose survival and recovery depend on old forests, including northern spotted owls, Humboldt martens, marbled murrelets and wild coho salmon.

Why these trees should remain standing

The project will clearcut up to 20% of mature forest stands, reducing the canopy provided by large old trees to just 30% and eliminating or reducing owl habitat. The BLM claims the project will make these stands more resilient, but removing large canopy trees would be more likely to increase fire risk by creating hotter, drier, windier conditions and encouraging the growth of shrubs, primary fuels that allow fires to spread.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in the Medford District

The current management plan for the Medford District BLM calls for increasing northern spotted owl habitat through habitat “restoration,” “resilience” and reducing fire risks. Yet the BLM targets old stands with large tree removal and canopy reduction. The Medford District BLM contains some of the last old forests in these watersheds. These forests are threatened by both current BLM logging practices and this project.

Project status

The BLM approved the project in March 2022 with a finding of no significant environmental impact. The Penn Butte and Late Mungers timber sales have not yet been scheduled.

Local contact: Luke Ruediger, Applegate Siskiyou Alliance, [email protected]

Bureau of Land Management, Medford District, Oregon Evans Creek Project

Old-growth tree logged in Evans Gem sale, a unit of the Evans Creek Project.Photo by Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center | Used by permission

Why this forest is special

The Bureau of Land Management Medford District is where the Klamath and Cascade mountain ranges meet, resulting in extraordinary biological diversity. Many plant species here, including the Brewers spruce tree, are found nowhere else on Earth. The BLM lands are in the watershed of the Rogue River, renowned for fly fishing and whitewater boating. These public forests harbor some of the last important stands of large, old trees and provide wildlife refugia and habitat connectivity across this mixed-ownership landscape.

Evans Creek Project

The BLM is proposing commercial logging on 1,131 acres, including 82 acres of clearcuts. The Evans Creek watershed is a significant salmon-spawning area, and some trees in the project area are 150 to 200 years old. Trees up to 40 inches in diameter are proposed for logging. The BLM is declassifying 732 acres of northern spotted owl habitat so it can be logged.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

The Evans Creek watershed is home to threatened northern spotted owls, who are highly dependent on mature forest habitat. About 181 miles of streams provide habitat for the Southern Oregon/Northern California unit of coho salmon, a threatened fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. The streams in the watershed also support several other native fish populations, including Chinook salmon, steelhead and Klamath small-scale sucker, which all could be harmed by runoff and siltation from logging operations. The amount of carbon storage loss from this sale is significant. In just one timber unit, Evan’s Gem, almost 20,000 trees with an average diameter of more than 17 inches were cut.

Why these trees should remain standing

The BLM Medford District is interspersed with private industrial timber lands that are clearcut about every 40 to 60 years. These remaining blocks of mature and old-growth habitat are needed for northern spotted owls, whose populations are declining largely because so much mature and old-growth habitat has been lost. These large trees and mature stands are generally resistant to natural disturbance, such as wildfire.

The future of mature and old-growth trees in BLM Medford District

Across the range of the northern spotted owl in western Oregon BLM forests, about 1 million acres of mature and old-growth trees are at risk of being logged. In the BLM Medford District, tens of thousands of acres of mature and old-growth trees are at immediate risk from several logging projects.

Project status

The project was approved in 2019 and logging was mostly complete by end of summer 2022. In September 2022 a federal judge found that the Evans Creek and the nearby Poor Windy old-growth sales were illegally harming northern spotted owl habitat. 

Local contact: Alexi Lovechio, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, [email protected]

Bureau of Land Management, Roseburg District, Oregon 42 Divide Stand Management Plan

Why this forest is special

The Bureau of Land Management Roseburg District project is within the Umpqua River watershed in southwestern Oregon. It includes portions of the Cascades and Oregon Coast ranges. The Umpqua watershed hosts important runs of salmon and steelhead. These temperate, low-elevation forests include large, magnificent mature and old-growth stands that support rich species diversity and clear headwaters that flow to the Coquille River downstream. 

42 Divide Project

As part of the 42 Divide Project, the Roseburg BLM proposes logging 5,280 acres of conifer stands, including clearcutting and commercial thinning on 1,728 acres, and building logging roads. Trees up to 200 years old are targeted for logging. The project includes some of the most intensive tree removal that the BLM allows.

Carbon storage and biodiversity

This coast range forest provides large-scale carbon storage, clean water and mature and old-growth habitat for animals protected under the Endangered Species Act, including marbled murrelets, coho and Chinook salmon, and Northern spotted owls. The most recent range-wide analysis for Northern spotted owls shows alarming population declines, with habitat loss still a major factor. Studies show the survival of marbled murrelets depends on no further loss of Coast Range mature and old-growth habitat.

Why these trees must keep standing

Logging large, old trees and mature stands removes trees most resilient to fire and climate change and most important for owl nesting and roosting. Logging in these older forests removes standing dead and downed dead wood, essential elements of forest health and habitat. Intensive logging will also harm stream flows. The BLM has refused to correct mapping and inventory errors that mischaracterize areas of mature and old-growth forests. This has led the BLM to propose logging trees that are much older than the agency claims.

The future of mature and old growth on the Roseburg District

About 1 million acres of mature and old-growth trees are at risk of being logged across the northern spotted owls’ range in western Oregon BLM forests. The Roseburg District’s forest plan requires maintaining the minimum amount of mature forest necessary to satisfy the legal requirements for marbled murrelet and spotted owl habitat. However, the BLM’s recent logging proposals focus on meeting high timber targets. The agency should undertake lighter-touch thinning only in stands younger than 80 years and in overstocked plantations that were created by clearcutting mature and old-growth stands.

Project status

In November 2021 the BLM announced it was developing an environmental assessment for the project. The agency hasn’t released a timeline.

Local contact: Madeline Cowen, Cascadia Wildlands, [email protected]