Logging is still happening in New England

Some of the oldest trees in New England’s national forests are on the chopping block. The Forest Service is proposing to log nearly 12,000 acres of mature forests in Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest, including 200-year-old trees.

The Green Mountain National Forest is home to black bears, coyotes, red foxes and snowshoe hares, all of which will suffer if their home is turned into a logging site.

That’s why Environment America submitted nearly 13,000 public comments to the Forest Service from our supporters opposing this logging proposal.

The proposal, called the Telephone Gap Integrated Resource Project, includes logging in a roadless area.2 Roadless areas are supposed to be off limits for logging and road-building, leaving larger areas of uninterrupted forest, which is necessary for the wellbeing of species that need larger ranges for hunting or finding mates.

Logging in the Green Mountain National Forest would disrupt wildlife and make it harder to fight climate change.

Our mature forests are the climate solution we don’t have to invent. They absorb and store carbon, a value that was recognized by President Biden last year when he issued an executive order directing the Forest Service to protect mature and old-growth forests as a key strategy to address climate change.

Thanks to the president’s order, we have a chance to save our most valuable trees before they’re turned into lumber. The Forest Service recently canceled the Flat Country timber sale in Oregon, a project that faced strong public opposition and that the Forest Service acknowledged was incongruent with protecting mature and old-growth forests for fighting climate change.

We urge the Forest Service to change their plans for the Green Mountain National Forest, too.