The missing link in Biden’s climate agenda: letting older trees grow

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Environmental organizations call for a new national forest policy that protects old-growth and mature trees and forests

Environment America

WASHINGTON — A coalition of more than 70 groups launched a new campaign Tuesday called the Climate Forests Campaign. They are calling on the Biden administration to take executive action to protect mature trees and forests on federal lands, which are critical in the fight against climate change. This comes just a year after President Joe Biden signed an executive order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which set out a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by 2050 and to work with partners internationally to put the world on a sustainable climate pathway.

“The Biden administration has pledged to fight climate change, and it should recognize that our forests are one tool in their toolbox they don’t need to invent or invest in,” said Environment America Public Lands Campaign Director Ellen Montgomery. “If we’re going to be serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions, we must get serious about letting trees grow. Mature trees grow into old trees and help us fight climate change.”

Members of the coalition include Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Environment America, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oregon Wild, Standing Trees, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Wild Heritage.

This month marks the 117th anniversary of the U.S. Forest Service. For more than a century, the agency has focused much of its resources on logging and timber sales. The campaign is calling on the Biden administration to kick off a new era of climate and forest policy that values trees and forests as key pieces of the climate solution. 

Forests—particularly older forests—store vast amounts of carbon and continue absorbing carbon as they age. Logging trees in these areas releases most of that carbon back into the atmosphere. Even under the best-case scenario, newly planted forests would not re-absorb this carbon for decades or centuries – timescales irrelevant to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. Older trees and forests are also naturally more fire resistant.  And they help limit the impacts of climate change by slowing soil erosion and moderating temperatures. 

“We need to protect more of our forests across the globe to fend off the impending biodiversity and climate crises,” said Montgomery.  This campaign calls for the Biden administration to take the first step toward meaningful safeguards for forests in the U.S. – by protecting the most important standing trees in those forests. We can no longer allow our forests to be logged to the detriment of biodiversity and the climate crisis. It’s time to adopt a new policy: Let these trees grow.”

Carbon-absorbing older forests are also the best habitat for thousands of species of wildlife, including spotted owls, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and pine martens.

The last comprehensive federal policy to protect national forests, the Roadless Rule, was enacted in 2001 under President Bill Clinton. The Rule was adopted to protect nearly 60 million acres of designated “roadless areas” from logging and road-building, safeguarding significant stands of remaining old growth. Though these areas act as a critical carbon sink, many older trees on federal land lie outside of roadless areas. Scientists and environmental groups say we have to get all our public forests into the climate fight, and do it now.

“Older forests on federal lands drawdown massive amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, serving as a natural climate solution” said Wild Heritage Chief Scientist Dr. Dominick DellaSala.  “The science is clear-cut, we cannot get out of the climate and biodiversity global emergencies without protecting these vestiges of our natural biological inheritance. Doing so would position the U.S. as a global leader that is serious about the president’s pledge at the COP 26 climate summit to end global forest losses whether in the Amazon or here at home.” 

 

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The Climate Forest Campaign works to protect mature and old-growth trees and forests from logging across America’s public lands as a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change.

Environment America is a nonprofit organization that protects the places Americans love and promotes the core environmental values its people share.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; Bozeman, Montana; and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC

Oregon Wild protects and restores Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife, and waters as an enduring legacy for future generations, and is committed to elevating the needs of climate impacted communities and underrepresented voices.

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. 

Standing Trees works to protect and restore forests on New England’s public lands. Based in Montpelier, Vermont, Standing Trees is the only regional organization focused on rewilding the Green Mountain (Vermont) and White Mountain (New Hampshire) National Forests.  

The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation’s most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region’s air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 170, including 90 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.

Wild Heritage, a project of Earth Island Institute, works with scientists and indigenous groups around the world in protecting primary (unlogged) forests and restoring degraded areas. 

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