this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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US moves to protect old growth forests as climate change threatens their survival (apnews.com)
submitted 1 year ago by LibertyLizard to c/treehuggers
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9751948

The Biden administration is moving to conserve groves of old-growth trees on federal land by revising management plans for national forests and grasslands across the U.S. as climate change amplifies the threats they face from wildfires, insects and disease.

Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack said the goal was to provide an “ecologically-driven” approach to older forests — an arena where logging interests have historically predominated. It would be the first nationwide amendment to U.S. Forest Service management plans in the agency’s 118-year history, he said.

Details were obtained by The Associated Press in advance of Tuesday’s public release of the proposal.

It follows longstanding calls from environmentalists to preserve older forests that offer crucial wildlife habitat and other environmental benefits. The timber industry has fought against logging restrictions on government-owned lands.

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

(AP) — The Biden administration moved on Tuesday to conserve groves of old-growth trees on national forests across the U.S. as climate change amplifies the threats they face from wildfires, insects and disease.

There’s wide consensus on the importance of preserving them — both symbolically as marvels of nature, and more practically because their trunks and branches store large amounts of carbon that can be released when forests burn, adding to climate change.

Past protections for older trees have come indirectly, such as the 2001 “roadless rule” adopted under former President Bill Clinton in 2001 that blocked logging on about one quarter of all federal forests.

Chris Wood, president of Trout Unlimited and a former Forest Service policy chief who worked on the roadless rule, said the Biden administration proposal was a “step in the right direction” to protect the remaining old growth.

The results earlier this year from the government’s first-ever national inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land revealed more expanses of older trees than outside researchers had recently estimated.

Federal wildlife officials reversed the move in 2021 after determining political appointees under Trump relied on faulty science to justify drastically shrinking areas of forest that are considered crucial habitats for the imperiled northern spotted owl.

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