Mature and old-growth forests need permanent protections NOW

It's been over a year since President Biden's executive order recognized the importance of these critical forests in a changing climate and called for them to be protected. But still, thousands of acres of mature and old-growth forests in Oregon are at imminent risk of being cut down.

In our backyards, the Medford District BLM is proposing to log over 4,500 acres of mature and old-growth forests in the Poor Windy timber sale.

Take action to let the Biden Administration know enacting federal permanent protections is the only way to keep our remaining mature and old-growth forests alive.

(Image right: KS WIld Cliimate Program Manager, Alexi, standing with old-growth trees slated for logging in southern OR.)

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Please enact permanent protections for US mature and old-growth forests!

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris,

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Thank you for requesting public input on how the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should foster ecosystem resilience and climate resilience on federally-managed forest lands. To meet President Biden’s goals for tackling the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis, it is imperative that both agencies prioritize the protection of mature and old-growth forests and trees on public lands.

Protecting the remaining mature and old-growth forests and trees is one of the simplest and most cost-effective climate policies the U.S. can deploy at scale. Communities throughout the Pacific Northwest (PNW) are threatened by climate-driven wildfires. By protecting our oldest, biggest trees that are most resistant to wildfire, we are also ensuring community safety and protection.

While EO 14072 correctly enumerates the many threats that climate change-enhanced drought and disturbances pose to mature and old-growth forests, it erroneously fails to include on-going logging as a threat to older federal forests and trees. There are numerous logging projects across the PNW that target mature and old-growth trees that underscore this point. These forests collectively contain the bulk of the carbon already stored in federal forests and they continue to sequester carbon at high rates. If continued logging of these trees is allowed, the vital role they play in the fight against climate change will be eliminated.

Our older forests are also critical for addressing the biodiversity crisis. These complex ecosystems provide vital and unique habitats for imperiled fish and wildlife species that are facing extreme stress as the climate crisis unfolds. Intact forests are crucial for their continued survival.

Earlier this year, over 530,000 comments were submitted to the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management calling for lasting protections from logging for mature and old-growth forests. I ask your administration to consider this outpouring of support for our climate forests. I urge you to include in any future administrative rules an end to ecologically harmful logging of mature and old-growth forests and trees on federally-managed public lands. While there are certainly other threats to our older forests, including uncharacteristically severe wildfire and drought, the threat of logging is fully under your control.

Please act quickly to protect mature and old-growth forests and trees. help to mitigate the climate crisis, contribute to healthy watersheds, and provide ecosystem resilience. These forests are worth more standing.

Thank you.

Sincerely, [Your information here]