We need new, strong protections for our nation’s last remaining old-growth forests. Click here to take action.
Formally protecting old-growth has been a longstanding goal of the conservation movement, which has so far depended on lawsuit after lawsuit against logging of our oldest forests. The Biden administration has released their draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for the “old-growth rule,” but the proposed new rule does little to actually protect old-growth forests. Rather, it appears to create new ways to justify logging. As Andy Kerr, a friend of EPIC, asks, “is this better than nothing, or is nothing better?”
According to the U.S. Forest Service, the prime threats to old-growth forests are insects, disease and fire—all of which are natural, in part, but exacerbated by human activity. To protect old-growth, the Forest Service says that more logging is necessary. The DEIS recommends “Alternative 2,” which encourages “proactive stewardship”—including commercial logging—to combat these threats. Intervention is necessary, the Forest Service argues, and commercial logging can be a tool to better prepare forests for a warmer climate or to steel trees against disease and pests. But the Forest Service has proven it can’t be trusted with commercial logging.
Take, for example, the proposed Bear Country Project located near the Salmon River. Billed as a fire risk reduction project, the Klamath National Forest would log 3,704 acres in unlogged stands, log another 2,330 acres of mature trees, and only “treat” 610 acres of plantations. The Forest Service has cleverly designed a status quo timber sale, which would reduce the canopy of fire-adapted older forests by 70%, while attempting to shield itself against public criticism by euphemistically mislabeling it as “fire risk reduction.”
For any old-growth protection to be successful, we need to remove commercial logging as an option. EPIC is working with Climate Forests Campaign, a coalition of regional and national environmental groups to protect our remaining older forests and trees on federal public lands. By coordinating our comments, we hope to send one loud, clear message to the Biden administration: end commercial logging of old-growth!
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