Our few remaining old-growth trees are disappearing, and it’s bad news for the climate.
Friend, a healthy old-growth forest is so much greater than the sum of its parts.
It's an irreplaceable home for the wildlife that depend on its unique ecosystem for food and shelter. It's a powerhouse tool in our fight against extreme climate change, capturing and storing carbon that would otherwise heat the atmosphere.
But our nation's few remaining mature and old-growth forests could vanish as they remain vulnerable to a greedy logging industry that chops down trees that have thrived for hundreds of years, all for the sake of shareholder profits. We're fighting back to protect our forests and public lands – in court, in the halls of Congress, and more – but we urgently need your help to power this critical work before even more ancient trees disappear from the earth.
When you join the Sierra Club with a gift of $15 or more, you'll also enjoy exclusive member benefits like a subscription to Sierra magazine, automatic membership in your local Sierra Club chapter, discounts on apparel, books, and other merchandise, and more! Join now to claim your benefits and help save threatened forests.
Mature and old-growth forests provide enormous benefits to our environment that young forests cannot. Over centuries, they form complex ecosystems that nurture diverse plants and wildlife that would struggle to survive elsewhere. They're more resistant to wildfires. They provide drinking water for over half of Americans. And they sequester massive amounts of carbon as they age, pulling it from the atmosphere and storing it in their trunks, branches, leaves, roots, and soil.
The Sierra Club is working to defend our priceless forests on every front – from fighting in court to protect California's towering Sequoia groves from commercial logging, to pushing Congress to pass stronger safeguards that would protect public lands like our national forests from the grave threat of industrial extraction. And our efforts are working: following pressure from Sierra Club supporters and our coalition partners, the Biden administration made the most significant commitment to forest conservation in 20 years.
But we're running out of time to finalize long-lasting, meaningful protections for mature and old-growth forests – and with every passing day, more majestic forests remain vulnerable. We urgently need your support to ramp up our work in the critical weeks and months ahead.
When it comes to fighting climate change, it's hard to imagine a greater gift from nature than our old-growth forests. But it's up to us to protect them, and all of our public lands. Thank you for your support for this vital work.
With gratitude,
Alex Craven (he/him)
Forest Campaign Manager
Sierra Club
