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Old growth forests are some of the earth's best carbon sinks, which are made up of natural elements (like soil or trees) that absorb more carbon than they emit. Unfortunately, the majority of earth's carbon sinks are currently failing due to climate change and deforestation. Old growth forests are also essential to the earth's water cycle, which scientists say is out of balance for the first time in history.
For these reasons and many others, forest scientist Dominick DellaSala argues that President Joe Biden should prioritize the protection of mature and old growth forests in the United States before leaving office. DellaSala is the chief scientist at Wild Heritage and has authored over 300 scientific publications and nine books on nature, wildfires, and forest protection. In an op-ed in the Seattle Times, he warns that the country's older (mature and old growth) forests are not safe.
Despite some progress made under the the Biden administration, like the first-ever national inventory of old growth, the federal government is moving ahead with plans to log mature and old growth trees in over a dozen national forests from the Pacific Northwest to Appalachia to the Tongass in Alaska, DellaSala writes. According to some estimates, over 50 million acres of older forests on federal land could be cut down in the coming decades under this plan.
It's not too late to change course. President Biden can still direct the Forest Service to end commercial logging of mature and old growth trees on federal land. "The president can close out his administration with a much-needed legacy gift that would show the world that we are serious about our international forest climate commitments," DellaSala concludes.
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Our salmon have returned home... It’s a beautiful thing.”
