John,

On Earth Day this year, President Biden directed the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to conserve old-growth and mature forests as a climate solution. It was a historic step toward meaningful protections for forested federal lands. 

Ending the logging of mature forests and trees on federal public lands is a key strategy for curbing climate change — while also protecting biodiversity and healthy watersheds. Mature forests hold enormous amounts of carbon, safely stored in trunks, branches and soil. Left to grow, they will store even more. Yet federal agencies routinely target these carbon-storing heroes for logging. 

But there’s a solution. Defining “mature” forests and trees as those 80 years of age and older, and then protecting them, would spare our most climate- and carbon-critical forests. 

Tell the Forest Service and BLM that these trees are worth more standing than cut down — they must protect these climate champions.