Forest Service proposal means more protections for South’s old growth 

This week, the U.S. Forest Service announced a groundbreaking proposal to increase protections for old-growth forests on public lands. The move marks a significant shift in how the agency manages old-growth forests, which provide unique water quality, habitat, and climate benefits.  

Our old-growth forests provide a straightforward way to fight climate change, safeguard clean water and air, create unmatched recreation experiences, and are habitat for rare species.

Sam Evans, National Forests and Parks Program Leader

The agency is proposing a series of amendments to individual forest plans – which are the guiding documents for individual national forests and grasslands. These amendments aim to maintain, improve, and expand old-growth forests by limiting logging in existing old-growth areas and tasking Forest Service leaders with improving local strategies to restore old growth.  

While the historic announcement will have a major impact across the county, it will have a particularly significant effect in the East, where forests are disproportionately targeted for timber production. 

“Our old-growth forests provide a straightforward way to fight climate change, safeguard clean water and air, create unmatched recreation experiences, and are habitat for rare species. We are excited about the Forest Service’s critical step toward protecting these remarkable ecosystems,” Sam Evans, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center and leader of the organization’s National Forests and Parks Program, said.  

Forests pull massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, and old-growth forests can store centuries’ worth of carbon. Along with their amazing climate benefits, old-growth forests filter water for downstream communities and create unique habitat conditions needed by rare and endangered species. 

Currently, old-growth forests on public lands are managed by a patchwork of inconsistent local planning documents. While old growth is safeguarded from logging in some areas, it is put on the chopping block in others.  

The inconsistencies are evident in the recently finalized Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, which guides the future of more than a million acres of public lands in Western North Carolina. Despite thousands of objections, the Plan targeted thousands of acres of old growth for logging and lacked a strategy to ensure that healthy mature forests stay on track to become old growth in the future. Under the proposed amendment, our remaining old-growth areas – along with others across the nation – would be managed only to protect their old-growth characteristics.  

“The current patchwork of local policies leaves many old-growth areas unprotected and at risk of being logged. Amending forest management plans will create much-needed consistency around how these incredible tracts of older forests are managed,” Evans said.   

Since its creation, SELC has fought reckless logging projects that put the South’s mature and old-growth forests at risk, and recently we have been pushing the Biden administration to implement additional protections for old-growth. We look forward to continuing to work with Forest Service leaders during the upcoming comment processes to ensure this policy meets its ambitious intent.