SELC applauds U.S. Forest Service proposal that would provide historic protections for nation’s old growth

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Today, 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 incredible water quality, habitat, and climate benefits.

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. To do so, they would limit logging in existing old-growth areas and task Forest Service leaders with improving local strategies to restore old growth, which has been historically targeted for logging.

“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,” said Sam Evans, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center and leader of the organization’s National Forests and Parks Program.

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.

Current land management plans contain a patchwork of inconsistent policies. While old growth is safeguarded from logging in some areas, it is put on the chopping block in others.

“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. We hope the administration will move swiftly to implement these added safeguards and begin using old-growth forests to their full climate potential,” Evans said. 

These historic protections are especially important for forests in the Eastern United States, which have huge carbon storage potential but are disproportionately targeted by logging. For example, the recently finalized Nantahala-Pisgah Forest Plan, which guides the future of more than a million acres of public lands in Western North Carolina, left rare old-growth areas open to heavy logging. Under the proposed amendment, those remaining old-growth areas – along with others across the nation – would only be managed to protect their old-growth characteristics.