Updated: 15 minutes agoClimbing assistant Lawrence Schultz ascends a sequoia tree in Sequoia Crest, Calif.
“To ensure the longevity of old growth forests, we’re going to have to take proactive management to protect against wildfire and insects and disease,” Forest Service Deputy Chief Chris French told AP in an interview. Without some thinning allowed on these forests, he said there is a risk of losing more trees.
The proposed changes mark a shift within an agency that historically promoted logging. They’re expected to be finalized before President Joe Biden’s first term ends in January and come after the Democrat issued a 2022 executive order that directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to identify old growth forests across the nation and devise ways to conserve them.
Most old growth forests across the U.S. were lost to logging as the nation developed over the past few centuries. Yet pockets of ancient trees remain, scattered across the U.S. including in California, the Pacific Northwest and areas of the Rocky Mountains. Larger expanses of old growth survive in Alaska, such as within the Tongass National Forest.
By contrast, logging on federal lands cut down about about 14 square miles of old growth. That figure has been seized on by timber industry representatives who argue further restrictions aren’t needed.