Action Alert– Speak up for mature and old forests! Comment on the USFS National Old-Growth Amendment DEIS

The deadline for public comments on the Forest Service’s National Old-Growth Forest Plan Amendment Draft Environmental Impact Statement is coming up on Friday, September 20th at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time (8:59 PM PST). This will be the last chance for the public to tell the Forest Service that our nation’s mature and old growth forests need strong and enforceable protections!

• Large trees and mature forests, as well as old-growth forests, deserve strong and enforceable protections
• Logging large trees, mature forests, and old-growth is contrary to the best available climate science
• Heavy handed “management” including commercial logging is unnecessary and antithetical to the recruitment and maintenance of old-growth
• Large trees and mature and old-growth forests belong on the forests, not in the mills!

• Our mature and old growth forests are vital climate solutions because of their ability to absorb and store atmospheric carbon, and they provide us with clean air and drinking water.
• In Oregon, logging is the largest source of carbon pollution, greater than transportation or electricity generation.
• With only a fraction of old-growth forests remaining in the PNW, it is crucial to halt logging in mature and old forests, and protect and restore these forests for their crucial roles in providing natural climate solutions, wildlife habitat, and clean water. As we face the unique challenges of the 21st century, we need a new approach that parts ways with the outdated practices of heavy logging, fire suppression, and resource extraction. 

This new approach should: 

• Recognize our PNW forests as vital climate and biodiversity solutions, 
• Protect and restore our remaining mature and old-growth forests,
• Return fire to the landscape, and value the expertise of Indigenous land stewardship.The Forest Service is using fear of fire as a guise for logging in mature and old forests– including heavy logging, clearcutting, and logging of large trees (you can see some of our documented examples here and here). However, working adjacent to homes and communities is more effective for human safety—not logging in the backcountry!Fuels reduction and thinning treatments, especially those in backcountry areas, are seldom effective and sometimes counterproductive at protecting human life and property.Thinning often promotes wildfire spread by increased drying of fuels (by wind and solar radiation), increases wind dispersal of fire, increased growth of ground vegetation fuels, and increased access by humans who cause fire ignitions. Additionally, the window of efficacy for thinning is relatively short and the likelihood of fire interacting with treated areas during that window is statistically quite low.Eastside forests have evolved with fire and require them for forest health. Logging (including thinning) does not replicate fire and other natural processes.  Thinning removes biomass and nutrients, as well as natural habitats, and slows soil production. Fire returns nutrients and biomass to soil and soil production. The natural carbon cycle that has developed over the eons allows for biomass accumulation, soil creation, plant succession, a complex food chain, along with carbon sequestration and healthy biodiversity, and includes fire as part of the process.