Dear President Biden, 

 

We, the undersigned, are writing to thank you for your actions to protect mature and old-growth forests. Your 2022 Earth Day Executive Order and the two proposals currently being developed by your federal agencies  — the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule and the Forest Service’s Nationwide Old-Growth Amendment —  will hopefully represent some of the biggest developments in forest policy in the last 25 years. 

 

We now call on you and your administration to realize the promise of the EO by ensuring outcomes from these policies protect mature and old-growth trees and forests across federal public lands from logging. Protecting and recovering these natural climate solutions would be a key piece of U.S. climate policy, a sign of international leadership, and an enduring legacy of your administration. 

 

Unfortunately, these vital mature and old-growth trees and forests on federal lands are still threatened by logging projects. It is essential that we remove any economic incentive to log these trees. From the ancient sitka spruce of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to the towering oak and maple of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest, we ask that you permanently put a stop to the commercial exchange of old-growth trees. We must ensure these protections apply to every federally managed forest, including the Tongass which stores more carbon than any other national forest. 

 

We ask that you also take action to protect mature trees and forests from commercial logging. The United States has a deficit of old-growth, and mature trees represent the old-growth forests of the future. We need to ensure America's mature and old-growth trees and forests remain in place to mitigate climate change, and to maintain their natural benefits for future generations. 

 

Safeguarding and expanding carbon-rich forests on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands is one of the most important, cost-effective, and timely approaches to fighting the climate crisis. Mature trees store and continue to absorb large amounts of carbon in addition to providing the public with clean drinking water, habitat for imperiled wildlife, and world-class recreational opportunities. Larger, older trees are also more fire resistant and conserving them should be part of a national wildfire strategy. It is entirely within your agencies’ ability and authority to ensure the preservation and recovery of old-growth while also allowing for necessary efforts to address the risk of fire and protect communities.

 

Thank you for your leadership on these important issues.

 

Sincerely,