Fight Climate Change, Protect the Trees
Mature and old-growth forests are also known as "climate forests" because they offer natural climate solutions that remove and absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere while providing vital refuges for many at-risk species and vulnerable wildlife. The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a policy that needs your input so we can ensure it contains the strongest possible protections for our forests. The proposed plan could protect old-growth trees in national forests from most logging, but the Forest Service also needs to issue strong protections for mature trees, which are our future old-growth forests and exist in greater numbers than old-growth. Join Earthjustice, the premier nonprofit public interest environmental law organization, in telling the United States Forest Service to protect old-growth and mature forests from logging.
Safeguarding and expanding carbon-rich forests on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands is one of the most important, cost-effective, and immediately available strategies to fight the climate crisis. Older trees accumulate and store enormous amounts of carbon over many centuries and provide vital wildlife habitat, clean water, clean air, and mitigation for floods and droughts. Larger, older trees are also more fire resistant.
The Forest Service's promising new proposal rightly recognizes the importance of mature and old-growth forests and trees. Protecting them is exactly the direction federal forest management needs to move. We need to ensure our country's mature and old-growth trees and forests remain in place to mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and continue providing their natural benefits for future generations. Send a letter to the Forest Service today.
RE: Land Management Plan Direction for Old-Growth Forest Conditions Across the National Forest System #65356
Dear U.S. Forest Service,
I am writing to thank you for the exciting proposal you released on December 19th that will move our climate fight forward by reducing the commercial logging of old growth in our national forests. We now call on you to realize the promise of President Biden's forest executive order by finalizing strong standards to protect old growth and by issuing strong protections for mature trees and forests from the clear and present threat of logging. Protecting and recovering these natural climate solutions would be a key pillar of U.S. climate policy and reinforce United States' international climate leadership.
Safeguarding and expanding carbon-rich forests on Forest Service lands is one of the most important, cost-effective, and timely approaches to fighting the climate crisis. Mature and old-growth 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 the protections would allow for necessary efforts to address the risk of fire.
Unfortunately, vital mature forests and the trees within them are currently threatened by numerous proposed and ongoing logging projects. We need to ensure both mature and old-growth trees and forests on federal lands, including our national forests, remain in place to mitigate climate change, and to maintain their natural benefits for future generations. Thank you for your leadership on these important issues.
Sincerely,
[Name]
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