We’ve joined with 75 other groups to call on the Biden administration to take executive action to protect the mature trees and forests on federal lands that are most critical in the fight against climate change in the Climate Forests Campaign.
Protecting old forests keeps water cool and clean for native fish species, prevents flooding and erosion, and ensures communities continue to have access to beautiful, natural spaces.
Old forests on federal lands capture and store vast amounts of carbon pollution and should be a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy. Visit the Climate Forest Campaign Take Action page or send your own letter (example text below) to tell the Biden Administration it’s time to let them grow!
Read more about the campaign in The Washington Post.
Resources to Write Your Own Letter
Below is a sample letter you can use to tell the Biden Administration you support letting trees grow. Be sure to write the letter in your own words. For more information about submitting comments that stick, check out our checklist (en Español).
Email addresses:
- White House: comments@whitehouse.gov, emails should be addressed to President Biden and Gina McCarthy
- USDA and USFS: agsec@usda.gov, emails should be addressed to Secretary Vilsack
- DOI: feedback@ios.doi.gov, emails should be addressed to Secretary Haaland
Sample letter:
Dear [target],
Please ensure permanent protections for mature and old-growth forests on federal lands are a central component of our nation’s strategy to address the joint climate and extinction crises. Our older forests are still being logged at an alarming rate — this directly undermines the Biden administration’s efforts to address climate change and protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030.
Taking administrative action to conserve older forests on the United States’ federal lands will represent a broad win for this Administration by mitigating and adapting to the current and future impacts of climate change, conserving habitat to counter the biodiversity crisis, and securing a wide range of co-benefits. Unfortunately, thus far the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have not produced credible proposals for combating climate change nationwide, or for conserving carbon-rich older forests and trees on the lands they manage. The administration should correct that error by protecting older forests and trees on public lands in the United States from logging.
In 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would halt large-scale old-growth logging in the Tongass National Forest. While a critical protective step, additional action is urgently needed to both expand older forest and tree protections across the United States and to ensure that the protections are enduring for the benefit of this and future generations.
I strongly urge you to take administrative action to protect older forests and trees on public lands in the United States from logging and to ensure federal agencies work to recover these carbon-rich landscapes for their climate, biodiversity, and watershed benefits to our nation.
Sincerely,
Key Research to Incorporate:
- Land use strategies to mitigate climate change in carbon dense temperate forests (2018)
- Carbon sequestration and biodiversity co-benefits of preserving forests in the western United States (2019)
- Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks (2008)
- Meeting GHG reduction targets requires accounting for all forest sector emissions (2019)
- Have product substitution carbon benefits been overestimated? A sensitivity analysis of key assumptions (2019)
- Summer streamflow deficits from regenerating Douglas-fir forest in the Pacific Northwest, USA (2016)
- Carbon sequestration and biodiversity co‐benefits of preserving forests in the western United States (2019)
- Severe fire weather and intensive forest management increase fire severity in a multi-ownership landscape (2018)