“Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.” – Mark Twain
This comes to mind when considering the reaction by anti-forestry groups (and some in the news media) to the Biden Administration’s new old growth policy, which we covered here.
“Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced a new proposal aimed at banning logging in old-growth forests, a move meant to protect millions of trees that play a key role in fighting the climate crisis,” proclaims The Guardian.
“Mature and old-growth forests are an essential component of a broader climate-crisis solution — but only if we protect them from logging,” according to Wild Earth Guardians.
“Protecting our old-growth trees from logging is an important first step to ensure these giants continue to store vast amounts of carbon, but other older forests also need protection,” says the Center for Biological Diversity.
Just two days before the public comment period closed on the Forest Service’s “Notice of Intent” on Old Growth Forests, the government released its “analysis of threats” to mature and old growth forests on federal lands.
The analysis confirmed previous reports that wildfire, insects and disease, not logging, posed the most significant threat to older forests. Since 2000, wildfires resulted in a decrease of an estimated 2.57 million acres of mature and 712,000 acres of old-growth forests on National Forest System (NFS) and BLM lands. Insects and disease caused a decrease of 1.86 million acres of mature and 182,000 acres of old growth.
Severe wildfire continues to pose much more of a threat than chainsaws. That’s because 70 to 80 percent of mature and old growth forests are at “high exposure” to wildfire-caused mortality according to the analysis.
As for logging, the analysis found that 2.1 million acres of mature forests and 400,000 acres of old growth experienced “tree-cutting effects.” Yet on 92 percent of these acres, the tree cutting treatments were found to improve or maintain conditions for these forests, including improvements to wildfire resiliency.
Does the timber industry pose a serious threat to mature and old growth forests, as anti-forestry groups proclaim? No. The analysis found almost half of inventoried mature and old growth forests are in firesheds where wood processing capacity is low, but current threats including severe wildfire are high.
The report suggests the lack of loggers, sawmills, truckers and others in these areas “may struggle to practice active management to reduce such threats” to these older trees.
The report closes by stating the “environment of the predicted future, and not that of the past, should guide policy considerations related to mature and old-growth management.”
Sustaining and increasing mature and old growth forests for the future will likely require more chainsaws to reduce the primary threat of wildfire, yet anti-forestry groups don’t want to let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
