REI—The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres of the country’s forestlands and grasslands. But logging, development and climate-related stressors like wildfires and invasive species have dwindled our old-growth forests — home to our most ancient trees and ecosystems — to just 12% of these lands.
That’s where the National Old-Growth Amendment comes in. The U.S. Forest Service just shared a landmark new rule aiming to strengthen conservation measures for all 128 forest land management plans nationwide, with a primary goal of addressing the pressures old-growth forests face from human activity and climate change. However, it needs to be strengthened and it’s missing a framework to halt logging of mature trees, which will someday become the old-growth forests of tomorrow.