Today, the US Forest Service (USFS) announced they will be accepting applications for a 20 member Federal Advisory Committee that will provide formal recommendations to guide the USFS in revising the Northwest Forest Plan. The Northwest Forest Plan area consists of 19 million acres of federal forest lands in western Washington, western Oregon, and northwest California, and the Advisory Committee will provide advice on how to manage this landscape to promote sustainability, climate adaptations, and wildfire resilience. Sierra Club looks forward to supporting this effort and ensuring the Plan’s benefits from the last three decades can continue into the future.
As world leaders gather to address the climate crisis, U.S. land management agencies are undermining President Joe Biden’s commitment to conserve mature and old-growth forests and trees by logging thousands of acres on public lands that serve as climate-saving carbon sinks, according to a new report.
On Friday, October 28 at 7 pm ET, Sierra Club Connecticut Chapter will be hosting the Remington Woods Town Hall, in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Division. Graduate school students from the Yale School of the Environment will share their present findings on conservation pathways for Remington Woods. Members of the community are invited to share their vision and hopes for Remington Woods and members of the media are welcome to attend the listening session and ask questions to the participants.
Environmental groups delivered more than 122,000 public comments today urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to protect mature and old-growth forests and trees on federal public lands as a cornerstone of U.S. climate policy.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, which includes the Environmental Justice for All Act, along with provisions to codify the Roadless Rule, annual funding for firefighter salaries, and funding for forest and water management projects.
Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service initiated an emergency action to protect giant sequoias, in an area covering over 13,000 acres.
In the report released today, Worth More Standing, the Climate Forests coalition details federal logging proposals targeting nearly a quarter of a million acres of old-growth and mature forests overseen by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. The report outlines “a pervasive pattern of federal forest mismanagement that routinely sidesteps science to turn carbon-storing giants into lumber” and calls on the Biden administration to pass a permanent rule to protect these big old trees.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday signed a memorandum to clarify the U.S. Forest Service’s direction on climate policy. The memo, "Climate Resilience and Carbon Stewardship of America's National Forests and Grasslands," follows a recent White House executive order highlighting the importance of conserving mature and old-growth forests on federal lands as a climate solution. The memo, which lays out “actions to restore forests, improve resilience, and address the climate crisis”, falls short in meeting the ambition outlined in President Joe Biden’s order on old forests and trees. Secretary Vilsack acknowledges the role that older trees play in absorbing and storing carbon and supporting biodiversity. But he fails to outline a plan for his agency to protect mature and old-growth forests and trees from commercial logging.
Today, as calls continue to mount demanding bold climate action through legislation and administrative action, President Biden issued an executive order on climate forests and nature-based solutions. The order, which was detailed in a speech celebrating Earth Day, launches a process to define and inventory old and mature forests on federal lands, so that policies are enacted to conserve them, and initiates a nature-based solution assessment to understand nature capital and ecosystems to help in the preservation and conservation of natural places.
Today, President Joe Biden will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to conduct an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on America’s federal lands so that policies can be adopted to protect them. The administration framed the move as a key strategy to store carbon and address climate change.
From the fires to the heatwaves, sea-level rise, blackouts, and more, the climate crisis is here. A changing climate has increased the risk of unnaturally large and more frequent and dangerous fires. The long-term safety of our communities relies on reducing climate pollution, preserving forests to draw down climate pollution and moving away from polluting fuels, and supporting community resilience and preparedness against fires.
Trees and forests are essential for taking on the damaging effects of the climate crisis and for maintaining healthy communities and ecosystems. Last week, Congress took major steps towards supporting essential forestry and tree-planting programs that will make our communities more resilient to extreme weather and build up the critical green infrastructure we need to capture carbon and take on climate change. On this International Day of Forests, Sierra Club is calling on Congress and the White House to act to protect one of our greatest climate solutions: trees.