Raleigh, N.C. – As the comment period on the U.S. Forest Service’s (USFS) National Old-Growth Amendment comes to a close on Friday, environmental groups from across North Carolina held a virtual press conference on Tuesday to bring attention to the issue and encourage the public to press the Forest Service for stronger protections for North Carolina’s old-growth forests. Due to decades of logging, very few of the state’s old-growth forests remain. These rare forests provide crucial habitat for endangered species and absorb more planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than younger trees. Yet, they continue to be at risk from logging. Based on a new analysis from the Southern Environmental Law Center and several conservation groups, including MountainTrue, environmental groups say that the Biden Administration’s proposed amendment fails to adequately protect old growth.
Advocates are encouraging the public to submit comments to the Forest Service on the old-growth amendment process by the deadline of 11:59 pm ET, Friday, September 20th.
“The Forest Service’s new plan doesn’t provide strong enough protections for our remaining old-growth trees, in North Carolina and across the nation. The Buck and Southside logging projects in the Nantahala already threaten the health of our forests,” said Emily Mason, advocate, Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center. “North Carolina’s old-growth trees are worth more standing and need to be protected for generations to come.”
Advocates say that far from meeting its intent of protecting and restoring old-growth forests, the NOGA’s current language could allow for continued inappropriate old-growth logging. Analysis shows that the proposal fails to allow a hands-off approach to conservation, which could better serve old-growth forests. Instead, the agency is solely focused on active management, which can often harm old-growth forests. Without clear directions not to degrade old-growth, the Forest Service could continue with business as usual, logging old-growth trees.
The environmental groups are also pushing for clear guidance from the USFS on a process to “recruit” future old-growth forests, especially in the Southeast, where they are increasingly scarce. They also want increased clarity around exceptions for logging old-growth and strong monitoring and accountability measures to ensure the implementation of the new amendment.
Watch the full video of the press conference:
Below are comments made by press conference panelists:
Josh Kelly, Resilient Forests Director at MountainTrue, said:
“For over 40 years, MountainTrue has had to fight to protect old-growth forests across Western North Carolina. We have done the on-the-ground work of mapping 90,000 acres of old-growth remnants. We have fought the timber sales that would have cut the last relics of ancient forests. From Tusquitee Bald in 1986, to Big Ivy in 1994, to Big Choga in 1996, Brushy Mountain in 2018, and the Crossover Project in 2022, people have been standing up for these forests and opposing commercial logging on public land for generations. We have had to fight not just politicians, but the Forest Service itself.
That’s why nationwide protection of old-growth on Federal Land is needed. Consistent, objective rules to conserve old-growth, and to right the mistakes of the past – including fire exclusion – are needed. Once old-growth forests are gone, it takes many human lifetimes to get them back. Activities that liquidate old-growth forests should be prohibited on Federal lands.”
David Reid, National Forest Issues Chair, NC Chapter of the Sierra Club, said:
“We hope to establish a clear way to protect, but also increase the amount of old-growth forest across the country.
[…] This goal was acknowledged in Biden’s executive order of increasing that. However, the agency’s current proposal falls short of that vision. Shifting our approach to national forests – from resources meant for extraction to natural wonders worth preserving – is long overdue.
[…] On the Pisgah-Nantahala, they have inventoried an old growth network as Josh says, and MountainTrue of course has done their work, some of which is not in the forest inventory. Some of this is protected in the forest plan, other areas are not. Therefore, this amendment needs to ensure that the decision to protect old growth is spelled out at the Plan level and not open to interpretation by local project managers.
We are leery that rationales could be put forward to enter old growth areas and log them under the guise of these different Plan objectives. With the current inflated timber targets in the plan, planners would be under pressure to include areas that are currently in the “suitable timber base,” as some of these old growth areas are.”
Will Harlan, Southeast Director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said:
“Trees older than our country are being hauled out of the forest on logging trucks as we speak. The Brushy Mountain timber sale is logging old growth in North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest right now. And the proposed national old-growth amendment would allow more Brushy Mountains to occur.
[…] We urge the forest service to finalize a stronger final amendment that prohibits the commercial sale of old-growth and closes the many bulldozer-sized loopholes and exceptions that make it easier to log our last remaining old-growth forests. There is absolutely no ecological reason or any reason to log old-growth forests. They are worth far more standing than cut down.”
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About Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center
Environment North Carolina Research & Policy Center is dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We work to protect the places we love, advance the environmental values we share, and win real results for our environment. For more information, visit www.environmentnorthcarolinacenter.org.
About MountainTrue
MountainTrue is a grassroots environmental nonprofit that champions resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. For more information, visit mountaintrue.org.
About the N.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with tens of thousands of members and supporters in North Carolina, among millions nationwide. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds to explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org/north-carolina.
About the Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
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