As regular listeners may know, the Coast Range Association is a member of the Forest Climate Coalition, which is pushing for strong and durable protections of mature and old growth forests on our federal lands.
As you probably also know, mature and old growth forests are absolute superstars for preserving biodiversity and sequestering carbon. Both of those ecosystem services are desperately needed in the face of the twin crises of climate chaos and ongoing mass species extinction.
As an added bonus, they generously offer these services free of charge, and give us cold clean drinking water to boot! What’s not to love??
Well, the timber industry has long viewed our public lands as an extension of their own fiefdoms, and many of our public lands managers remain fully bought into an outdated and destructive model of "forest management" that prioritizes plantation style tree stands and harvest quotas above all other values.
And that’s where we come in!
After years of pressure from the conservation community and in the face of mountains of scientific research, the Biden administration issued an executive order on earth day on 2022(*) aimed at inventorying and protecting mature and old growth trees and forests on federal lands.
This could, and I am underlining could with a giant metaphorical sharpie here, be an absolute game changer, and everyone listening should be incredibly excited about the potential of that executive order.
Buuut - the devil is in the details, and the only way to get from Biden’s well meaning but vague executive order to actual lasting protections for our most important forests is massive public pressure and engagement towards the federal agencies tasked with implementing that order.
Enjoy the show, get inspired, and take action at https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Show Notes:
Coast Range Association BLM Comment Page: https://coastrange.org/blmaction/
Climate-Forests Action Page (for both the Forest Service and the BLM: https://www.climate-forests.org/take-action
CRR #45- “Fighting for Mature and Growth With Lauren Anderson”: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1046044/11295389
White House fact sheet on President Biden's Executive Order on Forests: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-signs-executive-order-to-strengthen-americas-forests-boost-wildfire-resilience-and-combat-global-deforestation/
(*) Note: I incorrectly stated the year of the executive order in the episode, sorry!