USFS pulls old-growth amendment
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) The U.S. Forest Service has pulled its intent to issue an official nationwide policy to preserve old-growth forests.
After the Forest Service spent more than two years studying mature and old-growth forests and taking public comment on the threats they face, U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore issued a statement late Tuesday saying he decided to withdraw the notice of intent to issue an old-growth amendment. Moore dropped the amendment after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry, according to the Associated Press.
In a Jan. 7 letter to Regional Foresters and Forest Supervisors, Moore said he’d heard from many who wanted a strong amendment to conserve old-growth.
“We heard clearly that old growth forests are culturally and ecologically important to Americans, and that there is broad support for old growth conservation as an essential component of ecological integrity. There is strong support for, and an expectation of us, to continue to conserve these forests based on the best available scientific information,” Moore wrote.
However, Moore said the public comment had pointed out that forests are different in different locations, so they needed to be managed differently. Therefore, decisions needed to be made at the local level.
“We heard that dry forests and wet forests likely need different prescriptions, and that there are key differences between ecosystems with frequent fire return intervals versus those with more infrequent fire regimes,” Moore wrote.
He highlighted stewardship goals that managers should remember when rewriting or amending forest management plans. First, old-growth stands provide ecological integrity to each area so they should be conserved in sufficient abundance, diversity and distribution so they remain resilient. Second, mature trees should be preserved to become old-growth to maintain and restore sufficient abundance, diversity and distribution.
Finally tribal priorities and values should be considered as part of management of old-growth.
“While this letter reflects lessons learned at the national level, decisions on maintaining or restoring old growth forest conditions so they are resilient and persist into the future will be made at the local level, informed by the best available science, public engagement, contributions from cooperating agencies, and consultation with Tribes. The learning shared in this letter will allow you to tailor your actions to local conditions while reflecting national considerations for old-growth conservation,” Moore wrote.
Moore’s announcement was scarcely out before Governor Greg Gianforte issued a statement.
“Today’s announcement from USDA to withdraw the National Old Growth Amendment is welcome news to the State of Montana. Over the course of the last three years, USDA and the U.S. Forest Service have failed to adequately engage with governors and states to address flaws in this plan. I look forward to a new era of collaboration with our federal partners once President Trump’s nominees are confirmed by the Senate,” Gianforte said in a release.
In February, Gianforte joined with five other Republican governors in criticizing the USDA for not engaging the states to a greater extent on the amendment. Their letter to Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack also pushed instead for allowing forest logging projects to be fast-tracked. Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed on.
In October, former Lolo National Forest supervisor Carolyn Upton made the decision to delay the release of the draft environmental study for the new Lolo National Forest Management Plan partly to see what the old-growth amendment would say. Now, the revision team only needs to consider Moore’s suggestions for old-growth management.
In April 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to conserve and restore old-growth forests, the ecosystems they support, and the climate change benefits they provide. Also, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allocated $50,000,000 for old-growth protection.
As a result, the Forest Service needed to develop a consistent framework for conserving, stewarding, recruiting and monitoring old-growth forests. Scoping began in April 2023 as part of the Forest Service’s Climate Resilience rule-making, and the first public comment period garnered 6,400 comments.
The Forest Service conducted an inventory of all national forests - published in June 2024 - that classified 47% of forests as mature while 18% meets the requirements for old growth. Nearly half of the old-growth stands - about 11 million acres - are outside protected monuments, wilderness or roadless areas.
The inventory also found each national forest defines “old-growth” differently depending on the vegetation and history of each national forest, so the inventory was based on regional and local definitions. In addition, old-growth forests in different areas face different threats.
In the draft environmental impact study published in June 2024, the Forest Service decided against a single definition of old-growth and no areas would be delineated as old growth. “Old-growth” would depend on the quality and ecological function of an area as well as the age of the trees.
The agency’s preferred alternative action would use an adaptive strategy to manage old-growth, which allowed some logging of old-growth if it would “promote the composition, structure, pattern, or ecological processes necessary for old-growth forests to be resilient and adaptable to stressors and likely future environments.”
By the end of September, the draft study had received almost 9,800 comments during the 90-day comment period. They ran the gamut from some commenters asking for no logging of old growth stands to those insisting that logging is necessary to stop wildfires and disease.
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.