JANUARY 9, 2025|
Photo – Timber on forest floor – Bigfoot99 file photo
In Washington, D.C., one year after moving to protect groves of old-growth trees on national forests from logging, the Biden Administration on Wednesday abandoned the plan.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, a long opponent to the idea, welcomed the decision, saying the Biden approach “fails to address the major threats to our nation’s old growth forests, including wildfires.”
In December 2023, the U.S. Forest Service released a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement that would amend all 128 forest plans in less than one year, in direct conflict with its own processes that require tailored approaches at the forest level.
The Biden proposal was driven by environmentalists and opposed by timber companies who would have faced new restrictions as the old forests were left to their own.
Timber industry representatives argued that the Biden plan would give environmentalists new leverage to file legal challenges to logging operations.
Throughout 2024, environmental groups called for logging restrictions to be extended even further and include mature forests, which cover more than 100,000 square miles of forest service land, about three times the area of old growth.
In March 2024, Senator Barrasso introduced legislation to block the Old Growth Amendment and ensure state and local land managers play an active role in protecting America’s old growth forests. The bill simply called for a law prohibiting the Agriculture Secretary from blocking the Biden Administration’s plan.
The Biden plan sought to make old-growth forests off-limits across all 128 forest management plans in the United States. The Biden reversal this week comes as five wildfires rage across Los Angeles with 1,000 structures destroyed and leaving two people dead.
Wyoming’s senior senator, Barrasso, said the Biden plan was “flawed from the very beginning and I’m glad the administration finally withdrew it.”
