Jun 20, 2024
WASHINGTON, DC (June 20, 2024) — The Biden Administration today announced a groundbreaking draft Environmental Impact Statement proposing a national forest plan amendment that would protect old growth forests and address the wildfire crisis across all 128 National Forest System land management plans.The proposed plan aims to implement climate-informed, ecologically-based forest management, drawing on traditional Indigenous knowledge to recognize fire as an essential ecological process. This marks a significant proposed shift in federal forest management policy.
Jerry Otero, Grand Canyon Trust Policy Director, stated: “We support the Biden administration and the U.S. Forest Service for acting to ensure that old-growth and mature forests on public lands are thoughtfully and responsibly managed. These forests absorb 10% or more of our carbon pollution and are home to many birds, mammals, and invertebrates. Trees that have stood for over 1,000 years are vulnerable to forest mismanagement. We must ensure that our old-growth and mature forests are conserved and properly managed into the future.”
Public lands workgroup co-lead, America the Beautiful for All CoalitionPat Gonzales-Rogers, Yale School of Environmental Justice Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, added: “Old-growth forests are from the original forests across the United States that were much inhabited by Native peoples. They were proven forest stewards and custodians and had a sustainable approach to managing forests that is still durable today. This plan advances and corners their invaluable knowledge and acknowledges and honors the historical indigenous relationships with our forests.”
Steering Committee, America the Beautiful for All CoalitionÁngel Peña, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project Executive Director, commented: “Wildfires have a profound impact on our communities and cherished landscapes. Lincoln County, New Mexico, is currently going through a tragic wildfire, a place where many of our families here in southern New Mexico go to hunt, camp, and play, and the sacred home of the Mescalero Apache. At Nuestra Tierra, we recognize the importance of wildfire management and are committed to supporting efforts like the proposed National Forest Amendment and the America the Beautiful Initiative. This amendment would provide the framework we need to restore and manage our forests and watersheds while getting work done on the ground and providing jobs. This initiative is crucial in preserving our lands and ensuring they remain safe and accessible for future generations.”
Co-founding backbone team member, America the Beautiful for All CoalitionThe announcement initiates a 90-day public comment period. The final Environmental Impact Statement is expected in October 2024, with the full amendment process to be completed in early 2025.The America the Beautiful for All Coalition stands behind bold and urgent action to protect mature and old growth forests – a major step toward the national 30×30 goal. We urge the Administration to heed the feedback from Indigenous communities and other communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis to ensure meaningful consultation and produce a final amendment informed by community needs.Without this intervention, our forests will continue to disappear from logging and other development and to burn at high severity, putting communities, human health, recreation and natural spaces at risk. A century of fire policy that failed to understand the role fire must play in ecosystem health has disrupted natural wildfire patterns, allowing unnatural underbrush and turning some forests into tinderboxes. Any wildfire strategy that fails to consider old-growth will never be able to achieve truly climate resilient, healthy forests. Old growth trees are a natural climate ally we cannot afford to lose.
About Us:The America the Beautiful for All Coalition is the largest and most representative national coalition consisting of more than 250 organizations working collectively to advance the national goal to protect 30% of US land, water and ocean by 2030 (30×30) and apply a Justice40 metric to that goal. These goals comprise national plans to thwart destruction of natural climate solutions; stem the loss of biodiversity; increase equitable access to nature’s benefits. Working across a range of missions, identities, communities and cultures, this coalition is leveraging the national 30×30 goal to write a new chapter of the American conservation movement where its leaders are more representative of the communities on the frontlines of these crises and where collective action leverages a range of lived and learned experience to drive community-based solutions into DC policy-making. www.americathebeautifulforall.org
