USDA’s Proposed Old Growth Forest Protections

In a notice published in the Federal Register in December 2023, the Agriculture Department said it will direct all land management plans for units of the National Forest System to adopt an “adaptive strategy” to protect old-growth forests, which would include new restrictions on timber harvesting and other policies. The proposal does allow cutting of trees in old-growth areas to allow for “proactive stewardship,” or as part of a broader plan to conserve such areas, but prohibits it for “the primary purpose of growing, tending, harvesting or regeneration of trees for economic reasons.” Old growth forests are considered a significant carbon sink. Of the old-growth forest remaining in the U.S., 46 percent is on federal lands, according to a 2023 inventory completed in preparation of this proposal.