Despite Biden's Promise to Protect Old Forests, His Administration Keeps Approving Plans to Cut Them Down

President Joe Biden announced a new effort to protect old forests in 2022 .

Less than 10% of forests in the lower 48 states remain unlogged or undisturbed by development.

The Bureau of Land Management has allowed timber companies to cut these forests at a faster pace than in the decade that preceded it.

For endangered species, old-growth forest matters immensely for endangered species.

In forests older than 200 years in Oregon , on average, the trees hold more than three times as much carbon per acre as young industrial timber plantations.

Left forests intact keeps more carbon out of the atmosphere than logging them and planting new ones.

BLM officials believe federal law forces them to keep chopping trees.

Environmental groups have sued the BLM for avoiding full environmental reviews of logging projects.

In the past two years , the agency oversaw logging in more than 10,000 acres of forest it labeled as at least 80 years old .

The agency does not expect to revisit its logging plan for Oregon ’s Coast Range until 2028 at the earliest.