Earth Day: April 22, 2023
Contact: David Mildrexler, Ph.D., davidm@eorlegacylands.org
Bev Law, Ph.D., bev.e.law@gmail.com
Bill Moomaw, Ph.D., William.Moomaw@tufts.edu
Large trees offer major solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis that are needed now. As President Biden call s for protecting mature and old growth trees on Federal lands , the study describes synergies between protecting these disproportionately valuable large trees and forest resilience goals, providing common solutions for these urgent challenges .
A n earlier analysis found that large trees protect ed by the “21 - inch rule” account for just 3% of total stems in the affected forest s but hold 42% of the total aboveground carbon . Rather than continuing to protect these inherited carbon and biodiversity treasures, the United States
Forest Service recently relaxed the 21 - inch r ule opening the door to large tree logging across millions of acres of National Forest lands east of the Cas cades Crest in Oregon and Washington . The justification for weakening the screens - competition between large trees, is not supported by the new analysis.
Large - scale cutting of even some of the existing big trees would eliminate these carbon stores while releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when we need to have greater sequestration by natural systems to stabilize Earth’s climate. Interest is growing in policy opportunities that align biodiversity conservation and recovery with climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities. The authors conclude that “21 - inch r ule” provides an excellent example of such a policy initiated for wi ldlife and habitat protection that has also provided significant climate mitigation values across extensive forests of the PNW Region.
“ These are public lands that are providing a natural climate solution and performing multiple additional services at no cost. We suggest policy to keep existing forest carbon stores out of the atmosphere and accumulate additional amounts while protecting habitat and biodiversity. ” David Mildrexler
“ There is no action required from us but to leave these large trees standing so they can continue to store and accumulate carbon for climate mitigation and provide critical habitat.” Bev Law
Conservation Science and Practice
Meta-analysis
Not applicable
Protect large trees for climate mitigation, biodiversity, and forest resilience
22-Apr-2023
No conflicts of interest.