Manley Fuller
| Guest Opinion
“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.”
Joyce Kilmer wrote his famous poem “Trees” more than 100 years ago, yet his words are maybe even more poignant today than they were then. Here in North Carolina, we know a thing or two about trees. More than 54% of our state is covered with forest land — including the 3,800 acre forest that was set aside to honor Kilmer. The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest within the Nantahala National Forest of Graham County contains impressive old-growth trees (some more than 400 years old and 100 feet tall) and is a rare eastern United States example of a forest type that was much more common prior to the early 1900s.
But across our nation, old growth and mature forests are in trouble. They are threatened by disease, invasive exotic species, insects, drought, megafires and other impacts from climate change. There are approximately 32 million acres of old growth and 80 million acres of mature forests on federal lands across the country, but since 2000, we’ve lost two and a half million acres of mature and old growth forests, according to a report from the U.S. Forest Service last year.
It’s one of the reasons that the National Wildlife Federation and its 52 affiliates, including the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, passed a resolution this summer recognizing that all forest successional stages provide important wildlife habitat and specifically called for a “durable national policy to monitor, protect, conserve, and sustain mature and old-growth forests on public land, to restore their distribution and abundance, and to enhance climate resilience.”
Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a plan that aims to do just that. It’s called the National Old Growth Amendment and it is designed to better manage older forests so they can survive and thrive for future generations — even as our climate changes.
Mature and old growth forests provide us with so much: species-rich habitat for wildlife, water for drinking and for aquatic life, carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change, and endless opportunities for nature-based outdoor recreation. But all of that is at risk if forest managers aren’t given the tools necessary to steward climate-resilient forests.
The proposed policy will make maintaining and restoring healthy old growth forest a higher priority for the U.S. Forest Service. Management and restoration of old growth areas will involve active management such as controlling invasive pests. It will encourage the use of prescribed fires or thinning, where appropriate. Having healthy and diverse old growth and mature forests will complement other younger and open forest types and provide habitats for a wide range of native species in need of conservation.
The policy recognizes that all forests are different, but they must be managed using a combination of western science and Indigenous knowledge. Forest management plans must be devised in collaboration with local stakeholders. They must be flexible enough to adapt as conditions change, and the forests must be monitored to assess successes and challenges. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy for forest management. Parts of some older forests should be treated with a lighter hand. Others should be actively managed to improve the ecological health of the landscape.
As someone who has hiked, hunted, fished, camped and explored the forests of North Carolina since I was a young boy, I appreciate that this proposed action recognizes the ecological, cultural and biodiversity values of mature and old growth forest as a critical element of the mosaic of wildlife habitats in our National Forests.
As Vice President of Conservation Policy at North Carolina Wildlife Federation, I applaud the agency’s plan to establish accountability and consistency in forest management while allowing adaptability for specific conditions on the ground. I also admire that the administration has tried to craft a durable, commonsense plan that can garner bipartisan support for managing these critical resources. We believe this national strategy will result in healthier, more diverse forests that are more resilient to impacts from climate change.
The old-growth plan is currently open to public comment until Sept. 20. I urge anyone who values North Carolina’s forests to speak up! You can provide a comment or learn more about the old-growth amendment by visiting www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/old-growth-forests.
More: Opinion: Brushy Mountain logging project near Highlands will damage habitat, cause erosion
More: Opinion: Due to lawsuit US Forest Service abandoned Nantahala NF logging plans
Manley Fuller is Vice President of Conservation Policy at North Carolina Wildlife Federation.
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Publish date : 2024-08-31 22:02:00
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