Biden forest plan stirs dispute over what counts as ‘old’

BILLINGS, Mont. — President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest forests against climate change, wildfires and other problems devastating vast woodlands is raising a simple yet vexing question: When does a forest grow old?

Millions of acres are potentially on the line — federal land that could eventually get new protections or remain open to logging as the administration decides which trees to count under Biden’s order covering “old growth” and “mature” forests. Underlining the urgency of the issue are wildfires in California that killed thousands of giant sequoias in recent years.

Experts say there’s no simple formula to determine what’s old: Growth rates among different tree types vary greatly — and even within species, depending on their access to water and sunlight and soil conditions.

Any definitions for oldgrowth or mature trees adopted by the Biden’s administration are “going to be subjective,” said Mark Ashton, a forestry professor at the Yale School of the Environment.

Already disagreement is emerging between the timber industry and environmentalists over which trees to count. That’s likely to complicate Biden’s efforts to protect older forests as part of his climate change fight, with key pieces stalled in Congress.

“If you were looking at ecological and academic definitions of old growth, it’s going to be very different from what the White House is thinking about,” Ashton said. “Even the word ‘mature’ is difficult to define.”

Groves of aspen, for example, can mature within a half century. For Douglas fir stands, it could take 100 years. Wildfire frequency also factors in: Ponderosa pine forests are adapted to withstand blazes as often as once a decade, compared to lodgepole pine stands that might burn every few hundred years.

There’s wide consensus on the importance of preserving the oldest and largest trees — both symbolically as marvels of nature, and more practically because their trunks and branches store large amounts of carbon that can be released when forests burn, adding to climate change.

Global wildfires last year emitted the equivalent of about 7.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. That’s equal to about 18% of global CO2 emissions from coal, oil and other energy sources recorded last year by the International Energy Agency.

Concerns that warming temperatures, fires and disease could doom the dwindling number of ancient trees on federal forests drew a bipartisan group of lawmakers to California this month. They touted planned legislation to preserve perhaps the most iconic old growth in the U.S.: stands of massive sequoias that can tower almost 300 feet.

Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias last year, adding to a two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees. The giants are concentrated in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range.

“We’re going the wrong direction. We’re burning up more trees and putting more carbon into the atmosphere,” Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman told The Associated Press after visiting Sequoia National Forest.

But the unity behind saving rare sequoias quickly fades when it comes to “mature” forests — a term that White House climate adviser David Hayes said could apply to stands at least 80 years old.

Westerman, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee and a licensed forester, said the sequoia groves clearly qualify as mature. But much beyond that “it’s a vague term that has no scientific meaning at all.”

“I’ve got a graduate degree in forestry and I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.