Thank you for taking a once in a lifetime opportunity to protect our mature and old-growth forests
The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres of the country's forestlands and grasslands. But logging, development and climate-related stressors like wildfires and invasive species have dwindled our old-growth forests -- home to our most ancient trees and ecosystems -- to just 12% of these lands.
We all benefit from the gifts of America's old-growth forests. They provide clean air and water, biodiversity and wildlife habitats, landscapes for recreation and play and cultural value to Indigenous communities. Now more than ever, we must ensure these forests not only survive the climate crisis, but thrive.
That’s where the National Old-Growth Amendment comes in. The U.S. Forest Service just shared a landmark new rule aiming to strengthen conservation measures for all 128 forest land management plans nationwide, with a primary goal of addressing the pressures old-growth forests face from human activity and climate change. However, it needs to be strengthened and it’s missing a framework to halt logging of mature trees, which will someday become the old-growth forests of tomorrow.
As of September 20, 2024, over 46,000 of you took action with the REI Cooperative Action Network to tell the U.S. Forest Service to protect our old-growth forests. Once again, our community showed up with the largest number of voices in support of the outdoors. Now, the Forest Service will review comments and we expect to hear results from the comment period early next year.
While we wait, take the opportunity to watch Crown Jewels, a year-long documentary film which journies through some of the last ancient forests on US public lands, highlighting their crucial role in protecting our land, air, and water. Sponsored in part by REI along with Patagonia, Crown Jewels takes you beyond the environmental benefits of our old-growth forests and into the deep cultural and community significance as seen across West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Oregon. Threatened by imminent logging plans by the Forest Service, these ecosystems face permanent destruction unless widespread support for their protection is mobilized. The film advocates for viewers to leverage their freedom of speech to transform federal land management together, urging those who watch to join the effort through local activism and storytelling.
Watch Crown Jewels on YouTube here.