Keep Our Mature and Old-Growth Forests Intact to Fight Climate Change!

The crisis of climate change requires a massive change in the way we use natural resources. But reducing our carbon emissions won't be enough to solve the problem alone—we must also remove and sequester the man-made carbon emissions already in the atmosphere.

There may be technologies that do just that in the future. But for now, nature has the best way to capture and hold carbon—mature and old-growth forests!

But our older forests are still falling prey to short-sighted logging interests. In fact, experts estimate that as much as 95% of mature and old-growth forests in the United States have been lost to logging.

We must act now to save our remaining forests to help prevent a climate catastrophe!

The facts:
  • Mature trees sequester carbon at high rates and store it for long periods of time. 
  • Even when a mature tree dies, it can retain most of its carbon for decades–if not centuries–if left in the forest.
  • Even in the most severe forest fires, trees still hold on to most of their stored carbon.
  • Of the human-caused global CO2 emissions since 1870, 26 percent is due to emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
  • "Plantation" forests planted for timber harvest store far less carbon than mature and old-growth forests, and because they are harvested, they hold carbon for far less time.

Take Action!
Tell the Biden Administration to protect our mature and old-growth forests from further destruction.

White House:
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500

Sec. Tom Vilsack
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture:
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20250

Sec. Deb Haaland
U.S. Dept. of Interior:
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240