Conservation groups sue to protect old-growth forests

Six environmental groups sued officials of the Biden administration Tuesday, saying a Trump-era rule change that allowed logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest violates federal laws and was politically motivated. In announcing the decision to amend the old-growth protection, which took effect on Jan. 15, 2021, the Trump administration said it would make forests “more resistant and resilient to disturbances like wildfire.” Ochoco National Forest supervisor Shane Jeffries said the 21-inch rule made it difficult to remove fire-prone species without a lengthy regulatory process. “We’re not looking to take every grand fir and white fir out of the forests.” But the lawsuit said the government’s environmental assessment did not adequately address scientific uncertainty surrounding the effectiveness of thinning, especially thinning large trees, for fire risk reduction. The groups said the thinning and logging of large trees “can actually increase fire severity.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pendleton, Ore., said there’s overwhelming evidence that large trees play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and mitigating climate change and that there is a lack of those trees in eastern Oregon after “more than a century of high-grade logging.” The U.S. Forest Service said it doesn’t comment on pending or active lawsuits. They said the amended policy “opens up the potential for large tree logging across the landscape, including in riparian areas designated as Riparian Habitat Conservation Areas.” They said the amendment would affect threatened or endangered fish species such as bull trout, steelhead, three types of sucker fish, and chinook and sockeye salmon.