Protecting Old Growth Forests Can Benefit Outdoor Recreationists

Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Photo credit: Will Swann. Cherokee land.

Although we may not always know it, old growth forests are the setting for some outstanding recreation across the country. From the Smith River National Recreation Area in California to the Valley of the Giants on the Oregon Coast Range to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in North Carolina, old growth forests provide outstanding scenery for beloved recreation and connect the outdoor recreation community to the natural history of public lands. Old growth forests have enormous benefits to the outdoor recreation community, as well as larger climate and ecosystem benefits like clean air and clean water.

Because of widespread logging and other development activities over the past two centuries, old growth forests are relatively rare across federal public lands. Many of America’s remaining old growth forests are managed by the National Park Service at well-known protected areas like Olympic or Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, however, old growth forests are also scattered across National Forests and Bureau of Land Management lands. Until now, these agencies have not had comprehensive strategies for managing old growth forests, or, in many cases, even an accurate record of their location and extent.

On Earth Day, the Biden administration released an Executive Order on conserving old growth forests and the many benefits they provide. The order required the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to define “old growth” and then complete an inventory of old growth or mature forests on Forest Service and BLM lands.

Defining old growth forests is more complicated than it might seem. Forests are dynamic ecosystems that are constantly changing due to natural processes like windthrow, fire, and drought, as well as human-caused impacts like fire suppression, climate change, and invasive species. Should “old growth” be defined simply by the absence of logging? What if an unlogged forest experiences a wildfire? And what even counts as a “forest” in the first place? These are the sorts of questions that Forest Service and BLM will be tackling over the course of the coming months as they craft policies for protecting old growth on a national level.

Interior and Agriculture took the first steps toward this inventory by asking the public for its feedback on how to define and inventory old growth forests. Outdoor Alliance shared a comment letter as part of this process, which you can read here, or by clicking on the letter at right.

We shared our support for creating an inventory, and for better defining “old growth” forests. Having an accurate inventory could help outdoor recreationists better understand and protect these places. We hope to see a broad definition of old growth forests that captures a full range of forest ecosystems visited by recreationists, from arid pine forests to lush temperate rainforests. We also hope to see the inventory used to influence on-the-ground conservation, for example through land planning. We also shared our hope that the USFS and the BLM will provide more opportunities for public input after a draft inventory is completed, so that the recreation community and others can share their feedback and ideas about particular places and strategies for defining and protecting old growth forests.

Adam Cramer, Outdoor Alliance’s CEO, said, “Land conservation is a crucial tool in the effort to fight climate change. We are grateful to see President Biden taking action to protect old growth forests and address the climate crisis with this Executive Order. We are pleased that the Executive Order recognizes the important relationship between people and place, as well, foremost in in its inclusion of tribal perspectives but also in its recognition of outdoor recreation opportunities on old growth forests.”