The Forest Service continues to approve old-growth logging projects in spite of the Biden administration’s executive orders promoting old growth protections.
One of the more egregious examples is the Black Ram Project, a plan to cut 95,000 acres in the Yaak River Valley in Montana, an ancient forest of subalpine fir, spruce, red cedar, western hemlock, and larch trees, some of which are more than 600 years old. A federal judge halted the plan after the Forest Service approved it, but the Forest Service has appealed the decision.
The Telephone Gap project targets 11,800-acres of mature and old-growth trees on the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.
On the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Jellico project will cut mature forests and more than 1,000 acres of rare Eastern secondary old-growth forest. From coal-mining to clear-cutting to oil-and-gas extraction, the Jellico Mountains have experienced extensive exploitation. The return of mature and old-growth forests demonstrates amazing resilience.
