National Forest Week: You might be surprised at how little old-growth forest we have

July 8-14 is National Forest Week , so we’ll take a look at our 193 million spectacular acres of wildlands. On April 22, 2022, the Biden administration released Executive Order 14072 : “Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies.” The executive order directs the Bureau of Land Management and U.

S. Forest Service to inventory mature and old-growth forests and analyze reforestation opportunities, among other measures to ensure the resilience of America’s forests. An initial national inventory of mature and old-growth forests on BLM and U.

S. Forest Service lands was released on April 20, 2023, along with working definitions that provide quantitative measurement criteria for different forest types.Governmental agencies are concentrating on old-growth forests, or the lack of them.

Early attempts at defining old-growth forests date back to the 1940s, when the term old growth was used to differentiate slower growing, older forests from faster growing, younger forests. The idea was largely based on the diameter at breast height of the largest live trees. Current old-growth forest definitions recognize that tree species, climate, soil productivity and disturbance history all influence the development of old-growth forests.

You can read a full definition of mature and old-growth forests here. If you want to help our forests visit: nationalforests.org The USDA on the value of old-growth forests: Ecosystem: They are life support systems — constantly co.