The National Disgrace of Old Growth Logging
Why, in the hell, America’s last ancient forests are still on the chopping block
For anyone who cares about forests, science, or public lands, the fact that old growth logging is still allowed in the United States is staggering. By every rational measure it should’ve been relegated to history decades ago. Less than a fifth of our original old growth remains, scattered in fragments across the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and the Northern Rockies. Yet timber sales targeting these forests keep rolling forward, dressed up as “management,” justified as “jobs,” and waved through by federal agencies that still act like it’s 1955.
Old growth isn’t a renewable crop. It’s a vault of carbon, a reservoir of clean water, a genetic library, and a shelter for species found nowhere else. The U.S. Forest Service admits as much. These forests regulate entire watersheds and store more carbon per acre than almost any ecosystem on Earth. A single acre of Pacific Northwest old growth holds more than t…
