A POSITIVE STEP FORWARD FOR CLIMATE-SMART FOREST MANAGEMENT

President Biden’s Earth Day Executive Order has real potential to be the start of an important shift in the way forests on federal lands (and beyond) are managed. In the fact sheet provided by the Administration, concerns about climate are front and center. The Order recognizes that forests serve vital functions helping to slow the acceleration of climate change and acknowledges the outsized impact of mature and old-growth forests in capturing and storing carbon. 

Biden’s Order directs federal agencies to create a consistent definition for old-growth forests that accounts for regional and ecological variation and to complete an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land. This inventory will be made available to the public and could serve as a useful tool for conservationists and scientists across the nation.

 

The Executive Order also aims to aid rural economies by supporting community-led efforts to create and sustain jobs in the outdoor recreation and sustainable forest products industries, requires agency-specific reforestation targets, and calls for expanded seed collection projects.

Additionally, the Earth Day Order is directing the government to study and evaluate the vital functions that forest ecosystems provide beyond producing extractable resources. Calculating the monetary value of the many benefits these places provide to society (such as healthy populations of pollinating insects, clean air and water, and carbon sequestration) is a key component in re-imagining how we think about resource management.

Language in the Administration’s fact sheet also recognizes the importance of nature-based solutions to habitat restoration and wildfire risk mitigation. We’re encouraged that Biden’s Order calls for a report on nature-based solutions (projects like CFC’s work installing beaver dam analogs) to slow climate change and enhance habitat resilience.

 

These are all positive steps forward. But what ultimately results from this Order will depend on us. While the Order itself does not prohibit or offer updated guidelines related to logging, it does direct federal agencies to analyze threats from wildfire and other climate impacts facing the mature and old-growth forests they inventory, and to develop new policies to “institutionalize climate-smart management and conservation strategies.”

These new forest management policies aimed at safeguarding mature and old-growth forests will be created through a process “with robust opportunity for public comment.” That means that scientists, conservationists, organizations like CFC, and people like you who care for the future of our forest and environment will all have a role in shaping the policies that will guide how our public resources are used and stewarded for years to come.

Public lands belong to all of us and how they are managed will have an impact on all of our lives, for better or worse. Biden’s Order is an important first step in a process that is only just getting started. It represents an exciting opportunity to work together, speak up, and make a lasting positive difference for our climate, our forests, and our communities.

Big Tree Hunting in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]

By Darvel and Darryl Lloyd 

[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_separator type=”normal” color=”#444444″ thickness=”3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]My twin brother, Darryl, and I have always loved big trees and old forests. We grew up at our family’s Flying L Ranch near Glenwood, Washington, where we hung out at the ranch’s only old-growth ponderosa pine that we named “The Council Tree.” We always loved to explore the lovely old-growth ponderosa pine stands above the Glenwood Valley and fish in the creeks shaded by big cottonwoods, cedars and firs.
So after we sold the ranch in 1997 and settled down a bit in this new millennium, we began taking trips together throughout the west, always seeking out big trees wherever possible. We especially love the remaining old-growth stands in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, getting to know the area quite well after so many years climbing its peaks and driving its back-roads. Throughout our lives we were always awed by the “Trout Lake Big Tree,” just inside the GPNF and one of the state’s largest ponderosa pines until it died last year).
Our passion for hunting giant trees in the GPNF has increased, especially over six years when we’ve made some significant “discoveries” and brought along a steel measuring tape to measure diameters at average breast height (dbh). We’ve held off purchasing an accurate laser height-measuring instrument because of the cost. In some cases, it has taken Internet sleuthing and difficult bushwhacking with map and compass to find some of the giants. Darryl finally bought a GPS device—hooray!
Here are what we believe to be the GPNF’s largest known western redcedar, two Douglas firs, and noble fir by girth and volume, with a caveat: only a tree climber and/or a forest expert (with an accurate height measuring device) would be able to determine these trees’ exact heights and volumes. Of course, there may be larger trees out there, but someone has to find them.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_single_image image=”3092″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”right” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]1. A giant western redcedar (Thuja plicata) 14’ 3” in diameter at breast height (dbh) and maybe 150 feet tall. We dubbed it “Trinie’s Cedar,” after a young lady who helped us discover and measure the brush-surrounded tree. The huge tree is located off FR 25 in the Cedar Flats Research Natural Area in GPNF, on a terrace of the Muddy River. We challenge anyone to find a larger “cedar” in the GPNF![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_single_image image=”3095″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]2. An equally-giant Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) 11 ft.,10” dbh and about 160’ tall to the shattered top, only around 5 miles from of Randle in an unlogged area of the Cowlitz Valley Ranger District. We called it the “Bob Pearson Fir,” a spotted owl expert who discovered the tree and showed it to us. It’s certainly must be one of the largest-diameter Douglas firs still alive in the Cascade Range.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_single_image image=”3097″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]3. An immense “stove pipe” of a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), 10’ 3” dbh, maybe 250-275 tall. Its the largest tree in the Quartz Creek Big Trees Preserve and probably the GPNF’s largest tree in volume, located not far off FR 26, just outside of the Mt. St. Helens blast zone and inside Lewis County. Unfortunately, the Forest Service is no longer maintaining the loop trail through this very impressive grove, and FR 26 is vulnerable to washouts from strong winter storms.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_single_image image=”3098″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_column_text]4. The world’s largest known Noble fir (Abies procera) is located in the Goat Marsh Research Natural Area of the Mount St. Helens NVM, in a magnificent 70-acre stand of very large noble firs and Douglas firs (said to contain the highest wood volume per acre of any research plot in the world outside the California coast redwoods). Discovered by Robert Van Pelt in 2001 and named “The Goat Marsh Giant”, the tree measures 8’3” dbh and approximately 265 ft. tall, with a dead top reducing the height since Van Pelt measured it. It has almost reached the end of its life (age around 300-350 years).[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][vc_single_image image=”3099″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes” qode_css_animation=””][vc_empty_space height=”35px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=”” css=”.vc_custom_1465592094531{background-color: #96d1ae !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=”125px”][latest_post_two number_of_columns=”3″ order_by=”date” order=”ASC” display_featured_images=”yes” number_of_posts=”3″][vc_empty_space height=”75px”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]