The Biden administration has called for protecting mature US forests to slow climate change, but it's still allowing them to be logged

An old-growth tree that was cut in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Forests are critically important for slowing climate change. They remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – 30% of all fossil fuel emissions annually – and store carbon in trees and soils. Old and mature forests are especially important: They handle droughts, storms and wildfires better than young trees, and they store more carbon.

In a 2022 executive order, President Joe Biden called for conserving mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. Recently Biden protected nearly half of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from road-building and logging.