Biden order aims to protect old-growth forests from wildfire

SEATTLE – President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order intended to help restore national forests devastated by wildfires, drought and blight, using an Earth Day visit to Seattle to press for more action on the environment.

Although Biden has struggled to make progress on his most ambitious climate goals, he drew a sharp contrast with his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, who unraveled the country’s fight against global warming.

“We’ve reached the point where the crisis on the environment has become so obvious, with the notable exception of the former president, that we really have an opportunity to do things we couldn’t have done two, five, 10 years ago,” Biden said.

Biden said he was staking his hopes on an up-and-coming generation.

“Every time I get a little down … I just turn on the television or take a look at all the young people,” he said. “This younger generation is not going to put up with all this stuff. No, they’re not.”

Biden detoured into his concerns about getting environmental legislation through Congress, focusing on opposition from Republicans that he described as part of “a MAGA party.” He downplayed divisions among Democrats, saying there are only “two senators who occasionally don’t vote with me,” a glancing reference to Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

“My pen is ready,” Biden said. “Get some of these bills to my desk.”

After his speech against a backdrop of flowering trees in Seward Park, Biden sat down at a table to sign his executive order.

Biden’s order directs federal land managers to define and inventory mature and old-growth forests nationwide within a year. The order requires the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service to identify threats to older trees, such as wildfire and climate change, and develop policies to safeguard them.

Old-growth trees are key buffers against climate change and provide crucial carbon sinks that absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

The order does not ban logging of mature or old-growth trees, the White House said.

By signing the order, Biden can publicly reassert his environmentalist credentials at a time when his administration has been preoccupied by high oil and gasoline prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Gas costs have been a drag on Biden’s popularity and created short-term political pressures going into this year’s midterm elections, yet the Democratic president has been focused on wildfires that are intensifying because of climate change.

The measure is intended to safeguard national forests that been severely damaged by wildfires, drought and blight, including recent fires that killed thousands of giant sequoias in California. Redwood forests are among the world’s most efficient at removing and storing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and provide critical habitat for native wildlife and watersheds that supply farms and communities in the West.

Blazes so intense to kill trees once considered virtually fire-proof have alarmed land managers, environmentalists and tree lovers the world over – and demonstrated the grave impacts of climate change. A warming planet that has created longer and hotter droughts, combined with a century of fire suppression that choked forests with thick undergrowth, has fueled flames that extinguished trees dating to ancient civilizations.

A senior administration official noted that forests absorb more than 10% of U.S. annual greenhouse gases, while also providing flood control, clean water, clear air and a home to wildlife. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss details of Biden’s order before it was made public.