Resolution 2024-01
WHEREAS, all forest successional stages provide important wildlife habitat on federal and non-federal lands; and
WHEREAS, old-growth forests are an advanced stage in forest successional development with distinct assemblages of plants and animals, environmental conditions, structural features, and ecological functions and processes; and
WHEREAS, mature forests which precede old-growth have emerging old-growth characteristics and provide many similar ecological functions such as storing carbon in large live and dead trees, attenuating flood events, moderating environmental extremes, and providing crucial wildlife habitat, with structure and function varying with age, disturbance history, productivity, location, and other factors; and
WHEREAS, intensive management for timber products, conversion for agriculture, and development has significantly reduced mature and old-growth forest across the U.S.; and
WHEREAS, mature and old-growth forests have attributes that increase resilience to drought, insect activity, fire and other natural disturbance, even as amplified by climate change; and
WHEREAS, federal forests sequester and store significant amounts of carbon in mature and old-growth forests, some with the highest carbon density on Earth; and
WHEREAS, conserving and recruiting mature and old-growth forests is a cost-effective, crucial tool for effectively sequestering and storing significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions; and
WHEREAS, given the rapid increase in climate-related stressors, conserving and sustaining old-growth forest and recruiting future old-growth forests from mature forests may require strategic actions including proactive stewardship in and around those forests to support climate mitigation and adaptation and to restore characteristic forest structure and spatial pattern and fire frequency and behavior; and
WHEREAS, mature and old-growth forest conservation and restoration offers a wealth of ecosystem services and other co-benefits, including clean drinking water for communities, habitat for at-risk fish and wildlife, cultural significance for Tribes, and outdoor recreation opportunities, that are critical to health, prosperity, and resilience of communities; and
WHEREAS, the Forest Service has initiated a National Old-Growth Amendment process to establish consistent plan direction across the National Forest System to strategically expand old-growth forest distribution and abundance and protect old-growth forests from threats and stressors.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled June 26-29, 2024, recognizes the ecological and cultural value of mature and old-growth forests across the nation, and their essential role as fish and wildlife habitat, climate change mitigation through carbon capture and retention, disturbance resilience, and other services; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation supports durable national policy to monitor, protect, conserve, and sustain mature and old-growth forests on public land, to restore their distribution and abundance, and to enhance climate resilience.
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