Biden administration expected to announce plan to protect forests from fire, other climate change side affects
Fox News
President Joe Biden's administration plans to craft a rule that will protect the nations forests from side effects of climate change such as fires.
Results from the government's first-ever national inventory of mature and old-growth forests on federal land were obtained by The Associated Press in advance of a public release.
U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands combined have more than 50,000 square miles of old growth forests and about 125,000 square miles of mature forests, according to the inventory.
That's more than half the forested land managed by the two agencies, and it covers an area larger than California. Yet officials say those stands of older trees are under increasing pressure as climate change worsens wildfires, drought, disease and insects — and leaves some forests devastated.