Call on the U.S. Forest Service and BLM: Protect old-growth and mature forests

Re: Docket ID: 2022-15185

We the undersigned urge you to give our older forests the greatest protections possible through your definition of older and mature forests.

They act as irreplicable habitat for critical species and also play a key role in the fight against climate change. Old-growth and mature forests act as natural vacuums that suck in carbon from the atmosphere and transform it into energy.

In fact, our country's forests absorb more than 10% of annual U.S. global warming pollution.

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management need to consider the impacts of commercial logging, an easily preventable threat. Please act quickly to create a federal rule that protects both old-growth and mature trees -- the future old-growth -- from timber harvesting.

These trees are a critical component in our fight against climate change, we must let them grow to take advantage of their carbon storage capacity.

Sincerely,