The Climate Change Argument for Preserving Old-Growth Forests
By Meriwether Schroeer-Smith
Esteemed American writer and lifelong conservationist Wallace Stegner once noted in a letter that “in a dry country such as the American West, the wounds men make in the Earth do not quickly heal.” Water, or more acutely, the lack thereof is one of the defining characteristics of the American West. A range of ecosystems stretching from southern Canada to northern Mexico have spent millions of years evolving around this limiting resource. However, these systems and organisms, while highly specialized and resilient by nature, cannot keep up with the dramatic changes caused by climate change or mankind as a whole. Old-growth forests are one natural resource that are becoming increasingly scarce due to human development; namely, logging. Logging these ever declining forests, knowing they will not recover, harms the surrounding communities which rely on them for recreation and income. Moreover, once old-growth forests are logged, they permanently lose much of their ability to provide habitat and sequester carbon from the air to fight the climate change that imperils us all.
Right now in southwestern Montana, there is an ongoing battle to protect three sections of old-growth forest from logging. In 2018, the US Forest Service released plans to log sections of old-growth forest around Bozeman, Montana. These include three well-loved areas in the surrounding area: Kirk Hill Loop trail, around the iconic Fairy Lake, and by Brackett Creek. Anticipating the consequences this would have on the area’s present and future ecological health as well as concerns for the Bozeman community, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service in the fall of 2020. Not only are these proposed actions harmful to the environment and local tourism industry, but the logging of these areas was approved using an outdated Forest Plan made in 1987 that does not contain any provisions to account for climate change. The Forest Service’s failure to supplement the plan’s review with information about “relevant .. environmental concerns [that] have a bearing on the proposed action or its impacts ” is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
While the environmental implications of this lawsuit are serious, so is the impact of such logging on the Bozeman community. The Bozeman Chamber of Commerce cites outdoor tourism as one of the main components of Bozeman’s quickly growing economy. In the 2018/2019 season, there were 1.5 million airline passengers in and out of Bozeman, and these numbers are growing steadily. As stated on the Chamber of Commerce website, outdoor tourism generates the “purchases of goods, services, and travel-related business expenditures, all of which have resulted in growth of employment opportunities for tourism and hospitality sectors.”
As pristine wildlands in the US become increasingly scarce, more travelers are attracted to the sprawling, undisturbed landscapes of the intermountain West. Maintaining a connection with nature becomes increasingly difficult as human development further encroaches on wilderness. The experience of breathing crisp mountain air, seeing lynx paw prints in the snow, or feeling the calmness of mind that accompanies venturing into places bigger than oneself, is irreplaceable. Kirk Hill, one of the proposed logging sites, is a Gallatin Valley Land Trust featured trail. In the trail’s short description on the GVLT website, readers are led along the path starting in a marshy meadow and “weav[ing] through old-growth Douglas-fir forests” before climbing to a “hillside overlooking the Gallatin Valley.” What would be this experience without the trees?
Aside from their recreational value, these trees are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem and a healthy planet. It is hard to overstate the damage that the loss of these trees would do to these rich ecosystems. In addition to the loss of habitat for countless small mammals and birds, the destruction of these trees is also a loss of a food source for bears, cover for medium-sized predators such as foxes and owls, and vital ecosystem services which trees and healthy forests at large perform. Filtering water, sequestering carbon, preventing erosion, and reducing atmospheric heat are all extremely valuable processes that trees and forests perform for free. It is important to stress that while trees are valuable on their own, forests lose much of their ecological value when logged. According to National Geographic, this “disruption leads to more extreme temperature swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.” Birds and animals will not stay in logged areas where cover is sparse, and logging changes the temperature and light patterns on the forest floor.
Replacing the outdated and misleading term “global warming,” climate change encompasses the myriad of environmental changes resulting from the human production of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). While the effects of climate change can lead to warming a factor behind recent devastating wildfires, record droughts, rising sea levels, and ecological failures such as the Joshua Trees dying in Joshua Tree National Park it can also lead to cooling and changes in precipitation. Here in the West, climate change is leading to a decreased amount of precipitation as well as shorter winters. American writer David Gessner writes in his book All the Wild that Remains that in the West, rain is not nearly as valuable as snow, which has “its own storage system” and is “time-releasing.” However, as Gessner also points out, this snowpack is declining every year. Less precipitation, rising temperatures, and man-made dust accumulating on snow and trapping heat are exacerbating the West’s already short supply of water during the dry summer months.
Trees are sometimes regarded in popular culture as civilization’s protector against climate change. But many species of trees are not immune to its effects. The droughts caused by climate change are significant stressors for western tree species already relying upon scarce water resources. Droughts also increase wildfire occurrence, preventing destroyed forests from growing back. These weakened and stressed trees then attract pine bark beetles. These small insects burrow into trees and eat the inner portion of the bark, disrupting its ability to distribute water and nutrients throughout the tree. Rising temperatures in the West also contribute to the beetles’ population growth.
While the Forest Service argues that logging is for the health of the trees, logged forests can worsen climate change by emitting more carbon than they absorb. Trees absorb CO2 as they grow, and release it as they decompose. Causing a massive shock to forests by logging slows tree growth, making them unable to counteract the effect of the CO2 released by logging efforts. While it is possible for trees to be replanted and regrown, reestablishing the full suite of species present in the original old-growth stands would take hundreds of years, if successful at all. Additionally, in the time during regrowth, environmental consequences stemming from the logging would continue, such as erosion and further establishment of invasive species. When taking into account the added stress of pine beetles and fires, it can be reasonably assumed that cutting down these trees would mean a permanent and dramatic change in the appearance and ecological health of these areas.
Trees and forests are extremely valuable to the world’s population. Here in southwest Montana, Cottonwood Environmental Law Center seeks to protect the recreation, revenue, and ecological integrity of Bozeman’s surrounding old-growth forests. Cottonwood’s lawsuit aims to halt dangerous and irresponsible logging in Bozeman’s surrounding forests until the new Forest Plan and accompanying NEPA analysis are complete. At this point, the new provisions for climate change are likely to show that these old-growth patches cannot be cut down.
We must continue to fight to protect this vulnerable landscape. Stay up to date on our news and updates page, and consider signing the petition to stop the Bozeman Watershed logging project. If you want to support Cottonwood, become a member or donate today.