The U.S. Forest Service completed its first nationwide inventory of mature and old-growth forests in 2023 as part of the Biden administration’s effort to combat climate change by preserving these critical carbon sinks. While the inventory highlights the value of older trees in sequestering and storing carbon, in this article, critics argue that the coarse maps produced are inadequate for effective management, as they cannot identify specific stands of mature and old-growth forests. The reliance on the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program, which provides broad but sparse data, has left significant gaps that hinder precise conservation efforts.
To address these limitations, the Forest Service is exploring advanced technologies like NASA’s GEDI project, which uses LiDAR to create high-resolution forest maps. However, GEDI was not used in the original inventory and is currently inactive, leaving the low-resolution maps as the primary tool. Meanwhile, concerns grow over the lack of protections for mature forests, which are vital for carbon storage and poised to become old-growth in the future. The Forest Service faces the challenge of balancing conservation goals with economic interests as it implements this ambitious plan.