Visiting Seattle, in the very green and heavily forested state of Washington, Joe Biden on Friday underlined the importance of forests – and especially the oldest of them – in the fight against climate change, and laid the groundwork of their protection.
Under a presidential executive order – effective immediately – the US Departments of Agriculture and Interior will have one year to inventory all old-growth forests on federal lands.
They will also have to “propose new policies to ensure the management and conservation of these wooded areas”with particular attention paid to the threats hanging over them, such as fires, reports NPR.
“The CO2 stored by forests, harvested timber, and trees in urban areas accounts for about 14% of the carbon dioxide emitted each year by the United States”explains the American public radio. “Older, larger trees tend to store more CO2, even scientists disagree on how much CO2 they continue to store as they age”.
A tree is currently considered old when it is over 150 years old. But Joe Biden’s decree also entrusts his ministries with the task of finding them a more precise and reasoned definition, and common to all the administrations of the country, in order to facilitate their inventory and their protection.
Executive orders take effect upon signing and do not require a vote of Congress to be enacted. But they can be repealed just as easily by another president, often limiting their long-term effects.