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Logging US Forests

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Who owns the forest? Today, forests cover 800 million acres of the US, over a third of the landscape.1 About 60% of US forestland is privately owned, two-thirds by families and a third corporate; 3% is tribal; and 40% is publicly owned federal, state, and local forests. Ownership in the East and South is mostly private, while Western forests are predominantly public.2 National Forests have a multi-use mission to meet the needs of present and future generations for outdoor recreation, grazing land, timber, water, and wildlife and fish.3 National Parks preserve natural and cultural resources. Wilderness areas have the highest level of protection.  

Most logging in the US is on private land. Clear cutting removes all trees from large areas, cost-efficiently obtaining lots of timber quickly.4 However, stabilizing roots are removed along with the trees, leading to soil erosion, poorer water storage and filtration, and disruption of mycelial nutrient networks. Cleared areas are replanted with one or a few tree species in rows. Thinning, or removing crooked or smaller trees, is used to lessen competition and promote trees of desired diameter, uniformity, and density. The rotation or time of harvesting depends on tree and economic return, with new trees usually harvested before full maturity. Planted forests are not equivalent to natural forests; they are less biodiverse, less resilient, less carbon rich.

Logging, as practiced, is not carbon neutral. Older mature trees store a lot of carbon, which is released when the trees are hewn. Only a fraction ends up in longer-lived wood products. A young sapling takes time to establish, then captures carbon for decades as it grows and matures. When logged before full growth, the carbon debt from felling the older tree is not repaid by the young tree.5 Logging releases carbon that can take a hundred years or more to be recaptured by new trees.

Old-growth forest is found mostly on public land. We used to think old forests were nonproductive, no longer growing and rotting away as cellulose cemeteries. Historically, these were heavily logged.6 Now we recognize their diverse habitats from canopy to decaying fallen trees, resilience, water cycle functions, and cultural and spiritual significance.7 Old-growth forests continue to accumulate carbon, storing large amounts for centuries.8 There are 32 million acres of old-growth on federal lands, and 79 million acres of mature forest which could become old-growth. The Tongass  is our largest National Forest and contains our largest expanse of old-growth forest. Roads are its enemy, fragmenting the ecosystem and inviting logging and mining. The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan led to a steep decline in old-growth logging in the Pacific Northwest. A plan to protect old-growth nation-wide was withdrawn in January.9 Wildfire, insects and disease, and logging are ongoing threats to old-growth.

Another thing we’ve learned is that fire was frequent in North American forests in the past.10 Lit by lightning or indigenous traditional burning, lower-severity fires helped forests regenerate and lowered fuel loads. Fuels management treatments try to make up for decades of fire suppression, but there is a lot of confusion around the roles of logging, thinning, and reintroducing fire.11 Thinning by removing smaller trees reduces tree density and the ladder fuels that can carry fire up to the crown. Prescribed intentional burns consume surface fuels. Thinning followed by burning or prescribed burning alone can lessen subsequent wildfire severity and intensity in western conifer forests. These methods may be constrained by terrain or weather and are not applicable to every forest type or location.12

Forests are large carbon sinks13 and are the best carbon removal and storage system on land. But our forests face severe challenges. Climate change brings ever warmer and dryer conditions (hence the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), setting the stage for wilder fires. Recent layoffs at the Forest Service will hamper both firefighting and prescribed burning. Under an emergency decree, 110 million acres, or 59% of national forests, have been opened to accelerated logging “to fully exploit our domestic timber supply.”14 Next time: how the logged timber is used.

REFERENCES

  1. Forest resources of the United States, 2017. SN Oswalt, et al, Mar 2019 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/publications/gtr/gtr_wo97.pdf). Tree cutting and removal affect <2% of National Forest per year. Nearly 3% is disturbed by natural events like insects, disease, and fire. ↩︎
  2. Forest Resources of the United States, 2017. EM Sass, BJ Butler & M Markowski-Lindsay, May 2020 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/rmap/rmap_nrs11.pdf) Mapped forest ownership, 2012-2017 data. ↩︎
  3. Working for the American People, Mar 2025 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fs_media/fs_document/contributions.pdf). Forest Service contributions measured in board feet, grazing land, oil and gas leases, drinking water, and fire reduction and recreation services. ↩︎
  4. Clear-cutting pros and cons: what you need to know. J Blake, Aug 2024 (https://forestry.com/education-and-community/educational-resources/clear-cutting-pros-and-cons-what-you-need-to-know/) ↩︎
  5. Carbon black is the new green(wash). J Pojar, Feb 2019 (https://www.interior-news.com/opinion/carbon-black-is-the-new-greenwash-6473493) ↩︎
  6. Ten things I’ve learned about the ecology of mature and old-growth forests. T Spies, Sep 2024 (https://yff.yale.edu/speaker/thomas-spies). Part of a lecture series on mature and old-growth forests. ↩︎
  7. Timber wars: the ancient forest. A Scott, Sep 2020 (https://www.opb.org/article/2020/09/22/timber-wars-episode-2-the-ancient-forest/) good series (https://www.opb.org/show/timberwars/) ↩︎
  8. Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. S Luyssaert et al, Sep 2022 (https://cea.hal.science/cea-00910763/file/Luyssaert2008.pdf). 13 million hectares = 32 million acres; 32 m ha = 79 m acres. ↩︎
  9. US Forest Service pulls plug on controversial plan to protect old growth. E Stokstad, Jan 2025 (https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-forest-service-pulls-plug-controversial-plan-protect-old-growth) ↩︎
  10. A fire deficit persists across diverse North American forests despite recent increases in area burned. SA Parks et al, Feb 2025 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56333-8) ↩︎
  11. (a)(news story) Is Colorado cutting down too many trees to fight wildfires? These environmentalists think so. T Ross, Mar 2025 (https://coloradosun.com/2025/03/16/colorado-forest-thinning-wildfire-debate/).
    (b)(scholarly review) Does thinning work for wildfire prevention? E Shepherd, Feb 2023 Adapting western North American forests to climate change and wildfires: 10 common questions. SJ Prichard et al, Aug 2021 (https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2433).
    (c)(opinions) What does the future hold for national forests? Apr 2025 (https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/what-does-future-hold-national-forests) ↩︎
  12. Tamm review: a meta-analysis of thinning, prescribed fire, and wildfire effects on subsequent wildfire severity in conifer dominated forests of the Western US. KT Davis et al, Apr 2024 (https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/2024/rmrs_2024_davis_k001.pdf) ↩︎
  13. Forest carbon storage in the Western United States: distribution, drivers, and trends. J Hall et al, Jul 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF004399) ↩︎
  14. Executive Orders direct a massive expansion of logging on public lands. G Rose, Mar 2025 (https://www.nrdc.org/media/executive-orders-direct-massive-expansion-logging-public-lands). Apr 2025 (https://www.nrdc.org/press-releases/usdas-logging-emergency-cover-widespread-forest-destruction)  ↩︎
Logging US ForestsDownload

FOREST GLOSSARY [i]

Logging is cutting, processing, and moving trees outside the forest, usually to a sawmill or lumber yard.

Silviculture is the practice of growing and cultivating forest crops, specifically timber production. The focus is the control, establishment, and management of forest stands. 

A forest stand is a community of trees with features that distinguish it from adjacent communities.

Forestry is creating, managing, planting, using, conserving, and repairing forests and woodlands, at a scale broader scale than stand-level silviculture.

Clear-cutting is a method of harvesting that removes essentially all standing trees in a selected area. 

Selective logging vs selection cutting: These are confusing. Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving malformed or diseased or lower value trees, is referred to as high grading or sometimes selective logging. Selection cutting is the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees, but I’ve also seen this called selective logging.

Rotation refers to the lifespan of a stand of timber, from seedling to final harvest. When to harvest  depends on species, local conditions, and economic return. Rotation ages vary from 20-30 years for aspen and loblolly pine to 100 years or longer for ponderosa pine, for example.[ii] Long rotations or delaying logging can increase carbon storage and improve sustained timber yield.[iii]

Thinning is the selective removal of trees, primarily to improve the growth rate or health of the remaining trees. 

A controlled burn or prescribed burn is intentionally setting a fire, for forest management, ecological restoration, land clearing, or wildfire fuel management. Pile burning is piling up and burning woody debris or slash.  

Salvage logging is logging trees in forest areas damaged by wildfire, flood, wind, disease, insect infestation, or other natural disturbance, primarily to recover economic value that would otherwise be lost. Controversies remain about whether salvage logging benefits or harms forest health and function and whether salvage logging of damaged trees in protected areas is appropriate.

Old-growth forest or primary forest is natural forest that has developed over a long period of time without significant human disturbance. Old-growth forests that have never been logged may be called virgin or first-growth forests.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary or old-growth forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed [iv]

  1. Wikipedia entries on Forests of the United States, Logging, Silviculture, Forest stand, Forestry, Selection cutting, Thinning, Controlled burn, Salvage logging, and Old-growth forest, accessed June 4, 2025
  2. How often can you harvest timber? Z Lowry, Jul 2022 (https://thetimberlandinvestor.com/how-often-can-you-harvest-timber/)
  3. Yes, long rotations can yield real climate gains for Cascadia. K Anderson, Mar 2022 (https://www.sightline.org/2022/03/17/yes-long-rotations-can-yield-real-climate-gains-for-cascadia/)
  4. The State of the World’s Forests 2022 (https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8f8f2820-6df4-4746-9295-e9356148f8a2/content/CA8642EN.html#chapter-2_2)
Forest GlossaryDownload

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